DIZON EXOTIC FRUIT TREES

Bulletin Today, Sunday, April 11, 1982

Hobbies

Harvest your own backyard-grown grapes on your birthday!

by Leonardo Q. Belen (Correspondent)

REGARDLESS of the seasons, and provided you have a vacant patch of land behind or infront of your house, you can now start raising "table grapes" by simply applying the "miracle formula" of Bernardo O Dizon, who is now considered as one of the country's top experts on local grapes growing.

Dizon, through an authority given to him by the University Bagong Lipunan Community Association (UBLCA), UP Bliss in Diliman, Quezon City, operates the multi-purpose nursery for grapes' propagation and production which is located near Philcoa. He pioneered in the country's so-called "miracle grapes" through his own plantation in Nueva Ecija and other provinces, and he debunks the belief that grapes locally grown would not be as sweet as the imported ones.

The multi-purpose nursery for grape propagation and production, according to Fidel C Corral, UBLCA president, and Abner A Pacaigue, estate manager, is intended as a place for training, seminar, tech-in and demonstration on the proper and correct technique in the culture and production of grapes.

As such, any homeowner who desires to grow "table grapes" can attend the seminars which are regularly being conducted bi Dizon. And it is very surprising to know that growing grapes even at your own backyard is not after all so difficult, because it is as simple as growing any other ornamental plant. And necessarily a cold weather as we were made to believe.

Try to plant two or three vines (which can approximately yield an average of no less than five kilos each), and program them for harvest on your birthday, anniversary, or on any special occasion, which you intended to celebrate at home.

Dizon says that grapes are the most obedient plants and if you really want to harvest right on your birth date, prune the vines not later than 100 days from the date of your birth anniversary, and it is certainty that you will harvest as you have programmed.

Grapes do not bear fruit unless you prune them, and Dizon advises that you must prune them on their stems right at a point which is between brown and green.

Grapes are not also seasonal, because their bearing of fruits is dependent upon the time you prune them.

Today, grapes cost as much as P50,00 per kilo, so why not start planting a vine or two right at your yard, and mind you, it can supply your requirements for "table grapes".