PENINGKATAN DAYA KECAMBAH KAPULAGA LOKAL DENGAN SKARIFIKASI ASAM SULFAT

Abstract

Difficulty on germination of local cardamom (Amomum cardamomum Willd) is caused by the hard seed coat leading to dormant period. Breaking dormancy in hard seed coats can be done by chemical scarification, one of which is using sulfuric acid. This study aimed to determine the effect of sulfuric acid concentration and soaking time on local cardamom germination and to determine the effective concentration of sulfuric acid and soaking time to increase the germination of local cardamom. This study used a factorial completely randomized design with two factors i.e. concentration of sulfate acid with 6 levels (0%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% and 100%) and soaking time with 4 levels (5 minute, 10 minute, 15 minute and 20 minutes). Variables observed were germination percentage, germination time and vigor index. The results showed that the combination of 60% sulfuric acid treatment for 15 minutes resulted in the highest germination percentage of 62.50% with a germination time of 29.10 days and vigor index of 1.36 seeds germinated/week.