It is now middle of January 2019, local weather in Malaysia still has some rain and thunderstorms on weekly basis but that will likely change come February. The farm needs to prepare.
The Malaysian Meteorological Department forecasts the drought season and hot spell will start by end of January or early February and will continue for 3 months.
I'll be travelling to my farm tomorrow. I've planned mitigation steps to prepare for the anticipated drought. My plans are:
1. Apply mulching
2. Install cover netting on the saplings
3. Deploy and place 250L water barrels
We will go through each of the steps taken.
Shown here is the covered netting with a 50% light penetration erected with four PVC 15mm Class 6 pipes. To hold the netting onto the pipe, 200mm cable-ties are used, 6 nos for each assembly.
Water barrels of 250L capacity are also located on suitable areas on the farm to collect rainwater.
Covered netting for all plants are arranged so that the vertically covered portion is on the west facing side. The purpose is to protect the plant from the harsh evening sun. With this arrangement, the plant will get full morning sun but it will be sheltered from noon onward until sunset.
As you can see, I've applied mulch to the stem. I used jungle banana leaves and stems that grows wild on my land (jungle banana trees does not bear bananas, if you're wondering).