Palm oil growing became popular in South West Mexico over the past few years. Experts estimate that these trees may take 50,000 ha of Mexican land.
One of the critical stages for oil palms nursery growers come when the young plant reaches 8 months, and is ready to be transplanted.
In a field trial performed together with nursery oil palm growers from the state of Campeche, we tested the impact of Multicote® 19-10-13+ME with 12 months longevity and Multicote® 12-25-12 with 4 months longevity VS traditional granular & blended fertilizers.
After 8 months, the traditional fertilizers have been applied every 15 days. The Haifa controlled release fertilizer - was applied only once for the Multicote® 19-10-13+ME and the Multicote® 12-25-12 twice.
The trial demonstrated that just two Multicote™ applications result the same oil palm growth and quality achieved by over 16 applications of the traditional treatment. Multicote® significantly saved the growers time and labor costs over the 8 month period.
How does it Work?
Multicote™ Agri products are made of soluble fertilizer granules, encapsulated in a thin polymeric coating. This coating acts as a semi-permeable barrier that allows measured diffusion of nutrients when the fertilizer granules are applied to the soil.
Following application, Multicote™ Agri granules start absorbing moisture that dissolves the nutrients inside the granules. The dissolved nutrients then diffuse, slowly and continuously, into the root zone.
The rate of diffusion – the actual release rate - depends upon and is dictated solely by the soil temperature. The release rate increases as temperature rises, just as happens with plant uptake rates.
Other factors, such as soil type, humidity, pH, and microbial activity do not affect the release rate.
