Learn how to plant: Pechay

Today, i will share to you things about farming, specifically in how to plant pechay.

What is a pechay?

• Its scientific name is Brassica rapa

• It is one of the leafy vegetables which can be easily grown in fields, pots or containers. These are usually planted in tropical countries like South East Asian countries.

• Its leaves are smooth and it is colored dark green . In Philippines pechay is always one of the ingredients in their cuisine.

How to plant a pechay?

There are many ways in planting pechay. It's just easy. Below are the steps in planting pechay.

• Preparation of seed bed

For large fields, Seed bed is one of the most important things we need to do in planting pechay. This is the place where you sow the seeds. You can plow or use a hoe to make cracks on the soil. The soil should be properly cultivated and it should be clean and free from growing weeds. Before sowing the seed, it is important to expose the seed bed first under the sunlight. This will help to lessen the bacteria or any microorganisms that can be pest of the pechay.

If you are just planting pechay in your background and doesn't have enough space to plant your crop, you can use pots, used containers, coconut husk and many more. In this way, you can plant pechay even if you don't have large area for farming.

Sowing of seeds.

You must sow the seeds in the prepared seed bed. It must be scattered evenly to the seed bed. After sowing the seeds, use the rake to mix them to the soil and not be exposed to sunlight. Seeds when exposed to sunlight will wither. Therefore it must be covered with soil and put water to the seedbed thoroughly. This will help to add moisture to the soil and the seeds will grow faster. You can also add apply a little bit of fertilizer as start up boost to the pechay as soon as it grows.

For those who will use pots, you can just directly put a seed or two in each pot( if the two seeds grow together you can pull the other one and transfer it to other pot) and water them. Make them covered with soil. But don't bury them too.much, a little bit of soil is enough. Also add a little bit of fertilizer.

Taking care of the seedlings

Always water the seed bed as soon as it will dry. Don't wait for it to be fully dry before you water them. Just maintain the moisture of the soil until it sprouts. You can also pull out the weeds as soon as they grow. Pulling the weeds will help so that the seedlings will not have hindrance in growing. Just continue this for 2 weeks or less depending to the growth of the seedlings until it becomes into a fully grown seedlings ready for transplanting.

For the one using pots. You may do the same as i have said above. You can now apply fertilizer to them and wait it to grow until harvest. You must take care of it and avoid the plants from pest.

Transplanting

As soon as the pechay seedlings are fully grown, you can now pull them out and transfer them to another prepared plot. You can plant them just simply digging your fingers to the ground and insert the seedling there. It's simple as that. Just maintain a planting distance of 3 inches or more(depending on your preference) per seedlings. This may help them to grow easily.

It's nice to see a whole plot planted with pechay. But your work doesn't end here.

After transplanting, don't forget to water the newly transferred pechay. They will not grow and may wilt if you don't water them especially if they are exposed to the sun. But if you have access to irrigation system, it will become easy for you, just fill the canal with water and let the soil absorb water. Do not let the water overflow over the plot, too much water will also harm your pechay. Your pechay will rot if there is too much water.

You can cover them with whole leaves of coconut tree to protect them under direct sunlight ( when seedling were planted in the morning, when the pechay was planted in the afternoon, you don't have to do this ). Newly planted pechay will wilt when exposed to sunlight. You can just remove the cover in the afternoon when the sunlight is not strong.

Applying fertilizers and pesticides

Applying fertilizer is important. It gives additional nutrients to the soil in order for the crops to grow healthy and has a good quality. For pechay, make sure that it is alive and it will not wilt anymore. Just to be sure, apply fertilizer 3 days after transplanting it. In this way you will be able to determine where to put fertilizer since you will put fertilizer in between of each plant. You can use either commercial fertilizer or organic. As long as it will help for the growth of the plant. You must also control on how much fertilizer you will put on the plant. Too much fertilizer will harm too. After applying fertilizer, you can now wait for 15-20 days to harvest your pechay.

Don't let the pest dominate in your crop it will totally ruin your pechay. As you see pest eating your plant, you must immediately spray it with pesticide. You can use any pesticide, naturally made or commercially made as long as it is effective against the pest. Don't use too much pesticide!! It would be also harmful to the plant. It's just like it burn its leaves.

After applying fertilizer always maintain the moisture of the soil and pest control is important. Let the pechay grow healthy and beautiful. You should maintain the cleanliness so you pull out the weeds. Always aim for good quality product that you can harvest.

If the pechay is fully grown, you can now harvest it. You can now sell it to the market if you plant many or you can cook it or share it with you relatives.

>This may sound crazy but you can try to talk to your plant. It's also one of the reason for you to have a good harvest. You can beg for your plants to grow faster and beautiful. Lol hahah

Help me promote farming by joining mg community FARMING TECHNIQUES. Let's discuss here about farming and agriculture. Check this link. https://read.cash/c/farming-techniques-58fd

Also you can read about the importance of farming if you haven't read it:

https://read.cash/@Pawpy.Light-28/importance-of-farming-8fa842f8

I already published the article as requested @Winona and @Jupiter.Monkey

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That's all for today and have a nice day ahead. ☺️☺️☺️❤️❤️❤️