8th Issue Vol. 2 No.

5 ISSN 2094 - 1765 May 2009

Promoting Urban Agriculture in the Metropolis

By Norberto R. Bautista

With the national government’s address for Food Security and Safety, Rizal Technological
University (RTU) in Mandaluyong City, thru its president Dr. Jose Q. Macaballug, has taken the
lead and initiative in the implementation of the Urban Agriculture Project in selected barangays in
the Mandaluyong City area. Prof. Arlene Banaria-Alon, Director of the University’s Research and
Development Center. its project leader, Prof. Alexander Quilang, Co-project leader Prof. Norberto
Bautista and Prof. Jovita Anit are currently with the city’s League of Barangays in order to
incorporate the plan into each barangay’s projects. Spearheaded by Atty. Jessie Cruz, it aims to
implement the project slowly from the university to the grass-root level of the community through
dissemination of information on urban agriculture and promotion of vegetable gardening among
city dwellers in order to raise home-grown vegetables which will be pesticide-free and readily
available. In the future, concept of urban farming can be adopted by other municipalities and
cities in Metro Manila.

Urban Agriculture is not new. It is the practice of cultivating, processing, packaging and
distributing food in or around a village, town or city. It involves the principles in horticulture, animal
science, fisheries, and business. Instead of raising vegetables in the province, it focuses
production right in the home, usually in all available spaces like roof top gardens, backyards,
vacant residential lots, in school lots or in community parks. Urban farming usually focuses on
food production, however, it may also include recreation and relaxation purposes. Urban farming
has been successful in countries like the United States, where vegetables are raised in vacant
lots to provide the much readily available crops in the area. The vegetables are usually cheap as
it does not involve transporting them from long distances.

The main purpose of Urban Agriculture is to increase the amount of food available to the people
living in the city and allows fresh vegetables, fruits, meat products to be made available to urban
consumers.

With these, some of the activities to be involved in the project will include: (a) Planting / raising of
small quantities of vegetable crops / small fruit trees; (b) cultivation of freshwater fish in
containers; (c) raising poultry and small livestock ; (d) raising of houseplants for indoor use
(residential or office) ; (e) vermi-composting (earthworm) of garden wastes ; and (f) gradual
introduction of organic gardening concepts

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Urban Agriculture aims to encourages bio-intensive method of food production, to make the
activity more efficient.

The objectives of Urban Agriculture are to make available and affordable food items especially
common vegetables in the family household and in the city and in effect lower the expenses on
these food items. Through close supervision of production, the project aims to encourage the
production of healthy, safe, pesticide-free vegetables. With these, RTU and the Local
Government of Mandaluyong aims to make use of vacant lots, residential spaces, balconies and
roof-tops for vegetable growing, urban greening, and landscape beautification. With these, it aims
to create an alternative means of livelihood to city-residents, especially women and out-of-school
youth. This will also encourage entrepreneurship attitudes to its citizens and to encourage
composting of organic wastes, recycling of plastic, styro-foam, glass and metal wastes, thereby
reducing total waste output

Some of the vegetables and plant crops which are identified to be planted for urban agriculture
are: Tomato, Bell Pepper, Hot Pepper, Pechay, Mustard, Upland KangKong, Spinach, Squash,
Upo, Patola, Ampalaya, Eggplant, Onion, Shallots, Kinchay, Celery, Okra, Sitaw, Batao, Sweet
Potato, Leeks, Basil, Alugbati, Raddish, Carrots, Saluyot, Wingbean, Lettuce, Ube, Papaya,
Banana, Corn, Malunggay, Pandan, Katuray, Ginger and Gabi.

For areas with larger planting areas and for longer periods of time, fruit trees maybe included.
Fruit trees may include Mango, Kamias, Sampaloc, Jackfruit, Star Apple, Balimbing, Guava,
Rambutan, Chico, Makopa, and Guyabano. Non-tree fruits may include Pineapple, and Lakatan
Banana.

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 Crops like Bananas, Ampalaya
(Bittergoard) and Eggplants are some of
the easy to grow crops in the urban area

Initially, there is a demonstration farm beside the Rizal Technological University’s campus where
different vegetables are being pilot tested. Designs in vertical farming techniques using PVC
Pipes and also in large polypropylene seedling bags are being tested. From this, the project
group are working closely with the different barangays in Mandaluyong to select sites where the
project can be implemented. Ideal sites or space needs to be open enough so that plants can
receive morning and afternoon sun, secured from pedestrians and protected from roaming
animals.

Once the site is selected, people assigned in the said site will be taught on urban farming. Soil in
the area will be cultivated using a spade and rake. Removal of large rocks, plastic litter and trash,
will be done, followed by leveling the ground. Soil amelioration will be done using garden soil,
compost or coconut coir dust plus sand will be done for areas lacking soil. Once ready, garden
plots will be prepared, where vegetables will be planted.

Proper seed sowing techniques, transplanting, fertilization, pest and disease control and
maintenance of vegetable crops will be taught with close supervision. Later on, if the projects
becomes sustainable, marketing support may also be included.

The project is a noble cause wherein the citizens are encouraged to plant vegetables in vacant
lots, a place which sometimes only weeds grow. With these, small spaces are utilized to grow
small quantities of food crops for family consumption, which will be a small incentive for poor
families who lack the income to buy regular supply of vegetables for the table. Some vegetables
like petchay, mustasa and kangkong grows very fast in 25 days and are common ingredients in
almost all Filipino dishes. Instead of buying these common vegetables in the market, one can
easily harvest them right from his own backyard, which he guarantees to be safe, healthy and
pesticide-free.

So, why not grow some of your own vegetables? It’s a worthwhile and interesting challenge,
specially for those who has the vacant lot, and time to do it.

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 GROWING GRAMMATOPHYLLUM ORCHIDS
by Norberto R. Bautista

Grammatophyllums are
medium to large (and
sometimes giant) plants. These
sympodial orchids are usually
epiphytes or lithophytes, found
growing on tree branches or
rocks in low altitude forest from
sea level to about one
thousand feet elevation. It was
described by one botanist that
“often plants, weighing several
hundred of pounds, girdle the
massive trunks of their host
trees at a height of fifty feet
from the ground.” They have
thickened pseudobulbs,
measuring 0.3 meters to more than a meter long in some species, either covered by
leaf-shealths with strap-like narrow pointed leaves. This orchid group has two distinct
growth patterns. One pattern is a sugar-cane like growth giving rise to many leaves,
while the other has thick squat psuedobulbs that have a few leaves borne from the apex.
The flowers are showy, spectacular and large, having olive green, brown, or yellow
flowers on long arching, racemose inflorescences. The inflorescence rises from the base
of the pseudobulbs.

The genus was first described by Carl Blume in 1825 in Bijdragen tot de Flora van
Nederlandsch Indie using Grammatophylum speciosum as the type species. The generic
name Grammatophyllum was derived from the Greek words gramma, meaning "a mark
or character," and phyllum, "a leaf." This probably refers to the varied markings on the
petals and sepals of the flowers, which resulted in Grammatophyllum frequently being
called the "Letter Plant." Other species of this majestic orchid genus are large thus
called Giant or Century Orchid (like the G. wallisii), have flower markings like that of a
tiger, thus called “Tiger Orchids”, and while some have black flowers, thus called “Black
Orchid” (G. martae).

There are 12 Grammatophylum species found in SE Asia, distributed in Indonesia, New

Guinea, the Philippines and the South Western Pacific. In the Philippines, there are 8
species, namely G. elegans, G. martae, G. measuresianum, G. multiflorum (var. tigrinum
& citrinum), G. scriptum, G. speciosum, G. stapeliiflorum, and G. wallisii. The
Grammatophyllums are related to the Cymbidiums, thus artificial intergeneric hybrids
can be created by crossing 2 species between them. This orchid is grown as a specimen
flowering pot plant or for large species, as a landscape plant.

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 Cultural Requirements:

Light – Grammatophyllums grows in

full sun condition. However, during
extreme hot summer months,
provision of 2 layers of net maybe
required by some plants

Watering & Humidity – Young

plants in active growth needs to be
watered everyday, but allowing time
for plants to dry between watering.
Mature plants would prefer 2-3 days interval between watering since, they have
pseudobulbs that store water and food. In inducing plants to flower, specially Century
orchids (G. wallisii) watering is usually withheld for a month or two, and only the
surrounding companion plants are watered to provide humidity. Once the flower spikes
comes out, it is then watered more often. Protect plants from too much rain, or else they
will rot. Allow ventillation and air-movement between plants at all times.

Potting Technique – Small to medium sized Grammatophyllums are usually potted on 5

to 10 inch clay pots, with a mixture of chopped coconut husk and charcoal as medium.
For larger plants, they could either be placed on 2 feet diameter or larger plastic pots, in
hanging baskets, or usually mounted on live tree branches, on driftwoods or on large
wood stumps elevated about 2 feet from the soil. Before potting, remove all dead and
decaying roots, leaf sheaths and leaves. Anchor plants properly on the pot or mount
properly on tree branches or wood stumps, so that they will not move. These will
facilitate quick establishment. It was observed that these plants can break clay pots as
they overgrow their container. Also, plants with many pseudobulbs tends to die back,
thus, dividing plants more often help facilitate propagation and at the same time prevent
die back characteristics.

Fertilization – Fertilize plants in active growth by spraying them with a dilute orchid
foliar fertilizer once every week, usually after watering plants. Plants in dormant stages
of growth or those being treated for flower induction are not fertilized. A small amount of
slow release fertilizer may be placed per pot every 2 months.

Pest and Diseases – These plants are susceptible to rotting, thus, keep plants dry as
much as possible. Limiting the watering to once every 2-3 days will solve this problem.
Apply fungicides like Captan, Ridomil or Bavistin as a propylactic during the rainy
season or when there is fungal disease. Apply Lannate or Sevin only when there is
serious insect infestations.

Propagation -- Grammatophyllums are propagated by division of pseudobulbs. Clumps

are divided into 2-3 bulbs each Care must be taken that only sterile pruning shears be
used. Sanitize cutting instruments by washing them in soap and water and wiping them
with 70% ethyl alcohol solution before dividing plants. Grammatophyllums can also be
propagated through seeds. Flowers maybe artificially pollinated and these will form seed
capsules within a month. Mature seed capsules, about 3 months old for small – medium
species and about 10-12 months for larges species (e.g. G. wallisii) should be ready for
harvest. Seeds are artificially sown in the laboratory using orchid seed technology, to
produce thousands of seedlings in a year’s time.