Growth, Yield and Radiation Energy Conversion of Sweet potato Plant under Different Stake Angles and Various Mulch Type in the Papua Highlands
Alberth Soplanit (a), Merlin K Rumbarar (a) and Nur Edy Suminarti (b)

(a) Assessment Institute for Agricultural Technology of Papua, Indonesia
(b) Faculty of Agriculture, Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia

Abstract

The aim of this study was to obtain the right type of reflector in sweet potato plant cultivation combined with a stake technique to increase the efficient use of solar radiation energy and plant productivity. The experiment was arranged in a Split Plot Design with three replications. The main plot consisted of Cangkuang variety with 90 degrees stake and Cangkuang variety with 60 degrees stake. The subplots consisted of without mulch, straw mulch, white sand mulch, clear plastic mulch and silver black plastic mulch. The results show that the total dry weight continues to increase, but then slows down when the crop growth rate decreases especially at the tuber development phase. The total dry weight at the silver black plastic mulch treatment with a 60 degrees stick angle increased of 70.13% at the age of 70 to 100 days after planting and only increased of 17.50 % at the age of 100 to 130 days after planting. Conversion efficiency of radiation energy increases for all mulch uses as a reflector, especially for 60 degrees stake angles of 32.03% at the highest tuber yields 34.15 t/ha while for 90 degrees stake angles of 27.35% at the highest tuber yields 29.72 t/ha.

Keywords: Stake angle, mulch, sweet potato, cangkuang variety

Topic: AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING