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Studies on Introduce Low Cost Fertilizer for Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) Plantation
By Admin | July 21, 2009
Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) is grown along the tropical belt all over the world. It is belongs to sub family Swietenoideae of the family Meliaceae. Mahogany is a woody perennial with high quality timber value. Mahogany cultivation is a profitable industry under well management practices and mainly used for furniture, construction, carvings, ornamental items, etc.
There are two major problems can be seen in mahogany plantations. One is shoot borer attack and the other is higher initial fertilizer cost. This research was conducted to find out the growth performance according to the fertilizer type and identify the low cost fertilizer mixture which gives higher performances. One year old mahogany plantation was selected at Ambaganga Plantation in Matale district as experimental materials and urea, muriate of potash, Eppawala rock phosphate used to produce the five different fertilizer mixtures. N.P.K ratios of the five treatments were as follows.T1 = 15:13:13, T2 = 15:7:18, T3 = 15:11:15, T4 = 15:9:14, T5 = 15:12:16
Covariance analysis was used as experimental design and five blocks with 30 plants in each were applied the five treatments. All the data were measured in two weeks interval as plant height, number of leaves and plant girth. Data were recorded up to 8 weeks and were analyzed by using randomized complete block design.
Treatment-2 (T2) and treatment-4(T4) were most suitable for increase plant height, while treatment-4 (T4) was the most suitable mixture for plant leaf girth and plant girth increment. Treatment-4 (T4) was the most suitable low cost fertilizer mixture for one year old mahogany plantations.
Key words: Mahogany, woody perennial , high quality
Palihakkara I.R.1, Vithana D.G1, Kumara S.P.2
1- Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna, Sri lanka
2- Forestry Technical Officer, Touchwood investment Ltd, Sri Lanka
Topics: symposium2008 | 2 Comments »
September 26th, 2009 at 3:50 am
Your study on low cost fertilizer for Swietenia has been very useful to us in Tobago., West Indies. We have half an acre of private land planted to mahogany. We will note your results when expanding this acreage.
Thank You.
January 19th, 2012 at 3:56 pm
I would like to know about MAHOGANY AND TEAK cultivation . Pls help me