Best cover crop seeds for coconut and oil palm in the Philippines
Best cover crop seeds for coconut and oil palm in the Philippines
Request a quotation for PJ, CM or CP seed for your coconut or oil palm block.
Why cover crops matter for Philippine plantations
Legume cover crops protect tropical soils during monsoon rain, fix atmospheric nitrogen, suppress weeds including Imperata cylindrica (cogon grass), and add organic matter over time. For coconut and oil palm growers the right cover can be the difference between a productive understorey and an expensive weed problem.
On fertiliser savings. A legume cover does contribute nitrogen, and that contribution is real. But we will not put a percentage on how much fertiliser it replaces, and we would be cautious about anyone who does. Published estimates of legume nitrogen fixation in plantations span a very wide range depending on species, ground cover achieved and measurement method, and fixation is itself suppressed by the mineral nitrogen you apply. Legume cover contributes nitrogen; adjust your fertiliser programme only after soil and leaf analysis shows what the cover supplies on your block.
Species comparison for Philippine conditions
| Factor | Pueraria javanica (PJ) | Calopogonium mucunoides (CM) | Centrosema pubescens (CP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrogen fixation | 85 to 93% of nitrogen taken from the air; up to 250 kg N/ha/yr accumulated in above-ground biomass in one trial under young rubber in northeast Thailand | No verified species-specific nitrogen figure is published | No verified species-specific nitrogen figure is published |
| Shade tolerance | Moderate | Low to moderate. First to be shaded out in a mixture | Moderate to high |
| Establishment speed | Moderate | Fast, the quickest of the three | Moderate |
| Drought tolerance | Moderate to high | Moderate | Moderate |
| Seeding rate, pure stand | About 4 kg/ha (Tropical Forages) | Set on the quotation for the site | 3 to 5 kg/ha broadcast (Tropical Forages) |
| Rate in the MPOB TT No. 501 mixture (8 kg/ha total, with CC 1 kg/ha) | 4 kg/ha | Not in this mixture | 3 kg/ha |
| Best use | General plantation cover | Young blocks needing fast cover | Maturing canopy and shaded areas |
Pure-stand rates: Tropical Forages (CIAT and ILRI 2020, tropicalforages.info); we found no published pure-stand rate for CM. Mixture row: the MPOB TT No. 501 conventional blend (PJ 4 + CP 3 + CC 1 = 8 kg/ha, with 5 g Rhizobium per kg of seed). PROSEA 4 (1992) gives calopo:centro:kudzu 5:4:1 or centro:kudzu 4:1 at 2 to 5 kg/ha in the interrow. See our cover crop seeding rate guide for the per-source comparison and the citations.
Nitrogen figures: Clermont-Dauphin et al. 2016, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 217 (PJ under young rubber, northeast Thailand). In the peer-reviewed record CM and CP appear almost only as mixture components, so we publish no field measurement for either. Pipai et al. 2023 (Plant and Soil 491: 665-680, doi) used CM only in a glasshouse calibration of the ureide technique; their field survey in Papua New Guinea oil palm measured C. caeruleum and P. phaseoloides, and estimates 48 to 102 kg N/ha/yr for the legume cover as a whole in young plantations, annualised from about four months of growth.
Recommended products
Pueraria javanica (PJ)
The plantation standard. Vigorous growth and strong weed suppression; in one trial under young rubber, 85 to 93% of its nitrogen came from fixation. Suits young to mid-age coconut and oil palm.
Calopogonium mucunoides (CM)
Fastest establishment of the three. Suits newly planted areas needing quick cover before PJ takes over. Short-lived as the canopy closes.
Centrosema pubescens (CP)
Best shade tolerance of the three. Persists under maturing coconut and oil palm canopy where the other two thin out.
Seeding guide for Philippine conditions
For most Philippine plantation conditions a mixture works better than a single species. There is no single universal total for such a mixture, and published recommendations differ by source; the two below are the ones we can cite.
The figure with the strongest published backing is the MPOB conventional blend: Pueraria javanica 4 kg/ha + Centrosema pubescens 3 kg/ha + Calopogonium caeruleum 1 kg/ha, a 4:3:1 split totalling 8 kg/ha, inoculated with 5 g Rhizobium (RRI strain) per kg of seed. Source: MPOB TT No. 501, MPOB Information Series 588, June 2012, Table 1, treatment C2. Treat it as an institutional best-management-practice recommendation rather than a primary field measurement: MPOB states 8 kg/ha as conventional Malaysian industry practice and uses it as the control treatment in a trial on peat at Teluk Intan, Perak. MPOB publishes no separate mineral-soil rate that we have been able to find, and does not state whether the 8 kg/ha is on a gross-hectare or interrow-hectare basis.
Where you want a fast pioneer in the blend, PROSEA 4 (1992) lists calopo:centro:kudzu (CM:CP:PJ) mixtures at 5:4:1, or centro:kudzu (CP:PJ) at 4:1, sown at 2 to 5 kg/ha in the interrow. CM establishes fast and gives you early cover, PJ becomes dominant as the stand matures, and CP is what persists once the canopy closes. No institutional source we have found recommends an equal-parts mixture. The rate for your block is set on the quotation.
These rates are extrapolated, not Philippine recommendations. We have found no legume cover crop seeding rate published by any Philippine institution, and none published by any institution specifically for coconut. The Philippine Code of Good Agricultural Practices for Coconut (PNS/BAFS 238:2018) recommends leguminous cover cropping but specifies no seeding rate. The figures above are the transferable published evidence from Malaysian and wider Southeast Asian oil palm and rubber practice, applied to Philippine coconut and oil palm by us rather than by a Philippine authority. Confirm against your own site conditions.
Best planting window is the early wet season, roughly June to July, so there is enough moisture for germination and establishment before the dry months.
Expect the first year to be the hard part. Weeds compete strongly until the legume canopy closes, and the strong suppression figures quoted for cover crops come from established stands: Samedani et al. (2015) measured them 9 to 24 months after planting. Budget for weeding during establishment.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use cover crops under mature coconut trees?
Yes. Centrosema pubescens is the most suited of the three to mature coconut because of its shade tolerance, and PJ performs adequately under moderate shade. Nitrogen fixed by the legume becomes available to the palms as the cover cycles biomass and litter.
How much fertiliser can cover crops replace?
We will not give you a percentage. A legume cover contributes nitrogen, but the amount varies widely with species, how much ground is actually covered, soil nitrate and season, and the fixation is suppressed by the mineral nitrogen you apply, so the two partly work against each other. Treating a cover crop as a fixed fertiliser credit is how estates end up under-nourishing a block. Legume cover contributes nitrogen; adjust your fertiliser programme only after soil and leaf analysis shows what the cover supplies on your block. Our agronomists will help you set that up.
Will cover crops compete with my main crop?
Managed properly they complement it. Keep a clear weeded circle around each trunk. One real caveat: on shallow or light soils with low water-holding capacity, a vigorous cover can compete for water. A rubber trial in northeast Thailand (Clermont-Dauphin et al. 2016) found the cover improved growth where water storage was good but reduced drought survival at upper slope positions. Plan the cover to the soil, not just to the crop.
Do you ship cover crop seeds internationally?
Yes. We supply buyers across the Philippines and, on request, worldwide from Davao City. Export shipments carry a phytosanitary certificate issued by the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI). It attests to inspection at origin and does not by itself authorise import; import permits and admissibility remain the responsibility of the buyer. Contact us for shipping estimates and the export documentation your destination requires.
Pair cover crops with rhinoceros beetle monitoring and trapping
On coconut and oil palm the cover crop is only half the job. Oryctes rhinoceros, the rhinoceros beetle, bores into the spear of young palms and is at its worst during replanting, when it can kill seedlings outright. Ground cover makes palms harder for beetles to find, but it does not remove the adults already in the block. For that, growers run pheromone traps baited with ethyl 4-methyloctanoate, the aggregation pheromone of the coconut rhinoceros beetle; one trap per two hectares is the density recommended for monitoring in Malaysian oil palm (Paudel et al. 2023). Pheromone trapping is a monitoring and mass-trapping tool within an integrated programme, not a pesticide and not an eradication method.
Read the rhinoceros beetle trapping guide | View Kudzu RB Lure
Deep-dive guides for Philippine crops and regions
Kudzu Seeds Trading is headquartered in Davao City. For region-specific and crop-specific guidance:
Crop-specific guides: