Foodgardens

School Science Lessons
School food gardens for tropical regions
Updated: 2008-03-29
Please send comments to: J.Elfick@uq.edu.au
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Biology names

Preface
Before teaching this project, discuss the content of the lessons with a field officer of the Ministry of Agriculture and get advice on planting material, planting distances, site for planting, approved mulch, composting, and control of pests and diseases. Use only the procedures, agricultural chemicals and insecticides recommended by the local field officer of the Ministry of Agriculture. If you cannot control insects by hand-picking, ask the Ministry of Agriculture to recommend a chemical spray. All insect sprays are dangerous. Show the students how to use them safely. Do not get the spray onto your hands. Do not breathe in the spray. Wash your hands well after using spray. Keep the spray container in a safe place where students cannot get it. Spray on a day of no wind but if you must spray when there is a wind, spray downwind. Make sure the spray does not blow on other people.

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. List of lessons
3. Appendix
4. Diagrams

1. Introduction
6.9.01 How to use school food gardens
6.9.02 Aims and goals
6.9.03 Types of school food gardens
6.9.04 Organizing school food gardens
6.9.05 Duties of a supervisor of school food gardens

2. List of lessons
6.9.1 Planning (File: Foodgardens2.html)
6 .9.2 Choosing land
6 .9.3 Choosing crops
6 .9.4 When to grow crops
6 . 9.5 Clearing land
6 .9.6 Preparing ground
6 .9.7 Improving soil
6 .9.8 Planting crops
6 .9.9 Seeds
6 .9.10 Multiplying plants
6 .9.11 Interplanting
6 .9.12 Crop care
6 . 9.13 Mulching the soil
6 .9.14 Composting

6.9.15 Fertilizing the soil (File: Foodgardens3.html)
6 .9.16 Legumes
6 .9.17 Chemical fertilizers
6 .9.18 Pesticides
6 .9.19 Sprayers and dusters
6 .9.20 Understanding the records

3. Appendix
16.13.0 Pesticides and herbicides
16.13.1.0 Plant extract insecticides
16.13.2.0 Inorganic chemical insecticides
16.13.3.0 Organochlorine insecticides, organochlorides, chlorinated hydrocarbons
16.13.4.0 Organophosphate and carbamate insecticides
16.13.5.0 Acaricides
16.13.6.0 Fungicides
16.13.7.0 Herbicides, weedicides
16.13.8.0 Insect repellents
16.13.01 Rotations for raised beds
16.13.02 Rotations for field crops and perennial crops
16.13.03 Planting guide
16.13.04 Starchy root crops
16.13.05 Grain crops and pasture grasses
16.13.06 Legumes
16.13.07 Tap root crops and bulb crops
16.13.08 Leafy crops
16.13.09 Vegetables, tomato family (Solanaceae)
16.13.10 Vegetables, pumpkin family (Cucurbitaceae)
16.13.11 Tropical grasses and legumes
16.13.12 Calculate food crop production
16.13.13 Measurement
4.47.1 Commercial soil pH test kit

4. Diagrams
4.0.0 Digging the ground, raised beds, ridges
9.122 Germination test
9.72.4d Bean flower, bean root
6.0.1 Sterilizing soil
5. Vegetative reproduction, cuttings, layering, marcotting, budding and grafting
6. Mung bean, pigeon pea, wing bean

6.9.15.0 Fertilizing the soil (File: Foodgardens3.html)
6.9.15.1 Plant nutrients
6.9.15.2 Green manure
6.9.15.3 Liquid manure
3.31 Plant foods in the soil (Primary)
4.35 Natural fertilizers (Primary)
5.35 Fertilizer trial (Primary)
5.36 Cover crops (Primary)
6.33 Fertilizing soil (Primary)

6.9.16.0 Legumes (File: Foodgardens3.html)
6.9.16.1 Uses of legumes
6.9.16.2 Cover crops
6.9.16.3 History of legumes
6.9.16.4 Legumes in the diet
6.9.16.5 Growth habit of legumes
6.9.16.6 Planting legumes
6.9.16.7 Root nodules
6.9.16.8 Mung bean (Phaseolus aureus)
6.9.16.9 Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata)
6.9.16.10 Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)
6.9.16.11 Winged bean (Psophocarpus tetrogonolobus)
4.25 Uses of peas and beans (Primary)
4.26 Different legumes (Primary)
4.27 Collect bean plants (Primary)
4.28 Bean life cycle (Primary)
4.29 Bean flower (Primary)
4.30 Bean seeds and pods (Primary)

6.9.17.0 Chemical Fertilizers (File: Foodgardens3.html)
6.9.17.1 The two types of fertilizer
6.9.17.2 Common fertilizers
6.9.17.3 Mixed or compound fertilizers
6.9.17.4 Plant nutrients
6.9.175 Acidity and alkalinity
6.9.17.6 Soil acidity
5.40 Make potash from ash (Primary)
6.34 Chemical fertilizers (Primary)

6.9.18.0 Pesticides (File: Foodgardens3.html)
6.9.18.1 Caution before using pesticides
6.9.18.2 Dusts
6.9.18.3 Withholding period
6.9.18.4 Active constituent
6.9.18.5 Resistance to pesticides
6.9.18.6 Persistence
6.9.18.7 Surface acting agents
6.9.18.8 Emulsifying agents
6.9.18.9 Granules
6.9.18.10 Pesticide safety
6.9.18.11 FIRST AID
6.9.18.12 Types of insecticides
6.9.18.13 Appendix K, Pesticides used in schools
6.9.19.0 Sprayers and dusters

6.9.20.0 Understanding the records (File: Foodgardens3.html)

6.9.01 How to use school food gardens
1. Wherever school food gardens are used for the teaching of agriculture, there is always one big danger - if the gardens are too big, the students may think of school agriculture as just hard work. This may make the students dislike school agriculture. The amount of practical work in most of the agriculture teaching notes has been kept small so that it will not make students tired by the hard work. However, in some places the schools must have big gardens because they must grow enough food for all the students. These lessons have been written especially for schools that have to grow food for students. Because the gardens must be big and there is much work for the students to do, you must think of ways of making the students like this work:
2. All the students of the school must help in the garden work. It must not be just the agriculture students that do the work.
3. Make the working time as short as possible. It will probably be enough if each student works for one hour each day. You can call this "food growing time" or "school maintenance time".
4. Allocate each class of students a special garden to work in. This makes it possible for the students in a class to be proud of their own garden.
5. Work in the school food gardens should never be used as a punishment. You should teach each class of students to be proud of their work so they can grow some of their own food.
6. Praise students when they work hard or do a job properly.

6.9.02 Aims and goals
1. Following are some aims and goals for school food gardens. You may have different aims and goals for your school but all teachers and students should know them.
1.1 Students will understand the different methods used to produce food.
1.2 Students can use the different skills needed to produce food.
1.3 Students will be interested in taking part in agricultural activities.
2. Long-term goals.
2.1 Students will want to grow some of their own food when living at home in a village or in a town.
2.2 Students will want to have a balanced diet both for themselves and for their families.
2.3 Students will want to try growing both local and introduced food plants using modern methods.

6.9.03 Types of school food gardens
There are three types of school food gardens:
1. Kitchen gardens
Kitchen gardens are near the school kitchen and the classrooms. Dig the soil to form raised beds. Each bed may be 6.0 x 1.2 metres in area and it is 15 cm higher than the ground. It is separated from the next bed by pathways 50 cm wide. These gardens are used to grow vegetables that can be picked fresh for the kitchen, e.g. fruiting vegetables, e.g. tomato, capsicum, and leafy vegetables, e.g. Chinese cabbage, aibika. Part of the kitchen gardens may be used for perennial herbs, e.g. mint, rhubarb and parsley.
2. Field gardens
These gardens are not near the kitchen. They are large areas of land used for growing root crops, e.g. potato, sweet potato, cassava, yams, maize (corn) and legumes, e.g. bean, cowpea and peanut.
3. Perennial crop gardens
It is best to use separate gardens to grow long lasting or perennial crops like papaya, banana, chillies, hibiscus cabbage (aibika, bele or pele), pineapples, coconuts and other tall crops like guava, star fruit, breadfruit, oranges, limes, durian and soursop. Other parts of the school food gardens will be used for seed beds, seed boxes, compost heaps and a place where seed bed soil can be mixed up.

6.9.04 Organizing school food gardens
The work of the school food gardens can be done better if there are plans to make the work go well. Here are some ideas for planning:
1. Food committee
You can form this to help the teacher with his work. It is best if this committee can include the headmaster, the teacher in charge of gardens and one other agriculture teacher, a teacher of home economics and one student from each form. Having such a committee will help to make all the committee people interested in the gardens. 2. Involving teachers
Although only the agriculture teachers will do the classroom teaching in agriculture, all the teachers in the school should take an active part in looking after the gardens and working with the students.
3. Time for growing time
All the students should do some work in the gardens during a special time each day called "food growing time" or "gardening time" or "school maintenance time". In some schools all students work in the gardens for one hour each weekday and there may be some garden work at the weekends. However, on some islands no work will be done on Sunday. Still, the teacher must know how much gardening time he can use. He must know how many "students x hours" there are each week.
4. Store room.
You must have a store room that can be locked up at the end of the day. You must lock all the tools, equipment and chemicals up in this room.
5. Stock record book
In the store room you must keep a stock record book or "inventory book". In this you must write a list of all the things kept in the store, as follows:

Item	Number	Date	Remarks
CP-sprayer	1	2/2/00	handle broken 4/1/00
Fungicide	200 g	2/2/00	about half remaining 2/11/99
Spade	20	2/4/00	one missing 2/11/99

The date tells you when the item was first put in the store or when the store was last closed and everything in it counted. You call this counting a stock take.
6. Borrowing book
Every day two students must work in the store. They must look after everything in the store. They must also issue tools or other things to the students who are going out to work in the gardens. However, before they give anything to a student, they must write it in the borrowing book and the student who is taking it must write his name. The borrowing book looks like this:

No. Items	Item	Student	Date Out	Date in	Storekeeper
2	spades	R. Kato	2002-10-01	2002-10-04	C.J.S
1	axe	M. Apo	2002-10-02	2002-10-04	S.G.
1	sprayer	P. Kolio	2002-10-02	2002-10-05	B.B.

Records
The teacher in charge of the gardens should keep some records so that the food committee will know these things:
1. How much food has been harvested and sent to the kitchen
2. The cost of producing this food
3. How much money received from any sales of crops
4. How to plan future food crop production
8. The Production Record Book is used to record the amount of a crop harvested, the amount of the crop sent to the kitchen or sold, and the amount of money received if any of the produce was sold. In some schools the value of the crop sent to the kitchen is worked out but no money is paid. The production Record Book can be kept either as a separate book or as part of the school food gardens diary.
9. The Receipt Book is used so you can give a receipt to any person who pays you money. The carbon paper duplicate is used as a record of how much money you have received. If you sell any of the produce from the school food gardens always give the buyer a receipt for the amount of money.
10. The Cash Receipts Journal is a list of the dates of sales, what you have sold, who you sold it to, receipt numbers, how much you received. It is usually written at the end of each week by using the information recorded in the Receipt Book. When you buy something for the school food gardens always get a receipt for the money you pay. You can keep these receipts on an iron spike. At the end of each week take the receipts off the spike and write up your Cash Payments Journal that lists the dates of payments, what you have bought and how much you have paid. If you keep a school food gardens cheque account this information should be on the cheque butts. The cash receipts journal and cash payments journal can be written in the same exercise book:

Cash Receipts Journal	-	-	-	Cash Payments Journal	-	-
Date	Particulars	Receipt	Amount	Date	Particulars	Amount
2.3.01	5 chickens	001	$10.00	6.3.01	1 hammer	$5.60
4.3.01	1 bag bean	002	$1.50	9.3.01	insecticide	$2.60
5.3.01	10 kg potato	003	$0.80	10.3.01	sprayer nozzle	$4.75
6.3.01	Total Receipts	-	$12.30	-	Total Payments	$12.95

6.9.05 Duties of a supervisor of school food gardens
Before taking over from a previous teacher or before starting new gardens, the supervisor of school food gardens should be able to answer the following 8 questions: 1. What are the aims and goals of the school food garden programme? Talk about these aims with the food committee.
2. How much labour can probably use? How many hours of work by all the students and staff can be used by you in the gardens?
3. How much money is there to spend on seeds, chemicals and tools? Who can spend this money?
4. Which record books will be kept and who will keep them? Is there an inventory book, Production Record book, Receipt book, Cash Receipts and Cash Sales Journal, Savings bank book or cheque book? Is there a borrowing book kept properly? Is there any money owed to the school food gardens? Does the school food gardens account owe any money? Are there any items that they have not returned to the store? Are there any items in the store that they should return to their owners? Has a school food gardens diary been used? If not, you should start one.
5. What seeds, tools and equipment belong to the school food gardens? Get some students to help you with stocktaking and making a new inventory.
6. What is the history of the school food garden land? Who owns the land? Are there any claims from village people to the land or to the produce from it? Do they dislike any use of the land such as cutting down trees or digging drains? What crops have been grown on this land before?
7. Have they described the land accurately? If they have already made a map check the details on it or draw a new map. Show the distance on the map in paces of about 1 metre. On the map show direction of North, scale of paces, type of vegetation or crops grown, direction of slopes, types of soil, position of trees and rocks, water supply, direction of drainage, fences, gates and buildings.
8. What do the field officers of the Department of Agriculture think about the possible use of the land? Make an appointment to see the local field officer or invite him to visit the school if he has not been there before. Ask him what help they can give on: Advice on what to grow, supply of planting material, chemicals and technical literature, help with spraying and ploughing, and receiving produce for sale. Do not ask the agriculture field office to give lessons or demonstrations to students because that is the job of agriculture teachers. The answers to these questions 1-8 should be written in the school food garden diary.
Making Decisions
Students will work together more and learn more if the teacher lets the students do all the activities needed to run the school food gardens. These activities include planning who to do, ordering things, working in the gardens, harvesting and recording how much produce harvested, and eating the produce. The teacher must always first show how to do a job properly and then step back and watch the students do it. The first 5 lessons suggest ways to decide with the students' help.

Commercial soil pH test kit
1. For the best growth of plants it is essential that the acidity (measured by pH) of the potting mix or soil is suitable for the plants you want to grow

2. Most soils are either slightly acid or slightly alkaline. A few soils are neutral (between acid and alkaline). Some soils are very acid and some are very alkaline. Neutral soils have a pH of 7. Acid soils have pH values of less than 7. Alkaline soils have pH values of more than 7.

3. Plant growth is affected by soil pH. Few plants grow well in soils with pH values below 4.5. Plants whose native habitats had very acid soils grow best in soils of pH 4.5 to about pH 6. Most do not grow well on neutral and alkaline soils. Most other plants grow best in soils whose pH values are about 6 to 7. Plants whose native habitats had alkaline soils will grow on slightly acid soils, but they will also grow well on alkaline soils.

4. Most plants grow well in potting mixes when the pH of the mix is in the range 5.5 to 6.5. Plants from areas with very acid soils prefer a potting mix with a pH in the range 4.5 to 5.5.

5. Plants adapted to acid soils are often unable to get enough of the essential nutrients iron and manganese from alkaline soils. Their young leaves show yellowing (chlorosis) and growth is poor. Severe deficiency leads to death. By contrast, plants adapted to alkaline and slightly acid soils can be harmed by the amounts of dissolved aluminium and manganese present in very acid soils. They probably cannot take up enough of the essential element calcium.

6. You can raise soil pH by adding agricultural lime or dolomite. A 1:1 mixture of the two often gives best results

Soil type	Lime / dolomite (g / m²) To raise pH of the top 10 cm about 1 pH unit.
Sands	100
Loam	200
Clay soils	300 to 400
Organic soils	600

Lower the pH of slightly alkaline soils (pH below 7.5) with agricultural sulfur.

Soil type	sulfur (g / m²) To lower pH of the top 10 cm by about 1 pH unit.
Sands	25
Loam	50 to 70
Clays	100

7. The large amounts of solid lime often present in alkaline soils with pH values higher than about 7.5 make it almost impossible to make these soils acid.

8. You can change potting mix pH. The mix must be moist enough to use for potting.
Raise pH with dolomite. Add 1 to 1.5 g/L of mix to raise pH by about one unit.
Lower pH with sulfur. Add 0.3 g/L to lower pH by about one unit.
Check the pH again after two weeks storage and add more as needed.

9. The pH of mix in pots should be checked every few months, because most fertilizers produce acidity.
Raise pH with a suspension of hydrated lime (builders' lime). Suspend 5g (a heaped teaspoon) in a litre of water. Pour the suspension onto the mix in the pot. Use 200 mL for each litre of the mix. (A 130 mm pot contains about 1 litre of mix.) You should pot plants again if the pH of the mix is below 4.5.
Lower pH with a solution containing 2 g of iron sulfate per litre of water. Apply 200 mL per litre of mix and within two minutes heavily water the pot to remove excess salt. Wait for one week, check mix pH and add more iron sulfate if needed.

10. Preferred pH ranges
1. Soils of pH 4.5 to 6 potting mixes of pH 4.5 to 5.5
Camellia, Rhododendrons, Azalea, Gardenia, Erica, Macadamia, Juniper, Spruce, Japanese Maple
2. Soils of pH 5.8 to 7.5 potting mixes of pH 5.3 to 6.5
Most vegetables, bedding plants, commonly grown shrubs and trees.
3. Soils of pH 7 and higher potting mixes of pH 6 to 6.7
Many cacti and succulents. Plants native to arid areas.
Grow roses and citrus that have been grafted onto rootstocks that tolerate these soils.

11. Directions for using the colour chart for soil pH
Careful sampling is essential. For a garden bed, take at least 5 samples from holes dug in different parts of the bed. Each sample is to extend from the surface to a depth of 10 cm. Test each sample separately. For farm paddocks, take at least 20 samples from each area. Mix samples together thoroughly and test as one sample. For bought and home made potting mix, thoroughly mix the bulk lot.
For mix in a pot, first knock the root ball from the pot. Remove a wedge of mix representing the whole depth of the root ball. Mix thoroughly. For a mix in large tubs, dig down the side of the root ball as deeply as is possible. Thoroughly mix the sample removed.

12. Measure pH
Place a level teaspoon of mixed soil or potting mix on the test plate. Add 3 to 5 drops of indicator liquid and stir with the rod provided. Dust the paste with the white powder provided. Wait one minute. Read from the colour card the pH value of the colour nearest to that of the sample. The test kit contains one bottle of pH Dye Indicator and one bottle of barium sulfate solution. The test kit is manufactured in Australia by Manutec Pty. Ltd., 30 Jonal Drive, Cavan, South Australia 5094, Australia.

History
The contents of this page were written by Dr J. Elfick in the Solomon Islands for the Pacific Islands Agricultural Curriculum Development Project funded by the Australian Development Assistance Bureau. Many people have helped in the writing of this unit by reading the drafts and by making suggestions. Among them were Mr Mana Latu, Principal, Tonga College, Tonga, Mr Sitiveni Tu'ilautala, Agricultural Curriculum Officer, Department of Education, Nuku'alofa, Tonga, Miss Barbara Eisinger, Secretary, Agriculture Teachers Association, PO Box 57, Nuku'alofa, Tonga, Miss Carol Hartley, Department of Education, Rarotonga, Cook Islands, Mr D. Busse, Lecturer in Agriculture, Balob Teachers College, Lae, Papua New Guinea, Mr A. L. Voigt, Lecturer in Agriculture, Avondale College, Cooranbong, Australia, Mr J. Treadaway, Provincial High Schools Course Coordinator, Solomon Islands Teachers College, Honiara, Solomon Islands, Mr B. Bennett and Mr S. Gwaliasi, Lecturers in Agriculture, Solomon Islands Teachers College, Honiara, Solomon Islands, Mr M. Miller, Agriculture Master, Betikama College, Solomon Islands, Mr G. Creek, Principal, Secondary Teachers College, Apia, Western Samoa.