Agriculture Business Week

For healthier living, grow more and eat more vegetables. And a household can produce practically all its vegetable requirements on a 150-square meter space, with extra harvest for sale to boot.

That’s what Terre Virna Tanquezon will tell you if you visit her own showcase at the East-West Seed Company in San Rafael, Bulacan. An agriculture graduate of Leyte State University in Baybay, Leyte, she has been growing a lot of different vegetables in a demonstration farm to prove her point that one can grow a wide variety of vegetables in a limited space. She has been demonstrating that a family can grow different vegetables for different types of dishes at the same time.

You don’t have to cook pinakbet all the time, for example. You can grow salad greens at the same time. And even vegetables for chopsuey and other dishes.

One trick is to have a favorable soil for growing the vegetables. If the soil is clayey, it could be improved by adding garden soil, compost or old animal manure, carbonized rice hull or other materials that could make the soil loose and rich in organic matter.

The other trick is to use quality seeds like high-yielding hybrids that are not only much more productive, they are also more resistant to pests and diseases. They could also be planted any time of the year so that production could be continuous. Fortunately, East-West Seed has developed many such hybrid seeds for the home gardener as well as for large scale commercial producers.

For pinakbet Terre recommends the planting of ampalaya, eggplant, pepper (both the bell and finger types), okra, sitao, tomato and patola. For sinigang Terre recommends upland kangkong, radish, pechay, okra and finger pepper. And for the salad mix, one can grow sweet pepper, lettuce, tomato, cabbage, cauliflower and cucumber.

Even a small space could yield a lot of vegetables if the right varieties are used. Only a half dozen plants of the finger pepper Django may be planted, for instance. That’s because this is a very prolific hybrid: The eggplant varieties developed by the company are also very prolific so one small plot will suffice. These include the Casino, the Domino and the most recent one to be released, the Morena. These have resistance to diseases and have a wide adaptation. They could be planted in most places in the Philippines, and any time of the year, too.

The latest ampalaya to be developed by East-West is particularly suited for the home garden although it is also good for large-scale planting. This is the Bonito which produces fruits (about four inches long) that are favored for cooking pinakbet.

Upland kangkong is a must in the home vegetable garden. This is not only for sinigang. One can also cook adobong kangkong or binagoongang kangkong, like what one popular food chain is serving. The beauty about this upland kangkong is that it can be harvestable in just a matter of three weeks from planting the seeds. One can stagger the planting so that green leafy kangkong is available throughout the year.

Tomato is also a must in the home vegetable garden. Fortunately, there are varieties that could now be grown even during the rainy season. These include Marimar and Diamante. One can also grow salad tomato variety if one would like to. The variety to grow is hybrid Maxima.

Vine vegetables may be grown on a trellis. These include sitao, ampalaya. squash, cucumber, patola and upo.

One other crop could be added to the vegetables. For instance, in a couple of corners, Sinta papaya may be planted. This will bear ripe fruits that are harvestable as early as eight months from planting. The green fruits can also be used in cooking one’s favorite tinola. Some could be made into pickle or atsara.

Now you see, you can produce most of the vegetables your family needs even in a limited space. Why don’t you give it a try?