BATAW PRODUCTION GUIDE

The vegetable has wide adaptability to many soil conditions. There are many varieties of bataw. There are bataw that are vines needing trellis for support. Another variety stands erect and not a vine type but bushy with thick foliage. There was variety that can be raised directly to the soil without trellis. Its thick foliage will cover the ground.

The many varieties differed in shape, texture, size of leaves, shape of the flowers, seeds, color of the plants and pod characteristic. It has variety that can tolerate period of drought, flowering time, the condition of the seedling (vigor), period of maturity, resistance to pests and diseases, sensitivity to day-length and the viability of the seeds in many type of soil condition. There are varieties suitable in lowland and upland.

The plant grows fast. Because of its dense foliage, it is best controller for the growth of weeds.

Prepare the land thoroughly. Plow and harrow the field 2 to 3 times to break loss the soil. Plant the seeds directly to the soil in furrows. Plant 2 to 3 seeds per hill. Keep maximum distance each hill as the plant will grow robust and has thick foliage.

Let it grow freely in the soil to cover the land. It is best to suppress weed germination and frequency of weeding. No need to do periodic weeding as the plant control the emergence of weeds. Spot weeding can only be done to isolated portion if the weeds in the field persist.

Most often, there’s no need to apply fertilizer as the plant can adapt to any soil type. But in case the plant will not grow healthy despite its resistance to poor soil then apply periodic fertilization to the plant.

In case of pest infestation, spray the foliage with pesticides for the pests to keep away from the foliage to damage the leaves, flowers and fruits.

The plants can tolerate diseases. But in the event they are severely affected by the disease, remove or uproot the affected plants from the good ones to avoid spread of bacterial infection.

Harvest the young pods regularly. Avoid the pod to mature as it can no longer good to sell to the market.

There are many uses of bataw:

-The dry weight of seeds has crude protein containing high level of iron.

-Its young pod is best serve as table vegetables.

-Dried seeds are good alternative for snack foods, cooked or eaten directly. It was used to process bean cake.

-The leaves and flowers are cooked and eaten.

-Sprouts are good for palatable menu.

-The bean hay serves as forage of many animals.

-It was used as silage.

-The green manure serves as fertilizer.

-It was used in the prevention of soil erosion because of its thick foliage.

-It is good cover crop for plantation.

-It has the ability to serve as nitrogen-fixing crop.

TOMATO PRODUCTION GUIDE

Tomato is very popular in the kitchen, the main ingredient in the preparation of a dish for the family. Tomato is not difficult to produce. It can grow even in containers, pots, rubber tires. It grows in many types of soil but best suited in compost soil.

The first step is to make seedbed, the wood box to plant the seeds for germination.  The size of the seedbed should be 50 centimeters long, 30 centimeters wide and 10 centimeters deep. Mix the garden soil with 2 parts compost soil and one part charcoal (burnt rice hull).

To kill harmful micro-organisms in the soil, place the mixture in metal container and heat it under the fire for 45 minutes then cooled. Place the mixture to the seedbed. Be sure that the soil has fine texture.

Make rows where to place the seeds 4 centimeters apart each other. Drill the surface 1 centimeter deep. Cover it with the mixture soil lightly but not to be pressed hardly for the seeds to germinate comfortably.

Spray the seedbed with water in handy sprayer to keep the soil moist but not too wet. Spray it early in the morning.

Transfer the germinated seeds or seedlings to another seedbed 10 days after its germination under the planting distance of 5 centimeters x 5 centimeters. Water the seedlings after the transfer to another seedbed to avoid stress. Try not to expose the seedlings directly to sunlight to avoid wilting.

Use starter solution to sprinkle the seedling after 3 days of transfer. The solution is made of 1 tablespoon ammonium sulfate (ammosul) per 1 gallon of water to assist the seedlings to have a firm stand.

Slowly expose the seedlings to sunlight early in the morning only. Spray the seedling with water in case there is sign of wilting.

Prepare the field. Plow and harrow alternately two to three times to make the soil to have better tilt.

Schedule the transplanting as it aged 4 weeks after germination. The distance between hills should be 40 centimeters. Water the transplanted seedling to loosen the soil and to avoid stress to the plants.

In transferring the seedlings to the prepared field, see to it that the roots is balled with clay soil slowly and carefully to avoid injury to the roots that may cause the  seedling to wilt. Water the plants consistently to avoid heat stress.

Start application of organic fertilizer composed of animal manure or compost materials 2 weeks before the replanting of seeds. Compost application of 1 liter per hill is most effective a day before or at the time of replanting.

Apply 15 grams of complete fertilizer (inorganic) 14-14-14 per hill at planting time. Slowly cover the fertilizer. See to it that the roots of the plant are away from the fertilizer to minimize the impact of sudden potency of the fertilizer to the roots of the plants.

At the same day, application of starter solution per plant is necessary. Side-dress each plant with 5 grams urea together with 5 grams muriate of potash after 30 days of transplanting.

Maintain cleanliness around the planting area. Keep the plants away from weeds. Spot weeding is useful to remove any germinated seeds to harm the plants.

Spray the plants with commercial pesticides (inorganic) if sign of pest’s infestation to the plants is visible but not during the flowering or fruiting stage. Application of organic pesticides is best during this condition.

Remove the plants affected by bacterial wilt to stop the spread of the infection. Schedule the application of fungicide to control sign of disease.

If the plants are in full fruiting stage, harvesting is to be done slowly to matured green to give time to ripe during the selling. Matured ripe tomatoes is not very competitive in the market as it can easily rot if not sold in due time.

POLE SITAO PRODUCTION GUIDE

Pole sitao is a vegetable in demand by housewives. A bunch of it is enough to make healthy menu. Producing them is easy if you know how to take care of them.

It is important to till the soil properly to fine texture. Alternate the plowing and harrowing to the soil 2 to 3 times to have good tilt. Determine first the kind of soil in your field so that you will know beforehand if vegetable is suitable and best fitted for production. Soil analysis helped you to determine what particular fertilizer to use.

Plant them in rows 100 centimeters x 50 centimeters distance drilling a hole between hills accessible in maintaining care to the growing plants. Cover the seeds with fine soil. Plant 2 to 3 seeds per hill. Water the seeds in hill for immediate emergence.

Use the normal application of complete fertilizer (14-14-14) containing nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus per hectare. In one hectare you need 7 bags. If your area is only ¼ of a hectare, all you need is less 2 bags of that size. Cover the applied fertilizer with fine soil to avoid exposure to the sun that will lessen its potency.

If the soil is lack of phosphorus, you can use side-dressing of phosphorus fertilizer only 20 kilograms per hectare or if ¼ of a hectare, use 5 kilograms enough for that size.

If the plant emerges from the soil in 10 days period, start reducing the seedling by maintaining 1 seedling per hill. The planting of 2 to 3 seedlings per hill is for you to select the best and healthy seedlings to care. It is also needed if some seeds failed to germinate and will not emerge in due time.

Maintain weeding the plants after 2 weeks of planting. Early weeding will free them from damaging weeds that later on will harbor pests to live in the plants.

Water the plants every week or if the need arise especially if the plants begin to wilt due to dryness of the soil.

Hill-up the plants every 4 weeks to loosen the soil around the seedlings that will restrict its growth. From time to time, you can do spot weeding to ensure cleanliness around.

Use bamboo trellis measuring 2 meters in length as medium for climbing vines. Additionally, use vertical support of bamboo (single trellis) or wood for the vines to spread.

Maintain the normal application of water weekly around the plants importantly needed during the development of pods. It is also to ensure that adequate moisture level is attained during the flowering and pod development.

To harvest young green pods, pick them after 10 days from flowering stage. After 10 days, regularly pick the green pods every 2 days to avoid the pods to mature.

GROUPER RAISING GUIDE

Grouper farming is profitable if you know how to raise them. It is a meticulous project to be able to raise them properly. The fish are found in marine water living freely in their watery environment.

It is an expensive kind of fish in the market few people can afford to buy. There were only limited catch a fisherman had in his fishing days causing the price of the fish so high due to limited supply.

To remedy the shortage of supply, fishpond owners resorted to grouper farming. They constructed fishpond based on the desired size. The pond has higher dikes for the fish to be secured. The owner maintained the water level of the pond to 4 feet. The bottom of the pond was layered with sand not mud controlling the presence of organic matter that may affect the growth of the fish. They raised fingerlings in the pond that measured 3 to 6 inches. In a hectare, it can accommodate more or less 5,500 stocks. If the fingerlings are less than 3 inches in size, the pond can be stock 11,000 fish in a single farming.

In raising grouper, it has stages to observe. If the stocks are still small, they are raised in the nursery pond. Then when they become bigger, they are stock in rearing pond. The bigger one is separated in another pond away from the small size to avoid cannibalism.

They are feed with fish meal or commercial live fingerlings of other fish raised by breeder for feeding purposes.

It was recommended that the feeding rate with life fingerlings is 10 tin containers weighing 50 kilos enough to handle grouper fingerlings in a hectare pond. They are feed every 2 weeks aside from feeding with commercial fish meal or other food alternatives.

The feeding schedule is later in the afternoon at dusk or early in the morning at dawn before the early morning light where they are most active.

Most fishponds were placed near the sea. The pond is little higher to the sea in low tide. The purpose is to change the quality of water during high tide. With enough gate entrance, the water valve controls the outbound water to the sea during low tide and during the inbound water to the pond in high tide. Fouled water may affect the growth of the fish or in higher mortality rate if there is no enough oxygen in the water. But if proper care is carried out with better feeding techniques and clean water atmosphere in the pond, it gives higher survival rate.

After rearing period of six months, the fish can attain the average weight of 1 kilo.

The fishpond owners or caretakers are very observant to the condition of the raised fingerlings. They checked it daily that they are not diseased that will cause the reduction in their population. Bacterial infection to the fish is common in pond especially if care and maintenance is poor not in accordance to strict supervision and control.

If proper maintenance is done properly, better feeding techniques, quality of water and disease prevention, fish can be harvested to the size competitive in the wet market.

In harvesting the adult fish, the caretaker of the pond has to catch them using net or by drawing the water out of the pond retaining only a little to be able to harvest them. Selection process depends on the size most profitable to sell. Those that are substandard in size will remain in the pond waiting for the next batch of harvesting.

GRASS CARP CULTURE

It is profitable raising grass carp if you know the proper production of the fish. You can raised them in fresh water pond and feed them with grass. You dependence to commercial fish feeds will be reduced.

The pond also needs fertilization to allow the minute plants to grow abundantly. You can alternate the feeds by using rice bran and copra meal. The pharyngeal teeth of grass carp have the ability for cutting and grinding the grass into smaller bits.

The debris of the left-over foods in the pond enable organisms to grow like bacteria, algae, protozoa and other smallest organisms normally found in the pond. These are also the favorite foods for the fingerlings.

Maintain the cleanliness of the pond to avoid any materials that can affect the growth of the fish.

The food of the fry are small-minute plankton, an aquatic animals live in dark and stagnant water. As it grows bigger, they are feeding the sprouts and leaves of the plants.  As the fish reached the size of 10 centimeters in length, they eat only vegetation found in the ponds.

The ponds should have enough size to accommodate 12,000 fingerlings. It should have deep of 1.5 meters. In order to increase the supply of foods for the fingerlings (fry) the ponds should be applied with compost, rice bran, animal manure and inorganic fertilizer to induce the growth of water grass every 15 days.

The 12,000 fingerlings in the pond need 20 kilos of tender grass every day. It should have enough water grasses or land grasses to be able to sustain their appetite.

Raising grass carp should be given intensive care at the start of their growth until they reach the ideal size to have competitive price in the market. It is important to have adequate supply of fish foods necessary for continues feeding.

Raising carp is profitable if you have the patient and resourcefulness to raise the kind of fish that is favorites in most households for one of the palatable food on the table.