I have been living in Thailand for some time, I am now retired and have a rubber farm.

My workers tell me there are now many trees that are fully grown but have stopped producing latex.

This is common to all plantations in this area and I presume everywhere, it is up to 5% of the trees.

Does anyone know of :

1) a cure for this

2) if i have the trees cut down. if they cannot be cured, what commercial trees can be planted that would grow in the shade of the other trees.

Thankyou

Pete

Thaipete, im not a rubber farmer and i know little about the trees ect, but what my experince with the trees is not good, BIL grew saplings on the farm about 2 years ago, we thought about buying and planting, [NE Issan} he said these no good here, only grow south thai,, after i read an article on rougue trees i understood what he was up to, it was something with the goverment to give free trees at the time.

The other thing that comes to mind is "my workers tell me" does this mean that you havent seen for yourself the latex output? are your workers trustworthy?

This year in our village a rubber farmer took his 30 by 10 mtr wooden house to his farm, and dogs because of thieves.

We do have rubber on the farm but they are SILs, since we planted papaya and casava between the 4mtr rows, plough at least 1.5 mtr from the RTs, so as not to disturb the root structure.

Cheers, Lickey..

Thaipete,

how old are the trees? Rubber trees can get old to 30 years. If your workers didn't care enough they cut to deep and the trees dying? How the look like?

Otherwise you have to cut them down and sell the wood. One Rai brings 40 - 60,000.-Baht and more.

If the land is still fertile than plant rubber again if the money is enough to live from it in 7 years.

An other chance is try palm trees. You have to wait 4 years.

I have been living in Thailand for some time, I am now retired and have a rubber farm.

My workers tell me there are now many trees that are fully grown but have stopped producing latex.

This is common to all plantations in this area and I presume everywhere, it is up to 5% of the trees.

Does anyone know of :

1) a cure for this

2) if i have the trees cut down. if they cannot be cured, what commercial trees can be planted that would grow in the shade of the other trees.

Thankyou

Pete

Hello Pete

I think you may be seeing a problem that doesn't exist. Trees go dorment every year. If they are young trees in the first years of cutting they may stay dorment longer lack of rain and fertiliser can also effect the production . Also your workers may not be getting enough money as the price of rubber has made many plantations stop cutting and consentrate on their rice.

Best bet is to go see the local Government Agro man and invite him up for lunch at the plantation.

JIM