FOLLOWING the onset of the El Niño phenomenon, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration has advised farmers to properly take good care of their crops.
Many farmers know well that water stress may alter the physiological and metabolism of plants and reduces the quality and quantity of their harvest, and irrigation is essential to ensure a successful crop production in water stressed farms or regions.
For Balrly D. Valenzuela, a caretaker of a cacao nursery and plantation in Barangay Atipulan, Bago City in Negros Occidental, he knows that cacao tress cannot tolerate drought very well, and will require climates with high precipitation and humidity to thrive.
In order for the cacao tree to provide a good harvest, the grower still has plenty of work to perform.
To look after a cacao plantation, a farmer has to replace seedlings that have not grown, remove the weeds and keep the soil covered, prune the trees, protect the cacao trees from insects and diseases, and, apply the necessary fertilizer.
But stress or damage to agricultural crops due to weather disturbances could be prevented or minimized with the proper application of farm inputs, like organic fertilizers and related products.
During these times, many farmers have already used the organic amino plus foliar fertilizer or APFF, which could help them to cope up with the changing weather patterns.
The protection and improvement can be attributed to the potency of APFF because it is made from selected fish which contain compounds that promote plant growth and better fruiting.
This is due to the high L-Amino acids content of APFF which are easily absorbed by the plants.
It also contains effective microorganisms that provide long-term beneficial effects on the physical, chemical, and biological condition of the soil.
NPK alone cannot offer an all-in-one solution to plant nutrition and can become detrimental when supplied in excessive amounts.
This is where amino acids come in, the building blocks of protein, which are needed by the plants like all other living organisms.
The amino acid contents of APFF can provide the benefits that cannot be supplied by the NPK alone.
NPK represents nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) which are used by the plants.
For fruiting trees like cacao, APFF can be applied once a week or once every two weeks during the vegetative stage, and during the fruiting stage, APFF should be applied every after harvest in order to increase the defense mechanism of plants.
Plants or fruiting trees sprayed with foliar fertilizer can become more resistant to diseases and other stresses in the field.
When sprayed, it effectively adheres to the plant’s surface and provides quick supplementation.
Foliar feeding can also be used to overcome root problems when they are less efficient due to low or high temperatures, lack of oxygen in flooded fields, nematode attack damaging the vascular system, and a decrease in root activity during the reproductive stages where more of the photosynthetic creation is transferred for reproduction with less for root respiration. (jaypeeyap@ymail.com/PN)
