Farm Biosecurity

Was doing so field work in Sabah and had the opportunity of meeting some people in Ministry Of Agriculture. This topic Biosecurity pops up we had a short discussion on this.

What is Biosecurity (Farm)?
 Biosecurity is the management of risks to the economy, the environment, and the community, of pests and diseases entering, emerging, establishing or spreading.
We as a farmer, it is our responsibility to set up measures designed not only to protect our property from the entry and spread of pests, diseases and weeds but also spreading these to our neighbors.. Farm biosecurity is our responsibility, and that of every person visiting or working on your property.

If a new pest or disease becomes established on your farm, it will affect your business through increased costs (for monitoring, production practices, additional chemical use and labour), reduced productivity (in yield and/or quality) or loss of markets. Early detection and immediate reporting of an exotic pest or disease increases the chance of effective and efficient eradication.

Management of Biosecurity risk had always been in place and MOA had taken the initiative to tighten and enforce these measures. We had been shown items that had been confiscated and had starting to quarantine the whole farm, pending investigation. 

Govt taking stringent steps to prevent entry of diseased produce

Had time to drop by Sabah Tea garden form a break. Had Tea, Fritters and Ice cream.

It feels good to be back in the field.
#TreatTheSoil #BioSecurity

Wood Vinegar, Pyroligneous Acid.

Wood Vinegar, agriculture grade.
I started to learned about wood vinegar about 2 years back. Read a bit on this subject but didn't get to use / try it, mostly due to my laziness in producing it. Japan started researching on wood vinegar as early as 1950.

The spill which I had collected back.

Pyroligneous acid is produced by heating organic matter, like wood in an airless atmosphere. This carbonization create a dark liquid in the vapor. When condensed it gives wood vinegar.

Quality of Wood Vinegar
Characteristics such as color (including transparency), pH and specific gravity are important factors in the quality assessment of wood vinegar. In agriculture, we do not need the highest quality, but in food (& animal additive) and medical a high grade is required.

Factors affecting the quality of wood vinegar
1)  Type of wood (material). Depending on what wood that is being used. Some plants are toxic and some producer just use waste material. Different woods have different component ratios. For example, acetic acid - a representative component of wood vinegar - is found in broad-leaved trees in quantities of 3.5-4.0% compared to 1.4% in bamboo.
2)  Extraction Temperature. The temperature and duration also affect the quality. Temperature of between 80 to 120 degrees produce a good grade wood vinegar otherwise the substance turns into fibrin-decomposed tar, thereby deteriorating the germicidal effect of the product.
3)  The polymerization immediately after extraction also constitute to the quality of wood vinegar. It is usually left to stand for 2 to 6 months. During this time the components will settle into four distinct layers. The first and second layers at the bottom of the container will be black, containing wood tar and tar pitch. The third layer (located beneath the top strata of liquid) is the usable portion of wood vinegar. This component will be light yellow to reddish brown. The fourth (top) layer is classified as light oil and will have a skim of wood tar at the top.

Plants responding well.

Benefits of Wood vinegar in agriculture.

It is estimated that wood vinegar contains more than 300 constituents such as acetic acid, methanol, phenol, ester, acetals, ketone, formic acid and many others. Various factors are controlled by the dilution rate of the wood vinegar. It has a bactericidal effect as well as the ability to propagate microbes. It has qualities, which provides a growth inducing effect. But depending on the concentration of the mixture it can also be used to retard the growth of the plant. The various elements in the wood vinegar work as co-enzymes or catalysts. Elements that are effective as co-enzymes and catalysts require only a minute amount. It is like vitamins in our bodies. The dosage of some of these elements is effective in the unit of PPM. (Parts per million).
Wood vinegar contains a small amount of nutrients directly taken in by the plants. It also contains very few elements that have the bactericidal and anthelmintic effect. It is neither a fertilizer nor an agro-chemical. Yet when it is correctly applied, it enhances the intake of fertilizers and reduces the damages by various diseases. Wood vinegar enhances rooting, helps in the regulating of the nutrients condition of the soil, and the balance of the microbiological population. The changes in the microbiological population not only greatly reduce the tendency of soil bound diseases, it also increases the vitality of the roots and hence enable better uptake of nutrients.
Wood vinegar had been long known to be very effective against nematodes.  It kills nematodes directly as well as propagates microbes that feed on them. The high acidity, methanol and phenol content have strong bactericidal effect at a high concentration, such as 50 to 100 times dilution. However, microbes propagate well when it is diluted to 200 times dilution. This is mainly due to the effect on the metabolism by its main element, acetic acid, elements that are necessary for the plant and microbes. Through foliar application, some bacteria are killed by direct contact and the changes of the microbiological population deter the propagation of pathogenic bacteria.  The acidity on the leaves surface also deters propagation. However, the most remarkable effects of foliar application are the increase in resistance of the leaves against pests and diseases and the increase in the effectiveness of agro-chemicals.
Through foliar application of wood vinegar, the leaves become shiny and darker in color. This is due to the increase in chlorophyll through the effect of ester in the wood vinegar which promotes photosynthesis. This ester also helps in the formation of sugar and amino acids. This also results in a better taste of the produce. The healthier leaves naturally have a stronger resistance against pests and diseases.

The leafs is very green.

At 500 times dilution, wood vinegar can reduce the cluster value of water to 1/3. This means that the water is activated and can be easily absorbed by the plants because water with a low cluster value is in a very small mass. Each of these masses will hold one or few mineral elements. These elements can be easily taken into the plants.
The concentration of agro-chemicals or liquid fertilizers can be reduced by 50% if it is diluted in a 500 times dilution solution of wood vinegar due to its higher permeation. This will greatly reduce the use of agro-chemicals. However, it should not be used with alkaline chemicals.

The roots are still short.

My interest was reignited after speaking with a friend, Kester. He even gave me some to test. Thank you Kester. Unfortunately some were spilled out due to the bumps and heat (expansion) as I put it at the storage box of my motorbike. I collected those that was spilled, dilute it and used it on ornamental plants and some figs that I was trying to root. The rest I shall bring it over to test in my farm. Looking forward to do further trial on Figs.

An Introduction to Wood Vinegar.

Potent antibacterial activity of wood vinegar from Matang Mangroves, Malaysia

Updates on plants that we had planted back in March.

The ginger plant had been transplanted successful. We had planted two types, Chinese Ginger and Village ginger. Both looks good after transplanting, but we do have some young plants dying on us, which I guess most probably we could have damage the roots while doing the transplant. Checked on our ginger plant nursery, there are still some ginger plant sprouting, especially from the sawdust covered patch. I did some transplanting few days ago on some new sprouting. I find that the roots had grown into the soil and it makes trans planting difficult. I would propose for our next germination, we shall a 5~6 inches sawdust bedding first, then lay the ginger flat. I think it shall have a higher/faster yield. Had dinged up the deeper ginger, relocated to the top and it's sprouting now.
The groundnut patch is on the upper left of the 1st picture. It's growing well and pretty green. It has started to flowered. Groundnuts shall be produced when the flower withered and drop (bend) down to the ground. There are instance where you see healthy growing plants, but no nuts. Hope that ours shall have big and juicy groundnuts and ginger.

Yam, these are growing well and should be as there were (and still) lots of wild yam before. Yam is easy to plant and do not need much care. We had add another 60+ Yams on the other side of the stream.
Corns, the Thai Super sweet (white maize) is a failure. It's growing so slowly, skinny and not consistent. Some is fruiting, some is not growing, some dying and lots of no growth. Lots of weeds in the area, are doing some weeding but don't think it'll help much. Failure could be lots of possibility as we are planting village style. Guess we shall most probably finish off the left over seedlings and stick to chicken feed corn.

The Chicken feed corn (red color maze) is doing well and growing steadily and consistently. It's growing faster than the weeds and not much care is needed.

Pineapple, surprisingly some are bearing fruits. We had planted about 20 plants, just for testing and maybe create some plant-lets. Guess we shall not buy the pineapple hormone this time as it's the first planting and only a couple is fruiting, hence it's not economical to buy.
This area is a low laying area and has a pool of stagnant water. It drown even the hardy Chicken feed corn. We had dig a drain to drain off excess water. Shall weed off the weeds in a couple of days and have a better picture on what to be done here.
More updates on the progress of the farm in the coming days.

Effective Microbs (E.M.), Eco Enzmes & Growth Hormones

Did some reading on E.M, Eco Enzyme & growth hormones. Decide to DIY some to give it a try. Did one with papaya for E.M., did one with small banana shoot for growth hormones, and another one with a purchase compost. I'll  do an update when it's fermented. Cheers.