On our seventh week, our students continue to work on their garden plots, weeding, and tilling the soil around, and now have started to increase the number of companion plants around their plots.  Other companion plants are citronella and tanglad (lemon grass). This was delayed because this was their first experience in using companion plants to safeguard their gardens from pests and diseases. No one ever did this practice in the Philippines before.

The vegetables they have planted are the same: tomatoes, eggplants, okra, peppers, etc. For vine crops, they have cucumbers, bitter melon, patola gourd, and native pumpkins.  For ground crops, they have taro and sweet potatoes. They have also planted some pineapple.  For trees, they still have to plant the saplings they have, and we had ordered robusta coffee, cacao which had already arrived.  Banana trees have to be planted with these last two trees as they need shade. But the jackfruit, rambutan, and batuan have not been delivered yet even if we had already paid for it. In apology, the local DA, gave us some cadios (pigeon peas), gaway-gaway. small peppers and taro root plant. They also gave us some vermitea, fermented plant juice (FPJ), and fermented fruit juice (FFJ) to use as organic fertilizers for our plants and vegetables to improve their blooming and fruit production.

I have also mailed them more seeds to make pollinator gardens with marigolds, zinnia, cosmos, and sunflowers. This will be their next project. They have to attract pollinators because without them there will be no fruit coming out of the flowers.

Lotus Pond 2, our water reservoir pond uphill has already been planted with lotus and starting to fill up. Once it fills up, they will add some tilapia which they will fish from the nearby stream. The fish will feed off from the algae off the pond wall, and will also feed and destroy any mosquito larvae.

Vermicompost beds: they continue to feed their vermi beds daily, with green and brown leaves, as well as chopped banana trunks. These beds also need to be aerated and moistened as well.

Fungi control. They have sprayed the Trichoderma hazarium to strengthen the resistance of the plants to fungi attack and have sprayed the Agriblue copper compound to cleaned areas of the plants. “Cleaned” applies to cleaned diseased areas,  after cutting off the anthracnose with a sterilized knife and spraying the cut area with hydrogen peroxide. They have also used Isarium SP, another anti-fungicide and bactericide to their vegetables.

This is the treatment plan given by the Department of Agriculture. 1)Improve the systemic strength of the plants from the inside out by feeding them with Trichoderma (another fungus that combats the bad fungi), 2) continue physically removing (and destroying by burning) the anthracnose from the stems of our plants, 3) spraying plants with copper compound which is preventative to new lesions. Since anthracnose thrives in moisture, spraying will be done only when rainfall for 12 hours is not expected. They also learned to reduce plant stress, keep the root zone moist but the surface dry, and ensure adequate and appropriate nutrition. Magnesium and potassium are minerals that will strengthen stems and leaves.

The good news is that the Trichoderma and copper treatments were given for free by the Department of Agriculture.  The other good news is that our dragon fruit trees to show their gratitude maybe, gave us a bountiful harvest last week.  They also harvested some eggplants, and the okra will be ready next week.  They also harvested some saba or cooking bananas which they boil in the afternoon and use to complement their snacks.  We provide students with lunch and 2 snacks in the morning and afternoon. They cook their own food. We bought them 2 sacks of rice which they will try to suffice with till the end of the program. They complement their food with vegetables they could source and pick from around the farm.  They are coming daily to check on their plots and vegetables so instead of a 5-day-a-week program, it is now a 7-day-a-week program. Now that flowers and fruits are coming, they are more motivated to watch what is happening to their plants daily.  They are also wary of neighbors who are starting to notice their vegetables and are afraid they will come to steal them when they are not there.

This is the seventh-week report. Pictures to follow. Students are grateful for this opportunity.  On their own, they could not afford to buy their own seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers, and they did not have land where they could garden and plant. They are also motivated by the fact that they will get an income from the proceeds of their sales. We wish them the best.

Sincerely yours,

SGD. Zonia Velasco

Mabuhay Training Program