Abstract
Soaking oil palm seeds in a solution of sulfuric acid and gibberellic acid is one way to shorten the dormancy period of oil palm seeds. This study aimed to find out the optimum soaking time of oil palm seeds in sulfuric acid solution to accelerate germination, the optimum concentration of gibberellic acid for oil palm seed germination, the interaction between using sulfuric acid and gibberellic acid in accelerating the germination of oil palm seeds and the best treatment combination in all the tried treatments. The experimental design used was a completely randomized design (CRD), with a complete factorial combination with a total of 16 treatments. Each treatment was repeated 4 times, so there were 64 experimental units and each unit was planted with 5 seeds. The results of statistical analysis showed that soaking oil palm seeds in a solution of sulfuric acid and gibberellic acid had an effect on the germination of these seeds. The duration of soaking oil palm seeds for 48 hours in sulfuric acid solution constituted the optimum time for increasing the speed of germination and giving gibberellic acid at a concentration of 300 ppm still accelerated the germination of oil palm seeds and there was no interaction between the length of soaking the seeds in sulfuric acid solution and the concentration of gibberellic acid. Soaking the seeds in a solution of sulfuric acid for 48 hours and gibberellate 300 ppm was the best combination treatment to accelerate the germination of oil palm seeds.
Highlights
Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) in Indonesia is one of the leading plantation commodities which is a source of foreign exchange (Utami, Kumala Putri and Ekayani, 2017) and can create jobs and increase welfare for smallholder farmers (Darlita, Joy & Sudirja, 2017)
This study aimed to find out the duration of soaking oil palm seeds in the optimum sulfuric acid solution to accelerate germination, the optimum concentration of gibberellic acid for oil palm seed germination and to assess whether there was an interaction between the use of sulfuric acid and gibberellic acid in accelerating the germination of oil palm seeds and search the best treatment combination in all the treatments tried
The soaking oil palm seeds in sulfuric acid solution had an effect on the speed of the seeds to germinate, the percentage of seed germination, the length of the plumules, the height of the seeds, the length of the roots, the wet and dry weight of the shoots and the wet weight and dry weight of the roots with the optimum soaking time for 48 hours
Summary
Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) in Indonesia is one of the leading plantation commodities which is a source of foreign exchange (Utami, Kumala Putri and Ekayani, 2017) and can create jobs and increase welfare for smallholder farmers (Darlita, Joy & Sudirja, 2017). The development of oil palm plantations in Indonesia from year to year continues to increase. The rapid development of oil palm plantations showed a revolution in oil palm plantations in Indonesia (Purba & Sipayung, 2017). In supporting the program to develop oil palm plantations, one aspect that needs special attention is the provision of healthy seeds with superior potential and on time (Rosa & Zaman, 2017). Oil palm seeds have hard skin and are dormant so that the germination process of oil palm seeds is quite difficult (Farhana, Ilyas and Budiman, 2013). The dormant nature is due to the presence of a barrier in the form of a germ pore structure, namely the operculum covering the embryo as a result, the radicle and plumule have difficulty getting out of the seed shell (Agustiansyah, 2020)
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