As a fruit that is rich in vitamins and minerals, papaya is in great demand by the public to fulfill daily nutrition.
Plants originating from the West Indies and Central America are quite easy to cultivate in Indonesia.
Although how to plant papaya is quite easy to do, but first you have to pay attention to what conditions papaya needs in order to grow well!
1. Understand the Planting Terms
Before starting, there are some conditions for growing papaya that you need to know:
Papaya can grow at an altitude of 500-1000 meters above sea level, in other words it can grow in various conditions.
Loose soil that contains a lot of humus is a suitable soil for papaya cultivation.
Rainfall required is 1000-2000 mm per year.
The required air temperature is about 40%.
Perform good drainage so that water does not inundate the soil.
2. Prepare the Seeds
In order to get maximum results, you should buy superior papaya seeds at an agricultural store. For the next you can do the following steps.
Soak 60 grams of papaya seeds into a 0.5 gram/lt Benlate solution
Prepare the seedling media by making a mixture of 2 buckets of sifted soil with 1 bucket of mature manure.
Prepare a polybag measuring 20x15cm.
3. Seed Seeds
After the seeds are ready and the preparation of the planting media is complete, then you can start entering the nursery stage. Perform the following steps:
Put the seeds into polybags as deep as 1 cm.
Water every day.
Usually at the age of 2 weeks the seeds have started to germinate.
After entering the age of 3 months (90 days), papaya seeds can be transferred to the planting medium.
4. Prepare the Land
Usually at the age of 2 months the seeds can be moved to the land used as a planting medium, but to minimize the risk of dead papaya plants should be moved at the age of 3 months.
But before you move the papaya plant to the land that is the planting medium, you must prepare the land first. At this stage you can perform the following steps.
The soil to be used as a planting medium must be clean of grass and shrubs.
Loosening the soil with a hoe
Leave the soil that has been hoeed for 1 week, this is intended so that the toxins in the soil can be lost by being carried away by the wind or exposed to sunlight.
Pay attention to the soil pH, if it is less than 5 it is necessary to liming and let stand for 2 weeks so that the soil pH becomes neutral.
Use manure so that the soil is rich in nutrients, this process is very important because it will support optimal papaya growth. Leave it for one week.
After one week, start making beds with a width of 2.5 meters, a height of about 30 cm and a distance between beds of about 50 cm.
Make a planting hole in the bed with a size of 50x50x50 and a spacing of 2x3 meters.
5. Plant Seeds
The best time to plant papaya is during the rainy season. This is so that the papaya can get an adequate supply of water to optimize the growth of the papaya plant.
Insert the papaya seeds into the prepared planting hole and close the hole again.