UPLB Research and Extension News

But total dependence on light-induced flowering in aster is now a thing of the past. Growers have at last been released from the grip of expensive and escalating electricity cost, thanks to a simple technology developed by Dr. Leonido Naranja, a professor in horticulture at the Crop Science Cluster, College of Agriculture in the University of the Philippines Los Baños.

The technology involves the use of gibberellic acid (GA), a phytohormone that Dr. Naranja has shown to work as a flower inducer. It has enabled farmers in Los Baños, Laguna to completely do away with the use of electricity to make aster produce flowers.

Power hungry aster

Aster is a popular filler favored by florists for the delicate floral wisps that enhance and provide volume to flower arrangements. Aster production in Los Baños started in 1980 when a native of Brgy. Bayog visited Baguio City, lugging home with her aster planting materials that she shared with her neighbors.

It was purely luck that led the Brgy. Bayog neighborhood to discover that the plant flowered only with supplemental light exposure. While most were unsuccessful in making it flower, one who planted the aster under the lamp post soon saw her aster plant develop flowery sprigs.

Thus did the Bayog farmers plunge into aster growing, transforming their farms into a seemingly well-lit city at night, needing as they did one light bulb for every 1.5 x 5 sqm or 80 light bulbs for a 600-sqm field of aster. Los Baños soon became the center of aster production in the country, producing 800 metric tons of the flower every year.

Electric power and diesel fuel suppliers made a killing from the Brgy. Bayog farmers as the plant required at least four hours of artificial light everyday. Meanwhile, aster farmers reeled from escalating costs that also included pesticides, other materials and labor. Some farmers even resorted to filching electricity.

Following up on an “Aha" moment

It was a flash of inspiration that made Dr. Naranja take a look at the possibility of using GA as a flower inducer. While discussing phytohormones in his crop production class, he was struck by the possibility of its use in lowering the cost of aster production.

Dr. Naranja immediately buckled down to work to prove that GA can make aster bloom without extending light exposure beyond the normal daytime length. It was as if he was really led to the discovery - by some coincidence, he received around that same time some GA samples that he had long requested from an acquaintance.

Dr. Naranja embarked on the experiment at the Ornamentals Nursery in UPLB with Ms. Maria Charito Balladares as his research associate. When the team saw a breakthrough, they sought funding support of P40,000 from Los Baños Mayor Caesar Perez to test the technology in a farmer's field in Bayog. Testing was not without difficulties, foremost of which was the challenge posed by doubting Thomases. But the decision to test the technology right there in Bayog was a calculated move that the research team made to win over the aster growers. And provide proof for the efficacy of GA, it did. Even before field testing ended, a number of aster growers had already adopted the technology.

Comparative advantage

Field testing proved that for a 600-sqm aster field, a grower would need P10,000 for electricity and P20,000 for materials such as light bulbs, electrical wire, and others. These are expenses that an aster grower would be able to do away with if he or she uses GA instead, the switch lowering his cost to P5,000, or a difference of P25,000.

GA use would also reduce labor cost, from P10,000 to P9,400 or a savings of P600 for two cropping cycles. Furthermore, the research proved that GA-treated aster yields heavier flowers. Since aster is sold by weight, GA is again more advantageous than supplemental lighting in inducing flowering. The use of GA is doubly advantageous as it is environmentally friendly, compared to the use of electrical power or diesel fuel.

Since GA technology has proven its superiority to artificial light supplementation, it was easy for Dr. Naranja and Ms. Balladares to transfer the technology to Los Baños farmers and others through training courses, seminars, farmers meetings and field days, exhibits, and media-based interventions. Today, 100% of the aster growers in Los Baños use the GA technology.

Simple but superior technology

The GA technology is truly a simple but superior technology. It has earned unprecedented adoption among the aster growers and has removed the shackles of dependence on expensive inputs that they have been captives to for over two decades.

For bringing the GA technology to the farmers, the Los Baños Science Community Foundation, Inc. gave Dr. Naranja and Ms. Balladares the F.O. Tesoro Technology Transfer Award during the R&D Symposium on July 18 as part of the National Science and Technology Week celebration.

Today, Dr. Naranja and Ms. Balladares are both on the lookout for other ways to continue to help the Los Baños ornamental farmers through research that explores the use of GA on other crops and through new technologies that put to use the principles of reducing, reusing and recycling. Buoyed by their success with aster and promising initial results from other researches, the duo anticipate that they will be able to create tremendous impact on people, industry and the environment, through more life-changing technological discoveries.

Josephine M. Bo is a writer at the UPLB Office of Public Relations