Landscape maintenance operations at the edible landscape garden and nursery management at the Ornamental Crops Nursery, Crop Science Cluster, College of Agriculture, UPLB, College, Laguna

Date

12-2015

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Agriculture

Major Course

Major in Horticulture

College

College of Agriculture and Food Science (CAFS)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Ryan Rodrigo P. Tayobong

Abstract

Different landscape maintenance operations at the edible landscape garden (EL garden) and nursery management were observed and performed at the Ornamental Crops Nursery, UPLB, College, Laguna from June to August 2015. Maintaining an EL garden was almost the same with maintaining a conventional landscape with the addition of continuous cycle of sowing, transplanting and harvesting especially for annual edible crops. Proper timing of these operations is needed to avoid bare areas or open patches and to keep the wholesomeness of the area. Moreover, organic method of maintenance was employed in the site. The major challenges in the site were the declining soil fertility as shown by poor and slow growth of plants and pest problems. Vermicompost was applied in the site but cannot sustain the continuous lush growth of plants. Organic pest control methods such as manual picking of insects, rouging, and application of organic pesticides reduces pest problems but were laborious and time consuming. Good monitoring is required to decrease pest population but still greatly affects the aesthetic quality of plants. Other notable observations were high weed density, poor or lack of tools, poor hardscape maintenance and unfair work distribution between gardeners. Regarding nursery management, the major operation done was propagation through stem cutting. Almost all of the ornamental plants were propagated under mist to hasten rooting but most mist irrigation nozzles and the water pump were not working properly. Other nursery operations were manual watering and fertilizer application, weeding, pesticide application, transplanting and media preparation. The main problem observed was the absence of proper work schedule. The monthly cost of the basic maintenance operation and nursery management in the whole area (2, 266 m2) was Php 25, 860.80 or 11.41 per m2. Significant portion of the expenses was devoted to labor cost, however this estimate was not sufficient because not all operations were done during the major practice. At the end of the major practice, the student learned that maintaining an edible landscape garden is laborious and requires proper scheduling and planning while nursery management is complex and challenging but both are manageable if proper knowledge and experience are imparted to all the members of the management team, from supervisor to gardeners.

Language

English

Location

UPLB Main Library Special Collections Section (USCS)

Call Number

LG 993 2015 A3 /G34

Document Type

Thesis

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