Early growth of porang (Amorphophallus oncophyllus) with planting distance adjustment under oil palm plantation

Abstract

Abstract Porang (Amorphophallus oncophyllus) thrive under shaded conditions and has been planted under plantations. As oil palm plantations area in Aceh is growing; the effect of shading under oil palm plantation has not been previously reported. The material used is bulbil from the porang plant. Meanwhile, the oil palm stands used were 8-10 years old with the canopy covering >80% of the land. The experimental design used is a Completely Randomized Block Design with the treatment of spacing settings of 40 x 40 cm; 75 x 75 cm; 80 x 80 cm; 90 x 90 cm and 100 x 100 cm. Experiments were conducted in four replicates. Data were analysed using One Way Anova, followed by posthoc Tukey HSD test. Results shows that the spacing had a significant effect on its growth, especially the age of shoot emergence, plant height, stem diameter and number of leaves. The age of budding which allows early shoots to appear is at a spacing of 40 x 40 cm, as well as the plant height parameters at observations 4, 5, 6 and 7 WAP. Meanwhile, at the age of 8 and 9 WAP, the best plant height growth was at 80 x 80 cm spacing.