YONNY KOENTJORO*, SUKENDAH, EDI PURWANTO AND DJOKO PURNOMO
Department of Agricultural Science, Graduated School, Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta, 57126, Indonesia
*(e-mail : yonny_k@upnjatim.ac.id; Mobile : +62817586978)
(Received : June 25, 2019; Accepted : August 20, 2019)
ABSTRACT
The limited available water is becoming the main phenomenon of drought stress, so the water becomes a very important factor in the agricultural business. The drought-tolerant plant is very necessary for this situation. Plants have different adaptability to environmental conditions that occur, including the mechanism of opening and closing the stomata. One effort that can be done to reduce excessive water loss in conditions
of limited water content is engineering physiology which can be done through the arrangement of the stomata opening and closing system, by giving silicon as an element that has been known to increase plant resistance to abiotic stress. This research evaluated the behaviour of stomata in soy under drought stress with silicon application. The results showed that the treatment of silicon was closely related to the size of the opening of the stomata, the increasing concentration of silicon, the wider stomata opening width (R2 = 0.52 at 9 a. m., R2 = 0.92 at 11 a. m., and R2= 0.98 at 01.00 p. m.). In terms of concentrations of 15 ml/l was able to produce the widest opening stomata compared to concentrations of 0.5 and 10 ml/l. Silicon also affected the density of stomata, the percentage of open and closed stomata. Applying the higher silicon increased the density of stomata. However, silicon had a varied influence against the percentage of stomata abaxial and adaxial.
Key words : Drought stress, stomata, silicon, soybean