ASPARAGUS PLANTING GUIDE

Sandy loam or clay loam soil is best suited in planting asparagus. Select a field with soil rich in organic matter. It has beneficial effect to the plants when the soil is fertile. Considering that asparagus can occupy the field much longer as long as the field is not soil deficient. Initial steps should be taken to put the soil in uniform shape and better soil type. A good soil cultivation facilitate proper distribution of water to the field and its absorption that makes the soil soft, pliable, preferable and in good tilt.

Avoid using top soil that is lack of deepness with elevated water table that affects the development of roots of the plants with better firm stand.

Cultivate the land thoroughly. A thorough plowing and harrowing in 3 repetitions during the cultivation period will give even distribution of soil in the field. Soil elevation in some portion of the land is corrected. A plain surface has greater advantage in irrigating the land. Equal distribution of water can be attained.

Make the planting area free from unnecessary debris and emerging weeds. See to it that the soil is always in good tilt, smooth and finely cultivated. Remove all the weeds that are nuisance to the plants. The soil should have a pH level between 6 .0 to 7.0. If the soil analysis showed deficiency with pH level less than 6.0 will mean that it is acidic and need to be fertilized thoroughly to restore its fertility. Any deficiency can affect the growth of the plants thereby reducing the opportunity to have higher yield.

Lime is necessary to restore the pH level in normal condition. It should be done openly until the deficiency is corrected. Even if asparagus highly tolerate salt, it is best if the percentage of salt concentration in the soil is much lesser.

Construct drainage canal in between the rows to have the field ready outlet in case of water-logging.

It is best suited in temperate climate. Consistent wet weather condition is not appropriate during planting. It enhances the development of soil-borne disease and favorite haven for harmful insects.

Establish nursery for the seedling for transplanting to the field. Another option is direct seeding but healthy plants can’t be determine and most seeds might not germinate properly those reducing the plant populations in the land.

Using seedling is most appropriate to prepare healthy and robust plants. Fertilize the seedlings in the nursery to keep them in good shape and reduce mortality rate. 

Another method of planting is by using one-year old crowns directly planted to the field only if enough crowns can be procured to support the entire field.

Best planting period is 4^th quarter of the year to first quarter of succeeding year. Weather condition is not too wet and too dry for the seedlings to survive during transporting. If 1 year old crown are used, it should be placed in a furrow with fine soil around it.

A raised bed for the plants is recommended to avoid too much concentration of water in the field. Water will confine in the lower portion of the raised beds. The raised beds should have width measurements of 40 to 72 inches as recommended. 

The in- row spacing in raised beds should be 6 to 12 inches.   Asparagus are broadly adaptable to changes in weather condition. Accommodate population of 50,100 young plants or more in 1 hectare area.

Don’t over-water the plants to prevent soil-borne disease to take over the field. Extra care in irrigating the land should be correctly observed. Procure drains and water pump. Make it ready during the time of rainy days or to be used to remove accumulated concentration of water in the field during irrigation.

During hot and dry weather, water the plants to replace the moisture lost in evaporation. This is also to remove the accumulation of salts in the soil that can affect the growing plants. Frequent irrigation is necessary to maximize the development of fern during hot weather condition especially when the fern is in maximum size.

Stop irrigation during wet season. Moisture level in the soil is enough for its growth. After the first harvest, water the field as the fern growth will increase to be more productive. Avoid cutting back the water distribution abruptly. It causes the reduction of the spear yield and the size of the plants during the next harvest. Soil moisture should be maintained before harvest. After enough harvest is done, water requirements to the field will slowly reduce.

Weeding is necessary to protect the plants during period of growth. Weed prevention is costly if not taken seriously. The plants will be in constant threat. Remove the weeds by cultivating the raised beds. This is to allow the furrows and rows of plants weeds-free. In choosing a field for planting, it is most recommended to look an area that is easy to handle to remove weed concentration. Constant cultivation of the field will ensure that the pre-emergence of weeds are controlled.

Before the schedule planting, irrigate the entire field to allow the weeds to germinate. After its germination, start the final cultivation. Apply post-emergence herbicide to the soil then starts the transplanting. Another weeds control can be done before the start of first harvest. Apply pre-emergence herbicide during the cutting period. The effect of the herbicide is effective by watering the entire field.

Sort out a way to protect the growing spears against the wind. If affects its spear growth as it bends nearer to the ground. Wind barriers made of polyethylene plastic sheets will do. Tie to wood and bamboo poles. Wind can dry-out the cells on the side of the spear thereby losing its marketable appearance.

The use of herbicides and fungicides should be done based on manufacturer’s direction and rate of proper application to be effective. Use insecticides to eradicate army worms, aphids, cutworms and others. Use fungicides to prevent the common disease to harm the plants like fusarium wilt and root rot. Late prevention will cause the reduction of the size of the spear and low-yielding ability.

The effect of the disease to the plants is minimized by selecting good and tolerant variety of asparagus. The seeds planted in the nursery are pure, clean and healthy. That one year crowns were raised in a field free from soil-borne diseases. That good irrigation practice is applied.

An infected soil has damaging effect to young growing plants. It causes stunted growth and easily withered. The plants are unhealthy without any chance to have better yield. Avoid excessive harvesting of matured asparagus in order to prevent weakening the stand of the crown easy for the disease to control.

Most of the diseases in the field are the result of excessive irrigation, repeated heavy rainfall and poor drainage system. Accumulated water in the furrow below the raised beds will harbor many kinds of diseases. Proper and effective control of the soil-borne diseases can be done by good sanitation. 

Remove all infected plants from the field and destroy or burn them. There should be wide row spacing easy for mobility and cultivation. There should be a good irrigation system that can remove excess water in the field. One good remedy is to construct small internal drainage canals in between the rows of plant as an outlet for water-logging.

Once the planting field of asparagus is established, a yearly application of phosphorus and potassium is recommended. Based on soil analysis, effective application of right fertilizer can be done better. Application of fertilizer will depend on soil condition and the physical growth of the plants. If the plants are unhealthy, application of fertilizer is mostly needed.

Broadcast foliar fertilizer to the plants based on the established rate of application. Application of complete fertilizer (14-14-14) NPK has wider benefits to have robust and healthy plants. Whatever deficiency the soil has should be restored by the application of proper fertilization activity during the early growing period of asparagus. Any visible sign of soil deficiency should be attended to. 

The yield and size of the spear will show how fertile is the soil. Consult an expert agriculturist in your area that can give additional knowledge to restore soil deficiency accordingly and effectively.

Chop matured ferns in the field and placed in the bed in bunches for transport to designated shade or storage area. Cut the spears in an angle near the surface of the soil. Do the cutting early in the morning to avoid stress of the cut spears especially in hot weather. Cut the spears 10 inches long. This will subject to another cut of 9 inches when packed.

Use cutting knife intended for asparagus harvesting. Cutting is done manually. Harvest the spears early in the season every 3 days. Cutting during warm weather will do (not hot) and done daily after the initial cutting. Any deformed spears in unmarketable size should be removed to allow regrowth for marketable grade.

Don’t harvest the spears in the bed for too long. It should be done fast to avoid feathering. It will reduce carbohydrates contents in the crown.

Sort out all the hauled spears in the shade.  Conduct   grading, trimming, cooling and then packing ready for transport to market. Cool the harvested spears immediately after the initial and succeeding harvest to avoid toughening. Any delay will result to soft rot on the tip of the spear and started to decay.

Avoid placing the spears in high temperature area in order to preserve its natural sugar, freshness, flavor and stored vitamins. Extra care should be observed during harvesting to avoid error in cutting or unintentional trampling of plants.

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.

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.

MUNGBEAN PRODUCTION GUIDE

It can be grown during wet and dry seasons except in areas with heavy rainfall. The plants can thrive well in any soil type but yields are better from deep, well-drained and fertile soils. Acidic soils affect the growth of the plants due to lacking of essential nutrients.

Practice complete land preparation in an upland condition. Plow it twice and harrow twice with four passings in one harrowing after plowing. Make furrows 60 and 70 centimeters apart for the dry and wet season.

In the lowland areas, you can plant the mungbeans after the harvest of rice. No need for land preparation in order to conserve the needed moisture before the planting. See to it that the areas for planting is not weedy enough.

Plant in rows to make weeding easier. Space the plant in rows about 55 to 70 centimeters. Fertilization will depend on the kind of soil and the presence of required nutrients. It is recommended to apply fertilizer based on 30-30-30 kilograms of NPK per hectare.

It does not require any irrigation if planted during wet season. Removed all weeds from the field for at least 1-1/2 weeks during emergence of seedlings. You can do handweeding during the first week when the seedling emerged. Do the hilling-up in the third to fourth week. Spot weeding is necessary to remove fast growing weeds. Maybe 2-3 weedings is needed to get a good yield.

They were proned to beanfly damaged and aphids and other pests as the plant matures. Assess the damaged and do the necessary measures by the application of insecticides. If diseases hit the plants then remove the infected plants. Apply fungicides to control disease occurrence.

Harvest mungbean by hand as soon as 80% of the pods are fully dried. Harvest it 60 days from crop emergence. Harvest 2nd time 15 days after the first priming.

Dry pods in the sun then thresh by beating the pods inside a sack with a wooden stick. Dry the seeds further for 3 days until it can reach a moisture level of 12 percent to facilitate longer storage.

JACKFRUIT PRODUCTION GUIDE

It is an off-season fruits. The producer can remove all the flowers that appear in December and January. New flowers will come out in July or August can be harvested in November and December. To produce multiple trunks, usually six or more main branches, the main trunk is cut 50 centimeters above the ground. This is to encourage the formation of multiple branches. This open the center of the tree for better light penetration and air movement. During maturity, regular pruning is carried out to remove sprouts and diseased branches. Some of the trees are top cut higher than one meter above the ground and branches are formed spreading all around. All the big branches are potential bearers.

It needs adequate water to develop properly, especially during the first few years from planting. At the same time, it requires good drainage. During the first two years, watering should be done regularly because jack fruit is sensitive to water stress. The plants should be watered whenever a 1cm depth of the soil surface around it become dry. Water is also needed during its mature stage to promote heavy flowering and fruit set. Adequate moisture is also needed for proper fruit development and for better quality fruits.

There are instances when there is overcrowding of fruits. Some of the fruits may be harvested when they are still young and sold for vegetable purposes. When the excess fruits are thinned out, the remaining fruits will develop more properly.

While the fruit tree grows in almost all kinds of soil, high yields are obtained in well-drained, deep, alluvial soils. It is planted at a distance of either 8m x 8m or 10m x 10m The plants are either inter-crop with other fruit trees or planted as a mono crop.

It is recommended that the application of 11 kilos of chemical fertilizer per tree of bearing age annually. This amount is split into three applications. Four kilos of 9-24-24 are applied before flowering: 4 kilos of 15-15-15 after fruits setting: and 3 kilos of 8-24-24 a month before fruit maturity.

The above fertilizers are supplemented by the application of decayed animal manure at the rate of 30 to 50 kilos per tree per year. Foliar fertilizer (10-52-15), is also sprayed three times a year at a fruiting stage.

Fruit borer and fruitfly are common pests of jackfruit. The damage of these pests could be controlled by bagging the fruits individually when they are about 250 to 300 grams. Leafhopper is controlled by insecticides. The most destructive disease of jackfruit is phytophthora which attacks from the ground. The disease can be treated with fungicides.

The disease can also be minimized by wider spacing, removal of low-growing branches, regular weeding, and keeping the trees well-nourished and adequately watered.

PAPAYA PRODUCTION GUIDE

Experience showed that papaya grows best in light and well-dried soils. It should be rich in organic matter for the plant to grow faster. There are some limitation.They do not grow well on certain clay soil which lack of good aeration and are poorly drained with water. Those papaya grown in that kind of soil become spindly and stunted, and produce less fruits during the duration of their fruiting season. Sub-soiling is necessary. Papaya will grow on any type of soil as long as this is not poorly drained or does not easily dry up during hot season.

The soil must have a good supply of available nutrients. This nutrients is important for their growth and development. Papaya can grow best on soils with pH ranging from 5.6 to 7.0.

Papaya is a tropical fruit crop. It prefers warm areas with abundant rainfall or good irrigation. An average daily temperature ranging from 21' to 33'C is ideal for robust growth. It can tolerate higher temperatures. The soil should have adequate moisture. In cool weather condition it reduces growth and yield. further, it can affect its fruit flavor. Too much coolness and humid nights can cause the fruits to mature slowly and even has low quality fruits.

In order to provide suitable soil condition, thoroughly prepared the area to be planted with papaya. Clean the field, plow and harrow alternately two or three times to kill the weeds and provides good internal drainage. Plant at distances ranging from two to three meters, depending on the variety. This is to avoid close concentration of each tree.

It can be planted by direct seeding in the field. Place five or more seeds in each hole. Cover with one fourth inch of soil. If you sow fresh seeds, it will germinate 10 to 14 days after planting. Seeds germinate better and faster by removing the gelatinous envelopes surrounding them. You can use your fingers. It can be done easily.

Do the thinning of the seedlings planted directly in the field four to six weeks after emergence. Leave only three of the strongest seedlings in each hole. Save the plants that are spaced far enough from one another. The purpose is to avoid overcrowding hampering its growth.

Do the second and final thinning in the field when flowers appear. This is usually four to six months after seed germination. At this stage, leave only three trees to the planting hole. This is the ideal thinning method.

Establish a windbreaks. It is necessary in areas where strong winds prevail. It can control damages to the full grown trees. Space the strips of windbreaks at a distance of 21 to 29 times the height of windbreaks trees. If the winds come in different directions and angles, it is necessary to have windbreaks half as close.
to the trees. A good windbreak is not necessarily a solid wall against the wind. A permeable windbreaks allows some of the air to pass through.

Application of fertilizer starts at seed planting or seedling transplanting in the field. Mix a handful (five to 10 grams) of a complete fertilizer (14-14-14) with the soil at the bottom of each hole before planting. As the papaya seedling grows larger, apply more fertilizer. Apply 60 grams of ammonium sulfate as soon as the plants are well established especially when it shows new growth. Apply the same amount at six-week intervals until the plants are one year old. Thereafter, apply 225 grams of ammonium sulfate to each plant every three months. Apply 450 grams of super phosphate per plant at the start of the rainy season each year. If this application done strictly, it can protect the plants from undergrowth that will affect its good fruiting ability.

Doing weed control by the use of mechanical and chemical means is advisable when the papaya plants are less than one-and-a-half meters in height. Use a hand weeding about one meter around the base of the trunk.

Among the most common pests are red spider mites and fruit fly. Control it with chemicals. To prevent fruit fly, harvest fruits at the mature green stage. The common disease are fruit rot, blossom-end spot. It can be controlled by spraying chemicals. Burn all infected fruits and leaves as soon as the disease is noted.

Handle the fruits properly during the harvesting period and during packing. Remove infected fruits to prevent contaminating the rest. Apply proper fungicides.

Fruits are ready for harvesting when it shows a definite yellow-orange tinge in the apex of blossom-end regions of the plant. It is advisable to pick the fruits when they are still in the firm, semi ripe state to avoid more damages. Use cottom gloves when harvesting so as to lessen thumb and fingers bruising. Harvest by twisting the fruit until its stalks snaps off the plant.