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TIPS IN BUYING
PLANTING MATERIALS
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After spending millions for the
land, fence, rest house and other structures, the
orchard grower would probably think of buying cheap
planting materials because his budget is already
exhausted.
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The low-priced seedlings will
also grow well, especially if they are the native
variety. He will have the "shock" of his life, when
the fruits turn sour instead of the variety
guaranteed by the seller of the seedlings. His
orchard dream farm will then become a nightmare.
This usually happens when an orchard grower is
influenced
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and deceived by the sweet sales talk
of the sources of cheap but inferior seedlings who are
mostly middlemen. No amount of publicity will make an
inferior variety produce superior quality fruits
There are
even nurseries with no mother plant fool customers by
cutting the seedling and grafting the top of the same
plant. The seedlings will then appear as grafted plants
and the nursery operator will pass it off as asexually
propagated seedlings which command a price higher than
seedlings which are not manipulated. If female, the
manipulated seedlings will also bear fruits for a long
period, as in the case of rambutan and lychee, but
expect it to be inferior varieties. There is no outright
possibility that it will produce commercial quality
fruits, not to mention that it will also grow slowly.
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In
buying citrus varieties like
pummelo,
oranges and
calamansi, see to it that the point of union
otherwise known as the budding or grafting point, is
more than six inches above the base of the
rootstock. Low budding point is very susceptible to
foot rot disease, the number one killer of citrus in
the country.
Further, the rootstock must be compatible with the
scion. Meaning, a pummelo must be grafted only with
pummelo seedlings and not the calamandarin rootstock
which is two to three times smaller than the first.
In case calamandarin is substituted, make sure that
the rootstock is double to overcome incompatibility.
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