Peach palm - World Agroforestry Centre
Peach palm - World Agroforestry Centre
Peach palm - World Agroforestry Centre
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4 4 <strong>Peach</strong> <strong>palm</strong>. Bactris gasipaes Kunth<br />
9 Agronomy of fruit and heart-of-<strong>palm</strong> production<br />
9.1 Fruit: planting density and pruning<br />
On the basis of experience and some research results, the recommended density for<br />
adoption of large-scale peach <strong>palm</strong> fruit plantations is about 400 plants/ha. Plants<br />
can be spaced equally within and among rows (5 x 5 m) or spaced unequally in a<br />
double-row arrangement (two rows at 4 x 4 m, with an 8-m strip between double<br />
rows). This double-row arrangement has approximately the same density (416<br />
plants/ha) as equal spacing at 5 x 5 m, and it has an advantage: other crops can be<br />
cultivated within the 8-m strips for a longer time than in the 5 x 5 m arrangement.<br />
The length of the intercropping phase is an important consideration for adoption<br />
of larger-scale fruit plantations by small-scale farmers, since the farmers are often<br />
reluctant to dedicate land and labour to fruit production if they must wait 3-5 years<br />
for the first marketable product.<br />
No long-term experiments have been conducted to determine the most<br />
sustainable combination of plant density and number of stems/plant for fruit<br />
production. Zamora (1985) tested different plant densities in Guápiles, Costa Rica<br />
using the Utilis landrace. Basal offshoots were pruned to leave only one stem per<br />
plant. The highest density tested (555 plants/ha with 6 x 3 m spacing) produced the<br />
highest fruit yield, but plot size was too small and yield was evaluated for only 3<br />
years. Another experiment was designed to test the effect of stems/plant on fruit<br />
yield of the Utilis landrace in Guápiles. Plants were pruned to leave one, two or three<br />
stems in a 10-year-old plantation at 7 x 7 m spacing, and evaluated for 3 years. Yield<br />
did not vary significantly among these treatments, i.e. plants with one, two or three<br />
stems produced about the same fruit yield under these conditions (A. Sáenz,<br />
unpublished data). Multiple stems/plant will increase self-shading and may reduce<br />
fruit yield at higher plant densities, but at the wider spacings used by some farmers<br />
(e.g. 10 x 10 m), there may be no negative effect on yield. An advantage of singlestemmed<br />
plants is that harvesting is easier and fruits are less easily damaged than<br />
during the harvest of multistemmed plants. This is an important consideration for<br />
the fresh-fruit market because physically damaged fruits deteriorate rapidly after<br />
harvest.<br />
New basal offshoots must be allowed to develop to ensure replacement of the<br />
old stem when it is too tall to harvest in a practical and economical manner. Pruning<br />
large offshoots that have smaller offshoots can maintain a permanent source of new<br />
offshoots without developing a clump that makes harvesting more difficult.<br />
Sometimes buds remain dormant for years, covered by adventitious roots, and<br />
resume growth when exposed to sunlight, but it is not safe to rely on dormant buds<br />
to manage a fruiting clump.<br />
9.2 Fruit: mineral nutrition<br />
There are no experiments to determine the long-term mineral requirements of a<br />
peach <strong>palm</strong> fruit plantation. The most general deficiencies observed in fruit