Professional Documents
Culture Documents
AMELIORATION OF GROWING
CONDITIONS FOR HIGH SUSTAINABLE
OIL PALM YIELDS
Patrick Ng HC, Tasren N. Mahamooth and Goh KJ
Kuala Lumpur 1
Boustead
– Kepong Bhd. Plantations Bhd.
Introduction
1
Introduction
Planted hectares
1M 2M 3.4 M 4.9 M
~45 t/h/y Genetic Yield Potential : Max. yld. obtainable without any
FFB environmental, agronomy and management constraint
- Small trial plots
- < 1% of area 2) Yield limiting factors: Climate, soil, terrain, density
2
Recipe to obtain high yields …
Land Preparation / Planting
“To obtain vigourous, uniform palms at maximum stand
with good legume covers”
Amelioration of Amenable Ingredients
growing conditions Good ground cover / legumes
Not so amenable Good infrastructure / drainage
Ingredients
Vigorous / Uniform seedlings
Soil / Terrain
Planting pattern
Climate / rainfall
Optimum Density / full stand
Potential of Planting
Pest & Diseases
materials Not possible to discuss all.
Genotype x environment Good early nutrition
Just
Different treatment may selected key points.
be required for different environment
5
SYP
Climate factors: Agronomic factors:
Amount of rainfall Planting density
Rainfall distribution Planting pattern
Effective soil volume
Terrain etc.
3
Importance of Initial Planting Quality
Good Planting
FFB yield > 30 t/ha
73% chance
2% chance
Source: Goh et al., 1994 1st Yr Yield*
> 20 t/ha
7
1 2 3 4 years
Poor Planting
8
Courtesy of Camilo Tobon
4
Land Preparation (3D Laser Scanner / Drones / LIDAR)
5
Land Preparation (Infrastructure / CSR)
Source: C. Chermin
Adequate quality housing to
attract employees / workers
Facilities (clean water etc.)
Villages
Slope accentuated for illustration purposes
Harvesting
Source: KLKCare (2016)
paths
6
Palm Planting (Option for large planting)
Incorporate some controlled release fertilizers (CRF) into
planting hole at time of transplanting
Amount and type of CRF depends on strategy / response
Between the first 3 to 6 months only; else too costly (at
this juncture) or not enough nutrients provided / balance
Objective: Minimize risk of delayed initial
fertilizer applications.
Ensure good initial palm nutrition.
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100%
N (kg/ha)
400
65% 40 100% 6 weeks
300
20
200 37%
100
19% 0
0
1400 160
K 140
Mg
1200
100% 120
1000 100%
Mg (kg/ha)
K (kg/ha)
100
800
80
600
60
400
40
200 20
17% 23%
0 0
#1
Oil palms at time of replanting Immobilized by MB
14
Note #1: Khalid and Basri (2004)
12 months 5 months
Fixed by MB 2 months
7
Impact of Ground Covers (Mix Legumes)
Compare (A) Mixed legume system of M. bracteata
(MB) + P. javanica (PJ) vs (B) Pure MB
A B
B
15
Trial area: 12 Months Old Same area: 47 Months Old
80
60
40
20
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Month after planting
8
Post Planting Quality Control
Design check
Rectification
(Variation Order?)
Supplying to get
full stand
17
18
Main canal & water gate
9
Amelioration of Growing Conditions
Effect of liming with GML on soil parameters (Rengam
series) and leaf nutrients (Bungor series)
AAR
Leaf Nutrients unpublished
19
T1: Nil T2: Std. Compound (SC) T7: SC + 5.5 kg/p GML
EFB Mulching
10
Amelioration of Growing Conditions
Effect of increase microbial
biomass on palm growth and
yield being investigated
21
22
Plot with good M. bracteata Bare ground plot
11
Concluding Remarks
Recipe to Obtain High Sustainable Yields =
Right ingredients for success:
Good design of + best palms planted out
plantations:
planting pattern correct fertilizer strategies
density optimal canopy
(Gawthorn/CAD) ground cover management
infrastructure effective harvesting standard
23
Concluding Remarks
Recipe and ingredients not new
Ingredients complement each other, not to be
taken individually
Differ with site; Adjust recipe to ‘local taste’ (site
specific)
Ingredients / tools widely available including in
literature
12
THANK YOU
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