Rubber Tree Cultivation In India

Rubber trees do not require much light but flourish in bright indirect light.

Rubber tree cultivation in india. Usually the number of tapping days in a year is about 200 to 325. While your rubber tree is in its growing season. Vulcanization was discovered in 1839 and this led to a more widespread use of rubber. Rubber trees require bright sunlight for about 20000 hours 6 hours a day.

Rubber research institute of malaya rubber research institute of india kottayam and other institutes have developed clonal varieties. The soil requirement is well drained weathered soil consisting of laterite lateritic types sedimentary types nonlateritic red or. Rubber is made from the latex of a tree called hevea brasiliensis. If the plant gets less light while leaves are growing the leaves will actually be larger.

The rainfall in the area for rubber plantation should be around 2000 mm annually. There is no specific dry or wet season requirement for growing these trees. Rubber yield steeply increases year by year reaching a peak after 14 years of planting. The first rubber plantations in india were set up in 1895 on the hill slopes of kerala.

The trees demand well drained and well weathered soils. Many people put their rubber trees near a window where the light is filtered through a pair of sheer curtains. In the rubber cultivation latex production increases every year up to 11th year. Cultivation of rubber trees.

In south india the annual yield of rubber is 375 kg ha from seedlings trees whereas budded plants yield 800 1000 kg ha. The soil for rubber cultivation has to be deep and well drained. The tree gave the strange substance latex was later called the rubber tree. The economic life period of rubber trees in plantations is around 32 years up to 7 years of immature phase and about 25 years of productive phase.

However rubber cultivation on a commercial scale was introduced in 1902. The british established the first rubber plantation in india in 1902 on the banks of the river periyar in kerala. It is worth noting that in the 19th century brazil was the leading rubber producer in the world and it dominated the world market. Brazil is among the pioneers of rubber production which started mid 19th century.

Upto 1910 the demand for natural rubber in the world was limited. Tapping operation of trees begin when the rubber tree attains a girth of 50 cm at height about 125 to 130 cm. It begins to yield latex in 5 7 years after planting. Rubber latex is extracted from rubber trees.

In the 1st year of tapping about 65 to 70 of trees become matured for operation. It is believed that rubber trees originated from south america and especially brazil where rubber was used to play games.