Grafted Ampalaya Gives Extra 10 Harvests
(source: www.agrizaccess.com)
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| In foreground is Myrna Ramirez who can graft 800 seedlings in 8 hours. Behind her is Ailyn Infortuno, the lead woman in the grafting operations at East-West. |
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| Newly grafted ampalaya seedlings. |
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| Rootstocks ready for grafting |
THE LATEST development in growing ampalaya (bitter gourd) is grafting. That’s what they
are doing at the Farm Ready Nursery of East-West Seed Company in San Rafael,
Bulacan.
The technique was started to be
commercialized last year and is now becoming increasingly popular. During our
recent visit to the nursery, technicians were busy grafting thousands of
seedlings that have been ordered by growers in Nueva Ecija and Southern Luzon.
Although the grafted seedlings cost P17 each
compared to the P4 to P5 per piece of the ungrafted seedlings, there are
farmers who would rather plant the grafted ones.
Why? Because the grafted seedlings are more
robust and more tolerant to stresses such as bacterial wilt disease, too much
water or too dry conditions. According to Ailyn Infortuno, the lead woman in
the grafting operations, the grafted seedlings have a much longer productive
life. Usually, the ungrafted seedlings normally produce 18 to 20 harvests per
cycle. In the case of the grafted ampalaya, the grower can expect 10 extra
harvests.
East-West uses as rootstock a certain variety
of cucurbit (cucurbits include upo, patola, cucumber, watermelon and the like)
that the company would rather keep to itself.
In grafting, a small biodegradable rubber
tube is used to keep the point of union in place. The seed of the rootstock is
planted ahead by four days. When the rootstock is 12 days old it is ready for
grafting. By then the scion would be eight days old.
The seedlings are grown in plastic trays with
104 holes. Once grafting is done, the tray of grafted seedlings is placed in a
healing chamber that’s fully enclosed inside the greenhouse. They stay inside
the chamber for four days. After that, the grafted seedlings are transferred to
another chamber which is opened every two hours to let air inside. That is one
way of hardening the plants. Ten days after grafting, the seedlings are ready
for field planting.
Ampalaya is one of the most profitable
vegetables to grow although it requires more capital than others. A total of
P300,000 to P500,000 may be required as capital per hectare because of the high
cost of planting materials, trellising materials, plastic mulch, fertilizers
and crop protection chemicals. Nevertheless, with the right production
techniques such as those practiced by Gabby Retuya of Bautista, Pangasinan, one
can produce 30 to 35 tons per hectare. At an average of P30 per kilo, the 30
tons would be worth P900,000. There are times when the farmgate price is more
than P50 per kilo. In that case, the profit would be very high, indeed.
By the way, the different vegetables being
propagated by East-West Seed will be showcased during the celebration of the
company’s 30th anniversary on December 12. These include, new sitao
varieties, squash, papaya, sweet corn, tomato, eggplant, cucumber, upo, patola,
hot and sweet peppers, onion, watermelon and others.
During the anniversary, 30 outstanding
vegetable producers who are planting East-West seeds will be honored.
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| The grafted seedlings are ready for field planting ten days after they are grafted. |
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