Every year I plant few papaya seedlings with start of monsoon and uproot them and plant in the farm when rain has established well. Have seen that saplings which are at least a foot or more survive well. This year used some old seeds and nothing germinated. But I saw few plants which came in the backyard, uprooted them and planted in grow bags. When rain is established well, will be planting them.
Mango seedlings collected from Sakhil of IMCP group, Gireesh Sir etc...are being planted this year. Only plants which have grown really well and have reached around 5 feet is being planted this year. Idea is to establish them well before the next drought.
The following varieties are planted....Red ponnus, Golden Ponnus, Blue Ponnus, Manikyan, IMCP kilichundan, Chelan, Dukran, Sakhi, Kanimangalam etc...Each one will be photographed and growth will be monitored in this page.
Blue Ponnus
Dukran
Jaan Priyur
Kanimangalam
Just to keep seeds, happy hill rice seeds were sown in the pots, without pre-soaking them. Seeds were kept at the refrigerator hence kept them outside for a day and then sown them. Germinated well and growing, applied compost tea couple of times and weed extract liquid couple of times, and also applied compost once. Watering them regularly...Seeds sown around May 15th...
16-June-2024
This year summer was very hot and usual summer rains didn't happen, 1st rain came on April 12nd and after that around 3 weeks delay and next rain came. After that it has been consistently raining now. Since I am completely rainfed now, wanted to utilise every rain, especially paddy has to be started with early rains. Traditionally it says, paddy has to be started in Aswathy (April 13 to 27th) or Bharani njattuvela (April 27th to May 11th).
Bought 10Kgs of Uma seed from Kannannur rice mill of Sivadasan for 35/- per Kg. Also bought 2Kgs of green gram at 150/- per Kg, and 0.5Kgs of Sesame at 200/- perKg and also used some finger millet seeds from last year. All mixed well in a sack and then sown in the field after the tractor completed 1st round of rotovator tilling.
Also put a coir fence around the field, one labor was used and 10 bunches of coir was used at around 180/ rupees totally. Next two days there was heavy rain at the night, so left everything to nature, to see what happens.
May 14th, 2024
According to our traditional agriculture system, Medam 1st - in Malayalam calendar is the starting of agriculture activities, this was on April 14th this year. Medam 1st is celebrated as Vishu in Kerala which is a festival along with farmers starts farming activities. Typically in Kerala climate, it would rain before Vishu festival and there is a saying 'à´µിà´·ു à´•à´´ിà´ž്à´žാൽ à´µേനലിà´²്à´² ' meaning there is no summer after this festival. Also they say in Aswathy njattuvela which happens to be between April 13th to April 27th, and seeds sown in this duration never goes bad. Again there is a saying 'à´…à´¶്വതിà´¯ിà´²ിà´Ÿ്à´Ÿ à´µിà´¤്à´¤ും ,à´à´°à´£ിà´¯ിà´²ിà´Ÿ്à´Ÿ à´®ാà´™്ങയും ,à´…à´š്ഛൻ വളർത്à´¤ിà´¯ മക്à´•à´³ും à´•േà´Ÿാà´µിà´²്à´² ' which means seeds sown in Aswathy and mangoes put in Ceramic pot and children broughtup by father, never goes bad.
Also there is another auspicious day called Medam 10th, happened to be on April 23rd. Farmers starts planting crops on this day,and since rain would start soon, they have to just water it so that crops are alive till the rain and then they will take off.
Now a days with climate change, things never happens this way. This year it rained on April 12th, it was a reasonably good rain, but after that it hasn't rained so far in this region.
Since earlier complete farming was rain dependent every rain was utilized so these calendars were really important. I do complete rainfed farming and hence these things are important but with climate change, it becomes more challenging.
May be with first rain, I could have planted some fodder grass slips and Vetiver slips to see if they come up well, but that has to be done on the next day.
First crop paddy didn't do well this time, because of lack of rain. Overall rain was bad this year, so next crop paddy is ruled out. So thought of doing sesame which need less water and also cows/deer does not eat it. Called Mohanan tractor person and he came promptly, took around 1.5 hours to complete the field then sesame 800gms mixed with compost were sown by Palani and rotovated for another 0.5 hour.
