Rubber Tree Cultivation In India

However rubber cultivation on a commercial scale was introduced in 1902.

Rubber tree cultivation in india.

Rubber is made from the latex of a tree called hevea brasiliensis. While your rubber tree is in its growing season. The rainfall in the area for rubber plantation should be around 2000 mm annually. The soil requirement is well drained weathered soil consisting of laterite lateritic types sedimentary types nonlateritic red or.

The tree gave the strange substance latex was later called the rubber tree. Rubber research institute of malaya rubber research institute of india kottayam and other institutes have developed clonal varieties. The trees demand well drained and well weathered soils. Upto 1910 the demand for natural rubber in the world was limited.

Rubber trees have an economic life period of around 32 years in plantations. Rubber latex is extracted from rubber trees. Rubber yield steeply increases year by year reaching a peak after 14 years of planting. The british established the first rubber plantation in india in 1902 on the banks of the river periyar in kerala.

Many people put their rubber trees near a window where the light is filtered through a pair of sheer curtains. Rubber trees do not require much light but flourish in bright indirect light. It is believed that rubber trees originated from south america and especially brazil where rubber was used to play games. In south india the annual yield of rubber is 375 kg ha from seedlings trees whereas budded plants yield 800 1000 kg ha.

Rubber trees require bright sunlight for about 20000 hours 6 hours a day. In the rubber cultivation latex production increases every year up to 11th year. Usually the number of tapping days in a year is about 200 to 325. The first rubber plantations in india were set up in 1895 on the hill slopes of 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. Cultivation of rubber trees. It begins to yield latex in 5 7 years after planting. Vulcanization was discovered in 1839 and this led to a more widespread use of rubber.

The soil for rubber cultivation has to be deep and well drained. There is no specific dry or wet season requirement for growing these trees. Rubber tree hevea brasiliensis is a quick growing tall tree acquiring 20 30 metre height. In the 1st year of tapping about 65 to 70 of trees become matured for operation.

If the plant gets less light while leaves are growing the leaves will actually be larger. 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.