Ground cover management involves elimination off all tall grass and hard weeds from oil farm fields to reduce nutrient competition and encourage growth of soft leguminous weeds.
Ground cover management is very key for proper growth of oil palm trees as it eliminates weeds in oil palm fields thus reducing competition for plant growth nutrients and reduces maintenance costs. Furthermore improving ground cover encourages the growth of soft weeds in oil palm fields.
Tools
Usually for proper ground cover management, workers must be equipped with tools such as knapsack sprayer, harvesting chisel with 2 metre galvanized pipe, recommended chemical for example garlon (1-3 litre per hectare). Additionally fuel preferably diesel (5-15 litre per hectare), rock phosphate( 500kg per hectare).
Weed control methods
Slashing method, this is done where weed growth is wide spread, slashing is followed by spraying the oil palm field with the recommended chemical.
Tree un fleshing method, this applies to resistant tree varieties and involves, removing the outer tree skin and smear the recommended chemical and diesel.
Digging method, this involves digging out tree stumps using the chisel.
Improving soil fertility
Always encourage the growth of soft weed through applying phosphate fertilizers. Always mix legume seeds with fertilisers when establishing a legume cover plants in rows of palm trees. Lastly, broadcast fertilizers when cover plants begin to establish this aims at promoting first growth and spreading.
