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.

PINEAPPLE PRODUCTION GUIDE

Pineapple was the star among many countries. It was widely known by anybody. The sweetness penetrated deeply in our senses. It participated in making the body healthy as the fruit itself is heavily laden with vitamins and minerals especially vitamin C known to be anti-oxidant. Pineapple was commercially produced.

There are many consumer products produced using pineapple as raw materials. They are manufactured in cans, tins and tetra packs or freshly cut for sale. It is best alternative for weight loss and other benefits related to health.

Planting pineapple is good farming practice. Maintenance and care is not as complex and vigorous if you have the interest and patience of waiting the day of fruiting and harvesting.

In rural areas, it is easy for a community to plant pineapple in their backyard for personal consumption and able to harvest without proper care to it. To have better and bigger pineapple size, proper maintenance to the plant is necessary.

To plant pineapple for commercial purpose, you need to know the many helpful points to be able to have higher yield and success in producing them.

Select a better place to plant pineapple. Test the soil pH to be able to arrive to correct application of fertilizer to use. Pineapple can adapt to any type of soil but loamy soil is the best.

Prepare the land, tilling it properly. Plow and harrow 3 times alternately to loosen the soil until the soil has good tilt.

Select the best slips and suckers as your planting materials. You can procure it from other commercial pineapple farms selling planting materials to interested buyers.

Treat planting materials first to ensure that they are free from diseases. It can be protected by curing and dipping it to fungicide solution.

Select planting materials that has high recovery rate or survival rate in the field or a variety that can grow faster.

Curing the slips and suckers is done by direct exposure to sunlight for the period of 4 weeks before the scheduled planting.  It enables the cut basal portion called the butt end to heal and form callus where the root system starts to form. At the same time, it helps to prevent fungal infection because of the long exposure to the sun during the curing process.

Another way is dipping the planting materials (butt ends) directly to fungicide solution. This will be the effective prevention against fatal fungal disease like heart rot and bud rot.

Without necessary protection, the fungal disease will appear within 3 months after planting. If diseased, the base of young leaves will slowly rot including stem, buds and heart of the plant. If not treated, planting materials will die.

The application of fertilizer is important aspect of plant’s life to grow healthy, robust and with vigor that can stand against fungal infection. It is also induces pineapple to flower especially the appearance of red bud and starts of flowering.

Use 10 grams of ammonium sulfate (nitrogen), 10 grams of muriate of potash (potassium) per plant. Fertilization played key role in the growth of plants. After the application, the plants started to fruit. A healthy fruit weigh 1.80 kilos, 16 centimeters in height with the diameter of 12 centimeters as they matured.

Observed the following:

-While preparing planting beds in the farm. See to it that it has enough drainage system to remove the excess water in the field. The beds should be raised 30 centimeters from the ground.

-Plant the slips and suckers before wet season. Space the plant closely to increase concentration of suckers and slips in one hectare.