Restoring the natural ecosystem of an area takes some time. In nature, it takes about 30-50 years to create an inch of humus laden top soil. But with human intervention, it takes much shorter. With my small garden, I was able to recreate a top soil of about 2 inches on hard silt and clay (brought by Typhoon Frank) in about two years by digging deep and putting in as much leaves and other organic matter I can gather. The thick mulch of leaves also helped make top soil when kept wet all the time to hasten decomposition. The spondias or libas leaves that I harvested from the several trees I planted were easy to decompose because of the nitrogen content and which attracted fungus and molds. The libas leaves rot in about a month when kept wet all the time.
I had placed aside the branches of the spondias and some ipil-ipil I harvested, hoping to dry them up for use as firewood later. I was surprised that in as short as one month, the native pleurotus mushroom locallly known as karupdup soon started to grow. Karupdup is a favorite of Ilonggos usually sauteed and made into soups. After two flushings, the edible mushroom must have exhausted the nutrients it thrives on and the trunk turned dark brown. The rains kept the branches wet and I was surprised one day to see ganoderma mushrooms growing. I think, some of the ganoderma capsules that floated during the Typhoon Frank had potent spores that when they lodged in some of the trees and the environment was good for their growth, they surfaced.
I am now experimenting on some of my chickens to see if indeed, ganoderma will be able to help boost their immune system by feeding them about 500 mg of pure mushrooms powder daily. The human dose is about 3-5 grams per day. Meanwhile, I am also harvesting the karupdup and drying them for future use.
The soil in my small garden has continued to become more fertile and dark. Cut leaves and chicken manure I harvested from the chicken cages had been regularly dumped in the gardens. The tagabang plants are now over 2 meters and the winged bean vines have crawled over the papayas which have also started to bear fruits. The sorghum plants are also regularly harvested and cut only 4 inches so that they will ratoon and become productive again in 60 days. The stalks are chopped and placed on top of the decomposing leaves and manure. These decomposing matter are regularly turned over so that decomposition is uniform and the whole pile will rot at the same time.
I have experimented on liquid foliar fertilizer too. In a 20 liter container, I placed chopped madre de agua (tricantera) leaves up to 1/3, added another 1/3 of ipil-ipil leaves mixed with some hagonoy leaves and topped chicken manure up to the brim. Then I added animal and human urine to fill the container. The 20 liter container needed about 10 liters of urine. To this mixture, I added 3 cups of indigenous microorganism concentrate. After 2 weeks, I stirred the mixture to homogenize and allow the live bacteria to work uniformly to speed up decomposition. Their decomposing action is manifested by the bubbles which are basically the carbon dioxide excreted by the live microorganisms. In about 6 weeks the bubbles subsided and when I inspected the mixture, I found the leaves almost decomposed. By then the hot weather have caused the water level to subside by about 2 inches and I added about 2 kilograms of wood ash to provide soluble potassium.
I sgtated to use the liquid fertilizer two ways. The first is as liquid soil additive where I mix 1 liter of concentrate to 4 liters of water and pour about half liter for each plant in the garden weekly. I also add about 1 tablespoon of the filtered concentrate in a bottle sprayer and fill it with 500 ml water. I spray 2 to 3 bursts per plant on the surface early morning so that the solution is further diluted by the morning due adhering to the leaves. The organic plant nutrient is easily assimilated into the plant's system through the plant pores or the stomates. My observation is that leaf fertilization has helped improve overall growth. The papaya plants have responded by flowering more profusely and the sorghum have larger grain panicles.
I continue to experiment on the small garden and meanwhile, I have more than enough leafy vegetables. My favorite vegetable mix is tinolang papaya with saluyot leaves cooked with one cup of broth and just garlic as condiment. The sago plants my Pet M gave me has multiplied several times already and the leaves have turned dark green. Even the napier grasses I sprayed with the liquid fertilizers were greener than the rest which served as control. Now I have started to appreciate the concepts of Fukuoka and Mollison that natural farming is possible and it may not be too hard to implement. I guess the basic principle is to study nature and mimic it using plants that can provide food for the family.
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