Layout of paths and nursery beds

22. Nursery bed is the name for the strip of soil where the oil palm seedlings are planted. It is best to make the nursery on flat ground. But, if the ground slopes, the beds must lie across the slope.

The beds should be 45 metres long and 3.5 metres wide. The soil of the beds should be well worked to make it quite flat. After that, apply a dressing of fertilizer. For instance, at La Me, Ivory Coast, 250 kilogrammes of 10: 10: 20 fertilizer are applied per hectare.

Apply a dressing of fertilizer

23. Making holes for seedlings and transplanting

To know where to make the holes for your seedlings, make a pattern.

At the places where you have put your little pegs, make a hole with a Richard plant setter.

Then put a seedling with its ball of earth into each hole.

You must give the seedlings a lot of water. But do not water when it is hot; it is best to water in the evening and the morning.

To protect the soil against erosion, mulch it.

Cover the ground with herbage or cluster residues. Leave a ring of 20 centimetres of unmulched ground around each seedling.

If you mulch with cluster residues, put them down only three months after transplanting, so that the insects do not attack the young leaves.

If you mulch with herbage, you must replace the herbage when it rots. Then hoe the soil.

If you cannot get enough water for the seedlings, transplant them into the nursery at the beginning of the rainy season.

At the end of the rainy season, the seedlings will be strong enough to get through the drought.

Pattern for nursery planting