FERTILISER EFFECTS ON THE TREE GROWTH AND SOME WOOD PROPERTIES OF PARASERIANTHES FALCATARIA ON DURIAN SERIES SOIL

Nitrogen and phosphorus combinations were applied on young seedlings of Paraserianthes falcataria (three months after transplanting) at six-monthly intervals until the seedlings were 21 months old. Diameter growth, total height increment, mortality rate and heartwood to sapwood (HS) ratio were found to be insignificant at all levels of treatment. Specific gravity was found to be highly significant between fertiliser treatment and between discs. N2P1 was significantly different from the rest of the treatment, whereas N2P0 was only significantly different from N1P1. Nitrogen application in combination with P appeared to have some effects in increasing the specific gravity in comparison with nitrogen in the absence of P. There was a significant difference in specific gravity between the three discs where the highest value was 0.39 and the lowest was 0.27. No significant interaction was observed between portions of disc and fertiliser treatment.