There are a number of practical tips that can make a big difference in your farming. Maybe there are mistakes that could be easily avoided with these techniques.
One very glaring mistake that we often see in many farms is the crowding of banana stalks in one clump or hill. The banana trunks are so crowded they are very thin and they don’t really produce big bunches, if they produce at all.
The recommended practice is to allow only one or two main trunks per hill. That way, the fruit bunch will be bigger and will develop properly. Once the fruit bunch has emerged, a junior sucker could be allowed to grow so it will take over once the bunch of the mother plant is harvested. The other suckers that follow should be removed and planted elsewhere or just discarded if there is no place to plant them.
GROW TWO COMPATIBLE CROPS TOGETHER – If you are a hobbyist and you are planting in your backyard garden or in an adjacent vacant lot, you can maximize the production from the limited space by growing two compatible crops together.
We saw a very good example at the demo farm of East-West Seed Company during a field day marking the company’s 30th anniversary. They planted a patch of sweet corn and planted in the same plot their mini cucumber called Pipinito.
Well, as you can see in the picture, the corn plants are vigorous and fruiting and so are the cucumber plants. There may be other compatible crops to grow together. One we can think of right now is planting peanuts in between the hills of sweet corn.
PROTECTING FRUITS FROM FRUITFLIES – One of the most destructive pests of fruit crops is the fruitfly. We often hear of people complaining about their guavas that have worms inside the ripening fruits. Well, the culprit is the fruitfly. The fruitfly lays its eggs in the fruit and when the eggs hatch, they become the larvae that render the fruits inedible and unmarketable.
Fruitflies also damage many other fruits. These include the pummelo, balimbing, santol, caimito, different oranges and even ampalaya. In our case, our simple way of protecting our pummelos and balimbing is by bagging the fruits while they are still small. We use bags made of cloth with drawstring for easy use.
VIBRATOR FOR POLLINATION – Vegetable production inside greenhouses is becoming popular in the Philippines. That’s one way of producing high-value crops throughout the year. Such high-value crops include tomatoes, cucumber and some others.
The problem in the greenhouse is that there are no insect pollinators inside. So something should be done to effect proper pollination. And one practical technique we saw when we visited the farm of East-West Seed in Lanchang, Chiang Mai, Thailand is the use of a battery-operated vibrator. One lady worker goes around the flowering tomatoes and uses the vibrator to shake the flowering stems.
In the Philippines, one fellow has found a solution to the poor pollination of his cucumber plants grown inside his greenhouse. He places a colony of stingless bees in his greenhouse and they do the pollination. The bee colonies are distributed by Rico and Edilee Omoyon of Milea Bee Farm in San Jose, Batangas.
TO GERMINATE HARD-COATED SEEDS – We know of persons who have difficulty in germinating hard-coated fruit tree seeds such as those of atis, guyabano and chico. Some say their seeds could take six months to germinate if they germinate at all.
Well, there is an easy way to germinate these hard-coated seeds. My farm worker is an expert in that. With a nail clipper, he just nips a small portion of the butt end of each seed. In two weeks, the seeds of guyabano could start sprouting.
The reason? Well, moisture easily gets inside the seed which could hasten its germination.
These are just a few tips that could help you in your farming. Try them some time.
Log on to: www.agrizaccess.com for practical farming tips, ideas and interesting agri-people.
For your retirement and other real estate needs, please visit http://www.gregmelep.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment