Chicken manure + hormone = good garlic, onion harvest

Process chicken manure, mix it with a plant growth hormone called gibberellic acid (GA3), spray the mixture on garlic and onion plants and, surely, you will have a good harvest.

Take this from government researchers in the Ilocos Region who have developed the technology to increase the productivity of garlic and onion, two of the most important crops in Ilocandia.

The researchers are Wilhelmina Castañeda, Leticia Bensan, Edmundo Quinit, and Benjamin Ronduen of the Department of Agriculture-Ilocos Integrated Agricultural Research Center (DA-ILIARC) and Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (DMMMSU), a multi-campus tertiary school in La Union.

To revitalize the garlic and onion industries in Region 1, the country’s top producers of these crops, the DA-Regional Field Unit 1 (RFU) and DMMMSU researchers joined hand to commercialize new technologies that will increase the efficiency and yield and income of farmers by 15-20 percent.

One of the technologies is the use of gibberellic acid, a hormone that promotes plant growth and development in growing garlic and onion.

The award-winning technology gives higher yield and income compared with the usual fertilization practice of farmers in the Ilocos, stated a DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) report.

Castañeda also presented the technology at a recent research forum organized by DA-BAR headed by Director Nicomedes P. Eleazar.

The commonly used GA3 is commercially available as Berelex.

Castañeda, as reported by BAR’s Miko Jazmine J. Mojica, explained that to apply the gibberellic acid, one-fourth tablet Berelex should be mixed with 16 liters of water in a sprayer tank. One tank mixture is enough to spay a 2,500-square-meter farm. This should be sprayed at the growing tissues or on young leaves late in the afternoon at 36 and 56 days after planting (DAP) for optimum results.

Results of the Region 1 study showed that the application of 50+15+45 kilograms NPK (nitrogen/phosphorus/potassium) per hectare with 10 bags processed chicken manure sprayed application at 36 and 56 DAP, gave higher yield and income by 29 and 83 percent, respectively, than the farmers’ practice.

However, the researchers cautioned, garlic should not be grown along with onion since the bulbs will be highly susceptible to the pest thrips. – Rudy A. Fernandez