‘’Through VMR we do not need to wait for the trees to have seeds, because it will take a long period of time to bear fruit or flower,’’ Miras said.
VRM Nursery has three main components; the hedge garden, greenhouse facility, and hardening area.
Hedge garden is a source of germplasm, cuttings, or vegetative propagation, the second phase contains rooting, laboratory and recovery while the last component is the habituation of seedlings before the actual planting.
Some seedlings in the VRM nursery were thick-leaf narig, yakal-saplungan, mapilig, yakal-kaliot, banuyo trees and others.
According to EDC-BacMan they have pioneered and developed propagation protocols for 10 endangered tree species using VMR with an average survival rate of 95-100%.
Miras said that the EDC-BacMan operation area is planted with 96 native trees.
EDC-BacMan undergoes different trials for the endangered trees survival rate through different rooting media, root hormones, and timeframe until it is ready for planting.
‘’The whole nursery of BacMan can cater about 200,000 plus seedlings,’’ Miras said.
‘’Annually we have a target of 40,000 seedlings raised for the consumption of the community,’’ Miras cited.
Miras said that they are conducting annual tree planting. He added that agencies, schools, or organizations can request seedlings from them.
Based on the record presented by Miras, they have 3,324 hectares reforested areas, 3,583,334 trees planted, and engagement with 14 farmers associations. (PIA5/Albay)
