PENERAPAN METODE FTSW (FRACTION TO TRANSPIRABLE SOIL WATER) DALAM SKRINING TANAMAN KELAPA SAWIT TOLERAN KEKERINGAN

Abstract

Oil palm is a drought sensitive crop. For developing effective and faster drought-tolerant plant breeding techniques, breeders are interested in developing selection based on plant morphological, physiological and biochemical. Several methods that have been tried i.e. reduced field capacity method, determination of permanent wilting point method, nursery watering dose method, utilization of soil moisture monitoring tools and the FTSW method. The FTSW (Fraction of Transpirable Soil Water) method can describe soil moisture conditions based on the amount of water that is transmitted by plants. This trial aims to study the response of some PPKS palm oil varieties to drought stress in seedling phase with FTSW method. Drought stress treatment trials were observed for 16 days. A rapid decline of FTSW value occurred in the first 7 days of drought stress treatment. Each tested seedling experienced  FTSW values decrease ​​ranging from 0.46 to 0.59. This can be caused the age of seedlings and the transpiration of large seedlings. Different soil weights for each polybag affect the rate of transpiration of each plant. Further experiments are needed to see the effect of soil weight and the influence of genetic background of plant material on screening using this FTSW method.