Effect of Heating and Soaking Time with KNO3 on Breaking Dormancy of Oil Palm Seeds (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.)

Abstract

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is one of the plants that has a long dormancy period for germination because it has a thick and hard shell. Breaking dormancy is needed for seed production, so that it can accelerate the process of oil palm germination. The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of various heating durations and KNO3 concentrations on the germination of oil palm seeds. The research was conducted at the Laboratory of Politeknik Kelapa Sawit Citra Widya Edukasi, the research time was in February 2024–May 2024. The treatments were arranged factorially with two factors in a completely randomized design. The first factor is the duration of heating at 40oC which consists of four levels namely: 20 days, 30 days, 40 days, and 50 days. Furthermore, soaking with KNO3 for 24 hours was carried out according to the treatment, namely at concentrations of 0%, 0.2%, 0.4%, and 0.6%. The variables observed were the percentage of germination, maximum growth potential, and sprout emergence time. The results showed that the combination of heating duration and KNO3 soaking can break dormancy in oil palm seeds. The treatment of 40 days heating time and 0.4% KNO3 soaking is the best treatment for sprout emergence time (on day 20), germination percentage (55.56%), and maximum growth potential (77.78%).