Subabul

SUBABUL
(Leucaena leucocephala)

Soobabul with seed setting

Field view of Soobabul seed production plot

Subabul - Soundal (Koobabul)

  • Season Varieties.
  • Jun - Jul Hawaiian giant (lvory coast), Co1.
  • Rainfed (Sep - Oct) K 8, Giant lpil - lpil, Co 1.
  • Can be grown in Kanchipuram, Tiruvallore, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Cuddalore, Villupuram, Salem, Namakkal, Dharmapuri, Erode, Coimbatore, Tiruchirapalli, Perambalur, Karur, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Pudukkottai, Ramanathapuram, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Kanyakumari, Virudhunagar and Sivagangai districts.

Prepartion of the field

  • Ploughing the field
    • Plough twice with an iron plough and 3 or 4 times with country plough to obtain good tilth.
  • Application of FYM
    • Apply and spread 25 t/ha of FYM or compost on the unploughed field and incorporate the manure into the soil during ploughing.
  • Forming Ridges and Furrows
    • Form ridges and furrows (using a ridger) 6 m long, 1 m apart and form irrigation channels across the furrows. Spacing is 100 x 20 cm. Wide spacing is given for fodder purpose.
  • Application of Feritlizers
    • Apply NPK fertilizers as per soil test recommendations as far as possible. If soil testing is not done, follow the blanket recommendation of 10:60:30 kg NPK/ha.
    • Apply full dose of NPK basally before sowing.
  • Sowing
    • Maintain a seed rate of 10 kg /ha for fodder and 1.25 kg for fuel. Hard seeds require scarification to obtain high and uniform germination. Scarification of seeds can be done by pounding the seeds with sand in mortar.
    • Acid scarification is done by dipping the seeds in concentrated sulphuric acid for three minutes and washing thoroughly with tap water. The easiest method is hot water treatment. Seeds are soaked in hot water (80ºC) for 4 minutes. (Boiling water removed from the flame and kept for 4 minutes comes down to 80ºC).
    • Seed treatment with Rhizobial culture. After scarification, treat the seeds with Rhizobial inoculant using rice kanji as binder.

  • Water Management
    • This may be done wherever the crop is raised under irrigation. Once established, this plant can withstand several months of dry weather.
    • However to ensure rapid seedling growth, the land should be adequately moist upto 5-6 months. In summer, irrigation once in 6 weeks is adequate.
    • Plants can be harvested in as short as 6 months after planting. However, the initial cutting should not be done until the trunk has attained atleast 3 cm diameter or the plant has completed one seed production cycle.
    • Harvests can be repeated once in 40 - 80 days depending upon growth and season. In drought prone areas, allow the trees to grow for two years to ensure deep root penetration before commencing harvest.
    • The trees can be cut at 90 to 100 cm height from ground level. For fuel purposes, allow the tree to grow straight without cutting for 2.5 or 5 years as the case may be.
    • As green fodder under irrigated conditions, a pure crop yields about 80 to 100 t/ha of green fodder.
    • Under rainfed conditions 40 t/ha of green fodder is got after 2 years of initial growth and pruning to a height of 100 cm.

Last modified: Tuesday, 22 November 2011, 6:21 AM