Trunk injection fertilization to enhance average bunch weight of palm oil for sustainable water management

Abstract

Groundwater contamination due to nutrient contamination from inefficient fertilization processes can reduce oil palm productivity. In overcoming this problem, a simple and low-budget fertilization method, namely trunk injection, was applied to maintain the productivity of oil palm plants and was environmentally friendly. Therefore, trunk injection as a simple method was applied to increase the quantity and quality of the bunch average weight of palm oil to support the sustainable management of groundwater availability. The research was conducted from April 2019 to April 2020. The location of the oil palm plantation is in the Nunukan Regency, North Kalimantan Province. The nutrients used as a nutrient solution consist of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Fe, B, Cu, Zn, Mn, and Mo. Bunch Average Weight (BAW) wasmeasured 7, 8, and 9 months following application with 15 x harvest rotations. The distribution of data for 15 times of BAW rotation showed that the standard deviation, standarderror, and range in the trunk injection treatment tended to produce a more sloping graph than what occurred in the control subjects. Nutritional injection tended to increase the BAW weight in contrast to trees without nutrient injection (control).