FRUIT CHARACTERIZATION AND GERMINATION TRIAL ON FIVE VARIETIES OF MACAPUNO COCONUT (Cocos nucifera L.)

The fruit characterization study was conducted in various farms at Kipalbig Tampakan South Cotabato and the germination trial was conducted at MSU General Santos City, College of Agriculture, Plant Nursery. These series of studies were conducted on the 20th and 27th of September 2017 to December 6, 2017, respectively. This study used a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with six (6) treatments and replicated three times. The treatments were as follows: Contro Lucas 0; Macapuno Lucas 1; Macapuno Lucas 2; Macapuno Vilbar; Macapuno Baterbonia 1; Macapuno Baterbonia 2. On the fruit characterization experiment, the data gathered revealed that Baterbonia 2 has the most promising agronomic characteristics. Evidently, it gained the highest percentage of macapuno nuts with 21.70 percent substantially higher compared to the grand mean of 10.30 percent. Moreover, it also exhibited the heaviest mean weight of macapuno nuts amounting to 1.48 kg again higher than the overall mean of 1.19 kg the mentioned palm could potentially be a great source of seednuts. On the other hand, in the germination trial, still Macapuno Baterbonia 2 showed encouraging characteristics, it showed the earliest shoot emergence with an average of 4.78 days, highly significant at 1 percent level compared to other variants. However, in terms of percent germination, it has the lowest survival rate with only 22.22 percent, while Macapuno Vilbar had the highest germination rate of 100 percent. Although, there was no significant difference among the treatment means in percent germination. Lastly, in terms of shoot length, Macapuno Baterbonia 2 had the earliest shoot emergence however, its growth rate was slow. Lucas 0 topped the shoot length with 29.78 cm along with Macapuno Vilbar with a relatively high shoot length with 24.11 cm which was significantly different at 5 percent level.