Paano Magtanim ng Rambutan: How to Plant Rambutan the Traditional Way
Paano magtanim ng rambutan? Here is how traditional Filipino farmers usually plant rambutan, 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 rambutan. 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 a grafted rambutan of a good variety and care for it until the first fruits. It is for backyards and small orchards in warm, humid places.
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 rambutan varieties sold here. If the leaves turn pale later on, the rambutan nutrient deficiency guide helps you find what is missing. For more on the crop, read pagtatanim ng puno.
When to plant rambutan
Grafted seedlings are planted as the rains begin, around May to July, so they settle in with steady rain. Rambutan likes a warm, humid place with rain spread through much of the year.
What you plant
A grafted seedling of a proven variety, such as R5, R162, Rongrien or another sweet, red fruited selection, joined to a seedling rootstock. Rootstocks are grown from fresh seed for about 8 to 12 months, grafted, and planted out about 6 months after grafting. Trees from seed take longer to bear and give mixed fruit, and many seedlings turn out to be male trees with few or no fruits.
Paano magtanim ng rambutan, step by step
Rambutan usually starts bearing at about 4 to 5 years. The crop is ready about 5 years after planting.
Before planting (Bago magtanim)
30 days before planting: Clear the land and mark the spots
Clear the brush and stumps and loosen the soil. Mark the planting spots about 8 to 10 m apart each way, since rambutan grows into a wide tree.
7 days before planting: Dig the holes
Dig holes at least 30 cm wide and 30 cm deep, wider than the seedling bag on hard soil. Mix the topsoil with compost or dried manure for filling back.
Planting day (Pagtatanim)
Planting day: Plant the grafted seedling
Remove the bag without breaking the soil ball and set the seedling in the hole with the graft above the soil. Fill in with topsoil, press it gently and water well.
Care while it grows (Pag aalaga)
Day 1: Shade the new tree
Shade the new tree with fronds or a net for its first weeks, and longer if the weather is hot and dry, so it recovers from planting. Water it in dry spells and mulch around the base.
Day 30: First fertilizer
Put about 60 g, or 6 tablespoons, of complete fertilizer (14 14 14) around the base and cover it lightly with soil. Repeat a few times a year, a little more as the tree grows.
Month 3: Ring weed every three months
Weed a circle around each tree every three months or whenever the grass grows back. Lay the cut grass as mulch a little off the stem.
Month 4: Remove rootstock shoots
Rub off any shoot that comes from below the graft. Keep the good variety growing as the main stem.
Month 6: Watch for twig borers and mealybugs
Look for twigs that wilt or have small holes, and for white mealybugs on new shoots. Cut and burn damaged twigs.
Month 12: Feed more in the second year
From the second year, give about 200 g of complete fertilizer a tree, about 300 g in the third year and about 400 g in the fourth. Split each year's amount between the start and the end of the rains.
Month 18: Shape the young tree
Keep a few strong, well spread main branches and cut out weak, crossing or low branches. A low, open tree is easier to pick and to protect.
Harvest (Anihan)
Year 5: First fruits
Pick when the skin turns pinkish red or fully red, going over the tree in rounds since the fruits ripen unevenly. Cut the bunches with shears or a pole hook without breaking the branches, which bear the next crop.
Watering rambutan, stage by stage
Rambutan here is mostly rain fed: a new tree is shaded, mulched and watered in dry spells, and grown trees live on the rain. Growers with a creek or a pump water bearing trees in long dry months so they flower and fill their fruit well. A pail or hose into a mulched ring for young trees. Basin, small sprinklers or drip under bearing trees where water is near. Water in the cool early morning or late afternoon.
The first two years, since young rambutan does not stand drought. Flowering and fruit set, when dry soil sheds flowers and small fruits. Fruit growth, when a dry spell gives small fruits with thin flesh.
| Stage | When | How often | How much |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planting to 3 months | Planting day to month 3 | Soak at planting, then every 2 to 3 days when no rain falls, under 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: short dry rest before flowering (each year) | Month 54 to 56 | Hold back water for a few weeks at the end of the rains or in the dry months, until the leaves stop flushing | None, or a light watering only if leaves wilt badly |
| Flowering and fruit set | Month 56 to 57 | Once the flower panicles show, water every 5 to 7 days in dry weather | A deep soak of all the ground under the crown |
| Fruit growth to harvest | Month 57 to 60 | Every 5 to 7 days in dry weather, keeping moisture even | A deep soak under the crown. A big bearing tree drinks far more now than at any other time |
| After harvest, new leaves | Month 60 to 63 | Water with the after harvest feeding and pruning if the rains have not come | A deep soak under the crown |
Without irrigation. Plant as the rains begin, shade the new tree, and keep a thick mulch of cut grass a little off the stem. Rambutan fits places with rain through most of the year. Where the dry season is long, rain fed trees bear lightly and young trees need water carried to them.
In the dry season. Young trees about twice a week. Bearing trees every 5 to 7 days from the first flowers until picking, after a short dry rest before flowering. Water when the young leaves droop and curl by midday.
In the rainy season. Rambutan wants moist but well drained soil. Waterlogged trees yellow and their roots rot. Plant on sloping or raised ground, drain flat spots, and keep water away from the trunk. Long rain at flowering spoils pollination and brings fruit rot.
- Too little water: Young leaves droop and curl, leaf tips and edges brown, flowers and small fruits fall, and fruits stay small with thin flesh.
- Too much water: Yellow leaves, rotting roots and slow decline on waterlogged ground, and more rotting fruits in long rains.
To water better for a higher yield: Water steadily from flowering to harvest with drip or under tree sprinklers, after a short dry rest. This gives better fruit set and bigger fruits than rain alone. Keep the mulch thick and shade young trees in their first months, the cheapest way to get them through the dry season.
Spacing, water and fertilizer for rambutan
Spacing
About 8 to 10 m between trees and between rows, one grafted seedling a hole. Holes about 30 cm wide and deep, wider on hard soil.
Water
Mostly rain fed. New trees are shaded and watered in dry spells, and the base is kept mulched. Growers with water on hand irrigate in long dry months so the trees flower and fruit well.
Fertilizer
Compost or dried manure in the hole. About 60 g of complete fertilizer (14 14 14) around a young tree at first, then about 200 g a tree in the second year, 300 g in the third and 400 g in the fourth, split between the start and the end of the rains. Bearing trees get more, with potash for sweet fruit. To read what a bag really gives, see our guide to fertilizer for this crop.
Care and harvest
Care while it grows
Shading new trees for the first weeks, ring weeding every three months, mulching, removing rootstock shoots, shaping to a low, open tree, and cutting and burning twigs hit by borers. Checking new shoots and fruits for mealybugs and fruit borers.
When and how to harvest
Fruit is ready when the skin turns pinkish red to red, and the fruits in one bunch ripen at different times, so growers pick in rounds, often three times a week at the peak. Bunches are cut with shears or a hooked pole, kept in the shade, sorted by size and ripeness and packed in boxes with air holes.
Common mistakes when planting rambutan
- Planting seedlings from seed, which may turn out to be male trees with few fruits.
- Planting in full sun with no shade in the first weeks.
- Tearing branches when picking, which costs the next crop.
- Picking whole bunches at once while many fruits are still green.
- Leaving twig borer damage on the tree.
- Planting in low, wet ground.
How to get a higher yield of rambutan
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 seedlings of a proven variety from an accredited nursery.
- Test the soil and feed by the result, raising the amount each year.
- Water during long dry spells so flowering and fruit set stay even.
- Prune lightly after each harvest to keep the tree low and open.
- Scout for twig borers, fruit borers and mealybugs every month and clean up fallen fruit.
- Pick in rounds with shears and sort the fruit for a better price.
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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