ESTABLISHED A GOOD BRANCH ON FRUIT PLANTS IN POT (TABULAMPOT)

ESTABLISHED A GOOD BRANCH

ON FRUIT PLANTS IN POT (TABULAMPOT)

The covid-19 pandemic forced us to stay at home more. For most people of course this situation will be very boring. Though many exciting things that can be done while at home. One of them is running a hobby of farming. Even in a such narrow yard can be used to grow both ornamental plants, kitchen plants and even fruit plants.

On this occasion we will focus on fruit plants. In a large yard, it certainly doesn't matter if you plant fruit directly on the ground. But what if the yard is not very wide? To get around this, what can done is planting fruit in pots (Tabulampot). Tabulampot is certainly not as big as a fruit tree planted directly on the ground because it is limited by the growing media. Even so, tabulampot can be formed to grow pretty like fruit plants that grow on the ground.

To get a beautiful tabulampot look, branching plants are formed to spread, steady, sturdy and balanced with plants that are not too high. In this case we will deal with the nature of apical dominance in plants. Apical dominace is an obstacle to growth in whole or in part on lateral buds due to apical buds. Apical shoots are shoots that are at the end of the plant and lateral shoots are shoots that come out of the axillar of leaves which will form branches. Generally, if these apical shoots are allowed to continue growing they will inhibit lateral shoots. As a result tabulampot will grow tall and poor branching. If this apical shoot or the upper part of a plant is cut then axillary bud in the node below the cut place will grow (lateral buds). By utilizing this knowledge branching plants can be regulated.

What should be done first? Take for example the jamblang / juwet plant as shown in Figure 1. Juwet plant has sitting leaves facing one node. Fruit seedlings purchased are usually in polybag containers. The plant is carefully transplanted into the pot by removing the polybags. The plants are then nurtured by watering and fertilizing them. After the plants grow steadily, the plants begin training. To get the main branch at the desired height, the stem of the plant above the node is cut. If the node is not clear, you can use the leaf stand benchmark because the leaves always sit on the plant node. About a week later, new shoots begin to grow on the axillar of the leaves and branching begins. The shoots are allowed to grow to 4-5 nodes, then a new branch is formed on each of the shoots by cutting them on the second node. From that node each will grow two more buds, so that now plants form 4 more branches or plants have 2 more branches. And so on that is done so that in the end the plant is not so high but has many branches.

What about other fruit plants? The principle is the same. One that is held is to remove the apex shoots or shoots at the tips of plants, will stimulate the formation of new shoots in the nodes below (lateral buds). By understanding this theory, it can be applied to form a branching at the desired height.

With this presentation, it is expected that farming activities will become more exciting activities, arouse the desire to experiment and stay at home will be a pleasant thing.