Tapioca cultivaton

Earlier when I tried tapioca it was not growing well. Then I moved my cultivation to a different area where the soil was little more fertile, it started yielding. In general, fertility is improving and cultivation becomes more easy. I just planted this tapioca cuttings and applied dried cow dung once, it gave reasonable yield. One good thing is that, it does not need much water, some moisture in the soil will keep them growing.

11-January-2017

I got many more cuttings after the harvest and planting them in conventional style, by piling up soil require lot of effort, so just made some holes and planted them. These area was watered a week back so soil was loose.

22-Feb-2017

With just some moisture in the soil, the cuttings germinate, but not sure, if they will survive the summer...If there was a bit of watering, they will survive.

Evaluation of cowdung liquid manure and fresh cowdung slurry

In rainy season, I had applied cowdung slurry to cowpea,brinjal and ladys finger and found excellent results. I just wanted to evaluate fermented cowdng slurry with fresh cowdung slurry.

So I am planting some ladys finger and rice plants and will apply fresh cowdung slurry and fermented cowdung slurry once in a week and will see which shows better results.

Fermented cowdung slurry was prepared by filling a drum with 150 litre water and putting around 10Kgs of fresh cowdung and 5 handfuls of horse gram powder, 4-5 bananas and a handful soil. This was fermeted for 2 days.

19-December-2016

Fermented cowdung slurry being prepared....

11-January-2017

The one with stick was applied with fermented cowdung liquid and other one with fresh cowdung slurry.

Two plants on the right side is applied with fermented cowdung liquid and other two was applied with cowdung slurry

Could not complete these experiments due to various reasons...majorly because of water shortage, watering was delayed...

Berceem clover evaluation

I was trying to grow a cover crop for the coconut area, which grows and reseeds every year. Some people said, Berceem clover is a good choice, so got some seeds from a friend. I just it put in kitchen garden, it readily germinated, even though growth is not very good..some pictures will follow...

19-December-2016

It has been 3 weeks since I put them...

23-January-2017

One or two white flowers have appeared, the one on the left is a weed flower. It looks to me, this may grow better in rainy season in this climate? I have saved some seeds to experiment, but anyway they have to germinate and come along with pre-monsoon showers.

Could not see any seeds formed...overall not sure about if it will grow well in this hot climate, anyway will try it with monsoon season once again.

Happy Hill Rice - 2016 December

To keep the continuity of seeds, I am cultivating Happy Hill Rice on this season. Couple of years back, I lost all the seeds after keeping it for an year. This time, I am trying a few seeds in ground and some seeds in a grow bag.

19-December-2016

A few seeds were put along with Arachis pintoi, but only three germinated..

23-January-2017

Farm - December 2016

This year monsoon was very bad, it is about 50% less. By december it has become very dry and it gives a summer feeling. I stopped cutting any grass, except path ways.

Pureria is established well over here...this area gets frequent watering also.

Newly made, banana circle...

Pureria is slowly establishing here...

This area is very dry...already some coco saplings are dying...

Received a good rain ...after the rain...farm looks greener..

Peanut,finger millet and sesame - 2nd crop season 2016

This year south-west monsoon was very bad...so not trying rice farming, thought of trying some thing which needs less water..Trying out peanut, finger millet and sesame...no experience with these, so just trying ...

Straw from previous rice crop was completely spread and then got a tractor with rotovator attachment and tilled it.

8-Oct-2016

23-Oct-2016
Some peanuts which I had put it initially started germinating and growing...Made a channel using sharp tool and then put seeds and then using the tool with tooths, closed the channel. But it was time consuming and lot of effort, so finally broadcasted the seeds and then using the tooth tool put some mud here and there.

4-Dec-2016

Along with sesame and finger millet, lot of rice seedlings also came up...retained all of them as it is...

8-Jan-2017

Sesame came up in some places, germination was not uniform, mostly since I didn't till after sowing, lot of seeds were taken by ants or didn't germinate.

Rice is struggling...

Touchme not came up in some places and they formed a cover....they are nitrogen fixing type, but it looks to be an indication that fertility is not good.

Finger millet also is very weak...and not uniform

In sesame, the plants which came up is doing well...

23-January-2017

Finger millet..very weak plants, some harvest is there.....

Starting no-till on a weed free field

Have been experimenting with no-till on a field. Since complete rotation for an year and right crops are not working, wanted to do no-till on a weedy field. In Fukuoka's case he had a complete rotation in place and there will be overlap between crops, like after rice, barley/wheat would be starting. But practically if there is a break in the circle, not sure how he was handling it. For e.g, due to some reason he could not sow wheat at the stage of the harvesting rice...

Anyway in my case, I am doing no-till, but uses Honda brush cutter and scythe for cutting weeds. While experimenting I found that if long grass is cut and kept aside by using Scythe and then field is cleared with Honda brush cutter then field is relatively weed free. At this time, we can sow the crop and then cover it by using cut grass with immediate irrigation or if it rains, well and good.

Another option to control the weeds to next level, after cutting and clearing using brush cutter, irrigate the field and allow the weeds to germinate and then once again clear using brush cutter using string. Using string, we can complete the task of clearing the field when the weeds are small..this way all the surface weeds would have exhausted and we get a weed free field to start with.