Shading System on Sandalwood Seedlings in Timor, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

Mortality rates of seedlings of sandalwood (Santalum album L.) of more than 40% have been observed in cool wet upland areas in various countries. Mortalities are caused by low sunlight intensity and high soil humidity after watering, when seedlings are growing in modern shade houses (paranet roof with 50% solar intensity) in relatively high rainfall upland areas. To cope with this problem, it is proposed to use conventional sheltering construction with roof material modification as one of the alternatives to implemented to intensity solar radiation and reduce soil humidity. This method was proposed to increase the growth rate and reduce fungal decay in seedlings. The study observed the effect of various roof materials used with conventional nursery construction on growth of sandalwood seedlings. A randomized block design was adopted, with treatments consisting of roof material types, including coconut leaf (Cocus nucifera), imperata grass (Imperata cylindrica), transparent plastic, plastic roof (laserlaip), and paranet. A modern shade house was used as a control variable. The experimental design included three blocks and each block consisted of 50 replications. Conventional sheltering devices were found to be superior to other devices for 8-month-old sandalwood seedling. The conventional seedling sheltering device from corrugated plastic roof (laserlaip) resulted the greatest growth in height and diameter and greatest survival percentage of sandalwood seedlings. The highest to lowest rank of growth in order were plastic roof, paranet, transparent plastic, coconut leaf, imperata grass, and shade house, with survival percentage in each sheltering device of 62.12%, 53.55%, 41.81%, 40.82%, 38.51%, and 12.82%, respectively. Waving plastic roof resulted in highest seedling growth than other treatment because it is protected from rain water (waterlogging) and will raise the temperature and the intensity of sunlight received.