Rubber Tree Cassava Intercrop

[Lickey]

In a recent topic Khonan advised against this, intercropping rubber and cassava, but sis in law and BiL want to do this, so in the 1st case, rubber trees are 5 years old, how far away would you plant cassava? in the 2nd case, both planted at the same time, I think a lot depends on the root formation of the rubber tree, does it spead at just below ground level or does it go down looking for water? as far as i understand, they are both good dry season plants, TIA, Lickey,,

[Khonwan]

In a recent topic Khonan advised against this, intercropping rubber and cassava, but sis in law and BiL want to do this, so in the 1st case, rubber trees are 5 years old, how far away would you plant cassava? in the 2nd case, both planted at the same time, I think a lot depends on the root formation of the rubber tree, does it spead at just below ground level or does it go down looking for water? as far as i understand, they are both good dry season plants, TIA, Lickey,,

Hi Lickey

I noticed you haven’t received any reply to your post as yet. Plenty of other folks do intercrop with cassava so hopefully someone may reply based on their knowledge or that of Thai farmers in their area.

I found the following comments on various websites this morning that may be of general interest to you – I’ve not listed them in any particular order. My own concern would be with regards to the mechanical harvesting of the tubers by tractor. Other than that, I guess one metre from the rubber trees would be fine, from the point of view of root interaction.

I would just add that I think your 5-year rubber trees shall probably present too much shade and drastically reduce the yield of any cassava planted.

Rgds

Khonwan

“The results showed that rubber intercroped with short growth duration economic crops of three cropping patterns did not show any significant difference on the increment of plant height and stem diameter of rubber in comparison with rubber monocropping. Cassava monocropping produced root yield of 2560 kg./rai which did not show any significant difference with cassava root yield of 2413 kg./rai in cassava –peanut intercropping.” http://ora.kku.ac.th/res_kku/Abstract/Abst...Qid=-1778617110

“Although Cassava and forage crops had no adverse effect on the growth of rubber trees for the first two years but care should be taken because the adverse effect of cassava and forage crops have been reported elsewhere” http://www.nafri.org.la/05_news/workshops/..._p2_vietnam.pdf

“Although intercropping with cassava and bananas yielded substantial additional returns, the growth of rubber plants, as evaluated by the girth recorded 17 mo. after planting, was affected by cassava plants” http://orton.catie.ac.cr/cgi-bin/wxis.exe/...sion=mfn=067151

[Lickey]

Khonwan, thankyou for your time finding these valuable sites, i will pass on the info to SIL and BIL, you did mention shade from the rubber trees, and the effect on cassava, it seems that a lot of the trees have lost all there leaves just now, im informed that this is normal for time of year, but other trees are still in full green leaf? but thats another matter! Also the post on the 23 page cassava article in the other topic was very infomative, and im thinking about intercropping peanuts in the Papaya and banana plantation, I irrigate the papaya and banana at night,pump is on a timer, with 4 10 mtr radius sprinklers, do you think this would be detrimental for peanuts? TIA Lickey..

[Khonwan]

Khonwan, thankyou for your time finding these valuable sites, i will pass on the info to SIL and BIL, you did mention shade from the rubber trees, and the effect on cassava, it seems that a lot of the trees have lost all there leaves just now, im informed that this is normal for time of year, but other trees are still in full green leaf? but thats another matter! Also the post on the 23 page cassava article in the other topic was very infomative, and im thinking about intercropping peanuts in the Papaya and banana plantation, I irrigate the papaya and banana at night,pump is on a timer, with 4 10 mtr radius sprinklers, do you think this would be detrimental for peanuts? TIA Lickey..

You're welcome, Lickey.

My wife has grown peanuts - she says the irrigation will be beneficial; info on the Net also supports this, including irrigation by sprinkler.

I found this excellent resource (99 pages) covering all aspects of peanut production including designs for machinery: http://www.lanra.uga.edu/peanut/download/report1.pdf

Rgds

Khonwan