Tolerance of Fifteen Soybean Germplasm to Low pH Condition

Abstract

Acidity is widespread in the world, including Indonesia that most of the dryland faces acidity. On the other hand, soybean, as one of the main crops in Indonesia, is a plant that is more sensitive to low pH than other crops. Hence, it is needed an attempt to develop soybean variety that is tolerant to acidity to be grown in acidic area. The objective of the research was to find out soybean germplasm that tolerance to low pH. Research was carried out in Seed Laboratory of Indonesian Legume and Tuber Crops Research Institute, Malang, Indonesia, with factorial design of randomized complete block design. The first factor was pH level that consisted of two levels, i.e. pH 7 and pH 4. The second factor was soybean germplasm that consisted of fifteen soybean genotypes. Results showed that there were different responses among the fifteen genotypes to pH treatments. Based on the Acid Soil Adaptation Index (ASAI), there were two promising genotypes that can be considered as gene sources for developing soybean variety for low pH tolerance. The first genotype was MLGG 0471 that had the highest ASAI on all of the seven characters and the second genotype was MLGG 0064 that had the highest ASAI on four characters.