Paano Magtanim ng Suha: How to Plant Pomelo the Traditional Way
Paano magtanim ng suha? Here is how traditional Filipino farmers usually plant suha (pomelo), 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 suha. 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 pomelo from a marcot or grafted seedling and care for it until it bears fruit worth selling. It is for backyards and small orchards, such as the Magallanes pomelo farms of Davao.
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 suha varieties sold here. If the leaves turn pale later on, the suha nutrient deficiency guide helps you find what is missing. For more on the crop, read pagtatanim ng puno.
When to plant suha
Marcots and seedlings are planted as the rains begin, around May to July, so they root before the dry months. In Davao and other places where rain spreads through the year, planting goes on in most wet months.
What you plant
Most growers plant a marcot (air layer) taken from a heavy bearing tree with sweet, juicy fruit, or a grafted seedling on a hardy rootstock. Some growers prefer big marcots, over 1.5 m tall, because they survive well and may give a few fruits within a year. Trees grown from seed take long to bear and the fruit can differ from the mother tree.
Paano magtanim ng suha, step by step
A pomelo tree gives enough fruit to sell at about 4 years from planting. Big marcots may give a few fruits in the first year or two. The crop is ready about 4 years after planting.
Before planting (Bago magtanim)
2 months before planting: Clear the land and mark the spots
Clear the land and mark the planting spots about 8 to 10 m apart, since pomelo grows into a big tree. Pick ground that drains well. On slopes follow the contour.
30 days before planting: Dig and fill the holes
Dig each hole about 50 cm wide and 50 cm deep and keep the topsoil apart. Mix the topsoil with compost or dried manure and put it back to settle before planting.
7 days before planting: Pick and harden the marcot
Choose a marcot or grafted seedling with plenty of roots, healthy dark leaves and no gum on the bark. Keep it in light shade and water it daily for some days so it gets used to the field.
The nursery (Punlaan)
5 months before planting: Make your own marcots (pagmamarcot)
Growers who have a sweet, juicy, heavy bearing tree often root their own marcots on it in the rainy months. Some prefer big marcots, since they survive well in the field.
- Choose the mother tree and the branchPick a tree that bears every year, with good fruit and no pests or disease, and not too old. On it choose a branch about as thick as a finger or a little more, neither too young nor too old, growing upward in the sun, with no flowers or fruit on it.
- Mix the rooting ballMix garden soil with rice hull, or with mudpress from a sugar mill or coir dust where you can get it. Wet it until it holds together when squeezed but does not drip.
- Peel a ring of barkWith a clean, sharp knife, cut twice around the branch a short distance apart and peel off the bark between the cuts. Scrape off the slippery green layer under the bark too, or the bark heals over instead of making roots.
- Wrap and tieHold a piece of clear plastic around the branch below the ring, pack a ball of the moist mix over the whole ring, close the plastic around it and tie both ends tightly with plastic straw.
- Wait for the rootsLeave the wrap on the tree and look at it every week or two. The marcot is ready when white roots show plainly all around the ball through the plastic. If the ball dries, open the top and add a little water.
- Cut it and bag itCut the branch just below the ball with sharp shears or a saw. Take off the plastic gently, without breaking the ball, and plant it in a 6 by 8 inch bag of two parts soil, one part compost and one part rice hull.
- Nurse it in the shade2 weeks in the shadeKeep the new plant in the shade, out of the rain, and water it daily. After two weeks move it where it gets some sun, and pick off any flowers so it grows roots and leaves first. Tip: A big marcot needs a bigger bag or pot than the 6 by 8 inch size, so its roots are not cramped.
Planting day (Pagtatanim)
Planting day: Plant and stake
Remove the bag or wrapping without breaking the soil ball and set the plant at the depth it grew. Firm the soil, water well and tie the plant to a strong stake against the wind.
Care while it grows (Pag aalaga)
Day 3: Shade, mulch and water
Shade the new tree with fronds for a few weeks and mulch around it, a little away from the stem. Water every few days in dry weather until new leaves show.
Day 30: First feeding
About a month after planting, spread a small amount of complete fertilizer or ammonium sulfate around the tree and mix it lightly into the soil. Feed again every three to four months, a little more each year, with manure when you have it.
Day 45: Weed around the young tree
Keep a clean circle around the tree by hand or bolo. Short crops can be grown between the young trees.
Month 3: Check new leaves and bark
Look at each new flush for aphids, psyllids and leaf miners, and at the trunk for gum oozing from the bark. Cut and burn badly hit twigs and keep the base dry and clean.
Month 9: Shape the young tree
Cut back the tips to make the tree branch, keep a few strong main branches and remove water sprouts and branches that touch the ground. Pick off early fruits so the tree builds its frame first.
Month 12: Feed more as the tree grows
From the second year, feed the tree at the start and the end of the rains, spreading the fertilizer under the outer leaves. Bearing trees need more potash for sweet, juicy fruit.
Harvest (Anihan)
Year 4: First good harvest
Pick when the fruit is full sized, the skin turns lighter green or yellowish and the oil glands look smooth and shiny. Cut the stem with a pruning knife or a pole cutter so the fruit does not drop.
Watering suha, stage by stage
Pomelo here is mostly rain fed: a new marcot is watered every few days in dry weather and mulched, then left to the rain. Growers who can water during flowering and fruit growth in the dry months get a better fruit set and a second, off season crop. A pail or hose into a ring basin under the edge of the leaves on small farms. Drip lines or small sprinklers on the bigger orchards in Mindanao and Luzon. Water early in the morning.
The first year after planting, since a marcot has shallow roots. Flowering and fruit set, when dry soil drops flowers and young fruits. Fruit growth in the dry months, which decides fruit size and juice.
| Stage | When | How often | How much |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardening the marcot | 7 days before planting to planting day | Every day for the week before planting, in light shade | Enough to wet the soil ball right through |
| Planting to new leaves | Planting day to day 30 | Soak on planting day, then every 2 to 3 days in dry weather until new leaves show | Half to one watering can a tree each time, into a ring basin away from the stem |
| Rest of the first year | Day 30 to month 12 | Every 3 to 4 days in the dry months. Not needed in steady rain | One watering can a tree each time, or about 1 to 5 liters a tree a day on drip |
| Second year | Month 12 to 24 | Every 3 to 4 days on light soil and about once a week on clay, in the dry months | About 3 to 5 watering cans a tree each time, or 10 to 15 liters a tree a day on drip |
| Years 3 and 4, before bearing | Month 24 to 40 | Every 4 to 7 days in the dry months | A deep soak of the whole ring under the leaves, or about 15 to 40 liters a tree a day on drip as it grows |
| Bearing trees: short dry spell before flowering (each year) | Month 40 to 41 | Let the soil get drier for a few weeks late in the dry months, then soak deeply with the fertilizer | Little or none for a few weeks, then one deep soak |
| Flowering and fruit set | Month 41 to 43 | Every 5 to 7 days in dry weather, never letting the soil dry out | A deep soak of the ring under the leaves, out to the edge of the crown |
| Fruit growth | Month 43 to 47 | Every 7 to 10 days in dry spells | A deep soak under the crown |
| Ripening and picking | Month 47 to 49 | Water lightly and evenly. Avoid one heavy flood after a long dry spell | A normal soak of the ring |
Without irrigation. Plant as the rains begin, stake the marcot against wind, and mulch a little away from the trunk. Mulch again before the dry months. On slopes, plant along the contour with a small basin on the downhill side of each tree. Rain fed trees give their main crop on the rains and little off season fruit.
In the dry season. First year: every 3 to 4 days. Second year: every 3 to 7 days, by soil. Bearing trees: every 5 to 10 days through flowering and fruit growth. Water when leaves curl and lose their shine by midday, or when small fruits start to drop.
In the rainy season. Wet soil against the trunk brings gum oozing from the bark and root rot, the trouble that ruins many pomelo farms here. Keep the base dry and clean, never pile soil or mulch on the trunk, water the ring under the leaves, and plant on ground that drains well with open drains from low spots.
- Too little water: Leaves curl and fold along the middle, lose their shine, and older ones yellow and fall. New flushes stop and small fruits drop.
- Too much water: Leaves yellow all over, gum oozes from the trunk, roots rot, and branches die back.
To water better for a higher yield: Drip or a mulched ring basin watered through the dry months lets the tree carry an off season crop, when pomelo sells best. Keep the soil steadily moist from flowering through fruit set and keep water off the trunk to cut fruit drop and gum.
Spacing, water and fertilizer for suha
Spacing
About 8 to 10 m between trees, often 10 m by 10 m, or 8 to 10 m between rows and 6 to 8 m in the row. Holes about 50 cm wide and deep, one plant a hole.
Water
Mostly rain fed. New trees are watered every few days in dry weather and mulched. Growers who can water during flowering and fruit growth in dry spells get better fruit set.
Fertilizer
Compost or dried manure in the hole at planting. Young trees get a little complete fertilizer or ammonium sulfate (21 0 0) every three to four months, more each year. Bearing trees get fertilizer with more potash, plus micronutrients, at the start and end of the rains. Growers note that the wrong feeding gives thick rind and dry, bland flesh. To read what a bag really gives, see our guide to fertilizer for this crop.
Care and harvest
Care while it grows
Staking, mulching and weeding around young trees, light pruning to remove water sprouts, dead twigs and branches that touch the ground, and heavier pruning right after the main harvest. Thinning fruits that come in clusters so the rest grow big. Checking new flushes for aphids and psyllids and the trunk for gum. Many growers bag the young fruits against fruit flies and rind borers.
When and how to harvest
Pomelo needs no flower inducer and can give a main crop and a smaller off season crop each year. Fruit is picked when full sized, with lighter colored, smooth, shiny skin, by cutting the stem rather than pulling. The fruit keeps a month or more in a cool, shaded place, and is handled gently so the rind does not bruise.
Common mistakes when planting suha
- Planting seedlings from seed, which bear late and give fruits unlike the mother tree.
- Taking marcots from a sour or poor bearing tree.
- Planting too close, so the big trees shade each other.
- Letting every fruit in a cluster grow, so all stay small.
- Giving the wrong fertilizer, which gives thick rind and dry flesh.
- Leaving fruit flies and rind borers unchecked in the orchard.
How to get a higher yield of suha
The traditional way gets a crop, but small changes add up. These are the first things to change, one season at a time.
- Buy marcots or grafted seedlings from an accredited nursery or a proven mother tree.
- Test the soil and feed by the result, with enough potash and micronutrients.
- Prune right after the main harvest and thin fruit clusters.
- Bag young fruits and keep fallen fruit cleaned up against fruit flies and rind borers.
- Water during flowering and fruit growth in long dry spells.
- Scout every new flush for aphids and psyllids that spread citrus diseases.
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.
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Start freeQuestions about planting suha
Paano magtanim ng suha?
When do farmers plant suha in the Philippines?
How far apart do you plant suha?
How long before suha can be harvested?
How often do you water suha?
What do you plant to grow suha?
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