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How to Get to UPLB Institute of Plant Breeding for the Training Course on Hydroponics Vegetable Production with Emphasis on SNAP Hydroponics

Banner with text that reads "Welcome Participants Training Course on Hydroponics Vegetable Production With Emphasis on SNAP Hydroponics Plant Physiology Laboratory Institute of Plant Breading"

Completing the short training course on hydroponics vegetable production with emphasis on SNAP Hydroponics is one of the requirements for being an authorised reseller of SNAP Hydroponics nutrient solutions. The training course is conducted in Plant Physiology Laboratory in UPLB Institute of Plant Breeding. This guide will show you how to get there if you are interested on being trained on hydroponics vegetable production for your hobby or business.

Where is the UPLB Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB)?

It is far from the UPLB campus and is a little challenging to get to. Do not despair because there is a shuttle that ferries people from UPLB to UPLB-IPB.

I’m commuting. How Do I Get There?

It’s easy to commute to UPLB. Get there before 7:30AM. If you are too early you can spend your time in the fast food chains around the area. Ask the guards for directions to the admin building parking lot. It’s not very far. If you are facing the gate it’s the very first building to your left. Remember to obey traffic rules. Smoking and littering are prohibited inside the campus.

picture showing the admin building parking lot with the admin building in the backdrop
This is the admin building parking lot early in the morning.

The easiest commute route is commuting to UPLB campus and riding the free shuttle service that ferries staff and student from the UPLB campus to UPLB-IPB.

The shuttle service is free for everyone. If you are there by 7:30 AM queues should start forming. Be sure to ask which shuttle the queue is for before you queue. Because you might be queuing for the wrong one.

Queue of students getting on the UPLB-IPB shuttle.
Queue of students getting on the UPLB-IPB shuttle

The shuttle can get pretty crowded. You might need to give up your seat to someone who needs it more than you. Please be considerate.

The ride is going to take around 15 mins. Sit back and enjoy the scenery. The shuttle is going to take you directly to UPLB-IPB.

When the bus stops, get off and take the path immediately facing the bus door. Follow it to the Physiology Lab.

I have my own vehicle. How do I get there?

You can use navigation apps. You can also try and tail the UPLB-IPB shuttle when it leaves for it’s 7:45AM trip as I described above. Just make sure to ask the shuttle’s driver if it is OK.

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Growing Tomatoes in Soil

Everybody loves tomatoes. Eating them freshly picked and still warm from light of the sun is a pleasure only tomato growers get to experience. The tomato plant is very easy to grow from seeds or cuttings. They grow and flourish everywhere as long as there’s enough sunlight and water as you can see below.

fruiting tomato plant surrounded by weeds
This tomato plant is growing unattended. It’s fruiting despite all the competition around it.

Tomatoes can be grown from seeds or cuttings. Seed packets can be bought from your local gardening center. If you are feeling adventurous you can try growing them from kitchen scraps. Put tomato seeds on a layer of newspaper and dry them under the sun. They need to be thoroughly dried otherwise it might take a while to germinate them. For the lazy (like me) you can just put fresh seeds on potting soil, put it under the sun to dry, wait a few days, then add water. That’s how I germinated tomato seeds recently.

small tomato seedlings on some potting soil
Seedlings! It is fascinating how hard to decompose the tomato skin is.

Wait for them to grow big enough to be transferred to your plot. I usually repot the seedlings into individual nursery pots and wait until they are around 10-15cm long before I transfer them to my garden.

a potted young tomato plant
A young tomato plant in a nursery pot

If a friend or neighbour has a tomato plant you want to experience the pleasure of growing, try asking them for cuttings. Just choose healthy shoots and cut them to 10-15cm. Then put your cuttings in a container filled with clean water. Keep the container in a place with indirect sunlight and wait for a couple of weeks for them to take roots. Be sure to refill or replace the water as needed.

When the roots are long enough, 5cm will do, transfer them to a nursery pot filled with soil. Keep them in indirect sunlight for a couple of days. And slowly introduce them to more light. In a few days you’ll have a healthy potted tomato plant ready to be transferred to your garden.

Once transplanted all that’s needed is regular waterings and plenty of sunlight. You might want to add a tomato cage too because these grow until they can no longer keep themselves up.

Described below is my recent experience in growing tomatoes. I had a blast growing the Costoluto Genovese Pomodoro.

four tomato plants growing on soil
Tomato plants transplanted January 19th. Pictured 2nd of February.

Pictured above are tomato plants grown from clones given to us by a friend. It has grown so much since it’s been transplanted.

big tomato plants
Tomato plants pictured February 21st.

Above I added strings to support the plants. Using strings proved to be a mistake. Because they just kept growing.

big and bushy tomato plants
Tomato plants pictured March 5th.

Until the string broke and the plants collapsed under their own weight. They are already bearing flowers and fruits at this point.

We just propped them up with a better support structure and they went about their business of growing and bearing fruits again. Soon enough we are harvesting tomatoes.

a bunch of Costoluto Genovese Pomodoro
Costoluto Genovese Pomodoro

At first I thought I might be doing something wrong because my tomatoes have a weird shape. My friend who gave me the seedlings never told me what variety they are aside from telling me they are “pomodoro.” It took me a bit of Googling to find out that they are Costoluto Genovese Pomodoro. “Pomordoro”, by the way, is Italian for tomato. So I guess it’s wrong to say “pomodoro tomatoes.”

I eventually had to take down the plants because they’ve grown too big and they started to attract pests. I made sure to save and root cuttings before I did so. Below is a video of me planting the cuttings I took from my previous tomato plant.

Thanks for reading. Good luck and happy growing!