Efforts to improve the quality of kasturi mango (Mangifera casturi) with modification of cultivation

Abstract

Darmawan ARB. 2015. Efforts to improve the quality of kasturi mango (Mangifera casturi) with modification of cultivation. Pros Sem Nas Masy Biodiv Indon 1: 894-899. Kasturi mango (Mangifera casturi) is one of specific germplasm in South Kalimantan that is threatened. Its shape is like a small mango, has a very sweet taste and sticky with a specific odor characteristic. The mango bear fruit at the beginning of the rainy season or around January. Kasturi mango is mostly found abundant in Banjar and Hulu Sungai Selatan Regency, South Kalimantan. This plant is commonly found in two agroecosystem that is dry land and tidal wetlands. The status of this fruit rareness was analyzed using categories and criteria of rare plants according to the IUCN Red List Categories 30 November 1994. The assessment team from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in 1998 decided that M. casturi was in the category of in situ extinct or Extinct in the Wild (EW). This mango was known only to live and grow naturally in forests and gardens or other protected areas, but not found in their natural habitat. Kasturi mango tree can reach a height of 25-50 meters, with a trunk diameter of 40-115 cm and a high branching, forming a dense plant canopy and shade. Kasturi mango is less potentially able to develop into a national supreme fruit due to several constraints such as small fruit size, large seed size, long age of fruitful, and short harvest period. This obstacle can be overcome by various modifications cultivation either by minimizing the size of seed using the genetic method and plant breeding, as well as by increasing the volume of pulp by means of grafting with harum manis mango variety as the underlying rods combined with the formulation of plant nutrition. The success of experiment to improve the quality of kasturi mango, thus producing much fruit flesh, will encourage cultivated by the community, therefore kasturi mango can be well-known by the community and add to mango crop biodiversity in Indonesia.