Oil Palm: Nursery

NURSERY PRACTICES FOR PRODUCTION OF SUPERIOR OIL PALMPLANTING MATERIALS

Introduction
Site selection and preparation
Ordering of seeds
Nursery set-up
Nursery maintenance
Summary of recommendations

INTRODUCTION

The oil palm is a very precocious crop, which comes into maturity at 25 months or earlier from field planting, with peak yield realized at four or more years thereafter.

As early bearing and high yields in the field are mainly dependent on production of uniformly good and healthy seedlings from a nursery, it follows that good nursery management would be required to achieve the latter.

The production of superior oil palm planting materials is fully dependent on attention to details at all stages in the nursery management and this entails following closely, proven standards and procedures.

Oil palm has an economic productive life span of 20 years or more and any shortcomings in the planting material will have long term consequences on yield. As such, the grower must select and plant only the best in his field in order to maximize his yields.


Reference
Heriansyah and Tan C.C. 2005. Nursery practices for production of superior oil palm planting materials. The Planter. Incorporated Society of Planters, Kuala Lumpur 81 (948) : 159-171

Note: The full list of references quoted in this article is available from the above paper.