Fertilizer for Plantation Crops: Sagarika for Rubber, Mulberry, Cocoa, Tea and Coffee

A plantation is planted once and farmed for years. Rubber, mulberry, cocoa, tea, coffee, coconut and arecanut stand on the land through many seasons, so every input is repeated year after year and the yield of one season depends on how the plant was cared for in the last. This page explains how Sagarika fits into a plantation programme: the dose, the spray plan and the crop by crop guidance for each plantation crop we cover.

One point is worth making first. Sagarika is a seaweed biostimulant. It is not a fertilizer, and it does not replace the urea, DAP, potash or farmyard manure you apply. It works on the plant rather than on the soil, helping the crop take up and use the nutrition you already give it. That is why it is applied alongside your fertilizer, and why the dose below is the same for every crop.

What Is in Sagarika and What It Does for Plantation Crops

Sagarika Liquid is made from two seaweeds: Kappaphycus alvarezii, a red seaweed, and Sargassum wightii, a brown seaweed, used in equal parts. Seaweed extract carries the plant growth regulators auxin, cytokinin and gibberellin along with macro and micronutrients, and the product is registered under the Fertilizer Control Order. Auxin supports root growth, cytokinin supports cell division and gibberellin supports shoot growth.

A perennial crop has a different job from an annual one. It does not have to finish in one season. It has to put out new growth, flower, set and hold its crop, and then recover for the next cycle. Sagarika is applied at the stages where that growth is made, which is why the plan for plantation crops is built around crop stages and not around a fixed count of days from sowing.

Sagarika Dose for Plantation Crops

The dose does not change between rubber, mulberry, cocoa, tea, coffee, coconut and arecanut. Only the timing changes.

 

At 5.0 ml per litre, 500 ml of Sagarika makes about 100 litres of spray solution, which covers one acre. A 1 litre bottle therefore treats two acres for one spray, and a 5 litre pack treats ten acres for one spray. A full three spray programme on one acre uses 1.5 litres.

Fertilizer for Plantation Crops: The Sagarika Spray Plan

The general rule for plantation crops is three applications, one at each crop stage: pre flowering, flowering and fruit development. Tea and coffee have timing of their own.

 

Apply the basal Sagarika Z++ at planting or after pruning, before the first spray. Time each spray by crop stage as well as by date. Plantation crops flower and flush on a schedule set by the weather, so a late or early season moves the dates, and the stage is what you follow.

How to Apply Sagarika on Plantation Crops

1. Fill the sprayer tank about halfway with clean water.

2. Add Sagarika at 5.0 ml per litre of the final volume. For a 15 litre knapsack tank that is 75 ml.

3. Top up with water to the full volume and mix well.

4. Spray in the morning or late afternoon, when it is cool and the wind is low. Wet both sides of the leaves evenly, and avoid spraying just before rain.

5. Mix only what you will spray that day. An acre takes about seven 15 litre tanks.

For seedlings, dip them in a solution of 2 ml of Sagarika Liquid per litre of water before planting out. For drip irrigated plantations, apply 1 litre per acre through the irrigation line as the fertigation dose.

Fertilizer for Plantation Crops, Crop by Crop

The dose is the same for every crop above. What differs is what each crop is grown for and the stage each spray lands on.

Fertilizer for Rubber

Rubber is grown for latex, mainly in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Tripura and Assam. A rubber tree is tapped for years after it matures, so what matters is how vigorous the tree stays through the tapping season and how well the canopy recovers after the annual leaf fall.

Sagarika is used on rubber at 500 ml per acre, mixed at 5.0 ml per litre. Rubber is not grown for fruit, so the pre flowering, flowering and fruit development stages of the general rule are read as growth stages. Make the first spray as the new leaf flush opens, the second during the canopy growth that follows, and the third later in the season. Apply the basal Sagarika Z++ at planting, at 100 to 150 g per tree for young plants, and keep your normal fertilizer programme.

Fertilizer for Mulberry

Mulberry is grown for its leaf, which is the feed for silkworms, in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir. The crop is pruned and harvested several times a year, so the farmer's output is the quantity and quality of leaf that regrows after each harvest.

Sagarika is used on mulberry at 500 ml per acre, mixed at 5.0 ml per litre. Because the crop is cut back and regrows, time the sprays to the new shoot growth that follows each pruning and not to a fixed date. Apply the basal Sagarika Z++ after pruning, and keep your normal nitrogen and farmyard manure programme.

Fertilizer for Cocoa

Cocoa is grown in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, most often as a shade loving intercrop under coconut and arecanut. The tree flowers and sets pods over a long period, and the yield is the number of pods that develop and fill.

Sagarika is used on cocoa at 500 ml per acre, mixed at 5.0 ml per litre, in three sprays that follow the plantation rule: pre flowering, flowering and pod development. Apply the basal Sagarika Z++ at planting at 100 to 150 g per tree, and keep your normal nutrition programme.

Seaweed for Pepper and Cardamom

Pepper and cardamom are spice crops grown mainly in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, often under shade in the same belts as coffee, cocoa and arecanut. Neither is on the published Sagarika crop list and no protocol has been published for them. A cardamom farmer's report is given under Farmer Results below. If you grow pepper or cardamom and want to use Sagarika, contact IFFCO through the contact page  for guidance first.

Coconut and Arecanut

Coconut and arecanut are tall palms with a bearing cycle of their own, so they have a separate guide. See fertilizer for coconut and arecanut for the dose and timing.

Tea and Coffee

Tea is sprayed with each fertilizer application and every three months after bud harvesting. Coffee is sprayed post blossom, pre monsoon and post monsoon. The dose is the same 500 ml per acre. See fertilizer for tea and coffee  for the full guide.

Farmer Results on Plantation Crops

Two plantation farmers report results on the testimonials page . Both used Sagarika together with IFFCO Nano Urea, so these are reports of the two products used together and not a test of Sagarika on its own.

 

These are single farm reports and not a recommendation. Yield depends on the season, the variety and the rest of the programme.

Using Sagarika Alongside Your NPK Programme

Your base fertilizer programme stays as it is. Apply nitrogen, phosphorus and potash in the splits and at the times your soil test and the plantation board advise, and add Sagarika on top.

Sagarika improves how efficiently the crop uses the nutrition you apply, which is a different job from supplying that nutrition. It is not a substitute for NPK. If you want to reduce fertilizer, test the change on part of the plantation first and take advice from your agronomist.

Sagarika Products for Plantation Crops

 

Most farmers use the granule as a basal dose at planting or after pruning and the liquid for the sprays through the season. The two do different jobs and are used together.

Where to Buy Sagarika for Plantation Crops

Buy Sagarika Liquid in 500 ml, 1 litre and 5 litre packs at shop.sagarika.com. For Sagarika Z++ granules and Sagar Amrit powder, which are not on the online shop at present, use the contact page.

More Sagarika Crop Guides

See the dose and spray calendar for every crop group on the Sagarika crop guide  [/for-crops], including field crops  [/fertilizer-for-field-crops], commercial crops  [/fertilizer-for-commercial-crops]. For the complete dose across all three application methods, see how to use Sagarika .