Agriculture

There should be no hard rules in bonsai. Every tree is distinctly different from another hence different rules should apply.

In competitions, one judge may favor one entry but  another may disagree with him. 

In fact, strict adherence to rules will likely hamper the imagination of the artist, limit his creativity, and prevent him from creating a unique masterpiece which carries with it his own brand of originality.

Worst, his collection may just be miserable imitations from books or with formulaic look as if mass produced with a moulding machine.

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The molave trees are uniquely versatile and should deserve more vigorous attention.

Their specific uses are so numerous that it is quite impossible to make a complete list.

To generalize, they are used in the form of round logs or posts, sliced lumber, driftwood, or intact live plants, and also as fuel, fodder for livestock, and herbal medicine.

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Table ACC-3. List of agricultural crop commodities (with names starting P to Y) and their respective five top producers based on total tonnage for 2012 (extracted from FAOStat 2014).

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Transpiration in plants has been described as a necessary evil.

This is mainly because the process involves the loss of large amounts of water.

The volume of water transpired is considered lost because it is not used by the plant for its life processes.

It consists of a major portion of the water that is absorbed by plants and which simply escapes outward.

The “evil” is necessary because transpiration occurs largely as a natural consequence of the opening of the stomata which is essential in photosynthesis.

Major loss of water is through the stomatal pores when they open to facilitate the entry of carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and the release of oxygen which is generated in the photolysis of water.

It may be possible to stop stomatal transpiration by inducing the closure of the stomata but it will also mean putting a stop to photosynthesis.

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Durian trees are generally excluded in residential lots or in public areas frequented by people.

Even in plantations, anyone should be wary of taking shelter under the canopy specially without a protective head cap on.

When the trees are mature and fruiting, naturally falling fruits can possibly cause harm or injury to man or any property including roofs and parked cars.

This is primarily because the fruit of durian can become both large and heavy, with a hard, spiny shell.

The impact of a drop can be severe.

The fruit naturally dehisces (separates) from the stem when ripe or otherwise drops even when still young due to various causes.

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Taking aside botanical issues, there are three types of sex in individual or solitary flowers:

(1) perfect, also called bisexual, hermaphrodite, and monoclinous flower;

(2) staminate or male flower;

and (3) pistillate, also called carpellate and female flower.

These are also referred to as modes of sexuality in individual flowers (Dellaporta and Calderon-Urrea 1993) or simply flower sex (Simpson 2010).

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I’d long been aware that the process of locating contour lines in sloping agricultural lands is basically the same as that when spots on posts at the same vertical elevation are marked using a carpenter’s level hose.

I in fact wrote in Bamboo Production and Propagation Methods which was published via this website in PDF format in 2010:

“Viewed from the side, an imaginary line that will traverse the points of each contour line will be more or less horizontal, as if a plastic hose filled with water was used by a carpenter in locating two points of the same elevation.”

But it took a brief reunion with Dr. Ariston Calvo at the University of Southern Mindanao in 2011 for me to be enlightened that indeed, a level hose can be used in place of A-Frame.

From then on I mentally stretched to formulate a procedure on how exactly would I use the carpenter’s level-hose.

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Edible mushrooms, those wonderful saprophytic fungi, can be produced within the backyard at the same time that household wastes, sweepings, and other biodegradable materials are deliberately converted into compost through vermicomposting.

Vermicomposting is the process of producing organic soil supplement, called vermicompost, through the use of earthworms like the African night crawler or wriggler (Eudrilus eugeniae).

This technology was popularized in the Philippines by Dr. Rafael Guerrero III.

Normally, edible mushrooms are hunted during the rainy season.

We used to do this, usually from June to August, in our “playground” that is bounded to the west by the Silway River in General Santos City.

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The African night crawler (ANC), known scientifically as Eudrilus eugeniae, is considered as the most efficient epigeic or composting earthworm in the tropics (Guerrerro 2009).

Even in 1981, Graff (cited by Guerrero et al. 1999) already reported that the ANC was used for vermicomposting in the tropics.

The ANC was introduced into the Philippines by Dr. Rafael D. Guerrero III in 1982 via West Germany, the original cocoons courtesy of Dr. Otto Graff (Guerrero et al. 1984).

The origin of this species is West Africa, but it is now widely distributed in both tropical and subtropical countries of the world (Graff 1981, cited by Guerrero et al. 1984).

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According to Edwards and Arancon (2006), vermicomposts are organic materials, broken down by interactions between earthworms and microorganisms to produce fully-stabilized organic soil amendments with low C:N ratios.

They also have a huge and diverse microbial and enzymatic activity, fine particulate structure, good moisture-holding capacity, and contain nutrients such as N, K, P, Ca and Mg in forms readily taken up by plants.

They contain both plant growth hormones and humic acids which can act as plant growth regulators.

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