ii.Mono-culture System
In mono-culture system, the planting system uses “triangle”, “square”, and “not in order” spacing. “Triangle” and “square” system produces tidy plant spacing and can only be applied on flat surfaces or almost flat surfaces. While “not in order” spacing can be applied on a slope and terrace. Planting with “not in order” spacing the plantation will look messy. However, many plantations used “not in order” spacing apart from “triangle” spacing.
Way of Planting Seedlings
i.Dismantling Seedlings
Grafting seedlings that will be planted are usually obtained from a nursery or polybag. To move it, the seeds should be dismantled, especially seedlings from the nursery.
Taking seeds depends on the seedlings that will be planted. Usually farmers plant Stum Eye Sleep Seeds that have 2-3 umbrella leaves. There are also other type of seedlings such as mini Stum and high Stum. High stum seed supply is reserved for replanting seeds.
Seed dismantling is done by digging a 50cm trench beside the row of seedlings. Then seedling will be hold at the top of grafting and revoked. Keep in mind that the number of its taproot must be single and straight. If there’s more than 1, the other branches of root will be cut. Then, seedlings are ready to be planted.
ii. Transport
Seedling that are ready to be planted often need to cover a considerable distance even though they are located in a plantation. This usually happen on the seedlings from the nursery ground.
Treatment for seeds that have to travel a considerable distance is done by wrapping the seeds. The aim is to avoid damage to buds or stem of grafting. Packing materials that can be used are banana tree bar prepared layer by layer and arrange the rubber seedling between them. Arrangement must be tight to prevent a shift during the transport of seeds. Apart from banana tree bar, burlap or coconut fibre can also be used. The procedure for burlap and coconut fibre is the same as banana tree bar.
If seeds come from grafting in plastic bag, transport will be done immediately. Seed dismantling can be done when it is going to be planted. Seed in plastic bag is the most practical because percentage of dead seeds because of transport can be minimised.
Planting Execution
i.Planting Rubber
Before planting, holes to plant need to be ready. Planting hole made with a space of (7x3) m. the process starts from digging holes suitable and according to that spacing.
If land prepared have the shape of contour terrace with distance 7m per hole, boundary pole will be put in a row with 3m distance between each other. On the other hand, on flat land without terrace, stake with 7m distance between each other is done accordance to its planting system with spacing 7m to North-South and 3m to East-West. Remember that land with slope less than 10% used array and more than 10% used terrace.
Planting hole for grafting mini Slum or seeds in plastic bag is (60x60x60) cm. for grafting high Stum seeds age 2-3 years are (80x80x80) m. if the length of high Stum taproot is more than 80 cm, the middle part of the hole will be drilled for 20 cm more.
Apart from cuboid shaped hole, there are also other shapes of planting holes. Which are cylinder and cube that is tilted at the bottom. The tilted shape is caused because of hoe and other tools that can make a cube shape.
When digging a planting hole, soil layer of topsoil or arable land is separated from soil layer at its bottom or subsoil.
After planting hole has been prepared, seeds can be planted. During planting, taproot has to be straight into the soil. Root that is tilted or bent will slow down the growth. If seedlings came from grafting in plastic bag, needs to have 2-3 new umbrella leaves. Seedling and its plastic bag will be put into the hole and let id for 2-3 weeks. Then plastic bag is removed and the hole will be backfill.
ii.Planting Cover Crops
To hold and prevent erosion, cover crops planting is done. Apart from that, cover crops can speed up the tapping of mature rubber tree and increase its latex yield. Types of soil cover crops can be divided into 3 types which are creeping plants, shrubs, and trees.
Creeping plants basically includes grass, leguminosae. Leguminosae are like Pueraria Javanica, Centrosema Pubescene, Calopogonium Mucunoides. Usually these type of leguminosae combine with the ratio (4 : 6 : 8 ) kg per hectare in each plant. Almost all rubber plantation use creeping plants as cover crops.
Plants like shrub that can be used are like Crotalaria Usaramoensis, C. Anagyroides, C. Juncea, Tephrosia Candida, T. Vogeliii. Also the most common tree used as cover crops is Leucaena Glauca. Tree as cover crops are very rare used because rubber does not need shade plants. However, places that has strong wind and often attacked by boar usually uses tree to prevent this.
Seeds’ Need
Seeds’ need each hectare is affected by its plant spacing. With plant spacing (7x3) m, total numbers of rubber trees that can be planted are 476 trees. Beside the seedling that was planted directly, prepared as well as seeds for replanting, 5% from total number of the one planted until seedling that need to be prepared has a total of 500 stem.
Rubber Plantation Business Page 6