Shallot plants have variations in morphological and flowering characters.  Flowering ability can be induced by the treatment of gibberellic acid (GA3) and exposing to cold temperature (vernalization). The objectives of the research were to determine the effect of GA3 and vernalization on the morphological and flowering characters of 5 shallot varieties. Field study was organized in a completely randomized block design with three replications to evaluate the responses of 5 varieties of shallots (Bauji, Bima Brebes, Super Philip, Tajuk, and Thailand) to GA3 with the concentrations ranged from zero to 150 mg L-1. Plants were maintained for 65 days until harvesting. The second study was organized in a completely randomized design with 3 replications to evaluate the responses of the five varieties of shallot to vernalization.  The vernalization of shallot bulbs were done at 8 o C for 6 weeks. The results indicated that a Super Phillip variety showed the highest response to GA3 observed in the number of leaves and bulbs.  At 100 mg L-1 of GA3 increased the plant height up to 45.74 cm.  The results from the second study showed that vernalization was effective to increase flowering only on the Ilokos variety. But the other varieties were not sensitive to vernalization.  Based on morphological and flowering characters, 5 varieties of shallots were clustered into 3 groups, namely: sensitive flowering included Bentanis, Bma Brebes and Tajuk variety, medium sensitive flowering included Ilokos variety, and non-sensitive flowering included Sumenep variety.

[UTILIZATION OF MICROBE TO INCREASE GROWTH AND YIELDS OF SOYBEAN IN COASTAL LAND. This study aims to obtain the right combination of varieties and biofertilizers to increase soybean productivity on Bengkulu coastal land. The research was conducted from March to July 2017, located in Beringin Raya Village, Muara Bangkahulu Sub-District, Bengkulu. The study was conducted with a split-plot design which was repeated three times. The main plot is two soybean varieties (Grobogan and Wilis). The subplots are two types of biological fertilizers, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and phosphate solvent fungi. The results showed that the results of the seed weight of the Grobogan variety (equivalent to 3.38 tons/ha) were significantly higher than the Wilis variety (equivalent to 2.72 tons/ha). However, the Wilis variety showed an increase in seed weight (equivalent to 1.12 tons/ha) higher than the Grobogan variety (equivalent to 0.61 tons/ha) according to the description of each variety. The combination of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and phosphate solvent fungi showed superior performance than arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi fertilizer or phosphate solvent fungi. The interaction of Grobogan varieties with a combination of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and phosphate solvent fungi produced the highest seed weight (equivalent to 3.52 tons/ha) which was statistically similar to the interaction of Grobogan varieties and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (equivalent to 3.45 tons/ha). The economics of resources using arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are not required to be combined with phosphate solvent fungi.

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Rubber plant is an important industrial crop, as for economic community and a source of non-oil foreign exchange for the country.  In Indonesia, 85% rubber planting area is community rubber plantation with its productivity is still very low (700 - 900 kg ha-1 year-1), compared to its potential which can be more than 1,500 kg ha-1 year-1.  The low productivity of community rubber plantation is because of the lack of proper handling and maintenance of their plants.  Efforts is needed to improve the quality and productivity of community rubber plantation so as to compete in international trade by improvement on planting, maintenance, latex post-harvesting from the garden to the final processing stage.  This research utilizes solid waste from rubber processing factory that is local organic fertilizer (LOF) which is usually merely dumped and become source of environment contaminant.  The objective of this study was to determine the optimum dosage of rubber mill waste to the yield of rubber plants.  The research was carried out at farmer’s plantation of Tanjung Tengah village, Sub-district of Pondok Kelapa, Central Bengkulu, from May to August 2016.  The experiment was arranged in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications and 6 levels of LOF as the treatments i.e. 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 kg tree-1 equal to 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 tons ha-1, respectively.  The results showed that the effect of several doses of organic fertilizer of rubber waste to rubber plants had no effect on latex volume, stem girth, latex weights, latex slab weight, and dry weight.  The yield of rubber even tended to decrease as the increase of dose of LOF.  This was supposedly because the rubber plant is an annual crop so takes a long time to show the response of the treatment.Keywords: rubber sap, waste, compost fertilizer

Endophytic fungi are microorganisms that live in plant tissues or plant organs, such as seeds, leaves, flowers, stems and roots which are able to induce plant resistance to diseases. Local isolate of endophytic fungi is expected more effective to control diseases. Blast disease, that caused by Pyricularia oryzae, is a limited factor on rice paddy production. This study aim was to characterize dan select endophytic fungi isolates isolated from rice paddy as antagonistic agents to control P. oryzae. The research methods were survey rice paddy in the field, isolation and characterization of endophytic fungi isolates, isolation and characterization of P. oryzae, and testing the mechanism of antagonism of endophytic fungi isolates and P. oryzae in vitro by dual culture test. The results showed that there were five endophytic fungi isolated from rice paddy, that were Aspergillus candidus, Gliocladium sp, Trichoderma harzianum, Penicillium sp, and Nigrospora sp. The eight isolates of endophytic fungi were isolated from various sites having different micro environment. Endophytic fungi isolated from rice paddy at the district of Central Bengkulu demonstrated highest inhibition percentage, which was 85.60% with competition for space, nutrition and oxygen, antibiosis, and hyperparasitism.