Grade

TLE-AFA
Agricultural Crop Production
QUARTER 4 – MODULE 4

Store and Stockpile Materials

 Safety is everyone’s responsibilty
- Anonymous

Learning Outcome: STORE AND STOCKPILE MATERIALS

MELCs: Maintain a clean and safe work site while completing nursery activities
following routine maintenance procedures

I. INTRODUCTION

All parts of a nursery should be safe to use, whether internal or external.

Maintenance of the nursery, including its plants, materials, tools and equipment should be in
place to keep the building in an efficient state and equipment in good working order.
Handling and transporting materials and machinery and materials according to
enterprise guidelines should be practiced. Maintenance is vital to any workplace if it
is to operate in a safe and effective manner. Maintenance can also be a potential
workplace safety issue if not properly addressed.

II. MODULE CONTENT

Ways to Keep Your Garden Safety and Healthy

One of the most mystifying things that can happen in your garden is when a plant
gets a disease. How did it happen? Will it spread? Will all my plants die? Learn how to
eliminate plant diseases by understanding and managing the conditions that cause them.
The most important thing to understand about disease prevention is something called the
disease triangle.

Figure 1. The Disease Triangle

Disease can only happen when three things coincide: you have a plant that can get sick
(a host), a pathogen (like a fungus, bacterium, or virus) that can attack the plant, and
environmental conditions (like humidity or drought) that promote the disease. If any one of
these things is not present, the disease will not happen, so prevention involves knocking out
at least one side of the triangle. Rather than waiting for a problem to pop up in your garden,
consider the best defense against disease to be a good offense. What follows are 10 ways
you can eliminate at least one side of the disease triangle and keep your plants healthy.

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1. Examine plants carefully before buying

VS.

Figure 2. Good roots (left) vs. Bad roots (right)

The easiest way to limit disease in your garden is to avoid introducing it in the first place.
Getting a disease with a new plant is not the kind of bonus that any of us wants. One of the
hardest things to learn is what a healthy plant should look like, making it difficult to know if
the one you want is sick. It is a good idea to collect a few books, magazines, and catalogs
that show what a healthy specimen looks like. Don’t take home a plant with dead spots,
rotted stems, or insects. These problems can easily spread to your healthy plants and are
sometimes hard to get rid of once established.

2. Use fully composted yard waste

Not all materials in a compost pile decompose at the

same rate. Some materials may have degraded sufficiently
to be put in the garden, while others have not. Thorough
composting generates high temperatures for extended
lengths of time, which actually kill any pathogens in the
material. Infected plant debris that has not undergone this
process will reintroduce potential diseases into your garden.
If you are not sure of the conditions of your compost pile,
you should avoid using yard waste as mulch under sensitive
plants and avoid including possibly infected debris in your
pile.
Figure 3. Good compost
3. Keep an eye on your bugs

Insect damage to plants is much more than cosmetic.

Viruses and bacteria often can only enter a plant through
some sort of opening, and bug damage provides that.
Some insects actually act as a transport for viruses,
spreading them from one plant to the next. Aphids are
one of the most common carriers, and thrips spread
impatiens necrotic spot virus, which has become a
serious problem for commercial producers over the past
10 years. Aster yellows (Figure 4) is a disease carried by
leafhoppers and has a huge range of host plants. Insect
attacks are another way to put a plant under stress,
rendering it less likely to fend off disease.

Figure 4. Asther yellows

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4. Clean up in the fall
It is always best to clean out the garden in the fall, even if you live in a moderate
climate. This is not only an effective deterrent to disease but also a good way to
control diseases already in your garden.

Figure 5. Iris leaf spot (left) and Black spot on Roses (right)

Diseases can overwinter on dead leaves and debris and attack the new leaves as
they emerge in spring. Iris leaf spot, daylily leaf streak, and black spot on roses are
examples of diseases that can be dramatically reduced if the dead leaves are cleared away
each fall. If you are leaving stems and foliage to create winter interest, be sure to remove
them before new growth starts in spring.

5. Apply the correct fertilizer

You need to take care when fertilizing plants since
too much of any fertilizer can burn roots, reducing their
ability to absorb water. This, in turn, makes the plants
more susceptible to stress from drought, cold, and
heat. Plants starved for nutrients are smaller and can
be badly affected by leaf spots, while a stronger plant
can fight off diseases. An overabundance of a
particular nutrient is another way to put stress on a
plant.
Getting a soil test through your local extension
agency will provide you with accurate information on
nutrient levels in your soil. Without it, any feeding of
your plants is likely to be guesswork on your part and
may result in too much of one nutrient or not enough of
another.
Figure 6. Fertilizer chart

6. Plant disease-resistant varieties

Disease-resistant plants are those that might

get sick with a particular problem but will fight off
the disease instead of succumbing to it. For
instance, some tomatoes are coded as “VFN
resistant,” which means the tomato variety is
resistant to the fungi Verticillium and Fusarium
and to nematodes.

Nursery employees and fellow gardeners

can help you identify the best or most resistant
varieties of many plants. Reference books and

Figure 7. Tomatoes coded as “VFN resistant”

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catalogs may also list plants and varieties resistant to particular diseases.

7. Pruned damaged limbs at the right time

Trimming trees and shrubs in late winter is better than waiting until spring.
Wounded limbs can become infected over the winter,
allowing disease to become established when the
plant is dormant.
Late-winter pruning prevents disease from
spreading to new growth. Although late-winter storms
can cause new damage, it is still better to trim back a
broken limb than ignore it until spring is underway.
Always use sharp tools to make clean cuts that heal
rapidly, and make sure to cut back to healthy, living
tissue.
Figure 8. Pruning of damaged limbs of a plant

8. Choose and site plants appropriately

Figure 9. Leaf of an Azalea, a shade-loving plant exposed in full sun (left) and a crape
myrtle with powdery mildew (right)

If you set a shade-loving plant, like an azalea, in full sun, it will grow poorly and be
easily attacked by diseases and insects
Successful gardening is based on using plants appropriate for your zone and site. If
you set a shade-loving plant, like an azalea, in full sun, it will grow poorly and be easily
attacked by diseases and insects. I once had a crape myrtle planted where part of its leaves
were in the shade. This was the only part of the plant that had powdery mildew.
Plants have defenses similar to a human’s immune system, which swing into action
when plants are under attack from an insect or disease. If plants are under stress, they
cannot react with full strength to fight off or recover from diseases. Stressed plants,
therefore, are more likely to succumb to these
afflictions.

9. Water properly
Watering your garden is a good thing, but
since many diseases need water just as much as
plants do, how you go about it makes a big difference.
Many pathogens in the soil and air need water to
move, grow, and reproduce. To avoid giving these
diseases an environment they love, choose watering
methods that limit moisture on a plant’s foliage.
Soaker hoses and drip irrigation accomplish this. If
you are watering by hand, hold the leaves out of the
way as you water the roots.
Figure 10. Watering plants in a nursery garden

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10. Don’t crowd plants
Trim out crowded, damaged, or old stalks on plants that are prone to powdery
mildew. Crowded plants create their own humidity, which allows diseases like
powdery mildew to thrive. Take care when spacing transplants and keep an eye on
established plants as they spread. Crowded plants create their own humidity, which allows
diseases like powdery mildew, rust, and downy mildew to thrive. Improving airflow around
your plants reduces this high relative humidity and allows foliage to dry more quickly.

Figure 11. Trimming out crowded, damaged, or old stalks (left) and Crowded plants
powdery mildew (right)

Plants that are placed too closely together tend to grow poorly due to competition for
light, water, and nutrients. These weak plants are more susceptible to attack. Diseases also
sometimes spread when an infected leaf comes into contact with a healthy one, which is
more likely when plants are next to each other.

11. Check the health of your plants.

Whether you’re transplanting plants from
nurseries or growing your own from seeds, fully
inspect your garden plants to make sure they are
pest and rot free. Bringing in infected or diseased
plants can harm the whole garden. Aside from plant
disease, destructive bugs like aphids, gnats, and
whiteflies should be eliminated using the
appropriate pesticides or other effective
extermination methods.
Figure 12. Checking health of the plants

12. Treat your soil.

Soil degrades over time and needs to be refreshed
every so often. You can buy new soil from a local
garden center, so make sure to check the quality of your
garden soil and replace when necessary. Mulching
material will keep weeds down while also supplying
organic matter to your soil when it begins to degrade.
Fertilizing your garden is another method to keeping it
healthy. Depending on the type of plant species you’re
growing, use the right amount of fertilizer and apply
appropriately to make sure you don’t overstress your plants. Figure 13. Improving Soil for Garden

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13. Clean your gardening tools.
Garden tools should be cleaned to control
disease and prevent transferring any bacteria or
dangerous elements into your garden. In addition
to the other methods of garden care, clean tools
can help keep your garden healthy longer.

Figure 14. Cleaning the shovel

14. Perform plant maintenance. Deadhead, prune, and cull your plants as needed.
Deadheading removes old flower blooms to encourage
new growth. Pruning is cutting back the branches of your
plants to control growth and make room for more. Culling
your plants will clean up the unhealthy bits and also create
more space for your garden to flourish. These gardening
methods can all promote growth, clearing out any possible
hidden pests or undesirable parts, increasing room for
your flower or vegetable garden to flourish.

Figure 15. Plant Maintenance

15. Destroy the weeds. Weeds are garden killers.

They can suffocate the roots of your healthy
plants, harbor pests, and become an unsightly
nuisance. Weeds take up space and resources
that your plants could be using, so weeding your
garden can keep it healthy and growing.

Figure 16. Spraying weed killer spray

16. Protect from animals. Set up a barrier around

your garden bed, like a wire fence, to keep
herbivores, critters, and other garden pests from
destroying your plants. Wire fencing keeps your
garden safe, while also keeping it visible and
exposed to the sun (traditional fencing can
sometimes block direct sunlight).

Figure 17. Installed barrier around the garden bed

17. Stake your plants. Staking involves fixing sticks

into the ground and tying your flower stems or
other garden crops to them with cloth or thread
(you can also use a trellis). Staking your plants—
like cucumber, pepper, or tomato plants—
reinforces the stems and keeps them from
bending or breaking, keeping them upright and
healthy.

Figure 18. Staking of plants

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18. Companion plant.
Companion planting, or intercropping, is
when you plant a variety of different crops
together to increase growth productivity, provide
pollinators, ward off pests, and control the
habitat for beneficial insects. Intercropping is a
great way to keep your garden and flower beds
thriving by surrounding them with the right plants
that will enable their successful growth.
Figure 19. Intercropping/Companion planting

19. Try raised beds.

Adding raised beds (or garden
containers) to your garden plans can
significantly increase your plant’s longevity.
Raised beds are great if you want to start
small or plant a variety of sections. Raised
beds come with a barrier, provide proper
drainage, and can help keep your garden bed
safe from pathway weeds and other
menaces.
Figure 20. Using raised bed for gardens/nursery

Proper garden care can increase the quality and longevity of your plants, fruits, and
veggies. A few hours of full sun is a must for nearly every plant, but different plant species
require different levels of care. If you want your outdoor crops and beautiful flowers to
withstand the seasons, it’s important to learn the right way to take care of your garden.

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 III. ACTIVITY PROPER

ACTIVITY 1. IDENTIFICATION (5pts.)

Directions: Tell what way or method of producing a healthy and safe garden in each
situation. Choose your answer from the methods inside the box.

Clean up in the fall

Perform plant maintenance
Protect from animals Try raised beds Don’t crowd plants

________________________1. Adding raised beds (or garden containers) to your garden

plans can significantly increase your plant’s longevity.
________________________2. Set up a barrier around your garden bed, like a wire fence,
to keep herbivores, critters, and other garden pests from
destroying your plants.
________________________3. Trim out crowded, damaged, or old stalks on plants that are
prone to powdery mildew.
________________________4. It is always best to clean out the garden in the fall, even if
you live in a moderate climate.
________________________5. Deadhead, prune, and cull your plants as needed.

ACTIVITY 2. MULTIPLE CHOICE (10pts.)

Directions: Read the following statements carefully. Choose the letter of the best answer.
1. Do not take home a plant with dead spots, rotten stems, or insects.
a. Examine plants carefully before buying
b. Use fully composted yard waste
c. Keep an eye on your bugs
d. Clean up in the fall
2. Viruses and bacteria can only enter a plant through some sort of opening, and bug
damage provides that. Insect damage to plants is much more than cosmetic.
a. Examine plants carefully before buying
b. Use fully composted yard waste
c. Keep an eye on your bugs
d. Clean up in the fall
3. You need to be careful when fertilizing plants since too much of any fertilizer can burn
roots, reducing their ability to absorb water.
a. Apply the correct fertilizer
b. Plant disease-resistant varieties
c. Pruned damaged limbs at the right time
d. Choose and site plants appropriately
4. Trimming trees and shrubs in late winter is better than waiting until spring.
a. Apply the correct fertilizer
b. Plant disease-resistant varieties
c. Pruned damaged limbs at the right time
d. Choose and site plants appropriately
5. Trim out crowded, damaged, or old stalks on plants that are prone to powdery mildew.
a. Water properly
b. Don’t crowd plants
c. Check the health of your plants.

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 d. Treat your soil.
6. Buy new soil from a local garden center, so make sure to check the quality of your
garden soil and replace when necessary.
a. Water properly
b. Don’t crowd plants
c. Check the health of your plants.
d. Treat your soil.
7. Weeds can suffocate the roots of your healthy plants, harbor pests, and become an
unsightly nuisance.
a. Clean your gardening tools
b. Perform plant maintenance
c. Destroy the weeds
d. Protect from animals
8. Set up a barrier around your garden bed, like a wire fence, to keep herbivores, critters,
and other garden pests from destroying your plants.
a. Clean your gardening tools
b. Perform plant maintenance
c. Destroy the weeds
d. Protect from animals
9. Plant a variety of different crops together to increase growth productivity, provide
pollinators, ward off pests, and control the habitat for beneficial insects.
a. Protect from animals
b. Stake your plants
c. Companion plant
d. Try raised beds
10. Provide proper drainage and help keep your garden bed safe from pathway weeds and
other menaces.
a. Protect from animals
b. Stake your plants
c. Companion plant
d. Try raised beds

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 ANSWER KEY

REFERENCES

 https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.finegardening.
com/article/10-ways-to-keep-your-garden-healthy&ved=2ahUKEwi5y-
OxrKXwAhWOwJQKHZPeBVgQFjAMegQIJBAC&usg=AOvVaw2J4XqiwP93Pel3A8u
IzmGT&cshid=1619764541420

 https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-keep-plants-alive

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 IV. SUMMATIVE EVALUATION

PART I. ENUMERATION (10pts.)

Directions: List down ten (10) Ways to Keep Your Garden Safety and Healthy.
Ways to Keep Your Garden Safety and Healthy
1. ______________________________ 6. ______________________________
2. ______________________________ 7. ______________________________
3. ______________________________ 8. ______________________________
4. ______________________________ 9. ______________________________
5. ______________________________ 10. ______________________________

PART II. MULTIPLE CHOICE (5pts.)

Directions: Read the following statements carefully. Choose the letter of the best answer.
1) Provide proper drainage and can help keep your garden bed safe from pathway weeds
and other menaces.
a) Protect from animals c) Stake your plants
b) Companion plant d) Try raised beds
2) Viruses and bacteria can only enter a plant through some sort of opening, and bug
damage provides that. Insect damage to plants is much more than cosmetic.
a) Examine plants carefully before buying
b) Use fully composted yard waste
c) Keep an eye on your bugs
d) Clean up in the fall
3) Buy new soil from a local garden center, so make sure to check the quality of your
garden soil and replace when necessary.
a) Water properly c) Don’t crowd plants
b) Check the health of your plants. d) Treat your soil.
4) Set up a barrier around your garden bed, like a wire fence, to keep herbivores, critters,
and other garden pests from destroying your plants.
a) Clean your gardening tools c) Perform plant maintenance
b) Destroy the weeds d) Protect from animals
5) Do not take home a plant with dead spots, rotted stems, or insects.
a) Examine plants carefully before buying c) Use fully composted yard waste
b) Keep an eye on your bugs d) Clean up in the fall

PART III. THE DISEASE TRIANGLE (10pts.)

Directions: Draw the Plant Disease Triangle and explain briefly.
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
PLANT _______________________________________
DISEASE _______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
2. ______________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
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