The Use of Rhizobacteria to Promote Buds Formation of Bulbil of Elephant Foot Yam

Abstract

Elephant foot yams (Amorphophallus muelleri Blume) is one of tuber crops becoming popular among farmers in Indonesia as the tubers of this plant rich in carbohydrates, fats, protein, minerals, vitamins and fiber. However, the propagation of this plant can not be done easily as the seedlings materials such as tubers, bulbils and seeds have dormancy periode after harvested. This study was done to evaluate the capability of rhizobacteria from rhizospheres of graminous plants to promote the buds formation of bulbil of elephant foot yams. A total of 76 isolates of rhizobacteria were tested for their capability to produce indole acetic acid (IAA), and for those capable of producing IAA were tested for their ability to promote buds formation of elephant foot yams bulbils. Results of this strudy showed that, nine isolates of rhizobacteria were proven to produce IAA, namely Sr3, Sr16, Sr17, Sr18, Sr19, Sr21, Jg8, Rg1 and Pb2. Treatments with rhizobacteria significantly (p<0.05) increased the percentage of bulbils produced buds. Treatment with three isolates namely Sr21, Jg8 and Rg1 resulted in percentage of buds formation more than 60%, in which treatment with isolate Rg1 showed the highest percentage of buds formation. This results suggested that isolate Rg1 potentially can be used as a bio-agent to promote buds formation in bulbils of elephant foot yams to produce uniform and vigorous seedlings of this plant.

Keywords: elephant foot yams, rhizobacteria, buds formation, promotion, seedlings

DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/13-12-03

Publication date:July 31^st 2023