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APT 4.0: Eps. 2: #PlanTito/ #PlanTita TIPS: Potting Mix Preparation for Urban Gardening
College of Agriculture and Food Science
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APT 4.0: Eps. 3: Mga Pak at Bet mo na Gulay, Paano Itanim Hanggang Anihin?
College of Agriculture and Food Science
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APT 4.0: Eps. 4: PAK management to BEaT the insect pests of PAKBET
College of Agriculture and Food Science
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APT 4.0: Eps. 5: Iwasan Ang Mga Sakit Upang Ang Pakbet ay Bet Na Bet
College of Agriculture and Food Science
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APT 4.0: Eps. 6: Pak na harvest your best bet
College of Agriculture and Food Science
Prolonging the shelf life of our vegetables once they are harvested is one of the problems of many of our vegetable growers. Episode 6 of the Aggie Ps Talk 4.0: Urban Gardening helps solve this by featuring postharvest handling tips and storage of our harvested pinakbet vegetables namely: eggplant, ampalaya, okra, squash, tomato, and onion. Proper storage of these vegetables would lengthen their freshness prior to cooking and the nutritional content of the said vegetables would remain intact.
Serving as resource speaker for the episode titled, “Pak na harvest your best bet” was Ms. Daphne Cassandra H. Gonzales, university research associate at the Postharvest Horticulture Training and Research Center (PHTRC).
During her talk, she explained that crops are classified as perishable and durable crops. Perishable crops include fruits, vegetables, root and bulb crops, cutflower, herbs, and medicinal crops. Durable crops, on the other hand, includes cereals, grains, and legumes.
Focusing on perishable crops, Ms. Gonzales shared that postharvest handling of pinakbet vegetables passes through different steps that perishable crops are subjected to from harvest prior to sale or use while retaining the characteristics of living things and maintaining their fresh form. This process starts from harvesting and trimming, cleaning, sorting, packaging, transporting, and storage.
Ms. Gonzales also discussed two alternative storage methods, namely: Evaporative Cooling Technique, wherein heat from outside is blocked by wet cloth and lowers temperature by 3-6 °c; and Modified Atmosphere Packaging, wherein respiration rate and ethylene production is considerably retarded, hence extending the storage life of the vegetables.
Knowing the importance of postharvest handling would enable us to contribute to reducing food loss and most importantly, to food waste.
Watch the recorded webinar through this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iokRpKQFAwg
(IMGesmundo)
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APT 4.0: Eps. 7: Bottled Pakbet: Pak na Pak at Bet na Bet
College of Agriculture and Food Science
This episode is probably the most appetizing part of the webinar. After having been successful in growing pinakbet vegetables and there is an oversupply of produce, it is now time to go into value-adding to avoid food wastage.
Sharing his expertise in product development was Mr. Rommel M. Felismino, university researcher at the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST). In his pre-recorded presentation on the episode titled, “Bottled Pakbet: Pak na Pak at Bet na Bet” last May 11, he explained the importance of preserving the ingredients in a pinakbet dish through bottled pinakbet processing.
Pinakbet, according to Mr. Felismino, symbolizes the customs and culture of the Ilocanos as the popular dish consisting of a variety of indigenous vegetables (eggplant, ampalaya, okra, yard long beans, and tomato) seasoned with bagoong or fish sauce. The dish now has several versions depending on the locality.
Mr. Felismino emphasized that to maintain the quality and safety of food, it is necessary to observe Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). These include the proper sanitary procedures in the preparation of the vegetables and some visual considerations in choosing the vegetables that have good quality based on the Philippine National Standards. He also shared the proper attire and kitchen utensils to be used during the processing. Finally, he provided 19 steps to follow in processing the bottled pinakbet.
Due to the many requests from the viewers, a pre-recorded presentation on the preparation of bagoong, a salty and viscous food ingredient in the fermentation of fish, which is the “heart” of pinakbet, was presented by Dr. Baby Richard R. Navarro, associate professor at IFST and an expert on traditional fermented food in the Philippines.
Dr. Navarro explained that the preparation of bagoong requires four ingredients, namely: fish, which should be fresh, sound, wholesome, and fit for consumption according to the Food and Drugs Administration; salt, which should be a food grade quality; potable, distilled, or mineral water; and patis, which has been harvested from a fermented bagoong. The patis ingredient will hasten the fermentation of the newly-prepared bagoong.
In this time of pandemic, it is important that we have the right knowledge on the processing of our vegetable produce as it is one way of addressing food scarcity and malnutrition in the rural and urban areas.
Watch the recorded webinar through this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adhHZLCY4CI
(IMGesmundo)
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APT 4.0: Eps. 8: Square foot gardening - Planting More in Less Space
College of Agriculture and Food Science
As Aggie Ps Talk 4.0: Urban Gardening webinar Pinakbet series almost comes to a conclusion, comes a technology which has long been practiced in some countries abroad, but not so much in the Philippines – Square Foot Gardening (SFG). SFG has been introduced in UPLB by Prof. Ryan Rodrigo P. Tayobong in 2016.
Episode 8, aired last May 18, features the webinar titled, “Square foot gardening: Planting More in Less Space.” Serving as resource speaker was Mr. Darel Kenth S. Antesco, university research associate at the Crop Production and Management Division of the Institute of Crop Science (ICropS).
In his discussion about SFG, Mr. Antesco defined square foot gardening as the practice of dividing the growing area into one square foot section. These sections are divided by lines called grids and planted with different kinds of vegetable. There are two types of square foot garden which the vegetable grower could choose from. The first one is the raised bed, which is simpler to prepare and easy to install, but is easily disjointed and prone to weeds and water logging. The second one is the elevated bed, which lasts longer, can provide good drainage, and avoids weeds, but requires more materials, effort, and time to build.
A square foot garden has the following features:
- Grids, which are the most distinct feature of SFG as it allows the vegetable grower to have at least 20% more plants;
- Encourages mix planting or thematic planting;
- Lessens root boundedness;
- Arrangement that is based on plant size and canopy;
- Allows for more plants in less space;
- Continuous cropping cycle;
- Possible to do in cemented portions of our backyard;
- Staggered planting;
- Staggered harvesting; and
- Low maintenance.
Mr. Antesco also shared that an ideal space for a square foot garden could be a cemented pavement like veranda and grounds or lawns. He also provided some important aspects in doing square foot garden. These include the following: seed germination, which considers the proper storage area for the seeds; planting calendar, which provides an estimate of activities and harvesting time; longevity of materials; and growing media should be sterilized.
In a pre-recorded video, Mr. Antesco showed how a square foot garden box is prepared using four pieces of wood as base frame. He also encouraged the use of bamboo, plywood, or any recycled material available in the locality. Moreover, since it has wheels that are attached underneath, it does not touch the ground since it is elevated. Likewise it can also be transferred to any place where there is enough sunlight.
A square foot garden allows for additional vertical pots that will maximize the vertical space of SFG. Furthermore, the plants in the SFG can sustain two life cycles. Hence, a ready supply of vegetables is assured in every home.
Watch the recorded webinar through this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn-bBzpwaLM
(IM Gesmundo)
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