we have around 7 Acres in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. we have planted around 900 Timber Trees (Gmelina Arobora(kumil) -600, Magohnay -200, rose wood, etc -100) in 2 Acres with 10 * 10 spacing. These trees are 3 months old, growing good. In remaining 5 acres we are doing paddy cultivation. my plan is to extend the tree farming in further 3 Acres after the paddy harvestation in one month time and leave only 2 acres for paddy cultivation. now we are doing trench irrigation but planning to go for drip irrigation. now the problem is weed in tree farming area. the weeds are growing like anything. now it stands upto 2-3 feet. we tried all the options like chemical spray, hand picking, etc. but we can not control them. I understand that we cannot fully control and weed is not enemy. we are planning to use some farm equipment like power tillers for multipurpose. we have finalized three products 1. KAMCO POWER TILLER MODEL KMB 200 2. Mitsubishi Shakti VWH 120 Power Tiller and 3. VST Shakti 130 DI Power Tiller. the retailors claim that these products can fulfill most of the farm works like tilling, ploughing, weeding, pumping, puddling, leveling, hulling, ridging etc.
The following are my questions.
how to control weeds in tree farming?
can we use these products in tree farming with 10X10 spacing?
are these product capable to do all the activities?
Think different. Grow few local goats which will resolve the issue as well as make money for you. Make sure the goats do not get access to the saplings you have planted.
Mulching is one of the more economical ways to control weeds. In your case you have lot of paddy straw. To start with much around the tree sapling base, expand as you get more mulching material. Use self seeding dicot plants like cowpea (bush type) for live mulch.
In my opinion, spending on Tiller for weed control in timber plantation is waste of money.
Weeds are good, especially in forestry / orchards where you don’t plan to intercrop with seasonal crops.
Weeds are taking in the sun’s energy & converting it to carbon and other nutrients. Barren earth in between trees is of no use, it is sun’s energy wasted, and leads to increased evaporation.
All you need to do is use a brush cutter to cut the weeds and let them remain on the ground to convert into mulch, and ultimately fertilizer. You could also rake up the cut weeds around the trees as mulch. This will conserve water, add to soil fertility, and allow further weed growth in the remaining land. Weeds could also be heaped up for composting. I wouldn’t till the land if I were you.