DRACAENA PRODUCTION GUIDE

        

It is shrubby, herbaceous and evergreen plant. It grows 2 meters tall. As they grow, they will start forming a clump where the suckers are produced. Its stem is slender. It has strap-shaped sheathed leaves. They are flexible arranged in spiral.

The taller the plant the chance of bending is possible. They will bend if there is strong wind. It can be affected also during heavy rainfall because of top heavy foliage unless there is support that can hold them. If there is none, they can easily topple down.

It is best grown in pottery or clay pot. It has been used as ornamental plants. It can be propagated by cutting, the easiest way to raise them. The shoot tip or top cutting will root fast in the planting medium. In 4 weeks’ time there will be a solid foundation of its rooting system. Place in tap water, the tip cutting of the shoots will start to grow in 12 days. The cuttings should be in diagnosed cuts below the node of the plants. See to it that it is healthy, clean and disease-free.

Place layer of wax at the top of the stump were the cuttings was taken for purpose of preventing the entry of water and micro-organisms that will cause disease to the plant.

The dormant buds along the stem will sprout slowly. New shoots will form in a month. After 6 months it can be harvested as shoot tips cuttings. This will be subject to further propagation where the new sets of dormant buds will start to grow.

During your potting, place 3 plants in the same planting medium. It grows denser or thicker after several months after potting. In the pot, it should contain equal measures of sawdust and burst rice hull. Sand and coconut coir dust can also be used. Pure soil has limited use. It should be mix in the same quality with coconut choir dust.

The leaves of the ornamental plant are very sensitive to bright, indirect light. Using fine-mesh net is helpful to reduce heavy light penetration. It can also prevent direct exposure to sunlight. Too much heat will cause leaf burns. The leaves will become yellowish and brownish. The cuttings should be rooted in a spade away light exposure. The new transplanted rooting cutting will remain in the shade more or less 7 days before they are slowly exposed to bright light.

During dry months or hot days, water the rooted cuttings regularly once daily. Don’t use the heavy chlorinated water or salty water as it affects its growth and the color of the leaves.

Fertilize the plants one week after transplanting to clay pot. Use 1 tablespoon complete fertilizer (14-14-14) in every 1 gallon of water. Do it 3 times every month. Additionally, fertilize it with 1 tablespoon urea (46-0-0) every 1 gallon of water once in a month. You also have to use complete controlled release fertilizer with the rate of ½ teaspoon per pot for height of 6-inch plants only 1 every 3 months. You can increase the frequency according to the height and the size of the plants in the pot.

In case of insect infestation, spray the plant systemic insecticide or meticide and spray it to the affected plants. Most infestation is common during dry season. To give complete protection, application of insecticide is necessary to ensure the plant will grow insect-free. Additionally, by washing it regularly, it helps prevent the pests to live in the leaves of the plants.

Always keep the surroundings of the placed cuttings clean free from weeds and other damaging grasses. 

Apply fungicides if you find the presence of fungus in the soil. The disease mostly appeared during wet days. It is important not to expose them heavily in the rain as root rot and stem rot are common causes for the plants to die. If there is weak or unhealthy plants in the pot, reduce its population and remove them. It will only affect the healthy one if allowed to remain in the pot.

If all this given procedures is honestly followed you can have a nursery of good and healthy ornamental most sought by buyers for their landscaping needs and indoor placements.

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.

EGGPLANT PRODUCTION GUIDE

Anyone can plant eggplant anywhere even in your own backyard. It is one of best vegetable needed in the kitchen. They are favorite ingredients at home or in restaurants to make palatable dish. It is healthy food full of vitamins and minerals. It is also good source of income for farmers.

There is demand of eggplant in the wet market or in bigger supermarket. It can be made into different menu. It is money maker for large-scale production.

Eggplant has taste some people don’t want to eat. It is not nutritious but once it is added into various dishes, the taste becomes different. Ordinary household make a dish with eggs a good breakfast menu on the table along with a cup of coffee.

There are many varieties of eggplants, separated in size, form and color. It may be plain or striped.

Eggplant is best suited in deep loam soil. Select an area where there is good soil condition, elevated place, has nearby irrigation source, has drainage around the upraised beds. It should be expose to sunlight.

The field should be plowed and harrowed alternately 3 times to loosen the soil. Start making upraised beds where the seedlings are to be planted.

Procure good seeds from the agricultural supply or to use seeds directly from ripen eggplants intended for seedling purpose. Soak seeds in water for the duration of 24 hours for high percentage of germination. Select a variety that can adapt to both dry and wet season.

The seeds should be treated first with fungicide to prevent damping off in the seedbed. Water the seedbed occasionally if it showed sign of dryness.

The seeds should be planted to the seedbed first until ready to be planted in the upraised beds. Do not expose seedbed from the rain, direct exposure to sun, windy environment to prevent being damaged from weather condition while germinating.

As soon as the seedlings are ready for transplanting, start pulling out the seedlings in the seedbeds for transfer to the field. Be sure that the height of the seedlings is 10 centimeters. The distance in rows should be 55 centimeters x 55 centimeters. In one hectare, it can accommodate 500 grams of seedlings.

Make pre-planting application of complete fertilizer (14-14-14) of NPK essential to growth of matured plants. Additional application of nitrogen is needed especially when the plant is in full bloom during flowering stage.

During wet season, the plant should be planted in upraised beds to have enough drainage. Too much rainfall will affect its vegetative state and flowering formation.

Regular irrigation during dry month will help eggplant to continue to bear fruits. During rainy season, there should have enough drainage to remove excess water around the plants.  Excessive rainfall may affect the growth of plants affecting continues fruiting.

Remove the terminal growing point as soon as the plant started to established. Such action will induce lateral branching. If the cultivar grows long, support is needed to hold them in place. You can use bamboo slats and string to bind it closely to the support.

Water the plant during dry period to keep enough moisture to the soil. Watering will prevent the leaf to fall off and buds to flower immaturely.

Keep the field free of weeds. Remove them manually using gardening hoe but do it carefully not to damage the roots. Keep it clean to avoid pests to harbor in the plants. Continue spot weeding every time another germination of weed is observed. Don’t touch the ground in the latter part of its growing season.

Apply pesticides periodically during growing months especially if the insects insisted to vacate the plants. Apply fungicide to prevent diseases to damage the plants or the fungi that already started destroying the growth of plants.

You can use mulching to the plants to protect the root systems and reduce water loss due to evaporation. It is also helpful to scare away from pests. Plastic mulching can also prevent erosion during the time when there is continues rainfall.

Some eggplant variety can be harvested repeatedly whole year round as long as the environmental condition is favorable to its growth, limited rainfall with enough moisture during dry season. There are varieties that will bear fruits in 2-years time.

Harvest the plants 80 days from transplanting. Pick out matured fruits only and leave smaller ones.

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.