Early growth evaluation and estimation of heritability in a sengon (Falcataria moluccana) progeny testing at Kediri, East Java, Indonesia

Abstract. Nugroho A, Matra DD, Siregar IZ, Haneda NF, Istikorini Y, Rahmawati R, Amin Y, Siregar UJ. 2021. Early growth evaluation and estimation of heritability in a sengon (Falcataria moluccana) progeny testing at Kediri, East Java, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 22: 2728-2736. Sengon (Falcataria moluccana (Miq.) Barneby & J. Grimes) is widely cultivated as a monoculture plantation in Indonesian community forests which posed a high risk of pest and disease attacks.  Although plants can show signs of resistance, there is still a lack of investigation to explore growth variation due to environmental and genetic factors. This study is intended to evaluate the early growth of 0 months after planting and 9 months after planting from sengon progeny testing in Kediri, East Java and to estimate its resistance and susceptibility to boktor and rust disease from the progeny heritability perspectives. Progeny test was designed using a split-plot block design with four blocks, 100 families as sub-plot, and resistance to pest and disease as main-plot while observing nine seedlings as replications. 50 families for resistant specimen and 50 families for susceptible specimen, observations were made at the age of 0 and 9 months after planting on 9 individuals in each family. Growth characteristics were measured in the percentage of germination, height, and diameter. Results indicated that sengon growth rate from resistant and susceptible plant groups shows a significant difference. Heritability values are classified as moderate, ranging between 0.107 to 0.133 and 0.102 to 0.150 for height and diameter variables, respectively. The selection intensity of 70% based on a combination of height and diameter characters will produce the best total of genetic gain.