Nutrients for melia dubia
One of the plots in the farm has exhibited stunted/slower growth than rest of the trees. I know the soil is not the most fertile, so I got tested for the major nutrients. Here are the results with acceptable or preferred range in the brackets.
Nitrogen kg/ha - 207 (> 450 is considered high, result low )
Phosphorpus kg/ha - 50 (> 22 is considered high. result high)
Potash kg/ha 224 (> 280 is considered high, result medium )
Organic carbon % .18 (>.75 is considered high, result low)
Fe ppm 4.98 (>3.7 is considered sufficient, result sufficient)
Mn ppm 11.59( > 11 is considered sufficient, result sufficicent)
Zn ppm .42 (>1.2 is considered sufficient, result deficient )
Cu ppm .54 (>2 is considered sufficient, result deficient)
Based on the above results, what would you suggest to do, how much and how frequently. Pls note, so far we have not given any fertigation to any of the plots of melia dubia.
Hi !
First melia dubia is a fast growing tree ..
As such the nutrients requirement for melia dubia has not been worked out and research is underway..
However this melia dubia are being grown in different climatic and soil condition in India and melia dubia has become popular with farmers in short time and media in the recent past spread the message fast to every nook and corner...
Newspaper carried information that melia dubia brings crores of rupees in short period of 5-6 years..people started inquiring about this trees and majority of the farmers all over india came forward to plant melia dubia..
ok..some of our farmers too planted melia dubia near around chennai in districts like kanchipuram , triuvallur and vellore etc..
Of course crop has registered fast growth ...some farmers have applied chemical fertilizers where as some other have not applied even a single dose of chemical fertilizers...
The tree invariably comes up well irrespective of application of chemical fertilizers ...
The remarkable difference noticed in growth of melia dubia is where irrigation water during summer and soil organic matter percentage is not a constraints..wherever these two conditions are met out ,melia dubia looks jubilant..
Further it is understood from the study of melia dubia in farmers field that the response of the melia dubia to synthetic chemical fertilizers is not remarkable and short lived...
where as soil organic matter and soil depth is enough to allow fast establishment of roots , the tree grow steady and fast...
Further soil test does not ensure availability of indicated nutrients to plants as such..it all depends upon the ability of the plants to utilize part of the available nutrients from soil...
So the factors responsible for economic harvest of melia dubia are
1.Enough irrigation water either thro' rainfall or supplementary irrigation
2.No water logging and drainage in important where flooding for long period is possible
3.good soil organic matter either available in soil itself or addition to soil thro' FYM, vermicompost or other compost
4. Cured pressmud is excellent and balanced nutrients for melia dubia..25 kgs per tree per year is enough
5.Addition of VAM, azospirillum, phosphobacteria , speudomonas . t.viride etc is advocated as it has long term impact..
6.Basal application of rock phosphate is nice idea..
7. Intercrop of leguminous family may be recommended during early years of tree planting..
8.Instead of synthetic chemical as nutrients , the organic nutrients play a vital role in steady fast growth of melia dubia ..with quality timer yield in about 9-10 years..
9.If soil is marginal and poor in terms of soil organic matter and nutrients , shallow depth of soil and water problem..then it is advocated to supply abundant quantity of organic matter in any form available in your location..
and NPK mixture at rate of 25-50 grams per tree two times during onset of monsoon...
10.So study your location for all above cited and devise strategic plan to suit your location ..