~Chapter 2~
Planting Baby Rubber Plant
Tillage and Planting Process
In rubber planting, 2 terms are known, they are replanting and newplanting. Replanting is applied when a rubber plant is replanted after the old one is considered not economical anymore. Newplanting is applied when a plantation is planting a new opening that previously not planted with rubber.
Tillage and Planting Process, these 2 processes are not much different. The only differences between these 2 are only the logging of old trees and large trees and tall grass. Planting preparation is actually the planning before planting. With accurate preparation cost and job will be reduced.
Tillage starts from the clearing of trees that is growing in your plantation area. Clearing is done manually in small plantations and mechanically in huge plantations. Huge plantations use machine and tractors because it is more economical compare to human energy. Small trees will be cleared first, and then it will be followed by the big ones. Thereafter these trees are dried and burnt or become firewood. If replanting is applied, the logged rubber trees are used as firewood in the smokehouse and it is possible to be used as other useful materials.
After the trees and tall grass are cleared and burnt, tillage with hoe and tractor is done until the remaining roots rise. Clear the remaining roots, rhizomes, tall grass, and big rocks because it can slow down the growth of rubber plants. Tall grass can be removed using herbicides. Provision on herbicide done for 4-5 times until the tall grass is really dead. Herbicide will be contributed 2,000 litters per hectare.
To eradicate residual roots disease, fungicides can be used. Woods that cannot be burnt or used will be sprayed with Sodium Arsenide. Chemicals distribution is done by putting it on the wood that the bark has already been exfoliated.
After clearing, land is left until the tall grass stops growing. Usually plantation land is not entirely flat, there are some bumps. Land that has a slope above 10° should become terraces. Minimal width of the terrace will be 1.5 m. The distance between terraces are 7m for (7x3) m plant spacing. To make sure that the distance is even, spirit level is used. At the same slope make one terrace. If the terrace is getting wider, should be made small terraces with width not more than the big terrace.
Making terrace starts from digging ramps. Dug soil covered at the bottom of the dug ramps until it looked like a terrace. Terrace making is meant for the land to not easily cause soil erosion.
Rorak is usually made at slopes. It is a blind hole of a certain size. It is also useful as erosion preventer and for water channel. Noteworthy, this rorak or water channel doesn’t have sharp slope flow because the presence of sharp slope flow will cause soil erosion or landslide. Other types of water channels are draining channels and roadside water channels. Roadside water channels are made according to the road’s slope. These channels should be cemented to reduce the chance of soil erosion.
Rubber plantation needs roads for smooth job and control. Replanting plants plantation, its old road can still be used but it need to be repaired. Road types that are made in rubber plantation are the main road, production road, blocs’ road, control road, and latex transportation road.
Road making is made and planned like a contour terrace, but not using spirit levelling. Road making needs to be planned properly by adjusting latex ease if transportation of farm to the treatment/processing site. Ascending road cannot be made if the land is hilly. The road cannot keep ascending for long distances. This is why road need to be in order, one example is that the road keep ascending 1 m every 50m. So for 1 km the road ascends 20m. However these kinds of roads are not good because it can cause fatal accidents. The ascending of road should vary according to the curve of the land. For making road backfill cannot be used. The slope of the ramp should be in.
Planting
Rubber Planting System
Rubber needs to be planted carefully. To get good product out of the rubber tree, it needs a suitable system to support its growth. There are 2 types of rubber planting system which are mono-culture and poly-culture system.
i.Poly-culture System
Planting rubber using poly-culture system needs to be planned beforehand. Distance between plants need to fit with the size of the one plant when they grow (suitable distance) so that it won’t be too tight. Therefore, competition on acquiring nutrients among plants will happen.
In planting, there are various types of plant spacing such as:
“Triangle” spacing
“Square” spacing
“Fence” spacing
“Road” spacing
“Not in order” spacing
“Fence” and “road” spacing are prepared for poly-culture. With toad spacing you will be able to get plants growing nicely and produce good products. This can happen because solar radiation occurs perfectly. On road spacing, there they also planted cover crops like lead tree; scientific name Leucaena leucocephala. “Fence” spacing is meant for both poly-culture and mono-culture. If the system used id poly-culture, then the plants will be tightly in rows. The most important thing is that it needs perfect solar radiation. Next are the examples of poly-culture system, “fence” and “road” spacing:
Rubber Plantation Business Page 5
