I have acquired 18 plots of land to start my new cucumber farm.
Stay tuned as we progress the process of making it a reality.

.....

OK

Nice! Please kindly share the procedures and pics.

@itydee where is your location?

Thats cool...
The Lord is your strength

Etche Rivers State

We have cleared the land and making ridges soon. Had some bad experience in clearing the land . The guy Icontracted the clearing to duped me . I had to stop and restrategize.

October is coming to an end, the rains will soon stop. I hope you have made provisions for irrigation ?

Following. Will u be making the ridges manually? I just came across this tractor service: https://www.nairaland.com/4128135/get-tractor-seevice-ur-farm#61616126. If anyone has a cheaper option let us know.

yeah.
Will be paying Benue boys to make the ridges

FarmTech:
Following. Will u be making the ridges manually? I just came across this tractor service: https://www.nairaland.com/4128135/get-tractor-seevice-ur-farm#61616126. If anyone has a cheaper option let us know.

Itydee:
yeah. Will be paying Benue boys to make the ridges

.. I guess labor is cheap there.

MY FARM IS SUPOSSED TO BE IN PROGRESS NOW.
HAVING CHALLENGES WITH LANDLORD AND HIS LAND AFTER IV HAVE MADE UP THE RIDGES.
I SAW GUYS COMING TO SURVEY THE LAND TODAY.

Peeps my farm has gone far oooh. I have had several challenge with my farm.
I list them in order of worries.
The guy who introduced the land to me also brought men from the village to clear the land. He advertised on nairalamd here send I hooked up with him at Etche where he has an impressive farm so I believed in him. I gave him money for land clearing . He swallowed the money and used his brothers to do a shoddy work on part of the land. The man he contacted to clear the land came and opened up. This created 2 weeks delay.

The land was eventually cleared at twice it's initial estimated cost. The land has been tilled by Hausa men.
I bought 100 bags of chicken manure from a friends farm.
I have provided piping for watering the plants

See pics of where we are

Inorganic manure already procured and applied to the farm

2 weeks old and counting

Seeds eaten by unknown creatures. Over 30k worth of seeds lost to these creatures. I have encoded not to plant seeds again. I will nurse and transplant the next batch

My plight : over 2000 stands eaten even after replanting

See for yourself

Having problems with adding more pics. Will appreciate all helps from u guys. Have put in close to 350k so far this business. Can't afford to lose

Germination not up to 40% due to seeds being eaten by creatures and poor planting methods. The seeds were either buriedttoo Deep or too shallower the guys who did the planting. Any help to remedy the losses will be appreciated

Water tank

Un used land yet to be cultivated. Will farm it this year. See end of pics. About 15 plot to be cultivated.

Farm is making progress. Will post pics soon. I have made stakes and my first set of cakes are flowering

Interesting thread. I'm here to learn.

18 plots of land? That's 3 acres...that's a lot to start with going into cucumber farming (my opinion though). I also want to believe you have done a very thorough feasibility study all the way to marketing your cucumber; your guess is as good as mine what a 3 acres cucumber farm would give you under proper management.

Moreso, I do hope you have an experienced cucumber expert supervising your project. This isn't a gamble biko. This is real investment, and internet cucumber farming advice may just not cut it for you.

Nevertheless, wishing you all the best. God's speed and definitely a bumper harvest.

Very interesting. I was reluctant to make any comment but maybe my suggestions will help you.

You spent N30,000 on seeds, if hybrid, it should be around 150 grams and you really should not expect more than 85% germination rate with the seeds around. Or did you think you are getting 100% germination rate? Gone are the days I used to get over 95%. Such are the seeds we have now.

Yes, crickets eat cucumber seeds during this period. I really do not know what option you have if you are doing organic but if inorganic, Dimethoate 40 % EC will help you. Spray every evening and morning till seeds germinates. After germination, use common sense in spraying as they can still eat young seedlings. 2 weeks duration is too long. You may alternate with another active systemic ingredient. Honestly, you need very strong pesticides to survive the first 10 days Afterwards, reduce spraying chemical drastically but do not leave out Imidaclorid so you can combat thrips, aphids and Whitefies. Also, get your fungicides ready.

I am not scaring you but how on earth do you think you can manage using hose only to irrigate your cucumber well. Honestly, I am still shocked many still want to farm like our olden grandparents. Did they have succesful agricultural system? If they do not, how do you think you will be succesful using their style. The first equipment you suppose to buy even before seed is your drip irrigation. I do not know why most users here think using hose is wise. Anyway, I do no know how you will perform with this style of irrigation. Honestly. You may be tough to scale through but as for me, I do not farm to land myself in any hospital. I have never used my profit to treat myself afterward. Let us be smart.

Ok, you need to irrigate morning and evening, and it may take hours, look at your plant spacing. It means you are going to stake. Hahahhaa. You will stake and irrigate manually. Bro, I cannot just but pity what is going to happen there. After staking one 50g can seed , you will hear it. Hope you have paracetamol. And if you had to pay for making your beds, it means you do not have full time workers. No full time workers for staked cucumbers? Bro, you are also going to prune.

Anyway, I think you should get one or two full time workers fast. You can still make it. Next time, farm with drip irrigation. I repeat, get your drip. It is not even too late, if you have cash with you, quickly get your drip irrigation.

I wish you the best.

fluentinfor:
Very interesting. I was reluctant to make any comment but maybe my suggestions will help you.

You spend N30,000 on seeds, if hybrid, it should be around 150 grams and you really should not expect more than 85% germination rate with the seeds around. Or did you think you are getting 100% germination rate? Gone are the days I used to get over 95%. Such are the seeds we have now.

Yes, crickets eat cucumber seeds during this period. I really do not know what option you have if you are doing organic but if inorganic, Dimethoate 40 % EC will help you. Spray every evening and morning till seeds germinates. After germination, use common sense in spraying as they can still eat young seedlings. 2 weeks duration is too long. You may alternate with another active systemic ingredient. Honestly, you need very strong pesticides to survive the first 10 days Afterwards, reduce spraying chemical drastically but do not leave out Imidaclorid so you can combat thrips, aphids and Whitefies. Also, get your fungicides ready.

I am not scaring you but how on earth do you think you can manage using hose only to irrigate your cucumber well. Honestly, I am still shocked many still want to farm like our olden grandparents. Did they have succesful agricultural system? If they do not, how do you think you will be succesful using their style. The first equipment you suppose to buy even before seed is your drip irrigation. I do not know why most users here think using hose is wise. Anyway, I do no know how you will perform with this style of irrigation. Honestly. You may be tough to scale through but as for me, I do not farm to land myself in any hospital. I have never used my profit to treat myself afterward. Let us be smart.

Ok, you need to irrigate morning and evening, and it may take hours, look at your plant spacing. It means you are going to stake. Hahahhaa. You will stake and irrigate manually. Bro, I cannot just but pity what is going to happen there. After staking one 50g can seed , you will hear it. Hope you have paracetamol. And if you had to pay for making your beds, it means you do not have full time workers. No full time workers for staked cucumbers? Bro, you are also going to prune.

Anyway, I think you should get one or two full time workers fast. You can still make it. Next time, farm with drip irrigation. I repeat, get your drip. It is not even too late, if you have cash with you, quickly get your drip irrigation.

I wish you the best.

Best advice,truth is bitter but good
i even thought it is backyard farming only to read it is commercial

Drip irrigation can be very costly. Use furrow irrigation instead.

The kind of advice we get on nairaland is "super". Nairaland is about low cost. Cheap, cheap, cheap.

So, because drip is expensive in a sense, it is furrow. Hmmmm. It is like we are not ready to solve our problems in this country. How can this kind of farm be successful? Anyway, we need to look beyond "This is too expensive" kind of how we think. I apologize if I sound rude or too harsh but I will tell you the truth, if you still think you can farm vegetable without good irrigation set up especially without drip if you are short of water, you are digging the grave of your business, except, you find a way to perfect your style.

Ok. Why not furrow?
You need like 50 times the volume of water you need for drip. For sprinkler, you need about 10 times the volume of water. This farmer has got just one inch pipe out of his borehole. How much volume can he pump out if he decides to pump non stop daily. How much? Can that be stilll enough for furrow?

Use furrow if you have abundant water like river in your farm. This farm is definitely short of water. So, is it that tiny tank OP thinks will cover his farm? If i had had the opportunity to advise you from the start of your project, I would have said you limit production to max of 3 plots or stretch it to one acre if i see you are very smart.

Maybe you can use sprinkler but you will spend more for some reasons. And sprinkler is not good for cucumber.

Most farms with river are deep inside. Guess what, the price you pay eventually will be too high - driving through terrible road is crazy. I will rather spend more to buy a good irrigation system than go through the agony of cultivating vegetable where I will ride bike, fall down many times, walk out of farm on my feet many days using many hours on the road, etc. And finally, spend so much on moving out my products from farm. These are issues experienced farmers will share with you if you consult well before jumping into any project or before cutting cost and making drip irrigation the first casualty.

How many modern farms use furrow? A beg, let us start thinking in this country like people who want to make real changes. Furrow in 2018? Oh Jesus!

Farm owner, your best option is drip irrigation. If you still want to farm like Cain and Abel, then continue using hose and furrow where there is no enough water

God bless.

GOOD