Southern Oil Palm and Rubber Plantations - Page 3 - Ajarn Forum

LeedsLeedsLeeds · 18th July 2008, 15:11

This is the piece of land that The Wife and I bought a year and a half ago and this is also where we will build our house as it is so quiet and the landscape is beautiful. It's six kilometres out of town so not too far from civilisation (of sorts):

It used to be a rice field (the locals gave that business up long ago) and obviously this land is always flooded so our first task was to hire a digger and dig up huge channels for drainage. That's my Father-in-law and Mother-in-law watching:

The ditches are about two metres deep:

....and were filled with water within a few days. We're now measuring up and marking off where we will plant the palm trees:

Here's The Wife enjoying herself, no shade for taking a nap though so that smile didn't last long:

Twelve months later and half of our trees had been destroyed by rats so here we are going through the whole measuring marking and planting process once again. These are the trees that we bought for 45 baht each:

Me using a Thai-style spade because the Western-style spade that my Father-in-law bought me appeared to have been made of tinfoil; it folded and snapped in two after only a couple of hours:

We were advised to use uPVC pipes instead of wire mesh to protect the trees from rats so hopefully we'll still have a full plantation by this time next year:

That's about it as far as the establishment of the plantations goes, I have some rubber plantation photos and I'll have to take some more recent photos of the palm plantations as well.

Rubberneck · 18th July 2008, 17:05

Thanks for your quick response. Is there much support from the authorities or people from Univanich for starting a plantation with regards suitable land and technical advice. I understand the king is very keen for people to grown palm oil. I've been reading about preparing a site on the net and it's suggested that the existing trees/vegetation should be burned and then a cover crop of Pueraria javanica, Centrosema pubescens, and Calopogonium muconoïdes should be sown before you plant the seedlings in order to protect the bare soil from the sun. Is this something you did?. I don't really understand what a cover crop is TBH, i'm guessing it's grass. Thanks again.

Om Bak · 18th July 2008, 19:57

What an excellent thread. A true success story

i1der · 19th July 2008, 07:21

good thing happen to good people, LeedsX3 and Nana both are good people..thanks for sharing with us.

iLaker · 19th July 2008, 19:44

WOW! Thanks for sharing LLL...I was already impressed with you, Nana and the fam. And now, seeing this, I am proud to have met you in person. Hard work is a reward of its own.

LeedsLeedsLeeds · 19th July 2008, 19:54

Hey Bao Dang and Bao Lake, thanks for stopping by and having a look. Thanks also for your kind words, you are true gents. It's a shame that you only had a day up here because I would have liked to have shown you these plantations. Maybe next year if you a bit more time?

toong tao daeng · 19th July 2008, 20:43

Great thread Leeds!

Nick · 19th July 2008, 20:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by iLaker

Hard work is a reward of its own.

laoshi · 19th July 2008, 20:57

Drinks Nickyboy?...

Nick · 19th July 2008, 20:59

A flaming cocksucker please

LeedsLeedsLeeds · 20th July 2008, 16:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rubberneck

Is there much support from the authorities or people from Univanich for starting a plantation with regards suitable land and technical advice.

There was a government backed initiative during Thaksins time in which saplings and fertiliser would be provided free of charge on legal land that had previously been used for rubber production. However, this scheme had very long waiting lists and ultimately it was under-funded so very few planters even bothered going to the relevant office.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rubberneck

the existing trees/vegetation should be burned

I've seen many plantations established using this method and it certainly seems to be a very good idea as the ashes fertilise the soil and annoying weeds such as bindweed are kept at bay at least for a few weeks. Bare soil? Chance would be a fine thing, the soil is so incredibly fertile here that there is always a layer of vegetation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Om Bak

Is this something you did?

No I didn't as most of plants on my first plantation were banana trees which don't burn well and my second plantation is on a flood plain so no point there either. Thanks for the questions Rubberneck.

Right, I have just returned from two days of palm cutting so here are a few photos to show the money-making process. First of all we hired a crew of Isarn labourers (2 cutters and 2 carriers) they get paid 0.70 baht per kilo between them which doesn't sound much but it all adds up and they do fairly well out of it. Here's one of the cutters:

With the palm cut it is loaded onto my pick-up truck and I drive it to the palm shop while the labourers continue to cut and carry:

The pick-up truck is weighed on giant scales, unloaded and then weighed again when empty. Here the labourers are all Burmese (lovely people):

After repeating this exercise several times until all of the ripe palm has been cut it is finally time to go home. Here's the view from the top and, compared to the previous photo of this same view, it is quite remarkable how quickly the trees have grown:

Finally, another beautiful view:

i1der · 20th July 2008, 16:28

It's so beautiful.

rogerman · 20th July 2008, 16:46

I think i'm going to have to make a point of going and visiting Leedsx3

LeedsLeedsLeeds · 20th July 2008, 16:55

You are always welcome mate. In fact anyone who wants to come here is welcome, I'm always happy to have visitors.