Fertilising rubber trees after spraying for weeds

[telstrareg]

It there any reason to wait after spraying to put down fertiliser? The guy managing my plantation says we should wait two weeks so that we are not fertilising the weeds but this makes no sense to me. Any plant that received a lethal dose isn't going to recover with the help of fertiliser and if it didn't receive a lethal dose, fertilising now or later won't make any difference.

'd like to get moving without delay because the trees haven't been fertilised by the previous owner in over a year.

[Canada]

That's what they all say about spraying and fertilizing for sugarcane too. My experience is that the weeds don't always die well and you may need to go through and spray again. The sprayers don't always do a good job and some weeds die hard and need to be removed by hand. With rubber though, weed spraying should be pretty easy. If you are spraying paraquat and you get get good coverage you should not have a problem killing weeds. What are you spraying? Are you tilling as well?

Waiting a bit won't hurt much, but I am curious to know what more knowledgeable people have to say.

[Farang Paul]

Wait for two weeks. However well you spray, some weeds will survive and the areas they don't survive in are open with no competition for seeds blown in or sitting waiting for germination. Paraquat, if you are using it, becomes inactive quickly once it hits the ground so fertilizing soon after spraying gives a boost to those weeds not dead and a head start to new weeds. Best to spray again after two weeks concentrating on areas where die-back is poor. What's the rush? We are talking trees here, not a ground crop. Spreading fertilizer after a year without isn't going to suddenly increase your productivity and at close to 1,000 baht/kilo (for good fertilizer) don't waste it!

Patience is required for good rubber yields. If the Thais, who can be the least patient people, say wait - then I suggest you do. Unless of course you have the knowledge and experience to overrule them.

[xen]

If you are using Glyosophate the chemical acts best on healthy growing weeds and so fertilizing before spraying and allowing the fertilizer to boost weed growth is not a bad thing especially if you are using a high N based fertilizer. Glyosophate works by translocating throughout the plant including roots so if the weed is actively growing the chemical does its job better.

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Paraquat works slightly differently as it works on the plant cells rather similar to the way frost kills plants (to put it simply) and so before or after would not make much difference. You could try to calculate if you leave the dead weed on the ground for the nutrient/fertiliser component to return to the soil whether it is more economical to get a return on the used fertiliser than if you fertilised after spraying.

Anyway you do it you will need a follow up respray to get what you missed the first time .

[Mosha]

I've seen them use Reglone, this is not a weed killer. It's designed purpose is to kill of root crop tops Leaving eg potato's easier to harvest. Reglone is neutralised by soil. So if they use Reglone, the weeds are vack pdq

[IsaanAussie]

Try this for a novel approach. Spray the dead weed areas with EM. This will help the weeds decay and germinate any weed seeds. Then respray to kill what you missed and what has newly emerged. If you can till the weeds in first so must the better. Especially in the drip zone as this will help the fertiliser to be taken up.

But note weed killers do a good job on soil bacteria as well. Without those microbes the tree roots will not fed as well.

Edited July 4, 2013 by IsaanAussie

[xen]

Try this for a novel approach. Spray the dead weed areas with EM. This will help the weeds decay and germinate any weed seeds. Then respray to kill what you missed and what has newly emerged. If you can till the weeds in first so must the better. Especially in the drip zone as this will help the fertiliser to be taken up.

But note weed killers do a good job on soil bacteria as well. Without those microbes the tree roots will not fed as well.

IA, what do you mean by EM?

[IsaanAussie]

Effective Micro-Organisms Xen.

[samuijimmy]

Paraquat is going to really be effective on annual weeds, where as Glyosophate will kill the roots of perennial weeds (grasses etc) Neither will kill the seeds, so a respray may be necessary of seedlings appear ....

Really the key as far as I am concerned is having enough time before weeds go to seed so cutting back weeds first (but not cutting down to far and loosing the green growth will help prevent them from going to seed...) Most people always miss that point..when using Glyosophate, it takes 10 to 14 days or so to work .

As to the question of fertilizing, I would also wait a while!.... if possible do after a good soaking rain, and hope to have a good rain after applying!

[Canada]

Is there another name for glyosophate?? What do Thais call it? I am unfamiliar with it. Sounds like it works similar to 24D or ametryn.

Ditto on jimmy's last comment. Wait for reliable rains if they aren't there yet. We just put off fertilizing our largest field to wait for a more "predictable" rain.

[Canada]

Roundup. Google is my friend.

[thaiguzzi]

My plantations are 5-9 years old (64 rai -4950 trees), i have built these up from scratch myself, done most of the prep and service work myself. Never ever spray weedkiller on/in rubber plantations. Only cheap charlie Thais without a clue do, and hence have poor trees. Thais in the know, and hence have good trees, only cut the grass. Does not matter if you have to do it 5-6 times a year, grasscut, grasscut, and then grasscut again. It's just part of the annual looking after of the soil, trees and good plantation up keep. This time of the year, i cut grass every 6-8 weeks on my 5 year old trees. No chemicals on my land in 9 years.

regards,

Mike.