Thread: Palm Trees

from the other 20 rai we had 4600 kilo @ 5.8 = 26680 baht.

Any other farmers on here ?

The information is very interesting. Thanks for sharing the info.

Welcome, no problem. There's a lot of misinformation going around so I hope this gives the interested ones an idea what one can expect in income.

3 year old trees

Harvested 18 rai today, 3800 kilo @ 5.80. Again in a few days we'll harvest the other 20 rai, expect around 4 to 5000 kilo there.

Have you started your plantation yet or making plans ?

Originally Posted by Deboer

Have you started your plantation yet or making plans ?

These pictures are from girlfriends plantation. They only started to fruit like this the last month or so but looks like looks they are doing well now.

Yesterday we had 4415 kilo from our 18 rai and 6700 kilo from the other 20 rai, price dropped though, sold @ 4.90 baht/kilo.

3 year old plantation is yielding about 500 Kilo per 20 rai. From your posts, you are seeing between 4500 to 6700 kilo for 20 rai (about *10 times the weight). Watching trees grow takes a long time !!

3 year old trees are not really trees that one should call a harvest when cutting, gotta wait at least till their 5 to 6 years before you'll be seeing some serious FB.
DO you actually have a plantation or just look at pics on the net ? Which part of Thailand do you live ? If you are interested pm me and I will show you around our plantation. Mind you in the off season we had times with only 2500 kilo on 20 rai. many factors play a role here, rain and sunshine and fertilizer.... pm if you'd like to go in a tour.

Ok just read that your girlfriend has a plantation, must say that her 3 year old trees look very good, we got a few rai with young trees, most are 10+ years old. With the young trees some look good but there are a few who look like they are lacking something, yet they are getting the same fertilizer as the other ones. Maybe we should get to each others plantation, we can probably learn from each other, right ?

We planning make this next year, start only make 10 rai first but later do 40 rai. Is it possible start change land what have been before Rice farming and put palm threes.

do palm trees here suffer from beetle attack, which essentially kills the trees after a year or so

the Red Palm Weevil

http://www.gmt247.eu/news/newsletter...lm_weevil.html

Portugal and the med, the middle east are all suffering

Palm trees can suffer from beetle attack but there are products on the market to prevent this. SO far on our plantation haven't had this problem, did have an issue with the rats getting their teeth into newly planted trees, put some pvc pipe around it till they grow a bit older to prevent rats. When trees get bigger still rats around but not to the extend that it harms your trees or fruits.

@ markos, not sure but do know if you are in Isarn that palm is not a good option unless you have a watering system, they need lots of water, that's why you'll the plantation starting in Chumporn and more Southwards, lots of rain in our neck of the woods.
Regarding quality of soil, you can take a sample and bring it to the agricultural labs, they'll tell you exactly if your soil is good for palm or not.

@ DrAnday, afer reading the article I must I haven't seen or heard anything about those creatures here yet. Better keep them in the Algarve, we got beetles out here who attack trees but as I mentioned there are pesticides to kill them off.

I'm having a look at this site in case they decide to invade our plantation : Palm Control System

Hope they never reach our plantation, I have noticed that in the young trees there lots of insects snacking into the fruit bunches but not to the point that they are harming them.
As you know DrAndy with the locals out here, it's the "mai pen rai" attitude with lots of things where I see we could do a better job but it's like fighting a war on your own against the majority. So far father in law does follow some of the advice from stuff that I learned from Malaysian plantations but still it could be much better. Example, the trees need about 8 to 9 kilo fertilizer per year, most here do this in 2 or 3 times, I do it 4 times per year, it supposed to be better ? We can only do the best we can

when the locals see the quantity and quality of your crop, they will be interested in your methods, not before

the same happened with our rice harvests

Yes indeed, now they still think I'm the weirdo farang, fertilizing 4 times per year, keeping the plantation clean, pruning the leaves and such....... I see them thinking : Damn there they are again with their mowing machines and tractor, hehehe. damn that guy fertilizes a lot.....

Looks funny our well maintained plantation next to our neighbors jungle plantation .

Good enough pdf here for "GOOD AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES FOR OIL PALM" in thailand.

http://www.acfs.go.th/standard/downl...P_oil_plam.pdf

Gives a general description of different types of pests that may attack tree.

A.4.3 Pest Control
A.4.3.1 Grower shall acquire knowledge of important pests and their life cycles as well as appropriate pest control taking into consideration the impacts on environment and ecosystem. The details of important pests are obtained from official recommendations.
A.4.3.2 Survey and forecast of pest infestation, such as rats, leaf eating caterpillars, rose beetles, rhinoceros beetles and other pests, at different stages of their life cycles shall be regularly conducted and monitored. These information shall be recorded on the form shown in example form No.6 of Appendix B(Record Form on Pest Survey and Pest Control).

Good information. Thanks.