Quirino school puts up clonal nursery for native tree species

MANILA, Philippines — The Quirino State University (QSU) recently established a clonal nursery facility.

Spearheaded by QSU professor Edgar Benabise, the project aims to construct and maintain a clonal nursery facility and a hedge garden of selected tree species for clonal propagation activities.

Benabise said all project staff under this project were trained on macro-somatic clonal propagation.

The team also surveyed, fenced, and mapped the location of the hedge garden.

With funding from the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD), the project team was able to develop a hardening nursery and hedge garden with seedlings of selected native tree species: bignai, kamagong, bani, bolong-eta, anabiong, and lubeg.

The team also collected and sterilized the rooting medium for the first four chambers used in the propagation of cloned cuttings. 

The Forestry and Environment Research Division (FERD) of DOST-PCAARRD recently visited the facility as part of the monitoring and evaluation activities for the PCAARRD-funded project.

The project team is still gathering data to determine the best cutting origin that will significantly increase the survival and rooting of various native tree stem cuttings.