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BY JULIO P. YAP JR.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2017
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RATOONING can make mature okra (Abelmoscus esculentus L.) plants to be productive again.
Angelou Toledo Calope, a graduating agriculture student at the De La Salle Araneta University in Salikneta Farm, Upper Ciudad Real, City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, found out that ratooned mature okra plants fertilized with vermicompost and supplemented with a foliar fertilizer through different methods and rate of application produced viable results.
Ratooning is a method that involves pruning the plants back to several inches above the soil line to encourage new growth with reinvigorated flowering and pod production.
Results of the study conducted by Calope showed that application of Amino Plus Foliar Fertilizer, either through foliar spraying or soil drenching that supplemented the vermicompost, induced flowering within 21 days after ratooning or cutting of the matured okra plants.
Likewise, ratooned okra plants significantly produced the highest marketable yield per plot.
In his study, Calope used a single factor experiment with five treatments and three replications arranged in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) in an area of about 50 square meters of land that was previously planted with okra.
Calope used six-month-old okra plants in his study.
He says the mature okra plants were pruned to about 20-cm from the soil base using a pruning shear.
Right after pruning, each experimental plot, with 10 ratooned okra plants, was applied with 10 kilograms of vermicompost which was computed from a recommended rate.
Some two weeks after pruning, Calope used Amino Plus Foliar Fertilizer to supplement the vermicompost by foliar spraying and soil drenching methods.
Succeeding applications of Amino Plus foliar fertilizer following the methods and rates of application were done every seven days interval for the three-month production period of ratooned okra.
After the ratooned became productive and started to bear fruits, harvesting was done usually during the morning or late afternoon to prevent the fruits from water stress.
The harvested fruits were sorted to separate the marketable from the non-marketable yield per plot.
Harvesting of fruits was done, on a daily basis, for three months.
Calope says that based on statistical analysis, the treatment he used on his ratooned okra plants showed a significant result.
Noticeably, he says that the ratooned plants that were treated with Amino Plus Foliar Fertilizer, as supplement to vermicompost, produced flowers after 21 days.
This is three days earlier than the other ratooned okra plants that were treated with just plain vermicompost which started to produce flowers after 24 days.
The result clearly indicates that the simultaneous flowering of ratooned okra plants might be due to the additional nutrients provided by Amino Plus Foliar Fertilizer to the nutrients are available from the vermicompost.
Calope says that the important role of microorganisms present in both vermicompost and Amino Plus Foliar Fertilizer favored in the production of more assimilated macronutrients, particularly Nitrogen and Phosphorus.
The micronutrients, which contributed to the proper nutrition of the experimental plants, resulted in the production of longer and bigger fruits that were harvested from the ratooned okra plants./PN
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