Philippine Daily Inquirer, Agriculture, Thursday, December 17, 1992

Cloning, multiple rootstock tech can remedy ailing fruit industry

     Bernardo O. Dizon, a noted pomologist who operates the UP BLISS Economic Garden in Quezon City, says that while neighboring countries which are exporting fruits like Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Australia are employing the technology, fruit tree growers in the country are contented in using the traditional method which is planting the tree in single rootstock.

     Planting fruit trees from seeds and in single rootstock, he said, is now becoming a thing of the past among fruit tree growers in progressive fruit exporting countries.

     Cloning is propagating plants using superior variety as mother plant by asexual method like grafting, budding and inarching.

     Multiple rootstock, on the other hand, is inarching more than two rootstocks to the fruit trees varieties to be grown.

     Dizon presently showcases his cloning and multiple rootstock technology at his economic garden in Quezon City. Among the fruit trees grown in his garden where the technology is applied are oranges, pomelo, longan, rambutan, grapes, durian, ponkan, and lanzones which are all imported plants. His garden also serves as the plant laboratory of the Technology and Livelihood Resources Center (TLRC) under the Office of the President for courses on growing high value fruit trees.

     According to Dizon, among the main reasons why many people are reluctant to plant fruit trees is the long gestation period of tree which is normally from six to ten years. Another factor is the slow growth and susceptibility of the seedlings to root rot, the number one killer of plants.

     Fruit tree growers are also disheartened when their trees grown from seeds do not produce true-to-type, he says. He has noted that fruit trees like rambutan, lychees, pili nut and some fruit trees when grown from seeds (sexual propagation) normally turn out to have more males that will never bear fruits.

     Dizon avers that planting cloned seedlings with multiple rootstocks (two to three additional seedlings inarched to the variety) will erase the frustrations of the fruit tree growers.

     Lawyer Victor P. Lazatin, an orchard grower and operator of the Dizon's UP BLISS Fruit Extension Center in Barangay Lumingon in Tiaong, Quezon, attests that his multiple rootstocked imported fruit trees varieties showed fast growth and produced more fruits.

     With more root systems, the fruit trees can effectively use the fertilizer applied including the natural nutrients present in the soil, Dizon says. "This makes the plant grow and develop faster and shorten the waiting time for the plant to bear fruits."

     He adds that rambutan, oranges, pomelo and mango, for instance, can be made to bear fruits in just two years if applied with the technology.

     Dizon says with this cloning and multiple rootstock technology, even rice farmers can produce their own fruit requirements and additional means of livelihood right on the dikes of their paddy fields similar to what is being practiced in Taiwan and Thailand where the water table is only one foot below the ground.

     According to Dizon, he is sharing his technology with the public thru free demonstrations. He says fruit trees can also be grown using this technology in drums or big plastic bags in areas where there are no vacant spaces for planting.