About this Page:
This page aims to (A) educate Filipinos in growing Aquilaria trees to (B) help Earth becomes greener, (C) provide better livelihood to Filipinos in the future. About Agarwood:
(Aquilaria or Gyrinops) is suitable for planting in the lowland areas to the mountains at an altitude of 0 – 750 meters above sea level with an average rainfall of less than 2000cm. Suitability of land ty
pes soft and sandy clay soil with a pH between 4.0 to 6.0. In plantation forestry, it is essential to carefully assess the ecological conditions at the planting and to assess whether a potential species will survive and grow. is not demanding regarding soil and climatic conditions, occurring naturally in all ecological zones and on a variety of soils (avoid clay soil). However, many planting have died back after 2, 3 ~4 years of establishment, seemingly due to stagnant water. To reduce the mortality rate, seedlings are ready to transplanting into ground when achieving 60~90cm height. Older seedlings might not be good due to root coiling in the confined polybag if polybag is not big enough. Don’t buy seedlings with small polybag older seedling 120cm and above. There are various ways to plant agarwood seedlings, i have recommended below-guided method if time and labor are not your concern.
1. Planting hole preparation 40cm x 40cm x40cm. Leave for 2 ~ 3 weeks, with rain and sunshine repeatedly, the soil is oxygenated, very helpful for root growth.
2. Add 150~175ml CIRP. If the soil is hard, add 10~15% coco peat to loosen the soil mixture. Coco peat can absorb large volumes of water. Generally Coco peat can absorb water about half of its volume and 5 to 6 times its weight. Coco peat has great oxygenation properties. Other source of phosphorus can be obtained from TSP and DAP, but to be used with caution due to its causticity, having solution pH 1~3 and 7.5~8 respectively. Over dosage may damage the seedling. Advantage of TSP and DAP are both highly soluble and thus dissolves quickly in soil to release plant-available phosphate.
3. Add 15% cow dung as organic fertilizer, and 20grams of Funadan to minimise insect attack
4. Mixing the mixture to small particle possible.
5. Refill the planting hole to appropriate level. Cover the seedling not more than 2” above planting surface. Deep planting will rot the stem in long run.
6. Remove polybag and place seedling into the planting hole.
7. Cover the seedling and
8. Chamfer the circumference of planting hole to improve water catchment
NOTE: Maximum 1,600 trees per hectare with 2.5meters spacing.
