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Growing Ampalaya

By goGreen | January 5, 2012
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TECHNOLOGY OPTION 1

For Crop Establishment

1. Soaking

    • To activate the seeds, soak the seeds overnight. Drain the water in the morning and wrap the seeds in moist clean cloth. Keep the cloth moist until the seeds start to crack open.

2. Sowing

    • Sow the seeds 2 cm deep at a spacing of 100 cm within row and 150 cm between rows.
    • It is suggested that certain number of seeds be sown in plastic bags or seedling trays. Missing hills are replaced right away with seedlings of the same age. Transplant on cloudy days or late in the afternoon.

3. Trellising

    • Start putting up trellis when the plants are about 15 cm high. Do not delay the trellising because the plants climb very fast. Train the vines regularly by tying the vines on the trellis. Use ipil ipil as post because it may last for two seasons at a distance of 3×3 m. A stronger GI wire as main frame is needed. Use big post at the edges of the field and at a regular interval inside the field.

4. Cultivation

 

    • Cultivation is recommended to have good aeration for the root. However, deep cultivation should be avoided.

 

For nutrient Management

Ampalaya responds well to organic fertilizer. At planting time, basal application of 300 g of compost and 30 g of complete fertilizer per hill should be done. Thirty days after the first application, do the first side dressing of 20 g Urea and 15 g Muriate of Potash per hill. Repeat side dressing every 25 days.

For Pest Management

1. Fruitfly – lay eggs on the young fruits. The eggs later hatch into a small worm that starts eating inside the fruits.

Recommendation

      1. Remove all damaged fruits from the field and bury them
      2. Spray only after the removal of damaged fruits with recommended insecticides
      3. Wrap young fruits with newspaper or plastic bags to prevent fruitflies from laying their eggs on the fruits.

 

2. Thrips – small crawling insect on the lower side of the leaves.

Recommendation

      1. Spray insecticides at night (8:00pm), insects hide during daytime.
      2. If the attack is severe, spray for 3 consecutive nights; each time with different chemical.

3. Caterpillars- worms eating shoot tips and leaves.

Recommendation

  1. Spray with recommended insecticides.
  2. Neem leaves extract.

4. Aphids – small black colored insects that feed on the shoot tips and stem.

Recommendation

      1. Spray with recommended insecticides.
      2. Spray botanical insecticides like neem leaves (500 g leaves pounded and soaked overnights to 1 liter of water).

 

5. Downy mildew – most common diseases of ampalaya. The symptoms are usually small and big spots on green and yellow leaves.

Recommendation

    1. Spraying with fungicide is a preventive measure.

 

Alternative Pest Management

Use mixture of powder soap and kerosene gas as spray on several insects like aphids and thrips. Amarillo is an insect repellant that could be planted in-between rows of ampalaya plants.

Source

Package of Technology of Different Vegetable Crops: Technology Generation and Dissemination for the Growth and Development of Vegetable Industry.2005.DA-RFU 4A& Bureau of Agricultural Research, Diliman Quezon City.

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Topics: Crops & Vegetables, Farming Methods | No Comments »

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