Roses According to Colors

Pink

In general, symbolizes grace and gentility. The pink rose carries the message “you’re gentle and graceful”. Deep pink says “thank you”. Light pink conveys admiration and sympathy.

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Peach

Conveys sociabilty and friendship, modesty, appreciation, admiration and sympathy.

Red

No color can say “I love you” better than this Valentine favorite. It not only speaks of passion but also stands for noble values such as respect and courage.

White

Has several special meanings – “you’re heavenly,” reverence and humility, innocence and purity, “I’m worthy of you,” and secrecy and silence. In rose history, white roses are just as colorful as red ones.

Yellow

Expresses joy and gladness – the best gift for new mothers, newlyweds and graduates. Yellow roses are also a “not-too-obvious” reminder for the busy husband, wife, boyfriend or girlfriend.

Orange

Denotes enthusiasm and desire. Perfect for letting people know that you want to get to know them better.

Source: www.islandrose.net

PCA picks coconut varieties that pass int’l “buko” standards

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna–The Philippine Coconut Authority identified two outstanding coconut dwarf varieties that meet international standards for “buko” production. These varieties are Galas Green and Tacunan Green dwarfs.

In a report to the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development, the two varieties passed the “buko” standards set by C&A Products Co., Ltd., Thailand in terms of circumference, meat weight, water content, meat thickness and firmness, and total soluble solids.

Galas Green Dwarf nuts are uniform, mostly medium with thick husk, spherical and well-balanced crown, nearly stout stem with conspicuously tapering base, slow upward growth, and with either green or yellow peduncle.

GALD’s immature fruits are deep green, while newly opened inflorescence bear yellow flowers. Its fronds are rather short but have more and long leaflets. It has a fairly small bunch, with medium-sized nuts that tend to crowd one another in a tight cluster. It bears normal inflorescence and exhibits good self-fertilization. The round fruit exhibits a flat-shaped nut inside.

Easily passing international standards, GALD nuts about 1.9 pounds each, have an average circumference of 46 centimeters and 137 grams of meat that is 5.2 millimeters thick. It holds an average of 318-milliliter water with 7.30 total soluble solid and 5.9 pH.

GALD produces about 70 nuts yearly with potential to produce as much as 177 nuts for the same period.

Meanwhile, the Tacunan Green Dwarf locally known to local villagers as “Bilaka” or “Linkuranay,” which means “to sit before,” fits the short, early bearing trait of this variety. One needs to bend to harvest its nuts in the early stages of its growth and development.

Unlike most dwarf varieties, TACD has medium to large nut with short and wide peduncle bearing short spikelets. It has thick and stubby spathe hollow in the tip and medium-sized nuts, which exhibit cracks in the stigmatic end. Its fronds are borne on a spherical crown with wide leaflets.

TACD bears early and the first bunches of nuts touch the ground during the early bearing years, which could be less than two years in highly suitable conditions.

Tacunan palms can survive in typhoon or cyclone-prone areas due to their robustness, thick stem, and well-anchored root system. This variety can produce an average of 94 nuts yearly or as much as 204 nuts within the same period. Each nut provides over 250 grams of copra.

Like GALD, coconuts from this variety passed international standards for young tender coconut. TACD nuts have an average circumference of 56 centimeters and 159 grams of meat (5.1 millimeters thick and 2.2 pounds firm). It has 478-milliliter water on average with 6.30 percent soluble solid and 6.6 pH. It has a medium chain fatty acid (C6-12) content of 71 percent with 53 percent C12.

GGD plantation site is in Galas, Dipolog City. It is conserved at the PCA Zamboanga Research Center in San Ramon, Zamboanga City and at the Coconut Breeding Trials Unit-Panay State Polytechnic College, Mambusao, Capiz.

The Tacunan Green Dwarf plantation is in Rabanuel’s Farm, Tacunan, Davao City. The variety is presently conserved at PCA Albay, Davao, and Zamboanga Research Centers, and CBTU- PSPC.

Source: By NOEL A. CATIBOG, MediaCore, PCARRD

Low Bark Grafting: How To Make a Dwarf Mango Tree

Mango, the country’s national fruit is considered as one of the finest in the world. It is the third most important fruit crop of the country based on export volume and value next to banana and pineapple. It has an established domestic market and has bright opportunities for the international market both in fresh or processed form. The country’s export variety, The “Carabao Mango” is one of the best varieties in the world.

But in order to harvest enough quantities for commercial purposes, you need to have a large land area to plant the trees. And as we are all aware of, mango trees are big and tall so the the harvesting will require labor cost that might not be feasible or might reduce our profit. And in addition to those disadvantages, harvesting is also time consuming and if we will use pesticides bigger trees will cost you more. So what is the solution then? we have to make trees smaller to reduce the overhead expenses. The following is how you create a dwarf mango tree by the technique of LOW BARK GRAFTING AND PRUNING OF MANGO TREE.

Mango like other tropical fruit trees is propagated by several methods:

* Sexual –through seeds
* Asexual- vegetative methods

Propagation by seeds results to enormous variability in the progenies. Therefore, asexual or vegetative methods are adopted to get true to type plants.

The technique of cleft grafting of mango in the Philippines is very common using tall and overgrown rootstock ( 1 meter high). Now, a new method of grafting is being
introduce called LOW BARK GRAFTING AND PRUNING MAKES MANGO DWARF…

ADVANTAGES OF DWARF MANGO

1. High number of trees per hectare
–India-3m x 2.5 m(1,333 plants/ha)
–Israel-3m x 5 m, 5 m x 8 m(200-600 plants/ ha)
–Thailand-200-600 plants/ha
–Australia-200-1000 plants/ha
3rd Mango Marketing Congress, August 15-16, 2006, Davao City

2. Easier management of trees:
- Pruning
- Pests and Disease Monitoring
- Minimal losses of fruits
- Minimal damage and bruises
- Easier bagging and harvesting
- Efficiency in spraying

So if you wanted to learn how to graft the mango tree, here are steps in Low Bark Grafting:

* Prepare a mango root stock, it’s a mango seedling having a stem big enough to be grafted as shown in the picture below.



mango bark grafting
# Decapitate or cut the stem leaving about 2 to 20 cm from the ground. Make a thin side cut in the bark so that you can insert the scion to graft it in. Take note that this is different from cleft grafting which is the most simplest kind of grafting where the cut is on the center of the stem. In bark grafting, only the bark should be cut to insert the scion. For more info with regards to grafting, follow this link => Grafting and Budding Nursery Crop Plants

mango bark grafting
# Prepare the scion and cut the leaves. Only the stem should be left.

mango bark grafting
# Make a V-shape cut on the end of the scion stem. Insert the scion into the side cut of the rootstock.

mango bark grafting
# Wrap the joint of the rootstock and the scion tightly using a plastic strip.

mango bark grafting
# Decapitate the apex to induce branching. Pinch-off the growing point to induce branching.

mango bark grafting
# After 30 days expose the plants to little sunlight for hardening.

mango bark grafting

There you have it. It looks simple enough but I think the waiting is the hardest part. But after the many months of waiting it to grow, it will look like the picture below. Maybe after six years it will bear fruit and ready for mango fruit production.

dwarf mango tree



Contact Person: Mr. Virgilio Loquias at (082)293-1149 in Davao

Source: hvcc.da.gov.ph (Dept. of Agriculture, Philippines)

Reference: http://www.thefilipinoentrepreneur.com