₦airaland Forum

Your oil palm plantation is 4 years old or may even be above age 4 since planting but annual yield interms of fresh fruits bunches FFB is very low and nothing to write home about ,this may lead to loss of interest in continuing to invest in that plantation and subsequent neglect of the entire farm .If you are 💯 certain that you planted Original tenera seeds then your problem is certainly lack of adequate fertilisation. We have seen some cases of oil palm farm owners whom after year 1 of planting and fertilising ,they neglect fertiliser application throughout the following years and by year 4 the farmland becomes infertile hence their annual FFB yield drops significantly and loss becomes iminent .This is the present situation of many oil palm farms in Nigeria and if your farm falls into this category ,this fertilization schedule programme I prepared below will help you to improve production in your farm this year and if this does not work that means you planted the wrong seedlings and you may need to go back to the start ;

FERTILIZER APPLICATION IN OIL PALM FARMING AND IT'S EFFECT ON ANNUAL YIELD BY KKFARMS

Prepared by ABDULKARIM KABIR AYINDE KK FARMS
07062053560

Oil palm tree is an heavy feeder plant that require balance ratio of the major soil nutrient such as nitrogen,phosphorus and potassium and also minor nutrient such as boron and magnesium for maximum fruits production.Oil palm tree can still bear fruits provided there is adequate rainfall and weeding but the farmer that is business oriented and have great focus to increase annual yield will understand that fertiliser application at different stages of the plants development is critical to increasing annual palm fruits yield which in turns increase profitability .

This article will also focus on types of fertilizer,mode of application, period of application and stages of fertilizer application in oil palm farming .

Year 0 - 1 ( NURSERY STAGE )

At this stage the plants ( sprouted nut )are planted in polythene nylon and they require very little amount of fertilizer for root development which leads to rapid growth at the nursery .Too much of fertiliser most especially inorganic at this stage could kill the plant and the farmer must be careful to apply the fertiliser at 15 gram per seedling and 2 inches away from the young seedling .this should be done 2 month after germination and to be repeated every 30 days for the next 8 months or 1 year at the nursery . NPK 15:15:15 or 20:10:10 is recommended at this stage

Year 1 - 4 ( VEGETATIVE GROWTH STAGE)

Year 1 to 4 the palm seedlings are transplanted to the main farm and during this period they undergo vegetative growth .During these period the palm tree produce no fruits till year 3 and as a result nitrogen is required to boost vegetative growth of the plants hence the farmer should focus on applying Urea since it is 100% nitrogen only or fertiliser with higher amount of nitrogen like NPK 20:10:10. this is apply twice in a year at the beginning of the raining season between May/ June and towards the end of rain season around September/ October at 150 to 200 gram per plant .The farmer must apply it 5 inches or 1ft away from the base of the plant depending on size of the plant .Mistake must not be made to apply it direct to the plants so not to burn the young plant which could lead to death .The farmer must understand that application of fertiliser during the vegetative growth stage is done to enhance the production of more green leaves / palm fronds and also to accelerate the growth of the plants to produce fruits within the benchmark period of 3 to 4 years old .A good sign of palm tree well fertilize will show very green color while lack of it will show yellowish color .

Year 4 and above ( FRUIT PRODUCTION STAGE )

This is the stage the oil palm trees start to bear flowers to produce fruits and inorder to attain maximum fruits yield the farmer must increase fertiliser application per tree .Our farmers in Nigeria usually abandoned application of fertiliser to the their palm trees since they know the palm tree will produce fruits naturally but in contrast the yield are usually low when fertiliser are not being applied annually at this stage .Countries like Indonesia and Malaysia who with the former being the largest producer of oil palm have already develop a reliable fertilization programme on their oil palm plantation and this is even one of the major reasons why their annual palm oil production is higher than what we produce in Nigeria and other African countries .

The annual fertiliser requirement per flowering tree is between 800 gram to 1kg of NPK 15:15:15 which would be split into two and applied at the beginning of the rain season around May/june and towards the end of rain season in September and October in anticipation of commercial harvest which commence from January to June every year . The palm tree also require the annual application of muriate of potash to boost root development which aids fruit production and increase fruits oil content .

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