A day in the Dizon Botanic Garden

The long holiday has allowed me to visit alive-and-well! friends and relatives, and indulge in some preoccupations. One of the things I did was walk under trees and smell the flowers and fruits at the PAWB-Dizon Botanic Fruit and Techno-Demo Center at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center, in Diliman, Quezon City.

The trip invigorated me once more, seeing as I did, all sorts of exotic trees planted on all sorts of containers — drums, pails and discarded tires and cooking pots and pans. Durian, longkong lanzones, mangosteen, mangoes, Davao (Magallanes) pummelo, lychees, rambutan, variegated chicos, grapefruit, oranges and Luz calamansi — name it and you have it. It’s amazing how what started as seedlings would grow many feet tall, and, what more, are planted by big-time farmers, hobbyists, housewives and school children. In fact, 5,000 hectares of a plantation in Negros have been planted with mangoes and citrus by the well-known pomologist, Dr. Bernardo O. Dizon himself, and retired bankers and academicians have filled their once-idle land and backyards with Dizon fruit trees. One of these retirees swear that if a fruit is from Dizon, then it’s sweet.

Like before, I filled my pickup with seedlings, this time of sugar-sweet guyabano, for planting in my garden. There were men and women of different occupations who were attending a seminar at the Dizon social hall. There are two seminars every second and fourth Saturday of the month, conducted by Bernie himself, and his son, Bernardo II. The seminars are free, and if they wish the attendees can purchase seedlings and grow healthy and fruitful trees with the application of techniques (from planting to fertilizing and making them pest-free) taught by father and son.

“Ka Bernie,” as he is popularly called, himself made me a cup of coffee as we talked about his project in Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija, 220 kilometers north of Manila. This is the Legacy Fruit Project he has started inside the Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology (NEUST) campus, in cooperation with University president Hilario C. Ortiz. The MOA they signed is good for 25 years, renewable for another 25 years, for propagation and production of exotic fruit trees which I mentioned above. The objective of the project, said Dizon, is to establish a demonstration-technology center and nursery and science grove to make the country self-sufficient and exporter of fruits. Farmers not only in Nueva Ecija but also in other parts of the country can observe and apply the legacy fruit project technology and take them home.

Gabaldon, said Dizon, is in the foothills of the Sierra Madre 10 kilometers from Dingaan, Aurora. The climate being ideal, exotic fruit trees grown there a few years ago have fruited early, and much ahead of those planted the traditional way in fruit-producing provinces in Southern Luzon and Mindanao. The area has the potential of producing fruits off-season. For example, mangoes and lanzones will be available in Luzon when there is no supply of the fruits from Mindanao. In fact, Dizon said it is possible for Nueva Ecija to become the fruit basket of the country.

“We’re grateful for the active participation of Gabaldon Mayor Rolando S. Bue in the Legacy Fruit Project,” said Dizon. The mayor has been writing letters to senators and congressmen to sponsor purchases of seedlings and establishment of a nursery for upland farmers. (The seedlings are raised in the Aquino Parks and Wildlife garden and nurseries in the provinces.) He also urges farmers to take advantage of the pomologist’s lectures on the use of multiple rootstock technology that enhances the growth and sweetness — or sourness — of fruits. The lecture-demos are held inside the NEUST campus.

‘Ka Bernie, considered a top pomologist or fruit expert, earlier established, in partnership with Central Luzon State University in Munoz Science City in 1995, a demo project. CLSU president Ruben Sevilleja granted him an additional area besides the national highway for showcasing exotic fruit trees.

He finished high school at the Sabani State Agricultural College in Gabaldon, and college at CLSU. NEUST conferred on him an honorary PhD, making him the first non-UP (University of the Philippines) pomologist to receive the prestigious citation. At his conferment , NEUST Board Secretary Angel Pangilinan said that through the multiple-rooted technology which combines native seedlings with imported varieties of high-value fruit trees, Dizon had drastically “shortened the gestation period of fruit trees” from five to seven years to just about three years. For example, Dizon’s modified seedling varieties such as the Thailand Chocanan has yielded fruits from 18 to under 14 months. He also propagated the “miracle golden grapes,” which are similar or sometimes better than those from the US.

Dizon said rootstock is the foundation of the superior variety in asexual propagation (grafting) of imported varieties. In the case of Magallanes Davao pummelo, native rootstocks are best for long productivity. Seedless longkong lanzones thrive best and bear fruits early when grafted with Jolo variety lanzones which has big seeds and sour fruits. Thai monthlong and Malaysian D24 should be grafted with native durian for longer productivity.

Dizon is requesting President Ortiz to consolidate the separate areas assigned to the Legacy Fruit Project into just one area inside the Gabaldon campus. At present, the areas being used by Dizon are at the Sumacab, Atate, and Palayan campuses, and at the Gabaldon campus. Once consolidation is made, irrigation is insured, not to mention facilitating the management of just one demo farm. Bernie, whose native house is among the fields, is certain of the Legacy Fruit Project to be a success, and benefiting not only the province, but the whole country.

The Dizon botanic garden is located inside the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife, cor. North Avenue and the Quezon City Elliptical Circle. Its use of a two-hectare space is through the courtesy of DENR.

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The Manila Concert Choir is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a concert that promises to be soul-lifting on Sunday, November 6, starting at 7 p.m., at the Philippine Theater, UN Avenue, Manila.

The concert repertoire, says the well-known public administration specialist and MCC organizer Leonor Magtolis Briones, “ is very beautiful and interesting. The first part is composed of anthems based on the works of the masters, e.g. Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and Gounod. We are also singing an anthem from the contemporary composer John Rutter.”

MCC, which is made up of men and women of different professions, will also sing Filipino songs, negro spirituals, an African folksong and popular songs.

It has invited IEMELIEF Church Choir, Ellinwood-Malate Chancel Choir, and the Cosmopolitan Church Chancel Choir, to participate in its anniversary concert. They will render two songs each, and, together with MCC, render three powerful anthems as the evening’s piece de resistance.

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