Pengaruh Kemasan dan Lama Penyimpanan terhadap Pertumbuhan Bahan Stek Akar Sukun Danu dan A. Z Abidin 107 PENGARUH KEMASAN DAN LAMA PENYIMPANAN TERHADAP PERTUMBUHAN BAHAN STEK AKAR SUKUN The Effect of Packing Material and Storage Periods on the Growth of Sukun Cuttings Derived from Their Roots Danu dan/and A.Z Abidin Balai Penelitian Teknologi Perbenihan Bogor Jl. Pakuan Ciheuleut PO. BOX 105, Bogor – 16001, Telp./Fax. (0251) 327768 Naskah masuk: 3 Oktober 2006 ; Naskah diterima: 12 Juli 2007 ABSTRACT Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis Fosberg) can only be propagated by using their vegetative parts, such as cuttings derived from roots, stems and shoots. It frequently occurs that the distance between nursery location and planting site is quite far. Therefore, an appropriate method is required to effectively handle the storage of seedling as well as cutting, and temporary packing during their transport. The aim of this experiment was to determine the effect of packing material and storage periods on the growth of breadfruit root cuttings. A randomized completely block design was employed in this experiment, and the factors observed were packaging materials (i.e plastick sack, coconut husk, sheath of banana, and straw paper), and storage periods (i.e. 1; 3; 7; 14; and 28 days). Each combination level of those 2 factors was replicated 3 times, and each replicate included as many as 10 roots cutting. The results revealed that breadfruit root cuttings could be stored in wet coonut-husk as well as banana sheath packing for 28 days. In this method, the cuttings were able to maintain the shoot- growth percentage similar to the one from the first day storage, i.e. 60 %. Meanwhile, the packing with plastic sack could only maintain the 60 % shoot growth up to 14 day. On the other hand, the 63 % shoot gowth of sukun cuttings held out until just 7 days. Key words : cuttings, storage packaging, Breadfruit ( Artocarpus altilis Fosberg) ABSTRAK Tanaman sukun (Artocarpus altilis Fosberg) hanya dapat diperbanyak dengan perbanyakan vegetatif seperti stek akar, stek batang dan stek pucuk. Kenyataannya sering terjadi lokasi penanaman dan lokasi persemaian memiliki jarak yang cukup jauh sehingga diperlukan teknik penyimpanan stek yang tepat. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui pengaruh bahan kemasan dan lama penyimpanan terhadap pertumbuhan stek akar sukun. Penelitian ini menggunakan rancangan rancangan acak kelompok dengan menguji 2 faktor, yaitu faktor pertama adalah bahan kemasan (karung plastik, serbuk sabut kelapa, pelepah batang pisang kertas merang), dan faktor kedua adalah periode simpan selama 1; 3; 7; 14; dan 28 hari dengan ulangan sebanyak 3 kali dan setiap ulangan terdiri 10 stek akar. Parameter yang diamati meliputi pertumbuhan tunas dan akar stek. Bahan stek akar sukun dapat disimpan dalam kemasan yang mampu mempertahankan kelembaban tetap tinggi seperti serbuk sabut kelapa lembab dan pelepah batang pisang mampu mempertahankan stek akar tetap baik selama 28 hari, sedangkan kemasan karung plastik dan kertas merang hanya bertahan selama 14 dan 7 hari. Kata Kunci : kemasan, penyimpanan, stek akar, sukun ( Artocarpus altilis Fosberg).