AMPALAYA PRODUCTION GUIDE

The popularity of ampalaya spread into many regions of the world. The discovery of being best herbal alternative for the treatment of diabetes builds strong position in the markets.

Pharmaceuticals are busy manufacturing ampalaya into powdered capsules and took control in the distribution of their manufactured products. As they were now grown commercially in large scale, the benefit was staggering. The lowly vegetable is now the phenomenal star of all seasons.

The fruits and leaves of ampalaya found to contain iron, calcium, carbohydrates and vitamin B. If regularly included in simple dish, may help to avoid insulin deficiency.

Planting ampalaya needs utmost care, effort and unlimited attention because of the easy susceptibility to nematode. If the soil is mostly deficient, the fungus will create haven in the soil destroying what has been planted there.

It is important to take the soil for analysis to determine the correct soil condition so that if deficient, necessary application of fertilizer is carried out. This will be the first step of preventive action through fertilization.

One way to correct these is to apply basal in-raw compost, animal manure and organic fertilizers in addition to application of tri-calcium phosphate fertilizer.

Select variety that is resistant to nematode infestation. Consider also variety that is short-term to mature 64 days from date of planting the seeds. Ampalaya can be harvested earlier during wet season within 62 days.

In order to increase yield of production, pre-germination of seeds found to have more benefits than direct seeding.  One seedling should be planted 1.50 meters apart in a row. The distance between rows should be 2 meters.  The purpose is to allow penetration and exposure to sunlight because of wider spacing.

Germinated seeds are more economical as it only needs one seedling per hill while in direct seeding, 2 to 3 seeds are needed because not all seeds can germinate in the soil.

Seedlings for transplanting can easily adapt to transplanting stress without affecting the regeneration of the roots.

If the seeds are pre-germinated, it shorten the waiting time compared to direct seeding that will take little more days before it emerge in the soil. It needs one night to pre-germinate the seeds by soaking it with clean water.

To allow germination, spread the seeds in damp cloth for 3 days until the seedcoat is broken. Keep the cloth moist and maintain moisture until the seeds germinate. Transfer the seedlings to prepared hills.

As the seedlings grow longer, prepare trellis made of bamboo poles every 1.5 meters. Then tie the plastic string from pole to pole to serve as climbing medium for the vines.

Prune the tips of the branch of the established seedlings to grow multiple branching and increase yield. The lower node of the branches will grow and bear fruits. It can be done by pinching the main stem inducing growth of primary or secondary laterals.

If it bears many fruits in the stem, you have to reduce it and thin out to few numbers so that the fruits can grow bigger and longer as it controls food competition.

To control pests in the plant, spray it with pesticides to remove the threat that may affect the fruiting. Another way to protect the young fruits is by using paper bags or polyethylene bags for the insects not to damage the fruits or from contamination (toxicity) from pesticide and fungicide.

As normal cultural management, spraying the plant with fungicide may help prevent nematode to infect the roots and root system.

GOURAMI PRODUCTION GUIDE

Gourami is a fish not popular in many people, maybe because it is almost a bony fish with little flesh on it. But it has taste acceptable to some especially if it is fried.   

Crossbreed gourami was much bigger and tastier compared to native breed. They are being cultured commercially. The native species were found in rivers and streams.

The cultured gourami is bigger in size and can reach over 2 kilograms. It has not been raised in many fish farms because it grow so slow not suitable for commercial production. The slower they grow the bigger the cost of raising them.

The only benefit is that it can easily adapt to any kind of environment. They can be raised even in rice field as long as there is enough water to live with. They grow in man-made pond even in tanks.

In raising gourami in pond, it should have higher dike level to protect them from getting away. A pond of 5 meters wide will do with recommended deepness to store water. It should have water source ready in case the water level of the pond reduces to the required height. It is better if the man-made pond is near the river easy to irrigate the pond if the need arises.

To aid the fish of their food requirements, the pond can be planted with floating weeds. The best plants are water lily or water hyacinth that will invite flying insects. Other insects and tiny organisms are favorite foods of the fish.

A pair of male and female gourami with the size of 160 grams is enough to be breeder in the small breeding tank. One breeder can raise many thousands of fingerling (fry). The fry are then transferred to rearing pond until they are ready for harvest if the size reaches 100 grams. The duration of rearing time is about 7 months.

Gourami fry are feed on small plants and plankton found in the water. Regularly, the fry or adults are feed with fish meal and other food residue.

In order to raise many organisms in the pond, the application of organic fertilizer (animal manure) will create activities in the pond. In addition to giving them supplemental feeding (rice bran), it can support thousands population of gourami fry until adulthood. The rate of application is 16 kilos of organic fertilizer per hectare per day for 2 months.

A one hectare pond is ideal for commercial production to be able to have better harvest in marketable size of adult gourami.

It is a must that the fry are raised separately from the breeder to avoid cannibalism of its own kind. The survival rate of the fry will depend on how the fishpond owners make the necessary control against many kinds of predators around the pond especially during the early days of their growth.

JACKFRUIT PRODUCTION GUIDE

Jackfruit is one of the sweetest fruit in town. This is the favorite fruit in rural areas. Once ripen, it has a sweet-smelling odor that even how you hide it somewhere or pack it closely in a container, the odor will always resist and comes out telling people of their presence.

It is not raised in large scale before because of hard marketability of the fruits in the market. The demand is not as high as expected. But now, many manufacturers of fruit products noticed jackfruit to have great potential to win the taste of the consumer by converting the fruits into sweetened fruits in cans with heavy syrup. It was also made into dried products in tetra packs. Increase in sales began to pick-up as the products are now has the spot in many supermarkets as demand slowly increases.

There are many varieties of jackfruit. It differed in the thickness of its flesh. There are other colors like light green or heavy yellow. It also includes the size and form of the fruit, the degree of sweetness and period of growth until maturity.

Select variety that has thick flesh of its fruit, very sweet, produce high yield per season, no latex inside the ripen fruits.

To shorten the duration of growth until bearing age, use grafted plants. It can be bought in fruit nursery of your locality or ask the help of someone who knows how to graft the branches. Seeds planted directly to the soil needs longer growing years compared to grafted one.

The fruit tree can grow to any type of soil especially in well-drained, deep and alluvial soils.

Plant the grafted seedlings in spacing of 10 meters x 10 meters.

Water the grafted seedlings or direct seeding regularly as it need lots of moisture in the first year of its growth. This is to avoid water stress that may cause stunted growth. Water it if the surface around the plants becomes dry. Watering does not end during the growing years. It is also needed during maturity age to induce heavy flowering and fruit set. If adequate moisture to the soil is given, it grow healthy, robust and develop fast into matured trees and gives better fruit quality and sweetness.

To assist to correct the infertility of the soil, apply inorganic fertilizer per tree during bearing age annually. The rate of application is 10 kilos under the following schedules:

                  4 kilos (9-24-24) – before flowering stage

                  4 kilos (15-15-15) after fruit setting

                  2 kilos (8-24-24) – a month before the fruit mature

Additionally, add organic fertilizer or animal manure with the rate of 50 kilos per tree throughout the year. Use foliar fertilizer (10-52-15) 3 times a year when the plants bear fruits. It can be done by spraying the liquid fertilizer for effectiveness.

During its growing years, make it a point to check the plants of damaging pests like fruit fly and fruit borer that may affect the quality of the fruits. Spray it with chemicals manufactured for fruit-bearing trees available in agricultural supply to assist prevention of pests. The most effective way to protect the fruits is by means of bagging method using rice sacks to allow aeration inside as the fruits are on the ripening stage. Bag the fruits to ideal size of 300 grams.

If the disease affects the whole structure of the plant, spray it with recommended fungicides to put a stop of the infection especially fungus in the ground.  Other preventive measures can be done by regular schedule of weeding to remove unproductive branches, wider spacing of planted trees giving enough moisture to the soil and keeping the plant healthy and well-attended giving the necessary soil nutrients for the plant to become vigorous and robust.

In order for the plants to produce high yield, do the following:

-Produce multiple trunks 7 or more branches, cut the main trunk 50 centimeters above the ground. Such action will induce formation of multiple branches giving the plants some space for better light penetration and movement of air.

-As the plant matures, do pruning by removing the sprouts to those unhealthy branches, diseased and unproductive.

-Top cut the tree higher than one meter above the ground. This is to allow the plant to bear more healthy branches that may bear many fruits in a branch.

Harvest some of young fruits in case of overcrowding to allow others to develop properly. Sell the excess young fruits to the market. Housewives used it as vegetable salad.

DUCK BREEDING GUIDE

Raising duck is a profitable business. You only need little effort to start in order to produce meats and eggs. Ducks does not need heavy effort to maintain. They only need any kind of shelter and minimal care.

They can eat anything around like the palatable young leaves of plants including weeds, insects, snails, corn and small organisms in the mud. No need for them to be vaccinated as they are tolerant to animal diseases and parasites except in extreme cases but not all. Continues production of meat and eggs you can have throughout the year.

A little shade made of bamboo poles and bamboo slats and nipa are enough to shelter them from heavy rain and intense heat of the sun. You can let them roam around the house if you are willing to be molested by their eating habits even your ornamental plants can be damage by their hard bill.

But the most ideal place for them to stay is to make a bigger pond. Make distant enclosure for easy movement. Don’t let the pond dry up. You should have source of water to fill up. They are fond of swimming and eating whatever they can find in the water. Backyard growing of ducks is another alternative if you don’t have nearest river or stream around.

Select right breed that can produce more eggs during the year. Khaki Campbell is the best. They are resistant to disease.

He has good larger size of eggs. They never set eggs or raise or brood the chicks. It is for egg production only. It subsists on any kinds of grains and food remains.

Put drinking trough or bigger metal container to accommodate enough water. It should be clean free from any impurities.

The measurement of your enclosure will depend on your choice. If you want to raise bigger number of ducklings or young then size will vary to avoid congestion due to little space they can move.

Keep the surrounding area of the enclosure clean from many kinds of weeds to give ducks a homely environment.

The matured ducks will weigh 1.9 kilograms. The drake can weigh 2 kilograms. They are good source of meat. One female alone can produce a total of 320 eggs in a year.

In early stage of caring the young, proper attention is needed especially in feeding them. Have enough stocks of grind grains as feeds as they can’t swallow a bigger one. A powdered vitamin supplements for animals to be mix in water will be given to the ducklings according to schedule for fast growth and development until they are capable of mending their own food choices.

During the flowering stage, the animal shade should be made of bamboo slats easy to clean their droppings.

Give occasional supplement of grind vegetables or leaves of young grass to keep their voracious eating habits.

In extreme cases when there is sign of intolerable flu-like disease, prevent it by giving necessary antibiotics to get rid of infection. It should be done immediately. Separate diseased ducklings from unaffected one to stop the spread.