A few practical farming tips

by Zac Sarian

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Sweet corn and cucumber can be grown together to shoot two birds with one stone. The sweet corn is fruiting and so is the Pipinito cucumber.

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.

Bagging the fruits of the pummel and other fruits will protect them from fruitfly damage.

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.

Lady worker uses vibrator to shake flowering stems of tomato to effect pollination.

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.

This is the right way. One main banana plant should be allowed per hill so it will bear big fruits.

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.

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More practical tips for farmers

by Zac Sarian

A few weeks back, we wrote about a number of practical farming tips that could be useful to both hobbyists as well as commercial farmers. Here are a few more.

COMMON MISTAKE WITH BANANA – One grave and very common mistake that we often see in all the places that we have been to in the country is the overcrowding of banana clumps.

It is not unusual to see, for instance, more than a dozen banana plants in one clump or hill. This is very bad because overcrowding results in slender stems that don’t produce normal bunch. If ever they bear fruit, the bunch is usually small and the fruits are also small. Many of the stems may not bear fruit at all.

Experts recommend that only one or two stems are allowed to grow to maturity per hill. Normally, bananas will produce several suckers before they bear fruit. These suckers should be balled and planted elsewhere. If there is no place to plant the extra suckers, these could be given to people who would like to plant or they could be sold to interested persons. If not, they should be thrown away.

When the main banana plant is starting to flower, you might allow one or two junior suckers to develop to replace the mother plant when its fruit has been harvested.

GROW TOGETHER COMPATIBLE PLANTS – If you have a limited place to grow your favorite plants, you can maximize productivity by growing together plants that are compatible. We mean to say that you plant two crops in one patch of ground that will produce normal harvests.

We saw a very good example of this technique during the 30th anniversary celebration of East-West Seed Company in San Rafael, Bulacan. We saw in their demo farm sweet corn and Pipinito cucumber growing very comfortably together. The sweet corn plants were robust with developing ears. The Pipinito, on the other hand, was fruiting very well.

It is important to plant only one corn seed in one hill and the distance between hills should be about 18 inches. This will allow enough sunlight to penetrate the growing cucumber underneath.

BAG YOUR FRUITS – One major problem of growers of fruit trees like guava, pummelo, balimbing and others is the fruitfly. This insect deposits its eggs in the developing fruits and when the eggs hatch, they are the worms (larvae) that you often see in ripe guavas and other fruits.

Controlling the fruitfly by spraying with poisonous chemical is not advisable because of the residue that could be injurious to one’s health. One practical way is to bag the fruits from the time they are still small.

Our favorite bagging material is made of cloth. We bag our pummelos as well as our guavas and balimbing. This is an effective technique. If you don’t have cloth bags, newspaper may be used to wrap smaller fruits like guava and balimbing.

VIBRATOR FOR POLLINATION – In order for flowers to set fruit, they must be pollinated. In the open field pollination is usually done by bees and other insects. Wind movement could also effect pollination.

However, in the greenhouse there are usually no insects that will do the pollination. We saw a practical technique of pollinating indeterminate tomato plants in the greenhouse during our visit to the experimental farm of East-West Seed in Lanchang, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

We saw a lady worker with a vibrator going around the rows of flowering tomato plants with a hand-held, battery-operated vibrator. She places the extended stick of the vibrator on the flowering stems. That effectively does the trick.

There’s another technique that Ronald Costales does to pollinate his cucumber plants inside his greenhouse in Majayjay, Laguna. He places a colony of stingless bees he got from Milea Bee Farm in Batangas. The bees are also efficient in pollinating the cucumber plants.

There you are, here are just a few techniques that you could adopt in your own brand of farming.

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