How To Plant Eggplant Seeds In The Philippines

Eggplant is largely grown in Asia, Philippines and mostly in the eastern part of the world. In Philippines, an egg plant is known as talong which is also one of their tasty cuisine and delicacy. It can be prepared fried, roasted, cooked and mixed alongside other vegetables popularly known as Ilocano dish pinkabet and dinengdeng.

The egg plant is a rich source of vitamins, fiber and other essential nutrients which also contain oxidants that helps the body system fight against disease. The production of egg plants in Philippines accounts for over 28 percent of the total production of vegetables grown in the country which makes it one of the major sources of income for the small local farming communities.

It is among the leading plant vegetable planted in the country. An average of 21,225 hectares is reserved for egg plant production. The Philippine egg plant is long, slender or slightly curved. The egg plant itself is smooth and violet in color with green hues at the bottom of the fruit plant. One of the major setbacks that affects the production off egg plants in Philippine is extreme weather conditions.

We are going to look at how egg plants are grown from seed in the Philippines:

As earlier stated, egg plant production is one of the country’s leading plant production, which is to say that the planting of egg plants is very common and easy to cultivate for most farmers over there.

1. The first step is to prepare the site for the planting of the egg plants and prepare the land early for planting by clearing the site of dirt’s and debris, you can also plow the soil ahead and harrow them to break up the soil in preparation for planting. This will help for proper soil aeration.
2. Another thing that is needed is the climatic condition that favours the egg plants. This is because egg plants grow well in sandy loamy or clay loamy soil.
3. The soil Ph is also another thing to consider which should range from 5.5 to about 6.8.

Read also: Learn how long it takes Eggplant to grow from seeds to harvest

HOW TO PLANT AND GROW THE SEEDS

Since they produce their egg plants in large production these are the simple basic steps to follow when you want to plant your egg plants in Philippine:

1. Firstly for your seed preparation, select varieties that are high yielding and are not easily prone to disease.
2. The next thing is to choose a site area that has full exposure to sunlight and good drainage.
3. Then what you need to put in place is to construct your seed beds and when constructing them you can make your seedbed to be high.
4. The reason for the seedbed is because the egg plant seeds are so tiny and small and can be easily carried away by water and even ants. That is why it is best advised to make the seed beds high.
5. You can also sterilize the seed beds before planting them to kill weeds and other diseases that may be present in the soil before planting.
6. Prepare your seeds by soaking the Eggplant seeds overnight in a container of water, and then you can plant them directly into the soil.
7. Then prepare them in rows and sow them evenly. Then cover the planting hole and wet the soil.

Read also: Learn About The Eggplant Growing Stages

THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR WHEN GROWING EGGPLANT IN THE PHILIPPINES

1. Protect them from excessive or too much sunlight.
2. Apply fertilizers to the plants.
3. During the wet season you can use irrigation system after you have applied fertilizer.
4. You can also prune the plants to remove excess leaves.
5. Harvest fruits when they are still young.
6. Also consider watering the plant consistently and moderately.
7. Pests and diseases: One of the major diseases that affect the planting off egg plant production in Philippines is the Egg plant fruit and shoot borer (FSB). It causes a lot of damages to the eggplants and accounts for one of the major loss to egg plant farmers. This has prompted most farmers to do a common practice of spreading insecticides on the plants daily in order to curb the disease infestation.
8. Practice of crop rotation or intercropping also helps to curb diseases.
9. Immediately remove and destroy any infected crop.
10. Use of insecticides can also help to curb the spread of disease.
11. You can also use net barriers to protect the plant from pests.
12. Due to the extreme weather condition over there, there may be need to protect the plant from excessive rain or sunshine.

Read also: Learn About Eggplant Growing Problems

Conclusion

I hope you find this article helpful. I would like to hear from you. So, let me know if you have any questions about growing Eggplant in the Philippines.

References

1. Business Dairy pH “Eggplant Production Guide” retrieved from here