INDIGOFERA GROWTH

As salam tuan puan pernternak.

We have been planting indigofera for the past 5 months. Here is some infos I gather with some help from Din, student UPM yang datang hari tu.

Indigofera dah mula berbunga

Dalam masa 5 bulan, kelihatan bunga pokok ni dah tumbuh. Ini petanda awal bahawa pokok ni dah start to mature. From this stage, proses pertumbuhan (I THINK) sama macam pokok durian, dimana bunga akan kembang, kemudian bertukar menjadi buah. For indigofera ni bunga akan transform menjadi pods yang berisi dgn benih (seeds).

So adakah 5 bulan ni menunjukkan masa yang pantas bagi pokok ni mature? Not sure sebab kena cross check dgn species pokok ni dulu. However, this maturity rate is a good sign. Lagi cepat dapat bunga dan benih, lagi cepat boleh semai lagi pokok ni.

Rumput kering tapi indigofera menghijau

At this point of time, SOME trees measured mencecah 4 kaki lebih, around 140cm in height. Menurut kajian di Filipina, ideally the mature tree should be less than 6 feet.

Other indigofera trees pulak kat LRGF ni ada yang masih lagi 'terbantut'. We suspect (but i'm very certain) that the fast growth rate of indigofera ni requires plenty of full sun. Kebanyakan yang lambat tumbuh tu sebab cahaya matahari terlindung dari pokok durian dan pokok getah jiran yang besar gedabak. So kalau tuan puan penternak nak start tanam indigofera ni, cari kawasan yang terdapat full blast sunshine all the time.

Setakat ni this indigofera performs well on poor soil. Kita letak tahi kambing je to assist the growth. Although they are known as a drought resistant species, tapi risau jugak kebelakangan ni cuaca yang panas dan kering, so pekerja LRGF pi siram jugak air. 

Bersaing

Ada juga yang 2 benih ditanam bersama. Equally bersaing in their growth process. This is also another finding that is yet to further determine its effectiveness. If it shows positive growth process, maka pokok ni boleh ditanam berdekatan antara satu sama lain agar kawasan tanaman boleh dimaksimakan sepenuhnya.

So far so good, till the next report.

Mbekk!!