Abstract

Tissue culture-derived planting materials have been proven to outperform the productivity, in which most clones have reportedly surpassed the standard performance by at least 20% on average in terms of fresh fruit bunch (FFB) yield on a per hectare basis. This advantage seems to benefit the industry players as higher productivity will lead to higher income.

However, the cost of producing clonal materials is considered as one of the major bottle-necks in the large scale usage of clonal planting materials in the oil palm industry. There is limited data on the most suitable fertilizer type used, method and rates of fertilizer application for these clonal seedlings. A similar compost type, technique and paces of use for DXP seedlings is being utilized by Sawit Kinabalu Sdn Bhd for clonal seedlings. This study aims to evaluate the impacts of different type, method and rates of compostused on the development and leaf supplement content of clonal palm seedlings. Two isolated factorial totally randomized planned areas were selected to study at Gomantong Estate, Kinabatangan. Trial one showed no critical contrasts between all compost application techniques and rates on the vegetative development of the seedlings. A result shows that customary compost application was satisfactory to prescribe to the clonal palm seedlings to accomplish standard vegetative development before field planting.

Results of the study showed no critical difference between manure proportion and rates on the vegetative development and leaf supplement content of the clonal palm seedlings. The leaf nutrient content had shown at the optimum level from the standard nutrients required by oil palm seedlings. Therefore, symptom of disorder known as white stripe that normally affecting DXP seedling was discovered happen to clonal palm seedling when higher dosage of N being applied. The study of both experiments found that there was no deterioration in the soil properties over 12 months at the nursery stage. There was no response of higher dosage of fertilizer applied in both experiments. The selection of methods of application and types of fertilizer depends on the size of the nursery and number of workers availability.

Please request the Thesis from us via the button below.