water for farming

[badkuk]

Quick question lang po sa mga gentlemen farmers dito sa tsikot: in the long run, nakakasira ba yung tubig na galing sa balon/spring/poso sa lupa? i saw this docu in passing about mineralization ruining the soil, to the point that nothing will grow any more. E di ba madaming minerals(calcium? manganese) yung tubig poso/balon?


That said, what other alternatives are there? Do you need to treat the water in some way to make it less mineral-ly?

[macsd]

I'm no farming expert but what i suppose your use for the question is for plants or irrigation. Well , any source of water whether from balon, river, stream , city supplied even rain has their own individual contents/minerals yet plants still grow. It's the absence of water that will hinder the life of a plant. Now if your into a particular use of farming like hydroponic or the like, then the water should be something you have to threat to specific level.

[111prez]

Maybe this can help: Water management in irrigated lowland rice

[joemarski]

share ko na lang ito sir. napansin ko lang sa mga farm lots namin.

'yung patubig namin eh galing rin sa poso or pumped from underground.
palay ang tanim namin. napansin ko lang na may taon na iba naman ang nakatanim.
ang sabi ng mga farmers namin: nawawala daw ang sustansiya ng lupa kaya minsan
kailangan rin taniman ng iba. para nga rin daw tao 'yan na minsan eh pakakainin mo
ng ibang klase ng ulam.

hindi naman ako eksperto sa mga ganyan, but i think it really works.
wala naman kasi akong alam na inihahalo nila sa tubig except the fertilizers and/or insecticides.

[Walter]

The soil becomes acidic over time from too much chemical fertilizers being used hence the need to plant other crops so they say. Not really that effective but that's all they know. Best is to use bacteria based fertilizer to "normalize" the soil.

[12vdc]

Acidity and other vital minerals are washed out, hence the need for fertilization. Try organic farming using compost and chicken manure as fertilizers. Makikita mo kung acidic, madali tubuan ng cogon or other weeds that thrive from acidic soil.

[badkuk]

Acidity and other vital minerals are washed out, hence the need for fertilization. Try organic farming using compost and chicken manure as fertilizers. Makikita mo kung acidic, madali tubuan ng cogon or other weeds that thrive from acidic soil.

pardon my ignorance, but if the soil is too acidic/akaline, isn't it just a matter of adding a base/acid to neutralize it, e.g calcium, eggshells, ash?

baket nga ba industrial fertilizer ang preferred? mas effective kesa organic/compost?

[12vdc]

Soil becomes acidic or alkalinic when minerals gets unbalanced, maybe due to too much irrigation too frequent tillage of soil minerals gets washed away or toomuch concentration of unwanted minerals. Depends on what crops you are growing, for example some mango trees wont bear fruit if you dont induce with fertilizers like calcium nitrate, same with pineapples and rice. One advantage of doing organic is that the mineral content are balanced, they are also cheap to produce if you know how. Industrial fertilizers are just easier to implement like they're water soluble and could be sprayed, organic needs to be in direct contact with the soil near the plant else you will end up needing tons of it.

[confused shoes]

pardon my ignorance, but if the soil is too acidic/akaline, isn't it just a matter of adding a base/acid to neutralize it, e.g calcium, eggshells, ash?

baket nga ba industrial fertilizer ang preferred? mas effective kesa organic/compost?

This forum should be able to answer your questions better.
PCAARRD Message Board

PCAARRD Message Board
Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development

[crazy_boy]

can we use chicken manure as fertilizer in gardening? and where can we buy this?

[12vdc]

can we use chicken manure as fertilizer in gardening? and where can we buy this?

Pwedeng pwede sir CB, yan din pinapakain sa tilapia. Usually poultry farms do sell these chick manure already dried up to remove pathogens. Pero recommend ko kung may space ka for for compost, ito pinaka the best. Tapon mo lang doon lahat ng biodegradable waste collected from the house then put cover (but with enough ventilation). Wait for couple of months, the decomposed part settles at the buttom that u could collect. It may need periodic watering and aeration din to speedup decomposition. It becomes hot when bacteria kicks in with decomposition.

I have one in the house while in the farm its a vermicompost - african worms digest the shredded leaves etc then the droppings becomes fertilizer. This is the best i've tried so far, very fine and even ang outcome no more need to treat under the sun.

[crazy_boy]

Pwedeng pwede sir CB, yan din pinapakain sa tilapia. Usually poultry farms do sell these chick manure already dried up to remove pathogens. Pero recommend ko kung may space ka for for compost, ito pinaka the best. Tapon mo lang doon lahat ng biodegradable waste collected from the house then put cover (but with enough ventilation). Wait for couple of months, the decomposed part settles at the buttom that u could collect. It may need periodic watering and aeration din to speedup decomposition. It becomes hot when bacteria kicks in with decomposition.

I have one in the house while in the farm its a vermicompost - african worms digest the shredded leaves etc then the droppings becomes fertilizer. This is the best i've tried so far, very fine and even ang outcome no more need to treat under the sun.

pano yung worms? may compost bin kami sa bahay. usually mga chopped veggies and latak ng fruits from juicer nilalagay namin.

[12vdc]

pano yung worms? may compost bin kami sa bahay. usually mga chopped veggies and latak ng fruits from juicer nilalagay namin.

Yung african worms medyo controlled environment, may bedding at shade,no water pooling. Iwas din sa mga alagang manok na may mga sisiw para hindi maubos. Kung sa bahay ok na ang regular compost, at least dalawang compost box para madali ang extraction. Yung regular worms and magotts din ang nakakapagpabilis ng decomposition, pero not desirable ang flies since baka magkalat ng sakit kaya dapat may cover or net.

[Walter]

Organic farming does not work too well in commercial farming. Chicken manure from poultry farms are becoming too acidic. See what chemicals and medicines they are feeding chickens these days.

[badkuk]

Say that the soil does become acidic/akaline/mineralized, is it basically game over for the farm?

Is it also advisable to use fishpond water? Although i can see the same problems as with chicken poop kung feeds and pinapakain dun.

Been doing some experiments at home: composting, reusing fish tank water for plants. Dunno, there's just something in the efficiency that i like.

[badkuk]

Organic farming does not work too well in commercial farming. Chicken manure from poultry farms are becoming too acidic. See what chemicals and medicines they are feeding chickens these days.

Anong reason sir? Mas malaki lang talaga yields ng commercial ferts? Or wala lang makuhanang steady supply ng compost? Composting seems easy enough to do(though i haven't been able to do this on my compost bin -- nagigigng tambayan ng langgam, ipis, at butiki :D )

[Walter]

Difficult to implement organic in commercial scale and market is not ready to pay more for organic produce. Laziness and hardheadedness of growers / farmers. Plus corruption, not government but business. Consultants and managers earn more commissions from using commercial fertilizers.

Farmers want what is convenient also so they tend to use commercial fertilizers. Do you know how much pesticides and insecticides they apply now in rice farms? They put a lot that not even birds dare fly in such an area.

There are some good fertilizers in the market but it's hard to teach old farmers new tricks and very few new generation of farmers are produced. The smarter children of farmers tend to migrate to the city for greener pastures. Very few study agriculture and go back to their homelands. Why would a farmer want their children to study being a farmer?

People in provinces think rice farming does not yield much income. A hectare of rice using a better system and technology can produce 6-8 tons per harvest or 12 tons annually compared to the national average of 3-4 tons annually.

There is no PURE organic produce that is being made in a commercial scale. Passing international requirements for organic certification does not mean they don't use any chemicals at all. They still use chemicals but ones that are certified, they're still chemicals.

[Walter]

Composting seems easy enough to do(though i haven't been able to do this on my compost bin -- nagigigng tambayan ng langgam, ipis, at butiki :D )

Precisely why farmers don't like to do this on a commercial basis. It's just not practical. Imagine the pest problem if implemented on a large scale basis, say 100 or 1000 hectares.

[Red Advent 04]

sa aking munting sapantaha, sa ganang akin e hindi naman ito nakaka apekto. kase tubig padin yan at kahet san pa galing ang tubig na yaan e tatanggapin ng lupa yaan para sa halaman, maliban nalamnag kung may halong kemikal yaan na nakakalason sa halaman. sa mga pananim namin dati galing tubig imburnal ang gamit namin pero naaabsorb naman ng lupa para sa mga tanim, kapag nasala mo ang dumi nere at pung tubig nalamang at wala na halong ibang bagay nakaka tulong padin ito, hanggang sa mag karon ng tubig poso. wag lang tubig dagat ang gagamitin mo sigurado patay halaman mo kapag ganun.

[XploY]

I'm interested on organic farming in a commercial scale. Say 50 hectare, is it viable bro Walter?