FIELD PERFORMANCE OF SUGARCANE cv. PSJT 941 PUTATIVE MUTANT RESULTED FROM GAMMA RAY CO60-IRRADIATION

Abstract

A study has been carried out to evaluate the field performance of twenty clones of gamma ray Co⁶⁰-induced putative mutant of PSJT 941 Sugarcane cultivar in PT Perkebunan Nusantara IX field, Pemalang Indonesia.   This research has been carried out to 1) evaluate the growth difference between mutant and wild type clones of PSJT 941 sugarcane cultivar; 2) determine the clone which shows the best field growth.  This research has been carried out experimentally using 20 putative mutant clones produced from gamma ray Co⁶⁰ irradiation and one wild type clone, with 5 replications.  The variable observed was the sugarcane growth, with the parameters measured include number of siblings, plant height and stem diameter.  The research results showed that the putative mutants showed highly significant differences in terms of number of siblings and plant heights, and significantly different in terms of stem diameter, compared to the wild type.  Clone 941.1.7 was promising, which showed an average number of siblings of 5 siblings/plant, a plant height that was 28.8% shorter than the control plant, the largest average of stem diameter of 30.2 mm, a greater tolerance to drought, and has the potential to become an early maturing sugarcane. Further research is needed to re-confirm those putative mutants.