Time and time again, plant aficionados come to us complaining about the poor quality of their fruit harvest. Just the other day, a lady farm owner from Mindanao said she was ashamed to give us sample fruits of her pummelos because they are so dry.

She said the trees are supposed to be the best variety from Davao but then she was very frustrated with the outcome. How come?

Well, the key to produce high quality fruits, like pummelo, is to take good care of the trees, giving them adequate supply of the right fertilizer formulation, maintaining ample moisture in the soil, giving them the right space, proper pruning and the like.

We learned that the lady is a neophyte in farming and said she was inspired to plant pummelo after reading an article we wrote. Aside from the right variety, the right fertilizer is also very important. One fellow from Luzon made the mistake of fertilizing his pummelos with a lot of urea when the trees were fruiting. Well, the result was that the rind of the fruits became so thick and the flesh sour. He should have fertilized with a balanced formulation and then about a couple of months before the fruits were harvestable, he should have applied a formulation with high potassium content plus trace elements. That will make the fruits sweeter and juicier.

At the same time, when the fruits are developing the trees should be watered adequately so that the fruits will develop fully. The plant will be able to absorb more nutrients from the soil.

One way of making the fruits bigger, sweeter and more juicy is to apply the Power Grower Combo and then the Heavy Weight Tandem formulated by Alfonso G. Puyat. One fruit grower who testifies to the efficacy of the Puyat formulations is retired General Recaredo Sarmiento who has a farm in Lucena City and another one in Marinduque. He regularly uses them on his longkong trees. And to his surprise, the trees bore fruit two times in one year.

As we have said many times in our writings and in our lectures in seminars, one should not leave their plants to the mercy of Mother Nature. You should take good care of whatever you plant. It is better to plant just a small number than planting thousands that you don’t take care.