Mr Gabriel Artunduaga Cuellar of Empresagro came to the school today to give a talk about plant nutrition and nutrient uptake by plants. His background in agronomy was put to great use with both gardeners, teachers and students experessing interest and asking questions of him during the course of his first session – a talk about plant nutrition.

Following the talk Gabriel and students went to the garden to see how our coffee plants were taking up nutrients and how mycorhizae were working together with roots in a symbiotic relationship to ensure good uptake of nutrients for the coffee.

Compost piles were seen next with Gabriel explaining how the breakdown of organic matter was aided by both invertebrate species and micro-organisms (fungi and bacteria) to produce new usuable compost.

Students and Gabriel returned to the laboratory to see how the concentration of fructose was measured in samples of coffee juice extract.

Thank you Sr. Gabriel for such an interesting and illuminating discourse.