PENGATURAN KERAPATAN POPULASI DAN PEMBERIAN PUPUK KANDANG PADA TANAMAN ALFALFA (Medicago sativa L.)

A brighter prospect of the development of cultivation and production of herbs becomes known since the emergence of “back to nature” campaign, both in our country and in foreign countries. This phenomenon provides a good chance to develop herbs into a competitive commodity. Alfalfa belongs to a kind of cattle fodder that is now commonly used as human’s supplement because of its high chlorophyll content. Chlorophyll contains around 60 compounds classified into vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and enzymes. The production of chlorophyll as the main content of Alfalfa plant will increase along with the increase of light intensity, which reaches the plant’s canopy. Besides light, nitrogen becomes the substance which contributes in the formation of chlorophyll. The addition of chicken manure fertilizer which contains high nitrogen content (1,7 %) is hoped to be able to stimulate plants’ chlorophyll formation. This aims of this research were to find out the population and optimum dose of chicken manure, and also to find out the best treatment combination to produce the optimum growth and yields of Alfalfa. Research had done on April 2008 until July 2008 in Kalisoro Village, Tawangmangu District, Karanganyar Regency (1.200 m above the sea surface level). Completely Random Design (CRD) with a three-repetition factorial was applied. Tested factors were population (16, 20 and 25 plants/m2 ) and the dose of chicken manure (7,14 and 21 ton/hectare). The result shows that population arrangement and dose of chicken manure non significant to the chlorophyll level. Interaction between the two treatments occured only at chlorophyll level b at the age of 13 weeks after planting. Plant on population of 25 plants/m2 gave the highest total chlorophyll were 43081,2 µg/m2 and plant on population of 20 plants/m2 gave the lowest total chlorophyll were 32895,0 µg/m2 . Plant on the dose of chicken manure 21 ton/hectare gave the highest total chlorophyll were 38291,8 µg/m2 and plant on the dose of chicken manure 7 ton/hectare gave the lowest total chlorophyll were 34747.3 µg/m2