Factors to consider before establishing sisal Nursery

1. SISAL NURSERY ESTABLISHMENT

2. Sisal nursery should be well prepared in order
to get good sisal planting materials which will
in turn produce good quality sisal fiber.
The following factors should be considered in
the process of establishing sisal nursery:
a/ Site – Select a well drained fertile soil, avoid
deep slopes. The area should be accessible,
near the field where Sisal will be planted.

3. b/ Land preparation – the selected area should
be brush cut, ploughed and harrowed to
obtain fine tilth, perennial weeds must be
eradicated.
c/ Nursery planting materials – Select the
bulbils from healthy plants, cut off the poles
from suitable plants and remove the bulbils
bearing branches, shack the bulbils into a
sack, to obtain plants which are uniform
grade them before planting and discard the
bulbils which are very small.

4. d/ Spacing – Plant the bulbils at the spacing of
50 cm x 25 cm. By using this spacing you will
get 80,000 plants per hectare.
e/ Method of planting - Mark the row ends
with sticks. Strike a planting chain between
pairs of sticks. Dib in bulbils at tags on the
chain, plant 1.0 to 1.5 cm deep.
f/ Time of planting – Planting should be
completed just before the main rains break.

6. NURSERY MANAGEMENT
a/ Fertilizer application,
i. Nitrogenous fertilizer (CAN, SA, UREA), only
required where the sisal color is pale, apply
30 kg of nitrogen once or twice during the
rain or in Irrigation water.
ii. Muriate of Potash (MOP), apply only on soils
known to be deficient in potassium.
iii. Phosphate, Sisal waste contains sufficient
phosphate to compensate for any deficient in
the soil.

7. b/ Weed control, young sisal bulbils are very
sensitive to weed competition and the nursery
should be clean at planting and then kept free
from weeds. Weeds in the nursery can be
controlled as follows,
i/ Manual method – manually weeds can be
controlled by hand tools or by pulling the
weeds.
The labor Cost may be less with frequent
weeding rather than with only Occasional one

8. ii/ Chemical – This includes the use of herbicides
like hyvaryx (Pre emergency herbicide)
c/ Pests control in Sisal nursery, The common
pest in sisal nursery is a sisal weevil which can be
controlled by cultural method (Hand collection),
field sanitation and the Use of insecticide like
Dimethoate.