Abstract

Kunio Kitai and Abubakar M. Lahjie

The suitable sunlight environment for cultivation of vanilla by agroforestry in an equatorial region was investigated. The cultivation required shade, and the canopies of crop trees and support trees performed that function. Enough shade by the canopies of these trees kept the sunlight intensity on vanilla colony lower than 30klx. The thick crop-tree-canopies and thin support-trees-canopies kept it lower than 50klx, except the invasion of occasional 50-150klx. Although support-tree-canopies in the plantation style without crop trees reduced it below 60klx, an invasion of 60-200klx was frequently reached. Sunlight below 50klx maintained the vanilla leaves at a healthy green color. Invasion higher than 100 klx*h/day of the integration sunlight intensity changed it to a yellow color or red color. Even though the flowering of a vanilla plant required strong sunlight by shade release, in the equatorial region, this invasion was excessive. In order to prevent disturbance and to promote flowering, 100klx*h/day was considered to be the suitable upper limit in shade release work. And it was thought that such a sunlight environment was controllable by pruning the support trees under thick crop-tree-canopies.