GROWTH TRAITS CORRELATION AND GENETIC RELATIONSHIP OF Cinchona Ledgeriana MOENS ACCESSIONS DERIVED FROM 4 PARENTAL LINES AFTER COFFEE WASTE COMPOST AND BIOFERTILIZER UTILIZATION

Abstract

Cinchona (Cinchona ledgeriana Moens) is a plantation crop with high economic value with benefits as a natural medicine. Cinchona productivity can be enhanced by cultivating the potential germplasm and maintenance using bio and organic fertilizers. This research aims to study the genetic relationships and correlations among cinchona germplasm accessions' morphological characteristics under bio- and organic-fertilizer treatments. From November 2023 to January 2024, the research was conducted at the tea and cinchona research center in Gambung is situated in the Pasir Jambu District of Bandung Regency, West Java. The research evaluated 12 accessions, which were selected from the population, by examining six of their morphological growth characteristics. The analysis uses Pearson's correlation, principal component analysis (PCA), and Clustering to determine the correlation between growth characters and the relationships among germplasm. The results obtained some growth characters have a high correlation (>0.5), namely plant height with stem diameter, stem diameter with leaf number, plant height with leaf number, and plant height with bark thickness. The population of cinchona plants exhibits wide genetic diversity based on morphological characteristics. The data analysis revealed that the first two principal components explained 73.36% of the variation. Using cluster analysis, the 12 accessions were categorized into four major groups, and Group 1 was the most prevalent, accounting for 50% of the 12 accessions. The coffee waste compost and biofertilizer influence cinchona stem characters, even though the genotypes have various responses to coffee waste compost and biofertilizer applications for their growth traits.