Coconut Farm Best Practice Ploughing good or Bad

[vivasayee vivasayee]

Hello Experts ,

1.I am looking for concrete information  should we need to plough in between coconut trees.

some people states it is good so that new roots will appear ,some says not good .

2.What is the best natural ingredients to be feed for trees so that we can have good yield .I practices natural farming methods ,Any one has practical self exposure .

Thanks

Viva...

[Hugh Harries]

Viva

I am sorry that no one has answered your question - perhaps I can encourage a reply from someone who has practical experience, by saying that if the soil requires ploughing it is possibly unsuitable for coconuts?

Surprisingly, I have found ploughing mentioned in the title of only one research paper:
Arachchi, LPV (2009) Effect of deep ploughing on the water status of highly and less compacted soils for coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) production in Sri Lanka. Soil and Tillage Research 103 (2) 350-355.

Probably there are many publications.that mention ploughing, especially in the context of intercropping where the intercrop is more valuable than the coconut?

Best wishes

Hugh

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[Marcos Freire]

Viva,
Our experience is that ploughing is not a big help. Actually it will increase the amount of work required for weed management.
We think that the best option is to just cut the natural grass. You can use the grass as feed or leave it as mulch (if you don't anticipate problems with wild-fires).
If you have a good soil live-cover crop (a good legume creeper, that would also help to keep the grasses in check and provide a soils protection and some nutrition).

Regards,

Marcos Freire

[Mike Foale]

Regarding the question of ploughing between the rows of coconut palms, I have one experience of this. In Solomon Islands the plantation I worked on in the 1960s was planted on a well-structured and well-drained clay soil. The location had no marked dry season, weed growth was prolific and the work was done on a replanted field with palms aged four years ongoing. Instead of slashing the weeds we passed a disc cultivator drawn by a tractor along the inter-rows every two months. This had a negative effect on growth measured by the length of new fronds and the onset of flowering.

On that soil type feeder roots were close to the surface and obviously damaged by the cultivation. It is possible on a light textured soil that there would be fewer feeder roots near the surface and nutrients from the decay of organic matter would be carried more rapidly down the profile. So the thorough weed control of cultivation might work to the advantage of the palms, especially when there is a marked dry season and thorough cultivation reduces water loss due to weed growth.

Mike Foale

 

From: coc...@googlegroups.com [mailto:coc...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Hugh Harries
Sent: Sunday, 16 June 2013 6:27 AM
To: coc...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Coconut:5890] Coconut Farm Best Practice Ploughing good or Bad

 

Viva

I am sorry that no one has answered your question - perhaps I can encourage a reply from someone who has practical experience, by saying that if the soil requires ploughing it is possibly unsuitable for coconuts?

Surprisingly, I have found ploughing mentioned in the title of only one research paper:
Arachchi, LPV (2009) Effect of deep ploughing on the water status of highly and less compacted soils for coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) production in Sri Lanka. Soil and Tillage Research 103 (2) 350-355.

Probably there are many publications.that mention ploughing, especially in the context of intercropping where the intercrop is more valuable than the coconut?