DETERMINATION OF THE OPTIMAL PLANTING SEASON PATTERN SEAWEED Eucheuma striatum IN THE WATERS OF POHUWATO DISTRICT, GORONTALO

Pohuwato district is one of the areas in Gorontalo Province which has been set as a minapolitan area with seaweed commodities. Eucheuma striatum is a species of seaweed that is currently producing carrageenan and has been widely cultivated in almost all the territorial waters of Indonesia. Nevertheless, the cultivators still have limited information regarding the proper planting then causing seaweed productivity is less than optimal. This research aims to determine the optimal planting time for seaweed Eucheuma striatum in the waters of Pohuwato District, Gorontalo Province..

This research was conducted in January - December 2015 in the waters of Pohuwato District, Gorontalo Province. This research was designed with a completely randomized design (CRD) consisted of 1 treatments and 3 replications with seaweed species as a treatment and  longline rope as a replication.The main parameters observed in this research is the growth, talus performance of seaweed and water quality as a supporter parameters. Cultivation method used in this research is longline method with 35 x 10 m construction and 50 gram of initial seed weighs. Seaweed cultivation is carried out for 7 (seven) cycles plant with long maintenance of 45 days each cycle plant.

The result showed that the optimal growth of Eucheuma striatum occurs in 3 (third) cycles between the months of May - June  with a value of daily growth rate 4.16%. Base on planting season calendar, Eucheuma striatum can not be cultivated on January, February, October and November. On January to February, rainfall is high so that the seaweed attacked ice-ice disease, whereas in October to November is the dry season.