Best Way To Grow Tomatoes – Lakay Disiong’s Technique

So you think you know how to grow tomatoes!

I don’t know where our friend Carly Yee picked up the image above shared on Facebook, but I have just checked and Heeman’s is in Ontario, Canada and not anywhere near the Philippines. But never mind; I was intrigued by all that instruction: Wrong Way, Right Way.

Heeman’s must be talking about planting tomatoes by hand, wherever you have your garden, up there or down here.

The instruction is that planting your tomato vertically is wrong, that planting it horizontally is right. “If you plant your tomato sideways to start, you can double or triple your root system PLUS prevent your tomato from getting blown around in the wind!”

But suppose you start your tomato garden, or farm, sowing the seeds and not growing them first in a nursery? You will have to deal with tomato plants that are growing upright, right? Now, can you double or triple your root system just like Heeman’s is saying, by planting them upright?

My pure Ilocano father Lakay Disiong (bless his soul!) knew exactly what to do – it was years before I studied Agriculture so I could not have taught him anything – I’m talking sometime in the 1950s, or 70 years ago. We had a bangkag, dryland farm, just across the Chico River in Asingan, Pangasinan, that we planted with eggplant and tomato, not interplanted, as they had their own share of the farm.

And what did Lakay Disiong do to increase the yield of his tomatoes? For all his Grade 3 knowledge – and I know he did not read it anywhere – he did notplant them horizontally but he did the best thing I ever saw:

My father invented his own soil layering:
He pinned down the lowest branches of the tomatoes with soil.
Crazy? The branches were crazy enough to grow roots!

And of course those branches pinned down that way became like new tomato mother plants that grew more branches – and bore more fruits!

If only Heeman could hear me now.

From my cursory reading of my Google search results, Heeman’s is the top banana – if you will pardon the expression – in the city of London in Ontario in Canada.

Hilario’s technique, not Heeman’s. Local technology, not imported – just as good, if not better!

The Heeman’s family learned from experience over the years; neither do I remember my father telling me, nor I asking him, where he got that tomato trick of his, but I was a boy amazed – you don’t think a lowly farmer knows anything else but follow the plow following the carabao, do you?

“Maximize your roots!” That way, you maximize the fruits, and you maximize your harvest.

Now then, I am reminded me of the good reason why you should plant your rice seedlings singly following the method called System of Rice Intensification, SRI – the single seedlings will grow more roots and therefore more tillers and therefore more panicles – and therefore you get a higher harvest. SRI shows that if you maximize your roots, you’re smart!@517

Which Is The Best Way Out Of Coronavirus? As In Any Disease, Good Foods!

So why is the whole world going crazy locking down cities and villages, preventing the proper growing, harvesting, processing, and distribution of naturally healthful foods? 

Because the whole world is looking at only how to prevent the spread of a disease, not how to prevent the occurrence of a disease in the first place – or how to stop the progression of the disease in the human body once it is already there.

Really, how important is Food in relation to Disease? Here is a good measure of it:

I googled for “food and disease” – those 3 words without the double quotes, and Google Search gave me “about 998,000,000 results (0.96 seconds).”

Meaning, today almost 1 billion webpages talk importantly about food and disease!

Superimposed image: This is how one American doctor puts it: “Healthy Eating Prevents Disease[1]” – Chelsea Hollander, DO | Internal Medicine, CareMount Medical.

Main image: Titled “Oriental Mindoro To Become Philippines’ Food Production Capital – DA[2]” in the 20 May 2017 article where Martina C reports that Secretary of Agriculture Manny Piñol is looking at the province “as the country's foremost food supplier.” It is noted that “it is able to produce large quantities of rice, corn, coconut, vegetables, and fruits.”

So yes, we can produce good food for our bodies’ well-being. “Instead of viewing food as the enemy, we look to food as a way to create health and reduce disease by helping the body maintain function[3]” – University of Minnesota.

How exactly does agriculture impact our health? These 3 ways at least, according to the UMn, that “our food is not the same as it was 20 years ago”:

(1) Food grown has fewer nutrients, because the nutrients in the soil have been depleted.

(2) Chemicals are increasingly used in growing both plants and animals. Those chemicals do not belong in those plant or animal tissues, certainly not in human tissues!

(3) “We tend to eat for convenience and speed, not health and pleasure.” That is the price we pay for “fast foods.” No longer do we enjoy “the pleasures of creating and savoring a wonderful meal” but also our fast pace of life “prevents us from connecting over a good, slow meal.” 

“What we eat is central to our health.” And how we cook it, and how we savor it, and how we enjoy each other’s company.

In other words, food and therefore agriculture is central to our well-being.

One of the ways Functional Medicine seeks to address declining health is to provide the foods and nutrients needed to restore (body) function. This is a cost effective, non-invasive intervention that aims to stop the progression into disease.

The food we eat gives our bodies the "information" and materials they need to function properly. If we don't get the right information, our metabolic processes suffer and our health declines.

That is why good foods from good agricultural practices are so important!

That is why Agriculture must now be released from the coronavirus lockdown!@517

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[1]https://www.caremountmedical.com/news/how-healthy-eating-prevents-disease/

[2]https://today.mims.com/oriental-mindoro-to-become-philippines--food-production-capital---da

[3]https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/how-does-food-impact-health

Aristotle, How Would You Mix Heart And Mind In Agriculture In Schools?

Jean Loyola shares on Facebook the article “Do You Think Agriculture Should Be Included In School Curricula?” from Agriculture.com.ph (16 July 2019), actually a reprint of the American “Should Agriculture Be Compulsory In Our Schools?[1]” by Georgia Hoolihan (08 July 2019, Barossaherald.com.au), who says:

Agriculture is arguably one of the most important industries to the human population, as it feeds and clothes us. ¶ Whether you are a vegan, a fast food junkie, a paleo dieter or anything in between, your diet has been provided by agriculture. ¶ It seems only logical that agriculture should be included in school curricula regardless of the school's (location).

In fact, Ms Georgia, Agriculture is the most important of the industries to us humans! You have to find food and can’t do anything else if you are hungry! “Agriculture… feeds and clothes us” – yes, what would you do without clothes!

Yes, let’s teach agriculture in high school. To make it exciting, the primordial thing is to study the theory – and in digital times, it’s easy to travel the information superhighway, so sky is the limit, and your imagination is the sky.

By all means let us include the subject Agriculture in high school – making sure it is more intellectually stimulating than scrolling Facebook or watching a film on Netflix!

With the quote from Pinterest[2], I teacher agree with Aristotle but say, “Educating the mind comes before educating the heart!”

Now then, encourage the boys and girls to debate the de/merits of my Theory of Reactivity (below) – while avoiding such logical fallacies as argumentum ad hominem(name-calling) and either/or(limiting the argument to this one or the other and no more).

With Ms Jean’s “yes!” above, I thought of something quite radical to make inclusion of Agriculture in school quite intellectually stirring. Today, Tuesday, 19 March 2020, I am reinventing Albert Einstein’s formula used to convey the Theory of Relativity:

E = mc²
where E is energy, m is mass and c² is the square of the speed of light.

Borrowing, here is my Theory of Reactivity:

E² = m1C² x m2C² x m3C² x m4C²
or E² = mc² (x4)

where
E² = Enhanced Energy (Energy squared);
m1C² = mass times Crop squared;
m2C² = mass times Culture squared;
m3C² = mass times Cultivation squared;
m4C² = mass times Core squared;
Crop is either plant or animal;
Culture is how the soil is treated to grow the crop;
Cultivation is how the crop is grown; and
Core is the heritage of the crop.

Then, ask the high schoolers to debate any/all of these:

Incomes differ with different crops.
Richer soils give higher yields.
Cultivation method changes the behavior of the crop for better or for worse.
The core of your crop determines your harvests.

Teach the boys & girls to make videos or short takes via cellphones in the field or lab. You have just made secondary education as exhilarating as multiple games of wits – even out-of-schoolers will want to attend those clashes in classes!@517

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[1]https://www.barossaherald.com.au/story/6261366/should-agriculture-be-compulsory-in-our-schools/?cs=10865

[2]https://www.pinterest.ph/mykenziegabriel/philosophy-of-education-quotes/

Davao City Businessman John Carlo Tria Isn’t Saying It But I Am – “Agriculture Is The Next Big Thing!”

First, I have a personal announcement to make; finally, I have discovered the word that describes exactly what I have been doing in the last 57 years:

werk

which is acronym for my

wanderlust exploring..... reaching into knowledge.

Which explains this new blog of mine: werkaholic.

Ever since my Tagalog teacher in high school discovered my talent for writing, in Tagalog while I am an Ilocano, I have been loving what I’m doing, so it’s not work – it’s werk!

The words I have just invented, werk, werkaholic, actually apply to what I have been doing in my off-and-on blogging since I started sometime in 2005, then beginning to blog earnestly in January 2007 when Director General William Dar of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, recruited me as international consulting writer for ICRISAT, which was/is based in India. I was based in Manila; that was my first work-from-home assignment, WFH.

Above, the image “The Importance Of Being Unexpected” isn’t mine – but I can’t trace it anymore on Google – still, it’s perfect today because I was reading the above Facebook sharing of Boyet Bajandi, “Agriculture To Help Industries Recover, Says Biz Leader[1]” by Roberto A Gumba Jr (18 May 2020, Sun Star Davao), and I suddenly had the insight that John Carlo Tria was not saying what he actually saw, that:

Agriculture is the next big thing!

And that none of the businesses of the group Mr Tria was heading, the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is the next big thing. And which in turn tells me that:

I am right where I can make the
biggest difference in my werk: Agriculture!

Just don’t forget that as a science writer who wants to be always creative, werk is acronym for “wanderlust exploring..... reaching into knowledge.” Meaning there are no guaranteed outputs – which is what I love! The only way to be creative is to love the unexpected.

Mr Tria said:

Since the food (business) and agribusiness are expected to sustain (themselves) in the midst of a pandemic or calamity, looking at how to expand or broaden the economic multiplier of these important surviving sectors will become important.

Now, if Mr Tria was really convinced that “Agriculture (will) help industries recover,” and he very well knew that agriculture right now was troubled, why was he not proposing a solution or two for Farming to turn from Zero to Hero? He was concentrating on the “job creation in agribusiness (since it) is very strong especially if it can take a lot of those that have been displaced like in tourism.”

Mr Gumba Jr said:

(Mr Tria also said) the Chamber also promised to help tourism businesses if they decide to transition to agribusiness.

Precisely, Mr Tria. Since those tourism businesses are still struggling to get to their feet, why doesn’t your group, the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry:

Go on now help get the huge agriculture sector machine set up and running?!@517

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[1]https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1856870?fbclid=IwAR15soZY4gLoxqejUinPF7dgUYHvnIfxbfkWju5svrXP0zlfVh4NdLRTxKQ

Look Homeward, Angel Locsin!

Why is Angel Locsin, Filipina movie superstar, looking up? Let’s see what she sees!

Lily Grace Tabanera writes in Cosmo.ph 19 May 2020, “Angel Locsin Is Raising Funds To Help With Mass Testing In The PH[1]:”

Real-life (Wonder Woman) Angel Locsin is going non-stop! In April, Angel set up the #UniTentWeStandPH campaign to provide more than 28 hospitals with specialized tents for their Covid-19 patients, raising almost P11 million. This time, she has a new goal: to purchase test kits and help poorer sectors get tested.

Ms Angel is “pushing the TEST-TRACE-ISOLATE/TREAT formula… the only proven way to defeat the virus.”

Let us grant, Ms Angel, using the 4T Formula, in the Philippines, you are talking of 109,500,000 warm bodies[2] – as of midnight today, Tuesday, 19 May 2020 – so, how are you going to apply 4T to the millions?! It’s crazy! If you targeted only 20%, that would still be 21,900,000 (million), so I can see you will never finish. It’s insane!

Earlier, 18 May 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque said, “Mass testing only possible in an ‘ideal world’; PH resources limited[3]” quoted by John Ezekiel J Hirro (PressONE.ph). I agree! “Test kits were hard to acquire, as other countries such as mass-producer China and the United States were prioritizing the use of testing kits on their citizens.”

Above everything: Diagnostic testing is not fail-safe!

Jennifer MacLachlan writes, “The Positives And Negatives Of Mass Testing For Coronavirus[4]” (15 May 2020, The Conversation):

Among the shortfalls of diagnostic testing is the possibility of false negatives (failing to detect a condition when it’s present) and false positives (detecting a condition when it’s absent).

And when you are done testing 20 million – when will that be?! – you are going to repeat the process with the same people because of false positives and false negatives!

But I am not one to surrender. "But above all the din, came the cry no surrender. ‘Twas the voice of James Connolly, the Irish rebel[5].” My rebel “No surrender” cry is this:

Treat The Threat Thru
Good Food Vs Bad Vibes!

“Eating For Everyday Wellness[6],” says WebMD. For everyday, you need good food.

I say: Good food is the simple, non-threatening, non-chemically laden, non-pesticide-bathed, non-exclusive eatables to achieve health. Ergo:

Good Agriculture, Better Food, Best Bodies!

Look homeward, Angel Locsin, visit your kitchen and cook yourself a good meal!

Meanwhile, let us dine on these food for thought, from the Web:

Good food is all the sweeter when shared with good friends.
Nothing brings people together like good food.

“You don’t need a silver fork to eat good food!” – Paul Prudhomme

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” – Virginia Woolf.

“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever we are doing and devote our attention to eating.” – Luciano Pavarotti.

What makes food tastes good?
“The secret ingredient is always love.” – Dreamstime.@517

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[1]https://www.cosmo.ph/entertainment/angel-locsin-shop-and-share-mass-testing-initiative-a2520-20200519?utm_source=Facebook-Cosmo&utm_medium=Ownshare&utm_campaign=20200519-fbnp-entertainment-angel-locsin-shop-and-share-mass-testing-initiative-a2520-20200519-fbfirst&fbclid=IwAR2Ypp9cbkFfVE744tFljGVM1DWug32prTdLkzKfNHuVSEd2UvHzk6flY5M

[2]ttps://www.worldometers.info/world-population/philippines-population/

[3]https://pressone.ph/mass-testing-only-possible-in-an-ideal-world-ph-resources-limited-roque/

[4]https://theconversation.com/the-positives-and-negatives-of-mass-testing-for-coronavirus-137792

[5]https://www.facebook.com/GlasgowRepublic/photos/a.307291062975191/411128679258095/?type=1&theater

[6]https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/eating-everyday-wellness#1

Balik Probinsya Si Frank A Hilario: How? WFH!

Here is the latest news from the Official Portal of the Department of Agriculture, DA: “Balik Probinsya” Paves Way To Agri Industrialization – DA Chief.” Great!

Yes, I have read the BusinessMirror news of 06 May 2020 by Samuel P Medenilla: “Duterte Issues EO To Institutionalize Balik Probinsya Bagong Pag-asa Program.” BP2, which I translate freely as Return to Country Return to Hope. Yes, I support the DA supporting the BP2 program of President Duterte.

For BP2, I am willing to relocate to my hometown of Asingan in Eastern Pangasinan. It will be easy for me, even at 79 years old – all I have to bring with me is my backpack where I have my Lenovo Core i7 14-inch touchscreen laptop, external hard disk, Lumix FZ100 digital camera superzoom, some clothes – and wife Ampy. With just those, I can work anywhere for you: All I would need is a fast WiFi connection.

And what could I offer the DA under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie? The same things I have been offering since at least 13 years ago when I began work-from-home, WFH, for the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, when Manong Willie was Director General; he was DG from 2000 to 2014.

For you, given all that, I can do any of these virtual/visual/real/unreal mental/intellectual works via Work From Home, WFH. That is to say, “home” to me is where the heart is and where I sit at the moment, being:

Mentor.
My mentoring is limitless, depending on what I see you need – no extra charge if I give more than you bargained for, because mine would be the pleasure!

Co-Author.
If you want to write something of any length, including somebody’s biography or your own, I can be your co-author.

Author’s Editor.
I will guide your writing in any manner except write a paragraph.

Ghostwriter.
I can write in your name following your style of writing – and faster!

Technical Editor.
Extraordinary! In the late 1990s, I helped Editor In Chief OK Bautista achieve for the Philippine Agricultural Scientist world-class or ISI status. In the early 2000s, as Editor In Chief of The Philippine Journal Of Crop Science, I brought the journal to ISI status, which the previous editors of 25 years failed to achieve.

Desktop Publisher.
Yes, I desktop-published my 7 books of articles on the aims and accomplishments of ICRISAT that the Institute paid for commercial printing, from 2008 to 2014.

Book Producer.
In October 2016, I compiled notes, edited and layouted a book on Philippine native animals for the National Swine & Poultry Research & Development Center, which is under the Bureau of Animal Industry, more than 170 pages.

Earlier, in 2012, I produced the Silver Anniversary coffee-table book for the Agricultural Credit & Policy Council. I wrote the text, including title, The Filipino Farmer Is Bankable, 198 pages, with about 50% of the total photographs taken by me using my new Lumix FZ100 digital camera.

So, Manong Willie, which more of me would you like to help more of DA?@517

Real & Virtual – 2 Worlds The PH DA Must Struggle In To Win The War

The press release from the Department of Agriculture, DA, was titled “DA Proposes Measures To Revive, Reboot PHL Agri Sector[1].” Now: 

Revive – to restore to life physically;
Reboot – to restore to life virtually.
2 different worlds contained in 1 linear titular sentence.

Did someone in the DA mix metaphors?

Looking at the above image, my “global sunset” giving life to a dull scene, taken 08-Dec-16 with my Lumix FZ100 digital camera:

The mixed metaphor is welcome – it gives light to a sleeping giant!

Yes. The title “DA Proposes Measures To Revive, Reboot PHL Agri Sector” is excellent! It:

(1) realistically refers to the resuscitation of physical measures needed for PH agriculture to spring back to its feet; as well as  

(2) digitally refers to the renewing & revitalizing of virtual measures necessary to bring PH agriculture from inaccessible science to knowledge at your fingertips.

And so Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie has formally asked from the PH government a total of P66 Billion for the new Agriculture “Plant, Plant, Plant Program,” Agri 4Ps. Nobody asked, but it is a Dream Budget to me because it covers the real world less of cities and more of countryside, and covers the virtual world of science (knowledge) and technology (tools & systems).

The interventions comprise 6 components; I rearranged the listing to combine the real: (1), (2, and (3): and the virtual: (4), (5), and (6).

(1) Food logistics/food markets project;
(2) Strengthening of price monitoring and enforcement system;
(3) Agricultural and fisheries commodity exchange system; 
(4) Communications support to Agri 4Ps;
(5) Expanding extension support to the provincial local government units; and
(6) Digital agriculture.

(4), (5) & (6): I’m into digital support systems for Agri 4Ps communications, extension, and digital agriculture.

This excites me because I am a science writer seeing the Agri 4Ps as “Science seeking the human face.” History: In 2007, I became international consulting writer for the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, when William Dar was Director General; he was DG from 2000 to 2014. ICRISAT’s slogan at that time was “Science with a human face.” To modify it for today, I say that what Manong Willie is pursuing as Secretary of Agriculture is “Science with a farmer’s face.”

On 10 April 2003, Rita T Dela Cruz reported that the ICRISAT DG proposed “the creation of an open academy… empowering farmers and fisherfolk with the latest technology developed through research and development, R&D.” This became the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture, OpAPA[2], and PhilRice took over. In December of 2003, I was engaged as a PhilRice consultant, and I came out with a complete proposal on how to construct and communicate OpAPA, a 198-page inspiration/instruction book titled The Geography Of Knowledge. Alas, that was the end of it!

Nonetheless, thinking of the Agri 4Ps, I will submit my knowledge-defining-geography book again, even as I hope the scene will become a beautiful sunrise!@517

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[1]https://pia.gov.ph/press-releases/releases/1042027?fbclid=IwAR3xe5wg4QfOrmklnB4hFav9rWtuBtuGn4EopX7JjPNpo1RXKINchvK6asE

[2]https://www.bar.gov.ph/index.php/test-archive/407-april-2003-issue/3103-da-creates-open-academy-for-philippine-agriculture