Efecto del cultivo de palma de aceite sobre las propiedades físicas del suelo y su relación con la producción y la pudrición de cogollo

The research was to objective quantify physical affectation that occurs in soils for the cultivation of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), for which it carried out a comprehensive campaign of measurements, observations and sampling in the plantation Guaicaramo Ltda., located in the municipality of Barranca de Upia, department of Meta, Colombia, on a cultivated area of approximately 1890 hectares. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the physical properties of the soils in the zones typical of the crop (street, plate, and zone sticks) served as the basis for the determination of their physical condition and to establish that can be present between these properties, the productivity of the crop and the disease known as bud rot (BRD). The obtained results allowed to identify the development of  compaction phenomena  in different zones of the crop, which determined as a consequence the reduction of the porosity, the reduction of the capacity of gaseous exchange and the reduction of the capacity of infiltration of the soil; all of them, determinant factors of the conditions observed of inappropriate drainage, water excesses, flooding of lots and in some cases of excessive surface runoff; conditions that restrict the efficient utilization of nutrients by plants. Also it was possible to observe the existing relation between the compaction of the soils and the BRD, where the soil acts as an agent who predisposes the plant to contract the disease and not as a causative agent of the same one.