Growth Evaluation of Banana cv. Barangan as the Effect of Trichoderma sp. and Covering Types during Acclimatization Process
<p>Acclimatization is one of the important processes in banana micro propagation before plantlets/planting materials are ready to be cultivated in the field. <em>Trichoderma </em>sp. are well known as plant promoter fungi that can promote plant growth and increase survival rate of plantlets. The study was arranged in a Completely Randomized Factorial Design with two factors and four replications. The first factors was covering type i.e. 1) individual covering and 2) mass covering. The second factor was the proportion of <em>Trichoderma</em> addition into manure, namely A) manure without the addition of <em>Trichoderma </em>sp<em>.</em> (control), B) <em>Trichoderma</em> sp<em>.</em> : manure =<em> </em>1 : 400 (w/w), C) <em>Trichoderma </em>sp<em>.</em> : manure = 1 : 800 (w/w) and D) <em>Trichoderma </em>sp<em>.</em> : manure = 1 : 1,200 (w/w). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of <em>Trichoderma</em> sp<em>. </em>applications and covering types in the growth of banana plantlets cv. Barangan during the acclimatization process. The results showed that the best treatment to induce plantlet growth during the acclimatization process was the addition of <em>Trichoderma </em>sp.: manure with 1 : 400 (w/w) proportion and individual covering. The combination of <em>Trichoderma </em>sp<em>.</em> : manure with 1 : 400 (w/w) proportion and individual covering produced plant height and leaf length 8.5 cm and 4.4 cm, respectively, compared to the treatment without <em>Trichoderma </em>sp<em>. </em>addition that produced plantlets with 6.6 cm height and 3.4 cm leaf length. No significant interaction was shown between <em>Trichoderma </em>sp. proportions and covering types on leaf width, the number of leaves and root length parameters.</p>