Paano Magtanim ng Kamoteng Kahoy: How to Plant Cassava the Traditional Way
Paano magtanim ng kamoteng kahoy? Here is how traditional Filipino farmers usually plant kamoteng kahoy (cassava), step by step from getting the field ready to the harvest, with the day of each step and what to change for a higher yield.
This guide shows how traditional farmers usually plant kamoteng kahoy. Use it as a starting point. For a higher yield, update it: plant certified seed or clean planting material, test your soil, and follow the right spacing and fertilizer.
How Filipino farmers usually grow kamoteng kahoy from stem stakes, from plowing to digging the roots after seven to twelve months. For upland and backyard growers who plant it for the table, for feed or for starch, and want to see what to improve.
Before you plant, get the field ready with our land preparation guide for root crops. Then choose your seed or planting material with the kamoteng kahoy varieties sold here. If the leaves turn pale later on, the kamoteng kahoy nutrient deficiency guide helps you find what is missing.
When to plant kamoteng kahoy
Cassava can be planted in any month as long as the soil stays moist for the first four to five weeks. Most farmers plant as the rains begin, around May to July, so the stakes root on the rains. Where rain falls through most of the year, planting goes on in many months.
What you plant
Stem stakes (tangkay) cut from healthy, pest free plants at least 8 months old. Farmers take the thicker lower and middle stem, which sprouts and yields better than the top, and cut it into pieces 20 to 25 cm long with several buds, using a sharp bolo. Stakes are best planted soon after cutting. Whole stems kept in a cool, shaded place stay usable for up to about three months.
Paano magtanim ng kamoteng kahoy, step by step
The crop is ready about 270 days after planting.
Before planting (Bago magtanim)
21 days before planting: First plowing
Plow the field to turn under grass and weeds. Leave it for about a week so the buried weed seeds sprout.
14 days before planting: Second plowing
Plow again to kill the new weeds, then leave it another week. Many farmers plow a third time or harrow before planting. Tip: Choose loose soil that never stays flooded. Roots rot in waterlogged ground.
2 days before planting: Make furrows or ridges
With the carabao or tractor, open furrows or ridges about 1 m apart and work in compost or dried manure. Plant in the furrows in the dry season and on top of the ridges in the rainy season.
The nursery (Punlaan)
1 day before planting: Cut the stakes
Cut healthy mature stems into pieces 20 to 25 cm long with a sharp bolo, without crushing or splitting them. Keep stakes from the base, middle and top of the stem in separate piles and plant each pile together so the stand grows even. Tip: Mark which end is up. A stake planted upside down grows poorly.
- Choose the mother stemsTake stems from healthy plants at least 8 months old, free of mites, scale insects and leaf spots. Use the thick lower and middle part of each stem. A stem thinner than about half the thickest part of the plant, or under about 1.5 cm across, has too little stored food to start a strong plant.
- Store whole stems in the shadeup to about 3 monthsIf you cannot plant yet, keep the stems whole and uncut, standing or stacked in a cool, shaded place. Kept this way they stay good for up to about three months, but fresh stems sprout best.
- Cut the stakes to lengthWith a sharp bolo, cut the stem straight across into pieces about 20 to 25 cm long, each carrying about 5 to 7 nodes. Cut cleanly in one stroke so the bark is not crushed or split.
- Mark the top endAs you cut, note which end of each stake was nearer the top of the plant, for example with a slanted cut on top. The buds must point up when you plant.
- Keep cut stakes damp until plantingup to about 10 daysPlant cut stakes within the week. Until then, wrap the bundles in a wet sack or cloth and keep them in an airy, shaded place so they do not dry out.
Planting day (Pagtatanim)
Planting day: Plant one stake a hill
Set one stake every 75 cm along the row, buds pointing up. In wet soil or the rainy months, push it in upright with only a few cm showing. When the soil is just moist, plant at a slant. In dry soil lay the stake flat and cover it. Tip: Plant in the cool of the morning or late afternoon in hot weather.
- Poke the planting holesAlong the row, make a hole about 18 cm deep every 75 cm with a pointed stick, one stake to each hole.
- Bury most of the stakeWhen you plant upright or slanting, bury about three quarters of the stake and leave only a few centimeters with buds above the soil. A stake laid flat in dry soil is covered completely.
- Firm the soil around itPress the soil down around each stake with the foot so it stands firm and the buried nodes touch moist soil.
Planting day: Base fertilizer
If you fertilize, put complete fertilizer (14 14 14) along the row at planting and cover it lightly with soil.
Care while it grows (Pag aalaga)
Day 14: Fill the gaps
About two weeks after planting, plant fresh stakes in the holes where nothing came up.
Day 25: Off bar and weed
Three to four weeks after planting, run the plow along the sides of the rows to loosen the soil and bury the weeds, and hoe around the young plants. Some farmers plant a short crop like mungbean or peanut between the rows at this time.
Day 45: Hill up
Two to four weeks after off barring, pull soil back up around the stems, as you do for corn.
Day 60: Side dress urea and stop hoeing
About two months after planting, put urea in a band about 15 cm from the plants and water it in if the soil is dry. From now on do not hoe near the plants. Just pull or cut tall weeds so the growing roots are not hurt.
Day 120: Watch the tops and the field edges
Look for spider mites and scale insects on the leaves and stems, bunched or curled tops, leaf spots and wilting from bacterial blight, and holes dug by rats or wild pigs. Pull out and burn badly sick plants.
Day 271: Sort and sell fast
Keep the roots in the shade, sort big from small and set aside bruised ones for cooking or feed. Fresh cassava spoils within a few days, so sell, cook or dry it quickly.
- Sort as you harvestKeep the roots in the shade. Put the big, sound roots apart from the small and the bruised ones. Cook the bruised and broken roots first or give them to the animals, since they rot first.
- Carry them in basketsMove the roots in firm baskets or crates instead of sacks, because roots knocked together in a sack bruise and spoil fast.
- Store in a pit of sandkeeps about 3 monthsOn high, shaded ground that does not flood, dig a pit about 30 to 40 cm deep and about a meter wide, with a small drain at the low end for rain. Lay sound roots in layers and cover each layer with sand, or with soil that is not wet.
- Or pack them in a boxkeeps about 3 monthsLine a covered wooden box with damp, not wet, sand or wood shavings, lay the roots side by side and cover each layer the same way. Keep the boxes off the ground in a cool, dry place with air moving between them.
Harvest (Anihan)
Day 240: Dig a test plant
At about eight months, pull one or two plants to check the size of the roots. Table types are often dug at seven to eight months. Most others at eight to ten months, and some feed and starch growers wait up to a year.
Day 270: Harvest on dry soil
Cut the stem first, leaving a short piece as a handle. In loose soil pull the plant up by hand. In hard soil use a bar as a lever or run an animal drawn plow beside the row. Cut the roots off with a sharp bolo instead of breaking them. Tip: Save good mature stems in the shade for your next planting.
Watering kamoteng kahoy, stage by stage
Kamoteng kahoy is a rain crop on most farms: the stakes go in as the rains begin and the plants are rarely watered after that. Farmers with a canal or a pump water the furrows only in a dry spell during the first three months, and leave the older plants to ride out the dry season on their own. Most cassava gets no water but the rain. Where water is near, farmers on flat land run it down the furrows, and small growers pour water at each hill with a can or hose. Water in the early morning or late afternoon.
The first four to five weeks, while the stakes root and sprout. The first three months after planting, when dry soil cuts the harvest the most. Any time water stands in the field: it stunts young roots and rots the mature ones.
| Stage | When | How often | How much |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planting day | Planting day | Plant into moist soil. If the soil is dry, water the furrow right after setting the stakes | Enough to wet the soil around the buried part of the stake, then let it drain |
| Rooting and first leaves | Planting day to day 35 | Keep the soil moist. Water by furrow or at each hill when about a week passes with no rain | Wet the soil around each stake, never leave water standing in the row |
| Leafy growth | Day 35 to 90 | In dry months water by furrow when a week or more goes by without rain. Water before the urea side dressing at about two months if the soil is dry | One furrow watering that soaks the ridge, then drain |
| Roots filling | Day 90 to 240 | Rain alone is usually enough. Water only in a long drought if you have water | An occasional deep furrow watering, no standing water |
| Before digging | Day 240 to 270 | No watering. Dig when the soil is dry enough to crumble | No water |
Without irrigation. Plant as the rains begin, around May to July, so the stakes root on the rains. Plant on ridges in the rainy months and in the furrows in drier months, set the stakes upright in wet soil, at a slant when the soil is just moist, and lay them flat and covered in dry soil. Keep the field weeded in the first months and leave the cut weeds or straw between the rows to hold moisture.
In the dry season. A dry season planting needs water in its first three months: water by furrow or at the hill whenever about a week passes with no rain. After three months, older cassava takes dry spells well and needs water only in a long drought. Water when the leaves droop through the day or the young plants stop putting out new leaves.
In the rainy season. Plant on ridges and keep a drain at the low end of the field. Never plant in soil that stays flooded: waterlogging stunts the young roots and rots the mature ones. Avoid planting in the month of heaviest rain, and dig the roots before a long rainy spell if they are ready.
- Too little water: Leaves droop and fold through the day, few new leaves come out, and the lower leaves turn yellow and fall. In a long drought the plant drops most of its leaves.
- Too much water: Stakes rot without sprouting, the leaves turn pale or yellow, and the roots go soft and smell sour.
To water better for a higher yield: Where water is at hand, watering through dry spells in the first three months pays well. In one trial, full watering during droughts doubled the root yield. Drip lines along the rows give about the same yield as flooding the furrows with about half the water, and they water the cassava instead of the weeds.
Spacing, water and fertilizer for kamoteng kahoy
Spacing
Ridges or furrows about 1 m apart and stakes about 75 cm apart in the row, one stake a hill, so roughly 10,000 to 13,000 stakes a hectare.
Water
Rainfed in most farms. The stakes need moist soil for the first four to five weeks, and where there is water, farmers irrigate in dry weather during the first three months. After that cassava takes dry spells well. Flooding stunts the young roots and rots the mature ones.
Fertilizer
On fresh or fertile land many farmers put nothing. A common guide is 6 bags of complete fertilizer (14 14 14) a hectare at planting and 2 bags of urea about two months later, in a band about 15 cm from the plants. Compost or dried manure, around 50 bags a hectare, is worked in during land preparation when there is some. To read what a bag really gives, see our guide to fertilizer for this crop.
Care and harvest
Care while it grows
Weed during the first two months, off bar at three to four weeks and hill up two to four weeks later. After the second month, stop hoeing near the plants and only cut tall weeds. Short crops are often grown between the rows in the first months.
When and how to harvest
Most cassava is dug eight to ten months after planting. Table varieties often a little earlier, before the roots turn woody, and some feed and starch growers wait up to a year. Farmers test one plant first, harvest when the soil is dry, cut the roots off with a knife, keep them out of the sun, and sell or process them within a few days. Good stems are kept for the next planting.
Common mistakes when planting kamoteng kahoy
- Using thin top pieces or old, dried stakes that sprout weakly.
- Planting stakes upside down, with the buds pointing into the soil.
- Letting weeds take over in the first two months, when cassava grows slowly.
- Hoeing near the plants after the second month and cutting the young roots.
- Digging in wet soil or yanking the plants, so bruised roots rot within days.
- Leaving table cassava too long, until the roots turn fibrous and pests move in.
How to get a higher yield of kamoteng kahoy
The traditional way gets a crop, but small changes add up. These are the first things to change, one season at a time.
- Plant healthy stakes of a good yielding variety that suits your buyer, table, feed or starch.
- Test the soil and give balanced fertilizer in two splits. Enough potash fills the roots.
- Keep a steady spacing and fill missing hills within three weeks.
- Keep the field weed free for the first three months and hill up on time.
- Rotate fields, scout for mites, scale insects and blight, and remove sick plants before they spread.
- Harvest at the right age and line up the buyer or the dryer before digging.
anee.io helps with each of these. The NPK Plus calculator checks that your fertilizer plan feeds the yield you want, the pest and disease finders tell you what is on the leaves before you spray, and Anee, the smart farm technician answers your questions in Tagalog or English.
Members open this guide in the How to Plant tool and send every step to the Protocol Builder in one tap, each on its own day. There you can change the seed, the spacing and the fertilizer, then turn it into a cropping calendar for your lots.
Start from the traditional way, make it better, and let anee.io date every task from your own planting day. Free to start.
Start freeQuestions about planting kamoteng kahoy
Paano magtanim ng kamoteng kahoy?
When do farmers plant kamoteng kahoy in the Philippines?
How far apart do you plant kamoteng kahoy?
How long before kamoteng kahoy can be harvested?
How often do you water kamoteng kahoy?
What do you plant to grow kamoteng kahoy?
See every step of planting it the traditional way
Register for free to read every step with its day, the spacing, water and fertilizer, the common mistakes and what to change for a higher yield. Then send it to your Protocol Builder in one tap.
Free to register. No credit card. Works on any phone.
