Growing Peppers
The three main climbing stems, which have been tied to the post, are pruned regularly to encourage the development of lateral fruiting branches; these latter are not tied to the post as this would discourage the bushy side growth that is required.
Organic manures were extensively used in Sarawak and included guano, prawn and fish refuse, and soya bean cake. More recently Sterameal, a potassium-fortified sterilized animal meat-and-bone meal, which is produced commercially and has been sold widely in Sarawak, has become popular.
The organic fertilizers are more expensive han a similar level of nutrients applied as inorganic fertilizers, particularly when the latter include trace elements, and the organic manures :ire twice as expensive to produce a given amount of pepper.
The usual form of compound fertilizer used is a mixture of urea, double superphosphate, muriate of potash and kieserite to supply the magnesium. The trace elements supplied are iron, copper, zinc, manganese, boron ;Ind molybdenum, which have been listed above: Sterameal has a main shoot and two lateral orthotropic shoots.
During the first two years, flower spikes are stripped regularly to prevent premature fruiting, and selective leaf plucking is also done to encourage prolific side branches. The first crop is taken in the third year and the productive life of the garden is usually 12-15 years.
A more intensive form of cultivation is to grow the pepper up specially planted shade trees such as E,ythrina indica Lam., E. subumbrans (Haask.) Merr. (syn. E. lithosperma Miq.,) and Grevillea robusta A. Cunn. It is recommended on a number of trees for Cambodia (now Kampuchea), including Shorea obtusa, Xylia xylocarpa Taub. (syn. X. dolabriformis Benth.) and Cyanodaphne cuneata. In Sumatra pepper planted with coffee. The shade trees should be quick-growing and able to withstand heavy pruning.
