ABSTRACT
Tapping Hevea consists of making an incision in the bark to sever the latex vessel rings which are arranged in the inner phloem around the cambium. Knowledge of the area of bark from which the latex collected during tapping is drained is of prime importance for determining the length and layout of tapping cuts along the trunk if maximum production is sought without risking exhaustion of the tree. An extensive series of experiments carried out in Cambodia by Lustinec and colleagues from 1965 to 1969 provided a considerable amount of information about the drainage area and its components. The same method applied to microtappings carried out horizontally on each side of a downward half-spiral led to considering that such tapping drains the bark below the cut around the whole circumference of the trunk. Comparators or microdendrometers fixed to the trunk at various distances from the cut can be used to detect trunk contraction after flow of latex at tapping.
