Project Papaya V3.1 An Update

The 3rd batch 1st planting. The 3 Mas Solo, with fruits awaiting ripening.

Our 3rd batch of trial was started back in April and now is on the 8th month. As we plant in stages, we have tress in ranging from small to awaiting ripening. The last batch planted were in November. The 3 confirmed Mas Solos are awaiting ripening. From these 3 trees I was trace back approximately how many Mas Solo that we are having. Some of the characteristic that I had observed are, short height, sturdy fat trunks, and on the trunk where the leaves had fell off, it developed into an eye sharped marking in purple color.

2nd planting was close to our pond. The clay soil here is very hard and being a bulldozed ground, there were no top soil. We had quite a number of plants dying off, due to the drought. Some were replaced many times yet still not successful. There are only about 15 trees here, and of various stage of growth. I find that this the most challenging area as the ground and weather was at it most unfavorable condition. Even though it was close to the pond, the pond dried up during drought season.

3rd planting was at the most fertile ground, and close to the creek. Unfortunately as with the pond, it dried during drought. We have about 20 trees here and all of them are waiting to ripe. The trees have quite some fruits, but unfortunately due to the drought, quite a numbers are irregularly shaped and not fully developed. We shall most probably sell these off as green papaya or use the fruits for seeds. Most of the trees here are Mas Solo.

4th planting was done, inter-cropping with pumpkins. We had initial watering problem and many died during the drought. Here we ran into weeding management as there were pumpkins too. With the pumpkin harvested and out of the way, things got simpler. We did plenty replanting. This area is the largest and were split into 2 part, lower and upper. The lower section were planted first. The variety here are mostly from our local mother tree, and some maybe even Kampung variety. We may have up to about 200 trees here.

5th planting was done along the access road, just behind the row of Berangan banana. Again due to the drought, there were plenty replacement. Some of the trees here are Mas solo. After this planting, we continued to plant here and there, where we find any idle land, or land that is not fertile. As papaya can withstand 'hot' fertilizer. We use lots of chicken dungs on our papayas. We had also transferred close to 300 papayas into Parcel 1. Lately most of these are for replacement.

We had stopped propagating papayas at the moment as we had lots of unhealthy seedlings lately. Not sure if it's due to the seed source or nursery bed. Another reason is that we are waiting for the Mas Solo to ripe and propagate them. We hope the Mas Solo taste sweet and is accepted by the market. We hope that the fruits shall ripe soon, germinate and transplant just before the the dry season.

Powdery mildew.

Checked with the agriculture department the other day as they were running an incentive scheme for fruits & vegetable. Unfortunately we do not qualify. Looks like we shall have to do it on our own.

The initial 30 plants, the productivity has dropped and we has lesser harvest. We are getting lesser ripe fruits as we are harvesting green papayas too. Those that are irregularly shaped, we harvest it as green papaya. The pricing is only half the ripe papaya.

1 papaya tree were heavily infested by Powdery mildew. Had it washed down with fresh water, removing almost all of the Powdery mildew. Shall give it some fungicide soon.

Trunk of Mas Solo.

Supposedly to e non seasonal, I find that there is a growth period, and a flowering period, hence fruiting period. It's probably depending on the weather (temperature and rain). This affects our production, a period with fruits, and a period with no fruit. Am thinking if we can control the fruiting to regular basis. Maybe irrigation helps.

Stay tune for more updates.

Trunk of the normal Papaya.

 

Failed Grafting

Came back to my farm on the 3rd December 2012, after attending MAHA 2012 and spent some time home with my family. Finished checking on all my grafting, Avocado, Jackfruit and Rubber trees.

My blistered hand, after a week of treatment with moisturizer.

Avocado, I did about 140 plants. I now have 20 plants that I feel is good. 40 plants that is budding and 20 plants on a 'maybe'. Those that I feel is good, I've loosen the grafting tapes and plastic bags. The budding and 'maybe' plants, I had remove the tie on the plastic bag, hoping to reduce the humidity. Removed weeds and those unwanted buds on the rootstock. This is to "force" the grafted buds to grow.

For those failed plants, I had put them aside. I find that maybe half of them can be reused, some need time to regrow and some totally 'dead'. I consider this as another failed run as I am targeting a 85% successive rate.

The failed Avocados.

Jackfruit, I did about 90 plants. Have 10 budding, and 4 'maybe'. I thought Jackfruit was the 'easier' one and I was totally wrong. Maybe it's due to the latex?

From the failed plants, I find that most of the scion dried and even rotted. Am still trying to diagnose what went wrong. Too young  rootstock? Wrong Technique? Bad scion? Too much tension on the grafting tape? From the failed plants I had quite a high numbers totally 'dead'. Another failed run.

The failed Jackfruits & Rubber trees.

Rubber trees. I did 6 of them, all failed. I tried 2 side veneer, 1 T-bud and 2 bark graft. This maybe be most probably due to the not so fresh scion. The scion was taken from our Parcel 3 and was left for a day ( water soak) before grafting. There were no damage to all the 6 plants, other than the part on the graft not "taking".

Guess I on the next coming week, shall savage the failed Avocado first as I feel that I have improvement on the Avocado.

Stay tune for more updates.

MAHA 2012 / A Typical Trip Home.

MAHA 2012

An Apps to identify the Rubber Tree Clone.

Malaysian Agriculture, Horticulture and Agro-tourism 2012.

Attended this exposition as it’s only held once in 2 years. On the previous visit back in 2010, I was just too fresh and didn’t know what to look for. 

A typical trip for me to Kuala Lumpur incur a long traveling time. Have to wake up early, like 5.30 am. Make my way to town, take the first express bus at 7.00 am. Another bus is at 8, but to be on the safe side, I usually takes the 1^st trip as I do not want to miss my flight. It takes about 3 hours for the express bus to go to the city Kota Kinabalu from Keningau. The airport is along the traveling route before the city and I usually arrange with the driver to drop me off at the nearest bus stop. The airport in Kota Kinabalu has 2 sides, KKIA, Kota Kinabalu International Airport and LCT Tg. Aru, Low Cost Terminal Tanjung Aru. Both involve a walk from the main road. KKIA being closer to the main road, it’s just a 10 minutes’ walk. LCT Tg. Aru is much further from the main road, a longer 30 minutes’ walk. Tanjung Aru town is along the route and I usually stop there for a break as most of the time I’m early. Have a rest, a cup of tea before proceeding.

Contract Farming.

Waiting time at the airport is also quite long, advance check-in like 45 minutes before the gate close, custom clearance, waiting to board. Being air conditioned, it’s still acceptable. My flight is usually in the afternoon, 2.00 pm. Flight time is about 2 hours 45 minutes. As usual, to disembark takes about 45 minutes.

A 15 minutes walk to express bus station to catch a bus to the city. If I miss the bus, then I shall have to wait for another half hour. Usually with the after office hours rush, a normal 1 hour 15 minutes journey can at times get extended to 2 and a half if it rain. From the city in Kuala Lumpur, I take the LRT train home. Arrange for a pick-up at the nearest LRT station. By the time I reach home, it most probably about 7.30 pm.

Attended Maha 2012 the next morning, it open at 10.00 am. Parking was a mess as we were given the run about to the assigned car park. A short 10 minutes’ walk took care of that. Started with Hall A, B then C. It then started to rain. I only manage to visit a few booths that interest me. I find that most of the booths are geared towards the public, rather than commercial farming. Also I find quite a large numbers of exhibitor that is not that relevant. I see booths selling irrelevant books, clothing, food, and even ladies accessories.

As other halls are quite far from these, open concept and with the rain, I just finish off the agro-bazaar, bought some durians and went off. This trip felt a bit disappointed.

Manage to visit the bigger exhibit, mainly Government establishment. Some of the stuff that interest me is a company incorporating solar energy to farming and Post harvesting management. Manage to speak to a Roselle manufacture and there may be a lead for supplying / contract framing. The problem for me is that our farm is in Sabah and their facility is in Peninsular.  Bought some publications off MARDI and collected some catalogs hopping that these maybe be of use to me.

Solar powered insect zapper.

Coating for post harvesting.

Hydroponic

Rain guard system.

Hope the next exhibition is better.