Mission to PT RSUP Coconut plantation, Indonesia, august 2009

Trial RS CC 08, which has been very well maintained for 5 years, is in excellent condition, with 22-year-old coconut palms displaying an excellent vegetative appearance typical of the PB 121 hybrid, and a good nut load. A treatment effect is beginning to be seen with the naked eye. The coconut palms in trial RS CC 10bis are still under the influence of the former treatments, two years after the first fertilizer application under the new treatments, which confirms strong inertia in the coconut palm as regards fertilization. Vegetative growth and fruit-setting on the immature palms in RS CC 11 have been exceptionally good in 2009. At three and a half years, the young hybrid coconut palms in the best treatments (coconut husk ash half and full rates, and KCl full rate) display a vigorous girth with a circumference of over 150 cm, long fronds exceeding 4.5 metres and a very good nut load. Deep peat is a potentially optimum medium for hybrid coconut palms, once limiting factors are known and controlled. The second series of coconut palms was planted in August 2009 in treatments B1 and B2 of demonstration block RS CC 12, and a second cycle of intercropped pineapple was planted in November 2009 in treatments A2 and B2, in compliance with the protocol. A first set of Sufetula pest pressure measurements on the roots of young palms revealed its very limited incidence in the 4 treatments tested. It is therefore possible to replant an old infested coconut plantation by eliminating Sufetula through good agronomic practices. However, demonstration block RS CC 12 also shows the strong and lasting incidence of another pest, Oryctes, which proves to be a considerable potential danger for future young coconut replantings. Planting density trial RS CC 13 was planted in October 2009, in compliance with the protocol. In the commercial plantation, the priority is to increase the burning frequency for the coconut biomass, notably husks, windrowed every other interrow. For two reasons: phytosanitary (heaps of fresh husks provide nests for Sufetula), and nutritional (husk ash proves to be an excellent potassium fertilizer which the coconut palms urgently need, especially those in the middle of the plots). In plots intercropped with pineapple, it is confirmed that unfertilized coconut palms largely benefit from the potassium fertilizer applied to the pineapple intercrops. It is once again recommended that a pilot coconut husk incineration unit be built to test mass production of this excellent potassium fertilizer. Around 40,000 MYD seednuts are in the process of being harvested since August 2009 to replant a seed garden in place of the old MYD palms from ex-seed garden No. 1, which has not be used for a long time. Care should be taken to plant isolation barriers down the sides that currently remain open. (Résumé d'auteur