Effects of gibberellin (GA3) on the physical quality of oil palm fresh fruit bunches

Gibberellin (GA3) is known as a plant growth regulator that can stimulate the plant growth and develop the cell and widely used in maintaining the storability of some types of fruit. This research aimed to study the effects of gibberellin concentration, time of gibberellin application and the interaction of both on the physical quality of oil palm fresh fruit bunches. The experiment used a factorial of randomized complete block design with three replications. The first factor was the time of gibberellin application with two levels (pre-harvest and post-harvest), while the second factor was gibberellin concentration with five levels (0, 25, 50, 100 and 200 ppm). Post-harvest treatments of 25 ppm gibberellin reduced the respiration rate, fruit weight loss, number of fruit loss of bunches and mesocarp firmness. Application of gibberellin with concentration 25 ppm after harvesting was the best treatment to maintain the physical quality of fresh fruit bunches (FFB). Time of harvesting is one of the factors affecting the quality of palm oil. After harvesting, FFB should be processed at mill within a maximum of 24 hours because it will increase the content of free fatty acids (FFA) and reduce the content Crude Palm Oil.