RESEARCH ON SLASH MANAGEMENT AND FERTILIZERS FOR PLANTING EUCALYPTUS HYBRID IN THE NORTHWEST HIGHLAND

Abstract

The objective of the study was to determine appropriate slash management and fertilizers for Eucalyptus plantation in the high elevation of the Northwest Vietnam. The experiment was established in split - plot design, in which the main plots were the vegetation treatments before planting (2 treatments) and the sub - plots were the fertilizer application treatments (2 treatments). The experiment used a mixture of tissue cultured saplings of clones UP54 and UP72 for planting. Evaluation results at the age of 40 months showed clear differences in the growth of eucalyptus hybrid under different treatments of vegetation slashing and fertilizer applications. The growth of eucalyptus hybrid (DBH, total height and volume) in the vegetation treatment without burning was significantly higher than the treatment of burning on the entire area. Fertilization includes 500 g microbial fertilizer + 300 g Super phosphate + 40 g Potassium fertilizer (60% K₂O) + 100 g MF1 microbial composition/tree combined with additional application of 180 g Urea fertilizer from the first year to the third year helped increase the productivity of plantation significantly compared to the treatment of application of 500 g of microbial fertilizer and 200 g of NPK 16:16:8 at planting combined with additional application of 200 g of NPK 16:16:8 in the second and third year. Combining the best methods of vegetation clearance and fertilizer application has helped increase the productivity of eucalyptus hybrid plantations to 41 m³/ha/year, superior to other methods.