RUBBER PLANTATIONS

Rubber plant comes from the Latin language named Hevea braziliensis. Rubber plants were first found in the Amazone river valleys (Brazil). When Christophel Columbus discovered the American continent in 1476, he was astonished to see locals (Indians) playing ball using a material that could bounce when dropped on the ground. The ball is made of a mixture of roots, wood, grass, and material (latex) which is then heated on fire and rounded into a ball. Long before this rubber plant was popular, natives in various places such as the United States, Asia and South Africa used other trees that also produced sap. This sap is produced from the Castillaelastica plant (family moraceae). The plant is no longer used because it is less popular than rubber plants. In Indonesia, the rubber plant was tried to be cultivated in 1876 and was first planted in the Bogor Botanical Gardens.

Rubber plants can grow tall and trunked quite large. Mature tree height can reach 15-25 meters. The trunk usually grows straight and has a branching above. The rubber leaf consists of the main leaf stalk and the sapling. The length of the main leaf stems 3-20 cm. Child stem leaves 3-10 cm long and at the ends there are glands. Elliptic leaflets, elongated with pointed tips, flat edges and bare. Rubber seeds are found in each fruit chamber. The number of seeds is usually 3-6 pieces according to the amount of space. Large seed size and have a hard skin. The color is blackish brown with typical patterned patches. Rubber plants are plants with dicotyledonous properties so that the roots of these plants are taproots (still remember the science lesson in elementary school right?). This root is able to support the stems of plants that grow tall and large.

In full, the botanical structure of rubber plants is arranged as follows

• Division: Spermatophyta

• Subdivisions: Angiosperms

• Class: Dicotyledonae

• Order: Euphorbiales

• Family: Euphobiaceae

• Genus: Hevea

• Species: Hevea braziliensis

Rubber plants have deciduous properties in response to unfavorable environmental conditions (lack of water / dry). These leaves will grow back at the beginning of the rainy season.

Rubber cultivation requires growing requirements as follows:

o High place 0 - 200 meters above sea level

o Rainfall 1,500 - 3,000 mm / year

o A dry month is less than 3 months

o Maximum wind speed is less than or equal to 30 km / hour

o Land slope less than 10%

o The texture of the soil consists of sandy loam and sandy loam

o Rock on the surface or in the ground a maximum of 15%

o Soil pH ranges from 4.3 to 5.0 (acidic conditions ...)

o Medium land drainage

Rubber plants have advantages when compared to other commodities, namely:

o Can grow on a variety of conditions and types of land, and is still able to harvest the results even though the soil is not fertile

o Being able to form forest ecology, which is generally found in wetlands with wet climate, so that rubber is good enough to deal with critical land.

o Can provide daily income for farmers who work. The price prospects are also quite good although often fluctuating / unstable.

This rubber plant when scratched / sliced on the bark will emit a white concentrated liquid called latex. This latex will dry out and clot if left more than 2 hours. This rubber tree can only be harvested (to be taken latex) after the age of 5 years and has a productive age of 25 to 30 years. This latex will then be processed into a new form (finished product). Latex which is still in liquid form becomes the raw material for toy balloon products, chewing gum, rubber gloves, condoms and others. While the latex that has dried (frozen, often called Kompo) is the raw material for car tires, conveyor belts, protective rubber on the car body, and others.