More Farmers Go For Longkong

ZAC B. SARIAN

November 30, 2012, 3:24pm

MORE PEOPLE GOING FOR LONGKONG LANZONES — An increasing number of fruit farmers are going for Longkong lanzones for a number of good reasons. Unlike mango, it does not require a lot of chemical sprays such as flower inducer, insecticides and ...

An increasing number of fruit farmers are discovering the advantages of growing Longkong lanzones instead of mango for a number of good reasons.

One of them is Mrs. Myrna Paredes of Medina, Misamis Oriental, whom we met recently at the mango congress in Mandaue City. She sounded rather frustrated with her mango trees because, she says, it is very expensive to make them productive. There are lots of pests and diseases that have to be prevented or controlled on time.

One has to spray flower inducer to coax the trees to bear flowers. And if a rainshower overtakes the flowers, you might as well bid goodbye to the fruiting if you can’t spray the right pesticide on time. Even if you can spray to save the flowers and fruits, one cannot be sure if the crop would be profitable because it is possible that the cost of spraying and other costs could not be covered by the proceeds from the sale of the fruits.

She confessed that this time she will be planting more Longkong lanzones, the variety from Thailand that is usually seedless, sweet and without latex.

Mrs. Paredes related she had 16 very fruitful Longkong trees in her farm this year. She sold her fruits at P92 per kilo and was able to realize P14,720 which means that each 10-year-old Longkong tree gave her P920. And the good thing is, she said, she did practically nothing except to apply some fertilizers. She did not have to spray the trees to induce them to bear flowers. Neither did she spray the trees against pests and diseases.

Another lady farmer who is very excited about Longkong as well as Duku (another imported variety of lanzones that is also outstanding) is Mrs. Naty Abrigo who has a 28-hectare orchard in Calauan, Laguna. This year, she had a bumper crop of Longkong which she was able to sell to just one buyer at P150 per kilo. Mrs. Abrigo said that her buyer had asked her not to sell to anybody else. The lady buyer works for a government agency but is active in selling fruits in a weekend market in Quezon City.

Mrs. Abrigo who has over a thousand native lanzones and a smaller number of Longkong and Duku is very excited about her lanzones project because she has observed that vermicompost has been largely responsible for her bumper crop. Now, she is expanding her production of vermicompost. The vermicompost beds are situated under her rambutan trees.

Another Longkong enthusiast who has so far planted several hundreds of grafted seedlings is Joaquin Ostrea, a provincial board member of La Union. His orchard is in Balaoan town.

A retired colonel is also starting a Longkong and Duku plantation in Oriental Mindoro. He has just purchased 150 grafted seedlings from a nursery in Teresa, Rizal and has indicated that in a few weeks he will be back for more planting materials.

In Aurora province, Sen. Angara is also planting a lot of Longkong and Duku lanzones. A few months back, he bought about five hundred grafted seedlings as well as 600 latexless jackfruit.

Another Longkong and Duku enthusiast is retired Gen. Recaredo Sarmiento who has a farm resort in Lucena City and a big farm in Gasan, Marinduque. Lately, he was very excited about his Duku tree in Lucena which bore a lot of fruits after spraying it with the Heavy Weight Tandem fertilizer formulation of Alfonso J. Puyat. He reported that soon after he harvested the fruits of his Duku tree last August 30, the same tree produced new flowers which could be ready for harvest this coming Christmas.

There are a number of good reasons why it is advantageous to plant grafted Longkong and Duku lanzones instead of mango or some other fruit trees. For one, more trees can be planted per hectare than mango. Distancing could be between 6 and 8 meters whereas the latest recommendation for mango is 12 to 14 meters apart.

If given the right cultural practices, grafted trees could start bearing fruit in six to seven years from field planting. Another advantage is that the fruits are saleable at a high price because of their superior eating quality.

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