By : Suziana Che Wil 

Edit : Nik Hafzaini Nik Hassan 

MegaChili 2021 project involved UPM students as participants and invited UPM alumni as project mentor. The overall workshop has five series topics and tips sharing.

Through the series 4 workshop, alumni mentor which is currently serving at the Selangor Department of Agriculture, Ahmad Nazri Abdullah Zawawi has shared tips on fertigation plantation management.

How to Manage Fertigation Plantation

The success of the planting project does not depend solely on the method used. In addition, the appropriate method of crop management must be implied such as fertilising, project site selection, accurate seedling medium, and proper watering technique.    

Every aspect must be carried out with precise formulas. Essentially, the quality and performance of every plantation depend on the quality of the nutrient and given inputs.   

Crop media is another aspect that requires attention for fertigation projects.  

Common crop media used such as,

• Coir dust
• Rice husk charcoal and 
• Mixture of rice husk charcoal and coir dust. 

Meanwhile, the media that is commonly used at plantations such as:

• Burnt rice husk ash
• Cocoa peat
• Coarse sand
• Soil 
• Rockwool 

A well-prepared crop media will produce high germination and be disease-free. Every media must be filled in a pot or seedling tray without being too compressed to provide 20% to 40% of airspace.      

How to Water Seedlings

To ensure the seedlings planted in the seeding media are well sprouted, the watering of the seedlings should be well noted by farmers. Every procedure has a right technique. For seedlings watering, the best watering is to spray or mist, once or twice per day to retain the moisture.    

Seedlings Transfer to the Farm

When the seedlings are transferred to the farm, the fertilising process needs to be fixed at a precise rate. The seedlings fertilising schedule sample is as follows.

Sample of Fertilising Frequency for Chili Plantation

Plantation Inspection

When the seedlings are transferred to the farm, few measures need to be considered;

• Damage symptom
• Nutrient deficiency symptom
• Irrigation system
• Crop performance
• Media ph
• Farm cleanliness
• Building – plastic/netting

At this stage, the types of crop pests should be paid attention to. Among the pests such as white flies, trips, leaf lice, hamama, anthranose have already begun to attack. Some types of insecticides such as; Mospilan, pegasus, malathion, agrimex, confidor,Cyper, deltamethrin, match, decis, lorsban while fungicides such as; Mancozeb, Score, Carbedazin, Pervicur, Topsin M, Antracol, Copper Hidroxide and Manex.

Date of Input: 09/08/2021 | Updated: 28/03/2023 | hafzaini