Once we receive well matured plants from the nurseries these will be field planted at a spacing of 5ft x 2 ½ ft, resulting in a plant density of about 8600 plants per hectare. The plants would have received their first prune in the nursery before being transported to the field.
After planting, the plants will be shaded to minimise the effect of sun scorch. Thereafter, as the rains come to an end we have to start watering each plant. This is done manually from our tractor towed water bowser. Weeding is done manually as chemical weeding is very dangerous to the young plants.
The planting programme is labour intensive requiring about 3 people per hectare that is planted to maintain the plants for the first three years, at which point plucking can commence.