Response of Several Doses of Gamma Rays on the Growth of Sugar Palm Plant (Arenga pinnata Merr)

Abstract

Sugar palm (Arenga pinnata Merr) is a plantation crop that has great potential in improving the economy of a region because every part of the sugar palm plant can be utilized. The main problem with sugar palm crop is that many still grow wild in the forest. Therefore, one solution that can overcome this problem is to produce quality sugar palm seeds with the help of technology such as gamma rays and polyethylene glycol (PEG) to produce quality sugar palm mutants. The method of this research was carried out by carrying out two stages, namely 1) selection of sugar palm seed mutants with drought-resistant characters and 2) selection of sugar palm seed mutants with early maturity characters. In this stage 1 research, a factorial randomized block design (RAK) was used consisting of two factors, namely the dose of gamma ray radiation and sugar palm varieties. The first factor is the dose of gamma ray radiation consisting of 6 levels, namely 0 Gy (b0), 4 Gy (b1), 6 Gy (b2), 8 Gy (b3), 10 Gy (b4), and 12 Gy (b5). The second factor is the aren variety, consisting of 2 levels, namely parasite (v1) and local lebak (v2). In stage 2 using DNA. the study showed The results of that gamma ray radiation with a dose of 6 Gy (B2) gave the best effect on the parameters of plant height, leaf width, number of leaves. There was no interaction between the gamma ray radiation dose treatment factor and the aren variety.