GROWTH OF Mucuna bracteata IN VARIOUS COMPOSITIONS OF PLANTING MEDIUM AND WATERING VOLUME

Abstract

Mucuna bracteata is a cover crop that is commonly used in oil palm plantations. It has many  advantages,  such  as  rapidly  growing,  preventing  erosion  on  open  land  and suppressing  weed  growth.  The  research  aims  to  determine  the  effect  of  various compositions planting medium with addition of organic and inorganic fertilizers and watering volume on the growth of Mucuna bracteata. The research was conducted in Kebun Pendidikan dan Penelitian (KP2) Institut Pertanian STIPER Yogyakarta, from April to July 2016. Completely Randomized Design (CRD) factorial consisting of two factors was applied as experimental design. The first factor was growing media consisting of four levels, namely P0 (regosol, without fertilizer), P1 (regosol + NPK), P2 (regosol + manure), P3 (regosol + compost). The second factor was watering volume consisting of three levels, namely V1 (200 ml/day), V2 (400 ml/day), and V3 (600 ml/day). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan's Multiple Range Test (DMRT), both with significance level of

5%, were then used to find out whether significant differences among treatments, were existed. Regression was used if ANOVA showed no significant differences among treatment. The result showed that there was no interaction between treatment, growing media and watering volume on Mucuna bracteata’s growth. Regosol and manure was the best media to support plant growth Mucuna bracteata, while the watering volume was not.

Keywords : Growth, Mucuna bracteata, growing medium, watering volume