Oil Palm Leaf Sampling Method

                                                     

Oil Palm Leaf Sampling Method

Samples were taken in the morning due to low level sunlight exposure to the leaflet of oil palm. Front 17 detected from fully open frond at terminal shoot which is the frond 1 where on the left or right of the shoot depending on the left handed and right handed harvesting pattern. Frond 17 was identified by counting downwards from the Frond 1 which was the fully open frond at the terminal shoot.The frond was removed from the tree by using a sickle by cutting three quarters of the total frond length. Frond 17 was identified by the presence of the thorn that was located at three quarter length cut off frond. The frond was cut into three (3) approximately equal sections and whereby the tip and base sections were discarded and placed in the frond placement/stacking. The 12 leaflets were removed from the frond by using sharp knife which consisted of six leaflets removed from the midpoint of the frond section with three from each side of the frond. The remaining included three leaflets from the upper rank of the frond section and three leaflets from the lower rank of the fronds. The leaflets were stored in a cool place at Natural Product Research and Development Centre Laboratory. Then, each leaflet sample was dry cleaned up and not washed to remove particles of dust and small insect that might affect the result. After cleaning, six leaflets from 12 leaflets that collected were used for determination of leaf area and for measurement by using AutoCAD