Paano Magtanim ng Lanzones: How to Plant Lanzones the Traditional Way
Paano magtanim ng lanzones? Here is how traditional Filipino farmers usually plant lansones (lanzones), 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 lansones. 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.
This guide shows how Filipino growers usually plant lanzones, today mostly grafted longkong or duku on native rootstock, under shade and care for it until the first fruits. It is for coconut farms, backyards and small orchards in places like Laguna, Camiguin and Mindanao.
Before you plant, get the field ready with our land preparation guide for fruit and plantation trees. Then choose your seed or planting material with the lansones varieties sold here. If the leaves turn pale later on, the lansones nutrient deficiency guide helps you find what is missing. For more on the crop, read pagtatanim ng puno.
When to plant lansones
Seedlings are planted as the rains begin, around May to July, under shade that is already growing. Lanzones needs a humid place with rain spread through most of the year and does poorly in long dry seasons. In Laguna the fruit is sold from about August to early December.
What you plant
Most growers now plant grafted longkong or duku joined to a hardy native Paete or Jolo seedling rootstock. Grafted plants are ready for the field about 6 to 12 months after grafting. Buy from a trusted nursery, since longkong leaves taste bland while Paete and Jolo leaves taste bitter when chewed. In the old way farmers planted Paete seedlings from seed, which can take 15 to 20 years to bear.
Paano magtanim ng lanzones, step by step
Well grown grafted longkong can bear at about 5 years. Many trees take longer, and Paete trees from seed take 15 to 20 years. The crop is ready about 5 years after planting.
Before planting (Bago magtanim)
6 months before planting: Grow shade first
Lanzones needs shade when young, so plant banana, ipil ipil or kakawate in the field months before, or plant under coconut. The young trees should get filtered light, not full sun.
14 days before planting: Mark and dig the holes
Mark the planting spots about 5 m apart each way. Dig holes about 25 cm wide and deep, or a little wider than the seedling bag.
Planting day (Pagtatanim)
Planting day: Plant the grafted seedling
Put about 50 to 100 g of complete fertilizer (14 14 14) or 16 20 0 in the hole and cover it with soil. Remove the bag, set the seedling at the depth it grew with the graft above the soil, firm the soil and water well.
Care while it grows (Pag aalaga)
Day 3: Keep the seedling shaded and moist
Make sure the young tree sits in light shade and mulch around it with dried leaves. Water in dry spells, since young lanzones dries out fast.
Day 30: Weed around the tree
Keep a clean circle around the young tree by hand. Keep grazing animals out so they do not pack the soil or eat the leaves.
Month 3: Feed the young tree
Feed the young tree lightly with complete fertilizer or manure every few months, more as it grows. Test the soil when you can and follow the result.
Month 4: Rub off rootstock shoots
Remove any shoot that grows below the graft, since it comes from the rootstock. Check every month in the first year.
Month 6: Check the bark for borers
Look at the trunk and branches for bark borer damage and loose, dead bark, and brush or scrape it off. Cut out dead twigs.
Month 12: Thin the shade and prune lightly
As the tree grows, cut back the temporary shade little by little so the tree gets more light. Remove water sprouts and dead or crowded inner twigs.
Harvest (Anihan)
Year 5: First fruits
Pick whole bunches when the fruits turn evenly yellow and taste sweet, cutting the stalk with a knife or shears. Handle the bunches gently and keep them in the shade.
Watering lansones, stage by stage
Lanzones here is rain fed in most farms, grown under coconut, banana or kakawate shade with a thick mulch of dried leaves. Young trees are watered in dry spells, and the few growers with water on hand irrigate bearing trees in the dry months for a better and earlier crop. A pail or hose into a mulched ring for young trees. Basin or sprinkler watering for bearing trees where a spring or pump is near. Water early in the morning.
The first two years, when young trees under stress grow slowly and recover poorly. Flowering and fruit set, when the flower clusters dry up in dry soil. Fruit growth, which needs even moisture for full, sweet bunches.
| Stage | When | How often | How much |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planting to 3 months | Planting day to month 3 | Water well at planting, then every 2 to 3 days when no rain falls, in light shade | A good soak of a ring basin around the stem |
| First and second year | Month 3 to 24 | About twice a week in the dry months, once a week on heavy soil | A soak of the mulched ring under the leaves |
| Years 3 to 5, before bearing | Month 24 to 54 | About once a week in the dry months where water is near | A deep soak of the ring, widened as the crown spreads |
| Bearing trees: dry spell before flowering (each year) | Month 54 to 56 | At the start of the dry season let the soil dry for some weeks, then water deeply until the soil is moist again | None for some weeks, then a deep soak of all the ground under the crown |
| Flowering and fruit set | Month 56 to 57 | About once a week in dry weather, keeping the soil evenly moist | A deep soak under the crown |
| Fruit growth to ripening | Month 57 to 60 | About once a week in dry spells until the bunches turn yellow | A deep soak under the crown |
Without irrigation. Plant at the start of the rains under shade that is already growing, and keep a thick mulch of dried leaves under the tree. Lanzones needs a humid place with rain spread through most of the year and does poorly where the dry season is long. On rain alone, the trees flower when the first heavy rains end the dry season, and the crop comes some months later.
In the dry season. Young trees about twice a week. Bearing trees about once a week from flowering to harvest, after the short dry spell that brings the flowers. Water when the leaves droop and fold by midday.
In the rainy season. Lanzones cannot stand flooding: plant on ground that drains, open drains from low spots, and keep water from standing around the trunk. Wet, shaded, crowded orchards get more bark disease and fruit rot, so thin the shade and prune water sprouts.
- Too little water: Leaflets droop and fold by midday, older leaves yellow and fall, flower clusters dry up, and fruits stay small and sour.
- Too much water: Yellow leaves and dying twigs on waterlogged ground, and more rotting bark and fruits in long rains.
To water better for a higher yield: Where you have water, let the soil dry at the start of the dry season and then water deeply: the trees flower and fruit weeks ahead of the rain fed crop, when prices are higher. Keep the shade, mulch and steady water through the first two years, the stage where most young lanzones are lost.
Spacing, water and fertilizer for lansones
Spacing
About 5 m by 5 m, one seedling a hole, or in the spaces between coconut trees. Holes about 25 cm wide and deep, or a little wider than the bag.
Water
Rain fed in most farms. Young trees are watered in dry spells and kept mulched and shaded. Growers with water on hand irrigate bearing trees in dry months for a better crop.
Fertilizer
About 50 to 100 g of complete fertilizer (14 14 14) or ammonium phosphate (16 20 0) in the hole at planting. Young trees get light feedings with complete fertilizer and manure, more each year. Some growers feed bearing trees with 17 0 17 and muriate of potash (0 0 60), giving the last dose about two months after the flowers come out. To read what a bag really gives, see our guide to fertilizer for this crop.
Care and harvest
Care while it grows
Planting under banana, kakawate, ipil ipil or coconut for shade, then thinning the shade as the tree grows. Weeding, mulching, keeping animals out, removing rootstock shoots, scraping loose bark and cutting borer damaged and dead twigs, and removing water sprouts.
When and how to harvest
Fruits are ready when the bunch has turned evenly yellow and the fruits taste sweet. Picking too early gives sour fruit. Whole bunches are cut with shears or a knife, packed loosely in baskets or crates and kept in the shade. In Laguna the season runs from about August to early December.
Common mistakes when planting lansones
- Planting in full sun with no shade, so the young trees scorch and die.
- Buying cheap seedlings that turn out to be ungrafted Paete instead of longkong.
- Planting from seed and waiting 15 years or more for the first fruits.
- Letting goats and cattle graze under the trees and pack the soil.
- Ignoring loose bark and borers on the trunk.
- Picking the bunches before they are fully yellow and sweet.
How to get a higher yield of lansones
The traditional way gets a crop, but small changes add up. These are the first things to change, one season at a time.
- Plant grafted longkong or duku from an accredited nursery with known mother trees.
- Test the soil and feed by the result, with potash for bearing trees.
- Plan the shade: start with banana or kakawate and thin it as the trees grow.
- Water during dry months so flowering and fruit set stay steady.
- Scrape loose bark and scout for bark borers and scab every few months.
- Prune water sprouts and crowded twigs after each harvest.
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 lansones
Paano magtanim ng lanzones?
When do farmers plant lansones in the Philippines?
How far apart do you plant lansones?
How long before lansones can be harvested?
How often do you water lansones?
What do you plant to grow lansones?
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.
