How to increase Oil Palm Yield

Understanding Role of Specific Nutrient for Oil Palm

Most required nutrients have specific roles to play in improving yield and crop quality:

 

• Nitrogen is important to build the palm and maintain frond productivity increasing FFB and oil yields. Oversupply though, can be counterproductive as it promotes excessive vegetative growth and encourages pest and disease attack.

 

• Phosphorus is particularly important for root growth and flower initiation, increasing fruit number, bunch

weight and yield.

 

• Potassium, like nitrogen, also boosts crop development, increasing bunch size and FFB yield. Large amounts are utilized by the palm, but supplies need to be balanced alongside those of nitrogen and other cations such as magnesium and calcium.

 

• Magnesium is needed in relatively large quantities to maintain photosynthesis, frond development and bunch number and fruit weight. It also plays a role in improving bunch oil content.

 

• Calcium is important for palm health.

 

• Sulfur is required for high yield alongside nitrogen.

 

• Boron is important for root development and also for fruit set.

 

• Zinc - especially on peat soils - helps support new tissue development.

 

• Copper - especially on peat soils - plus manganese and iron will also help maintain growth.

 

 

Macronutrients

A large amount of nutrients are taken up by oil palm – more than most tropical crops – and with the crop now increasingly being grown on soils with a low fertility, fertilizers are a key input. 

 

Uptake varies widely according to the crop’s stage of development and target yield, the soil type, fertility and climate. 

 

A significant proportion of nutrients are removed in the harvested bunch and fertilizer rates need to take this into account.

 

At the same time, fertilizer programmes need to support the large amount of nutrients required to support palm growth and which are stored in the palm root, bole, trunk and fronds. Equally, fertilizer application must be balanced against the amount of nutrients released and recycled from pruned fronds and male flowers or availability from recycled crop components such as empty fruit bunches (EFB) and palm oil mill effluent (POME). 

 

With many crops grown in association with a leguminous ground cover during the immature phase, fertilizer use should also take into account these needs and the nitrogen fixed and released by this crop, which is subsequently available to the palm.

 

At the seedling stage, the oil palm requires a balance of nutrients, and fertilizer use should aim to supply all major, secondary, and micro nutrients. 

 

Once the seedling is ready for transplant – at a weight of around 1.4 kg shoot DM – it has taken up around 20g of N and K2O plus significant levels of other nutrients, notably phosphorus and key micronutrients

 

 

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