Abstract
About 62% of the sago palms (Metroxylon sagu）in Sarawak are cultivated traditionally on peat. Fertilizer is not used and management is at a minimum. On deep peat only 15-20 trunks per ha per year are harvested as compared to 25-40 on mineral soils. Under such traditional and low density cultivation, the starch yield per trunk is comparable to those grown on mineral soils. However, the time to reach maturity is about 12-15 years as compared to 8-10 years on mineral soils. The total starch yield per unit area and time is thus significantly lower.
Under intensive cultivation with other traditional practices, sago palm growth on deep peat is expected to be slow. It takes about 6 years to start trunk formation and at least 12 years to maturity as compared to respectively 4.5 years and 10 years on mineral soils. Premature desiccation of fronds occurs resulting in small palm crowns of about 10 fronds and sometimes even less. They have a total leaf area of about 90 m2 as compared to 220 m2 for those grown on mineral soils. The trunk volume is about 37% smaller. Preliminary investigation on starch yield per trunk of similar growth stages on deep peat shows that it is only 23% of that on mineral soils.
As deep peat soils are being used for intensive cultivation of sago palm, the problem of fertilizer application should be solved first. If this problem can be solved, yields may be expected up to 200 kg dry starch per ha per year. Attention should also be paid to nursery practices, sucker regulation, spacing, control of pests, diseases and weeds, improvement of planting material and other as yet unknown factors.
