Maria Camila Tatis, a senior in the class of 2024, not only is a great student who is now going to study dentistry in Bogota, Colombia, but also has an incredible skill and talent. She is an expert Pastry Artisan, with a renown for baking cakes and pastries amongst her fellow students. Thus I tasked […]
Following the visit to Agrosavia in the previous academic year, and staking out the cacao plot it has been determined that we will have space to plant 64 cacao trees. The current agricultural plant science students were asked whether they wanted to maximise production of cacao, or maximise quality of production. Discussions were had as […]
After having worked so hard on presentations for the IXth International Symposium students were glad to get back to the garden and see that the Banana plants that they had planted earlier in the year were growing well in the cacao plot. In October the school had its Accreditation Visit from Cognia. Students took the […]
We have just spent a Saturday with volunteers of the garden and students from social service working on digging holes that were staked out by agricultural plant science students. This hard work is necessary to prepare the site for the cacao trees that we intend to plant!
This September an international symposium is being held at University del Valle, sede Melendez from September. Students were asked if they would like to go and present work that they have been doing in the garden. All agreed that this would be a good idea. For the past four weeks since the start of the […]
During the Bolivar Garden Saturday, we were pleased to host Drs Vaast and Souniga, experts in coffee and cacao to the school garden to informally assess the work that we are doing and to give advice on what should be our next steps. The location of the cacao plot were discussed, as was the spacing […]
Following the ratification of the project, students have been tasked with measuring the location suggested, and seeing where cacao seedlings will be planted. It was discussed with students how to best minimize soil erosion and nutrient run-off and so as with the coffee plantation, students are using basic methods using an A-Frame to determine the […]
I have met with Dr Nagy, Mr Tim Shirk, and Dr Fayadd to spell out the justification for the Cacao plantation, together with a suggested location and a tentative number of 75 plants that can be planted. Students and I have been researching the spacing of plants, the planting density and the requirements needed for […]
Agrosavia in Palmira has a large collection of different clonal types of Theobroma cacao, the scientific name for cacao. On the 29th March, all agriculture students together with myself and Mrs Katie Neal visited Agrosavia to learn about cacao, see their collection and visit their arboretum of tropical fruit trees. The day started with us […]
During Agriculture class we were pleased to host a visit by Dr Julian Mateus of Agrosavia and Javier Gutierez from Hidroequipos, to have an open discussion about our proposal. They looked at the plot, answered questions regarding our plans and gave advice on whether to select one cultivar or multiple clones. Students were actively engaged […]
