Impact of Planting Distance to Arthropods Biodiversity on Kangkong
Sri Nur Aminah (a*), Melina (a), Errina Risti Rezeki (a)

a) Plant Pests and Diseases Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Hasanuddin University
Jalan Perintis Kemerdekaan KM 10 Tamalanrea Makassar 90245, Indonesia
*srifirnas[at]gmail.com

Abstract

Kangkong (Ipomoea reptans Poir) is the favourite green vegetable especially most of Asian people. One of the factors affecting production of kangkong is the planting distance. The optimal planting distance created an ideal microhabitat around crop and potential to suppress the development of insect pests. The research purposes is to study the impact of planting distance to arthropods biodiversity on kangkong. The research was conducted in Somba Opu District, Gowa Regency from February to May 2020. Insect pests identification was carried out at the Pest Laboratory, Department of Plant Pest and Diseases, Faculty of Agriculture, Hasanuddin University. The study was conducted in Randomized Block Design with four treatments of planting distance, P1= 5x5 cm- P2 = 5x10 cm, P3 = 5x15 cm and P4 = the seeds was spread (without planting distance), respectively. Each treatment was repeated four times. The arthropods was caught by sweep net and pitfall trap. The sampling method used the diagonal pattern. Observation of arthropods began when the kangkong 7 days after planting with interval 7 days until harvest. The arthropods results divided into two group (insect pest and natural enemies) showed that: 1) the highest diversity index value (H^) value of insect pests in the pitfall trap experiment was found in treatment P2 and sweep net in treatment P1- 2) the highest natural enemies number were shown by pitfall trap in treatment P4 and sweep net observations in treatment P1- and 3) the highest harvest number in the treatment P1. Conclusion of the research: grasshopper Valanga nigricornis (Orthoptera: Acrididae) as the dominan insect pest, order Hymenoptera (Formicidae) and Coleoptera (Coccinellidae) playing as important insect natural enemies in the kangkong field.

Keywords: kangkong, planting distance, arthropods, insect natural enemies

Topic: Integrated pest and disease management