Project Rubber Trees.

Started on this project back in July, 2010. Very excited to be moving to a new phase in our project. Was running around arranging for this 'shift' for the last couple of months.

Experimenting for a faster & easier way to tap rubber.

Just last week, we went to Rubber Board (Lembah Getah) to check out the requirement and procedure to deliver rubber to them. Present regulation, 5 X 2 feet X 1/2 inch thick is the acceptable measurement to be considered for rubber sheet. Fully dried, clean sheet to be considered for grade 1, any others maybe considered as grade 2 and or scraps. Daily prices are announce each morning (working days).

Made arrangement to start off the tapping.

It had been a very challenging experience to have reached this stage of our  project and I must register my deep gratitude to all our Ex / Present Partners & Helpers, whom had brought us to this stage. Holding on to an unwavering faith, trust and belief in me. I've learned so many new things from this project. Thank you to the ONE above, whom had been always blessing and helping me.

Started to tap.

Our new stage shall be on managing and fine tuning, on soil, trees, production, logistic and controls. We shall need to optimize all of these, which are within our control.

Soil erosion caused tree to topple over.

Revenue = Rubber Price X Production level.
Production level is within our control, hence by increasing this variable, revenue increases.

Angle of the initial tap was too steep. Should had bought the bigger sized cup.

 We shall need to improve our make shift  molding facility. Also had spoken with our tapper on the new measurement (thickness). We need to find out how thick to mold so that with it dries off to be 1/2 inches thick.

Dirt are dropping in. Got to keep it clean.

Our 1st Rubber Sheet.

Rubber Scraps.

Rubber Tapping Knife.

Some of the tapping knives in our procession.

We started off our tapping by requesting help from a helper, which in turns tries to teach another helper. Our intention at that moment is to  access how many trees at Parcel 1 can be tapped. With lots of trees qualifying for tapping, we decided to engage a full time tapper.

Knives with different shapes, width, length, weight & etc.

We had be receiving feedback that the tapping knife is not suitable. We in turn had purchase 7 knives, still feedback was unsatisfactory. Sat down with our full time tapper and understand more on the tapping knife. There are many factors affecting the cut.

At this moment, as ours are new trees, we need a more acute angle blade. Since it's a raining day, went tapping knives shopping. Tried a couple of shops, couldn't find what we wanted. Finally found a seller operating from a stall. Spoke with him and was told that can be custom made. He has 1 custom for new tree, the person who ordered had not come to collect. Just nice, bought it and shall pass it to our tapper next week.

Grafting Tools, First Trial.

Did a trial run on the grafting tool on on Rubber trees, Jackfruit Tree and Avocado last month. Checked on the grafting when I came back to the nursery. None of the Rubber trees & Jackfruit trees took. Only a small numbers of Avocado took.

Look like the Grafting tool is not an easy to use tool. I have to learn how to use it effectively & successfully. As it's my first time, I am playing around with it. I started off with the U blade as it came attached with the tool. Cutting a U on the scion is not as easy as it seems. There is no aiming and I usually missed the center while cutting the rootstock. Cutting the scion is much easier. While playing with it I realized that the pruning part may post a danger and may injure our fingers. Kindly take necessary precaution. Thank goodness I was not cut. Personally I would prefer the pruning part to be on another tool.

Grafting Avocado with a U blade grafting tool.

Avocado grafting, U join.

Rear view of the grafting tool.

Can I use the hole at the bottom to aim? When cutting on the rootstock, it could be an issue. I then turned it around and tried U "saddle". Inverted U on the rootstock.

Avocado, saddle U cut.

Avocado grafting Saddle U cut.

I then switch the blade to the Omega style. Blade switching, click here.

Omega Cut, saddle.

Omega cut, grafting of rubber tree.

Yes, for Omega, we can use it straight or saddle. For the Omega style, we have to slide in the scion from the side. If we were to push it in, it shall damage the 'O' part.

One side matching.

Not matching side.

Scion and rootstock of different size, we can only match i side.

While turning the bobbin  I was surprised to see that the mark of the U and Omega side by side.

Note the cut marks of U & Omega cut.

 I only realized that they are of different 'depth'. I took the  V blade to compare and it's at the same length of the U. I wonder why.

Finally, I decided to try the V blade. This is the style that I had the most reservation. I feel that it is difficult to wrap as the sides shall slip out when the sides are compressed.

V blade attached on the grafting tool.

Did a couple of Avocado graft. Again The V can be used straight or saddle.

Avocado V shape grafting.

I just did a couple of straight V. Shall try the saddle when I have the opportunity. Stay tune for my impression of the grafting tool, coming soon.

Pest Attack.

Noticed that we have 6 rubber trees infected with Rubber Bark Beetle. These beetles in massive numbers attack the trunk of the rubber tree. The trunks has lots of waste from the beetles.

Arrangement has been made to manage the pest with pesticide. Thank goodness this was discovered early.

Our Gaharu is also being attacked by Heortia vitessoides. It's the larvae that eats up the leafs of the Gaharu. Continuous attack if not stopped, can kill the whole tree. These larvae usually start with the very young leafs and keep on until the whole tree if totally destroyed if the colony is large enough. Our helper informed us on this pest.

Arrangement has been made to manage the pest with pesticide.

Parcel 1, October 2013

Parcel 1, our model farm.
Our vision for Parcel 1 is getting clearer by the months. Our rubber trees are measuring up to 420 mm in diameter. Very close to our targeted measurement. Of course not all trees grow at the same rate. There are some that are still very skinny and some are planted on a latter date. Overall the rubber trees are doing great.

One of the bigger tree, 420 mm.

Our vision for Parcel 1 is an integrated farm, having rubber trees as the main crop. Then we shall have supplementary crop of fruit trees. These are further supplemented with livestock, chicken and bees (much later).

Here we had planted more than 30 avocado trees, 80 soursop trees and more than 70 agarwood till date. On a smaller scale, we have some papaya, about 10 durian trees, 2 jackfruit, 4 mango and a breadfruit. We still have some bananas which we are phasing out and some pineapples. My plan for the papaya did not worked out as the time difference between planting was not right. Also at a long period, we didn't have any helpers at site. Anyway, as a fall back, we can always feed it to our chickens.

Chicken we have about 70 around, big & small.
Apiculture had not been started yet. It shall most probably be the last phase of development. I guess we can put in easily a couple of tens of beehives. There are so many plants here, rubber, palm oil, fruits, wild plants, unlimited resources of nectar.

Agarwood, planted on the inter rows.

Agarwood, planted on the inter rows.

Blame it on our government, even the chicken are racist. The blacks & the whites do not stay together.

Mango flowers.

Rooster.

Mango, already fruiting. Trying to identify what variety this is. Maybe can use this as a mother tree.

Our isolation new coop.

Newly planted soursop.

Another bigger tree.

Some of the trees during March.

Our hut with agarwood by the side.

Our avocado tree.

Our 1st avocado tree in between the rubber trees.

Another 75 Agarwood for planting in Parcel 1. Hopefully our retirement shall be well taken care of with the resins produced.

Summarise
Main crop : Rubber trees
supplemented by fruit trees, Avocado, Soursop & Jackfruit
Livestock : Free Range Village Chicken & Bees (yet to be started)
Retirement Fund : Agarwood / Gaharu

Short Farm Working Tour

 Working Tour.

Just finished a short working tour and shall make my way home tomorrow morning to keep my family company. Even though it's a short tour, I injured my right hand, sprained my right wrist and had plenty ant bites (even at my buttock). It's too challenging as I had been idle for quite a while, now my whole body is aching. Most of the time, it's mind willing, but body unable. Almost all my target fell short as I was too tired half way through. Must be getting old.

Thanks to my partner, whom had kept things going during my absence. There were too many challenges for us to handle. We had some pretty dry, then pretty wet days, which hinder our access. Left with only 1 helper. Luckily my partner managed to recruit some part timers to tie us through. Had to fine tune our strategy to fit.

The most well kept is Parcel 1 due to it's location. Managed to control the weeds here and even did partial fertilization. We are reverting back to organic fertilizer this time, hope to supplement back some Trace Elements (TE) and Calcium Carbonate.

Had 2 fallen trees, due to termites infestation. We had these treated a few months back, but seems that the woody part had been eaten and with strong wind. Had these replace with Jackfruit trees.

Wild bees are abundant here, still harboring the plan to go into Bees Farming once the rubber tress can be tapped. We brought in lots of rejects papayas to feed the chicken and it attract lots of bees. They also loves over ripen bananas. Shall research more to find out if these are suitable for Bees Farming. I notice there are 2 types and I'm sure the big black ones are not suitable.

The initial Avocado (seeds, not grafted) are doing well. We'll see when can these flowers or I might graft onto these later. Did a check on the grafted Avocados, most of them are doing well, 1 missing, 1 died. Checked on the Soursop that were planted next to the access road. A couple died and some were covered up by land slides. Managed to replaced some of these.

Our Free Range Kampung Chicken is about 60 chicken strong now. We are targeting it to reach 200 before we decide if we want to take it to a bigger scale. These are some of the 2 days old chicks.

Parcel 5, our little farm, had culled some papaya trees. Our market does not accept the yellow flesh and doesn't like the round fruit types. As we still have lots of seedlings, we manage to replace some. It'll take a while before we can replace all. Seeds selection and multiple planting can minimize this. I had failed to emulate the papaya farm into our rubber plantation as the rubber trees canopy is getting large and blocking off the sunlight. We can only do it on new planting / land when the rubber trees are small. Harvesting is also a problem in hilly conditions / difficult access as papaya can be harvested twice weekly. Still Papaya has certain advantage over Banana as a cash crops in Rubber Plantation.

Managed to recover quite a numbers of seedlings / plant-lets. We have about 50 Soursops, 200 Agarwood, 150 Jackfruits, 100 Avocados and 50 Mangoes, a couple of Limes and a Durian. Some of the Jackfruits plant-lets are too large for rootstock. No sure if it can wait as I bought 4 Honey Jackfuits, which I had just planted for scion. Maybe have to plant these first, then do a field grafting. Managed to graft about 50 Avocados plant-lets. Hope that the successful rate is acceptable.

The pruning scissor gave way and I injured my right hand. Had been using this scissor for a couple of months. May had used it to cut too thick a scion. This is the dis-advantage of using forged / cast iron type. Bought a new one of MS steel to replace. MS steel shall bend, but not snap. The old scissor spring (straight wound) always falls off, and the hold (shut) broke off not long after used. The new one compare much better (maybe it's new & sharp).

 One afternoon, dark clouds looming and it rained heavily not long after. Well, had a productive week and I did all that I could, given the circumstances as I'm still worry about my wife. Have a few hours of rest and shall start my journey home, first light tomorrow. Stay tuned.