Gliricedia from seeds

 I have been trying to grow glyricidea from cuttings in large numbers this year. But success rate is very low,lots of them won't grow, it is quite dependent on the rain, may be other factors too. So this time bought some 200 seeds from amazon and trying to grow plants and transplant them. It is bit late since most of the rainy season has completed, but still trying to grow them.

26-Aug-25

The seeds are put in grow bags and they germinate in 3-4 days and growth also is good. Will transplant them after 3-4 weeks, before rain completely recedes

09-Sept-25

A new strategy for seeding - kind of equivalent to seed ball

 On this season, I was seeding rice on my no-till field, cut the grass and made a channel using a sharp tool and put 4-5 seeds at 25cm distance. Wanted to cover the seeds and had lot of compost at hand, so put compost at each seed place so that seeds were covered. This was rather an easy process to cover and each seeds have some compost so that they will get good early growth. But unfortunately rain was less during that time and ants were many, and could see lots of seeds were taken away by ants so could not establish a crop. But this gave a good learning, seeding using a drum seeder also can be done using on a no-tilled plot and later cover the seeds with compost or even cowdung. My friend had mentioned once that in Trivandrum area, rice were seeded in cowdung like this. They will take few seeds and take some cowdung and will bury the seeds in cowdung and will throw it on the ground, it was called as 'chanakathileru' meaning throw in cowdung. I felt this is an equivalent method of making seed balls, only thing is that, this should be done at the start of rainy season and seeds can not wait for long for rain. Since seeds put in cowdung may germinate soon and if rain does not happen, it may just die off. In seedball case, they will wait for rain to come and then it will germinate so will be safe. But making seedball is bit of an extra effort.

Ginger for home consumption

Used to grow few Ginger plants every year, this year thought of growing it for an year of consumption. At the farm, sometime people used to dig and take it so got discouraged to grow it. So at home, tried it in 10 grow bag, started it in May-June time, which is the suggested time frame for ginger crop. Being in grow bag, could apply some compost and cowdung slurry and also kept the base clean without grass and also mulched with straw.

I am also growing it in couple of places in farm, they are also coming up well. Mulched them with fodder grass which takes long time to decompose and hence it looks good. Also in one place, applied mexican sunflower mulch which gets decomposed very quickly. Plan is to grow mulching material at each place so that mulching process is easy.

Green manure trees and shade

 Since I don't irrigate my farm, it gets badly affected in the summer. As I see, wherever there are shades coconut trees are not affected that much. So in this season, I tried to grow as many green manure trees as possible, there are multiple intentions...

- Mulch - to feed soil and also to cover soil from direct sun and rain

- Shade - I stop cutting trees after rain stops and allow them to grow so that they provide good shade in the summer

- Liquid carbon to soil - as per scientists trees provide liquid carbon to soil organisms through their roots

I have planted Glyricedia and Acasia Siamea (Manjakonna) and Moringa in different areas. Glyricedia is planted through cuttings and their survival rate is very low, Acasia Siamea is planted by growing seedlings and most of them survived. Moringa is also planted using cuttings and they also survive well.

Even though main rain season has ended, planning to grow around 100 glyricedia saplings from seed and plant them in the farm in the remaining rainy season. I also watched some regenerative agriculture videos and in one by Byron Grower says, plant as many pioneering species as possible, suggests to plant at every 75cms and cut and mulch. This looks to be very valid, since if there is too much disturbance, we can always cut them back.

New Indigenous Mango tree variety - Thrissurkkaran - planted in front of the house

 I have planted one more indigenous mango variety called Thrissurkkaran in front of the house. This mango seed was collected last year and it has been growing in the terrace for an year now. Planted and cut and mulched grass around it and there was some spoiled straw around, that also spread around it. This was found by 'Nadan Mavukal' facebook group and has been promoting it since this is a regular early bearer and a very tasty variety.

22-June-2025

Stylosanthes Hamata and rice

 I had been growing Stylosanthes Hamata in a small patch in backyard garden. It survived summer and with rain, it established well and there were not much other weeds in that patch. Hence wanted to try rice sowing in that patch, not sure how it will compete with grass. Even after cutting it will come back and rice plants will take more time to come above. The seeds were of Rakthashali and put that in water for 24 hours and sown in the place and cut and mulched the grass.

28-June-2025

Rice seedlings are growing,and stylo mulch gives good weed control. I should have put more seeds, since generally in direct broadcasting, lots of seeds gets lost due to various reasons. Stylo does not grow back very aggressively, hence rice does not have good competition. There is heavy rain now, which may be holding stylo back,typically leguminous species does not like much water, while grass varieties goes unaffected, that is a good combination

07-July-25

So far weed control has been very good, rice seedlings are coming up, some weeds are seen, but not weeded yet.

27-July-2025

Managing bamboo which have thorns

I have a bamboo variety which is very common in Kerala and this has thorns on it. I got this saplings when I attended one session in Yuvakshethra college Mundur. I didn't realise the difficulty in managing this species when grown up. It would have been close 9 years since I planted and it grew to a big clump. Few years back, I sold it to a person who cut its small branches which will be used for making fence.

I like any biomass creating trees, but this was just difficult to cut with that thorns,cut few of the poles with chain saw, but were not able to pull out them so just left it as it is. Compared to this I like all the bamboo varieties which are thornless and easy to cut.

New flower introduced to farm - Peacock flower - Rajamalli - caesalpinia pulcherrima

Recently planted Rajamalli flower plant in the farm. Seeds were collected from National High way to Coimbatore where in the middle lots of these plants are planted. This has thorns and hence are very drought resistant. In summer these plants are not seen at all and suddenly with rain they just come back. It looks like flowers and seeds has poison in it and hence has to be careful.

Leguminous cover crops - Hedge Lucern and Stylo Santhes Hamata

 I am introducing two more perennial leguminous cover crops into the system - Hedge Lucern (locally called as Velimasal) and Stylo santhes hamata. Had tried both in the last rainy season, hedge lucern sown last time is germinating this year and it grows well. When cut many more branches comes and seeds also is formed and these germinates readily. Whether they will etsatblish quite well and will be established as a monocrop will have to be seen, that is not a preferred method.

Stylo santhes hamata need much care, a small patch was done at home, that was growing well and it survived summer also. As of now, this grows to less than a feet so can be a good covercrop to grow with rice also, to be seen.

These seeds were bought from Amazon India, 1 Kg Stylo Santhes Hamata - 524/ and 500gm Hedge Lucern - 609/

This is Stylo santhes hamata grown in backyard

Fodder grass cutting

 Reason for growing fodder grass is that it creates lots of biomass,in rainy season in every 3 weeks, it should be ready for cutting and it is perennial and in summer it just withers but does not turn grey completely, slight greenish color will be there. Since I don't water in summer, would like to cover the ground with a thick cover of mulch and fodder grass helps in that. Its mulch decomposes slowly also. Earlier I used to cut and collect the mulch at the base of fruit trees, now I just leave it at there.

31-May-2025

Those bunches are the fodder grass

would like to see when this area become ready to cut again

Tools for cutting grass

 I keep searching and using effective cutting tools for grass cutting. I have been using Scythe for long time, but now in lots of places, I have fodder grass which is bit difficult to cut with Scythe since it is very thick and strong at the base, also it is like a bunch and hence cutting with Scythe becomes bit tedious. Recently visited a tools shop in Kulappully,Shornur,Palakkad and they had a grass cutting sickle. Long handle around 2 feet and they make it from leafes of vehicles and hence they say it is very sharp and retains it.

2nd one from bottom is a very good tool, it is light weight and very sharp and hence ideal for cutting fodder grass, only issue is that if there are thicker bushes and if you cut it using this one, it may get damaged. Once one piece of it just went off, while cutting a thicker one.

This tool is ideal for clearing pathways and small grass.

04-June-2025

Measured weight of these , top one is lightest 350gms,next 400gms and next 450gms. Weights make lot of difference 300-350gms should be the ideal weight. It can be used very comfortably, even quickly changing direction of cutting, I didn't feel comfortable with 400gms one.

Some possible rice varieties to be tried out

I have been looking for rice varieties which is suitable in my tilled field and also varieties for my tilled field. My major requirement is that it should survive on rain and also should compete with weeds so that weeding is minimum. Here are some possible candidates which I got from research from WhatsappGroups and talking to friends.

Mapillai Samba - This is of 150 days duration and reaches 4-5 feet height and tasty rice. Ideal for 2nd rice crop, it flowers in November and ready for harvest in January.

Kattuyanam - 6 months duration, 5-6 feet height, again people says, this is cultivated in aadi month of tamil (July) when there is flood like situation in paddy field and harvested in January. I did this one time, and it was started in June and it didn't do well

Chettadi - 6 months duration and good for 2nd rice crop also called as Mundakan crop

Chitteni - 150 days duration and good for 2nd rice crop 

Chambavu - 135-140 days,150-180cm height (one person said 150cm and another 180cm), good taste, good tillering. One person called Prabhavathy confirmed that she had tried Chambavu for 1st crop,May 15th seeds were sown and transplanted in June and harvested by September last.

Yet another person Sasidhararan Master had tried this in 1st crop, he started in June mid and harvested in October, 120-130 days. It was tall, a person standing in the paddy field won't be visible, tasty rice.

Talked to another person called Santhosh in Palakkad who has been doing Matta Chambavu for many years. According to him, duration is 120 days and height will be minimum 4 feet, not much tillering..it may fall, tasty rice. Starting in June may be difficult for 'podi vitha' since it may rain soon heavily and field may be submerged in water, transplanting may be better.

Kayama - 150 days duration, 4 feet height,tasty rice, competes with weeds well. 

Attappadi Upland Rice - According to Durai Swamy of Attapadi, this is sown in Karkkidakam (July-August) and harvested in Vrischikam (November-December). If it is sown early it may reach more height. I tried this once in June and it reached good height, more than 4 feet, but grains didn't form, lots of rice bugs were there, may be because of this or timings was not proper.

Planning to try Kayama this time, Vinod from Nallabhoomi has promised to send the seeds.

Happy Hill Rice - Rainy Season

26-May-2025

I had kept few happy hill rice seeds in refrigerator, 100 seeds kept outside for 2 days and then sown here. I had mulched and kept this area in summer, also had applied some compost and cowdung. If there is sufficient mulch we get good weed control, at the beginning of monsoon. If area is left uncultivated, within no time, weeds take over. It is better to start rice at the beginning of monsoon, so that weeds hasn't germinated.

Made a channel using locally made fokin hoe put 2 seeds at around 20cm distance and later covered with soil.

This year monsoon started very early and is intense, seeds may take more time to germinate

Coconut tree leaf is shading this region partially hence cut them

Jackfruit trees are also shading this region, hence cut few branches

14-June-2025

It didn't rain for 10 days, and not much seeds germinated. Hence again levelled the place and put 300 seeds this time, could see why in broadcasting farmers always put more seeds. The seeds were put in water for 20 hours and brodcasted.

28-June-2025
Rice seedlings are seen, but may be around 70 or so would have been made it from 300 seeds. Because of heavy rain, the fertile top soil washed away, not much mulch was there this time. May be it is wiser to put bunds on 4 sides so that water gets stagnated and rain drops does not do much damage.

27-July-2025

lots of plants are falling down since their roots are at the top, so I just kept them inside the soil.

10-Aug=2025

Stylo Santhese Hamata broadcasted in between and they have germinated well and growing. No rain since last 10 days, this is the problem, in between rain just vanishes altogether.

this is another patch started 3 weeks back, here also stylo santhes hamata is growing underneath rice

09-Sept-2025

grains started turning yellow

Planting Glyricidia cuttings in pre-monsoon

 In coconut area, wanted more shade in the summer. Thinking of adding multiple ever green support trees for this, one being Glyricidia. We got a good summer rain, just wanted to check if Glyricidia can grow in pre-monsoon shower.

Planted around 25 cuttings, wanted to see the success rate...

24-April-2025

Few of cuttings has new shoots coming, it is interesting to see with that moisture, it is growing well, but whether they will survive only time can tell.

03-June-2025

With rain, farm became green again and glyricidea is growing well.

Rennovating farm house

 Farm house has been rennovated...added sitout at the front and backside...all the wooden doors and windows replaced with steel doors and windows since termite damaged most of the old doors and windows and snakes started crawling in.

Visitors are welcome now...there is limited space, may be maximum 4 people can stay..there is electricity and water now...

Turmeric harvesting and planting on same day

Turmeric in one area yielded reasonably well, it was harvested and on the same day, seeds were put on the beds and mulched. This saves lots of effort since at the time of harvesting any way soil has to be worked and planting on the same day makes things easy.