Pathfinder0915:
Great you do well and tanx a lot for the information you shared with us is indeed an amazing experience my question is what type of soil is to be stuffed in the sack and in the absence of chicken feases could prepared liquid organic solutions be considered the likes of maxiforce from jubahili tanx

organicfoods:
Soil that drain easily is best. loamy soil precisely. I don't know much about maxiforce, but liquid fertilizer are better used as supplements. Chicken poo and cow dung are slow releasing fertilizer and perfect ammendment for nutrients rich soil.

knoxx:
Following ur threads has opened my eyes to a lot on organic farming. I did a reading on the use of neem leaves on soil sterilization and fertilization. Reason was an outbreak on our school farm. The soil is quite rich but i think contaminated by now. Can you pls shed more light on the solution to correcting all anomalies in the soil without using chemicals sir. We are planning to plant tomatoes and pepper and cucumbers next week using sacks on the school balcony

organicfoods:
You can sterilize the soil by heating. .. It does take a lot of efforts though. Now that the sun intensity is high, you can cover the soil with transparent nylon for at least two months.. . The heat generated and trapped will sterilized the soil. You can also spread fresh manure on the soil.. Brewer waste and chicken manure can reach very high temprature during the process of decomposition hence can effectively sterilize the soil. Also you can drench the soil with water rich in emulsified neem solution. Beneficial microbes like lacto bacillus and trichodemia Viride can be used to colonize the soil and knock off disease causing pathogen in the soil.

knoxx:
Am following your thread bumper to bumper sir. When is the next training sir and how much is the cost. Am really interested

Agrozone:
Afternoon, pls my 4wks plant is being attacked by a pest that looks very tiny,they reside at the back of the leaves ,the major sign to know their presence is that the leaf shrinks,pls what can I do,







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maxjames:
@organicfoods I have a fish fish and am planning of trying out ur sack formular in planting cucumber soonest. My intention is to link water from the fish pond to d cucumber farm. What will be the outcome, please?

organicfoods:
It will be impossible to do because of the size of the fruits. But who knows, a system may evolve.

organicfoods:
I will be using this new thread to share my experience in vertical sack farming. This will serve as a learning curve for many up starter. During the journey so far, we have witnessed the emergence of this phenomenon concept called "Vertical Sack Farming" which was introduced to Nairaland by Pavore9, as a result of the little success, a lot of vertical sack farmers are emerging everyday with astonishing concept and improve version of the idea.

It is a great joy for me to be part of this revolution. Vanpeele, ishaqteejay and several others had improvise on this concept to a point of perfection. The agriculture community should be grateful to these guys for daring to sustain this form of farming thus far.

The pix outline how we started.

organicfoods:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en4ZxfkOaFA

organicfoods:
Gradually we made some little progress on the field. The journey wasn't really smooth. My farm assistance used the short cut of bush burning before my arrival to the farm and I felt bad. As a proponent of organic farming, bush burning is a no, no. The reasons are not far fetched. The bio diversity of the land is further destroyed as many beneficiary insects and animals are killed. Besides the nutrients are made to be available in sudden large quantity on the field when you practice bush burning, which cannot be used by the plants because it takes a while for it grow and obtain such nutrients, hence exposing the nutrients to leaching, wind and water erosion when it rains.

Remember the bio build up of a particular land consists of many living organism and micro organisms thriving on it, so also many weeds, some deep rooted others perennial. Deep rooted dig deep into the soil to extract nutrients locked there. When such plants dies they make available these nutrients for other plants that doesn't have a well developed root system to extract nutrients, burning such plants and releasing those nutrients without using it, is waste of nature's effort and resource to nourish the soil. So consider dropping bush burning as a method of bush clearing.

organicfoods:
Fertilization: When you are planing for your vertical farm (cucumber) You must provide enough organic matters and manure for them. They grow very fast and don't waste time consuming nutrients. If not for my experience in the manufacture of cheap liquid fertilizer, I would have given up. You mus be prepared to supplement the nutrients in the sack, especially during budding and fruiting. They tend to demand a lot of nutrients. Fast releasing nutrients would do you a lot of joy. So to avoid nutrients depletion consider stuffing the bags enough with chicken poo and also supplements, it is a must or else you become an actor in the epic movie "Story that touch" lol!

Pest Management: One big problem I encountered is pest control....Kai, the pest love it like mad, they behave as if their lives depend on it. If you are not prepared to do battle with the pest then don't even go into cucumber farming. One short cut I will be adopting is planting varieties of other vegetables along side cucumber. Crops like celery, marigold and basil will be planted...They tend to confuse deceive pest that recognizes their victim by smell. I farm organically so I used Neem oil, Ginger/Garlic Extract, and plethora of other pest management procedures.

Water: Cucumbers love water and if you can't supply enough then don't think of risking it. There is this thing about mulching that I noticed. Mulching the sack with leaves can save a lot of stress. Frogs and lizards love to hide around the bags as well. I initially I never trusted their presence, but after careful study, I discover that they are working on my side. They feed on the pests attacking the plants. They can however become a nuisance in early stage of the plants life...they clip the leaves of the tender plant destroying them. Squirrels also are great nemesis.

Spacing: Three plants in a sack appears to be too much for the sack. I think two plants are good to go. Three can be so crowded