Beberapa Sifat Kimia Tanah pada Berbagai Jenis Tanaman Penutup Tanah di Perkebunan Karet

Land cover crop has been widely utilized in big rubber plantation to improve soil fertility and productivity. The objective of the experiment were to determine selected soil chemical properties on various species of land cover crop in rubber plantation and to find out land cover crop potential for rubber plantation. The experiment was conducted in PTP Nusantara VII Rubber Plantation in Padang Pelawi, Seluma, Province of Bengkulu. Soil samples were collected using simple random sampling on land cover crops Calopogonium mucunoides in old rubber plant (CC), Panicum muticum in old rubber plant (PT), Panicum muticum in young rubber plant (PD), Pueraria javanica in young rubber plant (PJ), Wedelia triobata in young rubber plant (W), and mixture of Panicum muticum and Mikania microtha in young rubber plant, and control (K). The size of each treatment plot was 5 x 15 m, divided into small plot (3x5 m) as replication. Soil sample was collected from each small plot at depths of 0-20 cm, and 20-50 cm. The experiment revealed that land cover crops significantly increased total soil nitrogen, available P, and total potassium in soil. Panicum muticum in young rubber plant enhanced total soil nitrogen at top soil (0-20 cm) 10 times higher than that of control. At the same depth, Calopogonium mucunoides in old rubber plant increased available P and soil organic carbon as much as 520% and 210%, as compared to those of control, respectively. Panicum muticum and Calopogonium mucunoides tended to have better influence on soil chemical properties as compared to Pueraria javanica and Wedelia trilobata.