Today, learn how to plant pechay. Pechay is a well-known vegetable in the Philippines. Many people are growing this plant because it grows fast and is very easy to handle.
Planting pechay vegetables is easy but here you can know the process of how to do it especially if you are new to gardening. It is simple and easy and knows the answer on how to plant pechay.
So, how to plant pechay?
- Buy pechay seeds.
- Prepare your soil.
- Germinate pechay seeds in seed box.
- Transplant pechay seedlings.
- Water it everyday.
- Apply fertilizer.
- Harvest pechay vegetables.
Step 1. Buy pechay seeds
The first thing in growing pechay is to buy some pechay seeds. You can buy some seeds in your nearest area like in agriculture market or store or something like a store which are selling seeds.
Try to look for business in your area which they grow seedlings or they have a nursery of plants probably you can buy pechay seeds from them.
A pack of pechay seeds which consist of more than 100+ seeds may cost around 60+ pesos. This may vary according to some factors that may affect including the age of the seeds stock in the container something like that.
Some of them are out of stock but usually, they have hundreds of seeds. When you buy seeds look at their appearance.
A quality pechay seed has a fine shape maybe its have a perfect circle shape or not so perfect but the appearance is great.
It also has no dirt like dust or broken seeds. You need to pick quality seeds so that you can achieve a high percentage of germinating pechay seeds.
Step 2. Prepare your soil
This next step probably will be easy. So, pick your location where you can able to grow your pechay.
A perfect place for this is an area where sunlight is abundant. Yes, you need to look for an area where the sun shines and not a location where there’s a lot of shade.
Stay away from those places near the trees. The trees may have a widespread of branches where that branch may shade your pechay.
Look for an open area where there’s direct sunlight. The sunlight is the main food of the pechay so you need to look for a perfect place where you can grow your best pechay vegetables.
If you have now the location, start preparing it now. You need some gardening tools like a grub hoe, shovel, bolo, and rake. These tools are the most commonly used tools to grow pechay.
So let’s say you are already ready. Preparing the soil is so easy to do. We will not elaborate on it further. But in case you are a newbie so here it is.
Cultivate the soil using the grab hoe. Then, using the bolo remove those grasses on the soil. After, use the rake to level it and make it cleaner. So, that’s it. The next thing is there.
Step 3. Germinate pechay seeds in seed box
The next step is germinating the pechay seeds. So how the process is done? We have direct and indirect planting, right?
Direct planting is planting the seeds directly on the soil. But in this case, indirect planting is suitable or recommended for a kind of vegetable.
You need the following materials. Your pechay seeds, the seedbox, shovel, bolo, and water. Do you familiar with the seedbox? If not, the seedbox is a gardening material that is used to germinate seeds.
The seedbox will be helpful to see which seedlings are healthy and which are not.
We can identify which of them are we will going to transplant and which are to avoid.
You can buy some seedbox on the market but you can also make your seedbox at home. So let’s say you have now the seedbox on your hand, the next thing to do is put soil inside.
If you have the seedbox from the market, it has many small boxes which you can put soil one by one.
Get your shovel or bolo cultivate the soil and put it inside the seedbox. Then, put one pechay seed per container.
Cover it with a few quantities of soil and water it after. In the next 3-7 days the pechay seeds will start germinating.
Step 4. Transplant pechay seedlings
After a few days, when the pechay has a few cm heights with showing some healthy few leaves its shows that it is ready and you can now do transplanting this time.
How can you tell that it is ready to transplant? When you see the pechay seedlings with 3-5 leaves and around 2-4 cm height then it is fine for transplanting.
The age of pechay seedlings which is ready to transplant has around 7-10 days old. In this case, it is ready to grow on its final designation. Usually, growers plant it on the plot.
So how to transplant pechay seedlings? To transplant pechay seedlings you need some gardening tools like a trowel and water. So get your seedbox with pechay seedlings inside.
Then apply a small quantity of water to make it moist. Using your trowel slowly cultivate the soil to prevent damaging pechay seedlings.
When you have already removed the seedlings, you can now plant them on the plot. Make a hole around 2-3 inches deep and plant one pechay seedling.
Put around 6-8 inch pechay plant spacing. Water it after. Doing transplanting should be done early in the morning or late in the afternoon as in this time the sun doesn’t shine so brightly making the vegetables to be fine.
Step 5. Water it everyday
When you water your pechay vegetables, it should be done every day to make them grow better. Water it twice a day one in the morning and two in the afternoon.
Water is really important especially to this kind of vegetable. To water this plant, you can use either a sprinkler or water hose to make it easier for you.
So how much water needs a pechay. It varies let’s say the pechay is one week old. One week old needs around 250 ml of water.
Two weeks old needs around 400 ml of water and 500 ml when it is 3 weeks old. You can just estimate how much to apply water on pechay.
Step 6. Apply fertilizer
Pechay needs nutrients to grow well. But let’s say there’s a lack of nutrients coming off the soil, you need to apply some.
So what is the best fertilizer for pechay? The best fertilizer for pechay is organic fertilizer.
Organic fertilizer is a kind of fertilizer that is made up of organic matters such as leaves, grasses, leftover foods, animal manure, and other matters.
The organic fertilizer is also free from chemicals which is good for the health of people.
But it quite needs some days or weeks to produce organic fertilizer.
In this case, you can buy from the agriculture market if they are selling or if there’s no choice ask to advise from them of which are the best fertilizer you can apply for pechay.
We do still recommend using organic as it is eco-friendly.
Step 7. Harvest pechay vegetables
How to harvest pechay vegetables? Usually, they uproot the whole vegetables. But some are getting the few leaves per vegetable and then consuming it.
How can you tell that pechay vegetable is ready to harvest? Usually, when it is already 30 days old or 1 month old, you can now harvest it.
How long does it take to grow pechay?
The pechay vegetable takes 30 days or 4 to 5 weeks to grow. The seeds take 3 to 7 days to germinate.
How to plant pechay in the backyard?
Just follow the steps above. It is just the same. The only difference is where you are going to grow it either on the plot or in the container.
How to Plant Pechay in Pots?
To plant pechay in pots. Germinate first the pechay seeds. Then do transplanting on the container after 7-10 days. Make sure that the container has drainage under it.
What are the Characteristics of Pechay?
The characteristics of pechay are it has a green leafy vegetable, has a small circle of black seeds, a white stock, its leaves are obligated, and it grows easily.
How to Care for Pechay?
To care for pechay you can do the following things. Clean the area by removing the grasses which are growing around the plants. You can also water it every day. And also apply fertilizer.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for your time and your awesome effort in reading this article and hope it answers your question about how to plant pechay.
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