Pistotita:


Yes. It is true.

Juliana. A bro or a sis?

Two reasons:

Number 1:
Padma:
High Resistance- tomato mosaic virus, Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici race 1, 2, Verticillium dahliae ,
Intermediate Resistance: Bacterial Wilt

Platanium:
High Resistance -Tomato mosaic virus Verticillium Dahliae
intermediate resistance: Bacterial Wilt, Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus

Fusarium 1,2,3 are rampant during rainy season. Padma knocks out 1 and 2. Though can be controlled with fungicides.

TYLCV is a virus caused by whiteflies. And very deadly. Though you can use special pesticides. But during rainy season, you hardly have challenges with virus.

Number 2:
Parma aborts fruits with high heat. This is the main reason. It has poor heat fruit setting. Heat aborts the flowers.

The main reason I do not consider East West tomato cultivars is because non of their seeds can tolerate Early and Late Blight. Too bad. If blight occurs, one is screwed. So, the option left is not to joke with special fungicides for early blights. One of such chemical is around N15,000 to N21,000 for just 500ml. And you need it continuously. Cos it it catches blight at any stage, you are screwed.

In General, fear these diseases: Bacterial Wilt, TYCLV, Early Blight, Late Blight. These are tropical terrible diseases. Also be ready to face Vd, Fol 3, .

Juliana7:
@op, thank u Sire, I am very grateful Sir for d insightful message. Going by d pictures d 2 picture is what ppl demand for majorly in d open market in Lagos and et all(I think that is d Roma tomatoes) I hope that last picture is not tomatoes, it looks like eggplant LOL.. Pls Sir have u heard of cobra f1.? Thanks

OluchiDelly:


What's ur take on chibli hybrid tom seed from syngenta, esp d disease resistance catalogue?
I bought one but some arsonists set d nursery ablaze.

Pistotita:


It will be nice if you can always share the disease resistance catalogue or write out the disease resistance information so we can analyse it together. Anyway, attached is it.

110g fruit size is just ok. Better if bigger.

High Resistance: 2 strains of Fusarium, 3 strains of Verticillum
Intermediate Resistance: 3 strains of Nematodes (Root Knot).

No resistance to BW, Curly leaf, and Blights (these are the deadliest disesses). Will thrive where nematodes arebig issues. Of course if my farm was in the north, and I tested my soil and there was no bacterial Wilt, I would give it a shot only in dry season. But not a choice for me to consider first (personal opinion). I would never try it in the South. Better options available for the region.

Juliana7:
@op, may God richly bless u for all d priceless info u have been dishing out for free. Pls Sir what is ur opinion about pruning tomatoes. Brcos some ppl will say prune indeterminate but don't prune determinate. Some will say prune determinate must especially d sucker. So I:m kinda of confused. Thanks

OluchiDelly:

I don't have d seed catalog info, it's not written on d sachets i bought, that's why I asked about it.
Thanks 4 d info.

bosagro23:
Good morning sir. This thread has being the best I've ever seen on nairaland agriculture section. What is your assertion on cu999? To you, is it the best as its been touted all over? I really want to plant it now

Pistotita:


Normally, I do not make comments on cultivars publicly, but since I have started, I think you should bring it on. Most likely I will change this thread's topic to tomato and Cucumber Cultivars, Fungicides, Pesticides, organic options, Questions and Answers, while I start a new thread on the high yield objectives. Let me see if more questions and answers will come by here. I think people have many unanswered questions.

Cu999 is a good cultivar. Believe it. It is a savior in many areas. But there are cultivars in its league presently. It is even getting common in Lagos if you harvest very fast without making it get big. And that is the beauty part of cucumber, if you harvest rapidly, you get better yield. Like if Cu999 is around 300-400grams and you harvest, and you don't allow it to get to 800g or 1kg, you will harvest and get tired. Likewise if greengo is around 200grams and you do not allow it to get to 400grams, you will harvest and get tired. Please, forget all those pictures showing you length and width of fruits using biros/ball pens, rulers, soda PET bottles, etc . It is good, it shows me the capability of the cultivar, but I am more interested in the width and the market determines what to do. My target is to avoid strong seeds inside it. Therefore, for high yield, avoid reaching the maximum level of the cultivars.

If you are doing dutch long varieties that will reach over 30cm or even up to 40cm, shoprite, spar and other brands will never take it from you at this size. It must be small like 20cm or even less like 12 to 15cm. it means you harvest quickly. So, when you prune these kinds, you use sense doing it so you do not end up with loss. If you are pruning Cu999, you use sense too depending on the sizes you are producing. Ignore the gimmicks of extreme big size. But big size cultivars has the advantage of better profit if there is disease on the farm. The smaller the fruits, the more nutritious they are. Rich people go for extreme small sizes, thin skin that get damaged easily, but they are tasty. They prefer refrigerating their veggie. They care less about long life shelf.

In 2014, it was a savior when Nagano messed me up cos I was on a downy mildew infected region. And I had Murano too on the land. But I would not do these 3 combos again. I have better combos based on regions. There are still places like in Ilesha that the best for them is Nagano because it is powdery mildew that is disturbing them and not downy.

Let us look at its flowering pattern. You will first get male flowers. But make no mistake, if you feed it well, especially using the following as basal treatment: NPK + Lime + Magnesium (or you spray Epsom Salt), and you still get the right soil PH for your variety, or for cucumber in general. you must mix veyr well with soil in good proportion ( I educate people on the method of application to get goof PH) or you just do yourself more favor by using 500g to 1kg of manure inside the holes of each plant, and add fertilizers, hmmmmmm! You will see wonders. Let your soil be without zero nutrients, they will dazzle you. Just make sure you have prepared stakes down. Seriously, if you tweak fertilization pattern, spraying and staking pattern, you will see wonders. You will see crazy wonders. You will be panting after your crops cos they will almost make you go mad with their growth. I prefer DAP with Calcium and Magnesium, or SSP with Calcium and MAgnesim. If I do not get theses, I go with NPK + Urea + Calcium (lime and not calcium nitrate) + Magnesium. LAstly never joke with micro-nutrients. From day I, use it for crazy high yield.

The main challenge of Cu999 is that with heat, it will start producing many male flowers. And there will be too many which will reduce your yield. This is peculiar to all monoecious. The solution is to alter the flowering pattern to produce more female flowers from its young age so that when heat comes, you will still have numerous female flowers.

With Cu999, you will not have too many flowers abortion like other cultivars. Like I said, there are other cultivars in this league if you are in a region of dark green skinned color. I have tried some and they are good.

Cu999 is on a good league because it has very good shelf life after harvesting. It will does not get easily spoilt. It will last days, and it is good for buyers and agents. I know a particular cultivar which is very big like Cu999 with some nice resistance to downy, and it will not produce bitter taste, but the downsize is that it has short life shelf after harvest. It is extremely hard to sell when the market is bombarded with cucumbers. When you get to market like mile 12, and you have to compete with five 20 feet containers of cucumbers, then you need long life shelf and fresh ones cos the seller might not finish selling even after 3 days, and they put it under sun. The makers of such cultivars do not expect anyone in his right mind to ever expose cucumber to such harsh weather after harvest. Ha! Craziness dey LAgos, I fear the way many people behave. LOL They subject cucumber to heavy heat inside bags for days under the SUn, and they start blaming you that you should have used better cultivars. LOL. But there are special cultivars for this kind of situation.

Nevertheless, Cu999 has it own cons. The worst is that it will be extremely bitter if heat is too much. There is absolutely nothing you will do except you irrigate crazily or shade it. Shading is not feasible for most people. So, there are periods I advised against using it. You will get zero sales if taste is bitter. It is worst than any kind of disease you will ever think of. Another con is that if you are in a region where dark green skinned is favored, you will sell at reduced pricing. Just not good, but can still be used for optimizing yield even if dark skinned green is the targeted market.

Another con is that to alter the flowering pattern, the enzymes used are on the high price level, but it will take you for a long period of time to finish 1 liter bottle. You get 1 liter, and it serves you for many months, even years. These are imported enzymes that are not readily available. It is with deep observations, coupled with consultation of different researchers from Asia especially before I arrive at this unique style.

In conclusion, it is a cultivar that is good for light green market. You will enjoy it more if you mix another variety which produces smaller fruits (you must get the population ratio right due to your peculiar market), cos you can chase buyers away with big sizes fruits (this is from personal experience). You will sell more if you have smaller sizes added to this big jumbo size cultivar. Very good disease tolerated cultivar, but susceptible to bitter taste which will render it useless after hard work.

Best of luck sir.
Thanks for this. I really appreciate.

Pistotita:


I think using NPK 15 15 15 is more cost effective. You don't have 15% Nitrogen on it. So, the manufacturer will add more filler which is not too good. And they call it bloom fertilizer. Hmmmm! But wait! Did you call it organic? Ok. If organic, that is another story. What materials are used to make it? And the urea + npk. Just use NPK 15 15 15 again during flowering. I would ditch the bloom fertilizer if it is synthetic. But if the raw materials are organic, I will go for it since it will help in reducing salt.

But why dont you just use SSP only for phosphorus? And if you will NO later, just subtract that from the SSP you will apply during soil preparation. You need to apply nutrient before sowing. apply nutrient 10 days after sowing is a bad technique. If you apply nutrients in soil before planting cucumber, be ready to run cos that cucumber will be flying.


Why do you delay fertilizer application till 10 days after germination? What will your plants feed on for 10 days? Try to use SSP + NPK inside the holes you are planting. Mix very well and see result. You will be amazed. Then after 10 days, start using urea only.

If MOP works well for you, fine. But for me, it is too expensive to use on open field when there are cheaper options readily available.

bosagro23:
Can this also be used for watermelon?

excanny:
I don't know. This sounds kind of crazy to me. But I'm watching from the sidelines.

lahify:
@pistotita please is monalisa a good variety to cultivate cos you said it sheds flowers after every harvest and you said it may take ten days from one harvest to another.

Twagrill:

Strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, apple, pears, kiwi, pomegranate, sour-sop, passion fruits, grapes (green and purple), juniper berry, blackberry, etc

can all these plants you mentioned be grown in nigeria?

Pistotita:


Let me know your region and I can give you some options, but I can do this only privately as I want to appear as not promoting any seller or brand here. I am a neutral person. It seems most people concentrate on plums. But that should not be the area to concentrate on if you are small scale. You can do it only for rainy season if you are in the south and small scale. You cannot compete with the hausas during dry season except you do it very big with tractors too. Or you come together in groups to cultivate large hectares. Rainy season is tough, but if you do the right thing, you will find it very easy. But why not just get a plot, and put a net house or simple shade. You do not even need 1.5million to 10 million naira nethouse. You have the liberty of making cheap construction like poultry house. Then use a special net (a cheaper alternative is available). Just prevent cross pollination with it, and bring temperature down. Thats all you need. Sterilize your soil, or use grafted seedlings. You will make weekly income for good one year.

There are quite some Greenhouse owners, shoprite and Spar agents who have been asking me for help to get reliable suppliers. Some go to Cotonou to get good stuff. You can do beefsteak or cherry tomato. In fact, capsicum is not bad at all.

okoroemeka:
I went to barracks market today in onitsha and one basket of tomatoes is ₦30,000,I was stunned,with the vast experience and knowledge the OP has in tomato production,I will be surprised if he doesn't have a tomato farm that is been actively harvested now,₦30,000 for a basket is simply money making machine,my marketer further told me that the prices has only one way to go now,and it's UP.

Pistotita:


Yes, they all can be grown here. But to make it efficient, you need to shade some of them. There are limited cultivars. For example, the best cultivar for apple is red and it is from Israel. The con is that it has very low shelf life. Therefore it is used for making wine mostly. Most people growing it here do not know until harvest time. Perhaps there are better options now, not sure. There are special cultivars for each of the mentioned crop.

My focus presently is not on these crops cos after trials, I detected challenges with each. I am always hunting for brains who have solved these problems or can as I cannot do everything. I am not jack of all trades. It was the reason I voiced my opinion there. For now, veggies have my attention. But I know what to do, what not to, the best cultivars, where to get them, and how to order for all the crops. I am just still hunting for brains and faithful people to outsource the areas I am having challenges to.


Sorry for bringing you here, I just want to avoid that thread.

Pistotita:
Requirements for small plots

Note: Learn organic production if you want to live longer.

Open Market Varieties
Yield: My benchmark if using average of 400 grams per fruit is 10 fruits per plant, 2,500 plants per plot. If I do not get 10 fruits, I am not satisfied. If using 250g average fruits size, it will move higher close to 15 fruits. And if I am using parthenorcarpic, if I do not get to 25 minimum, it is not satisfactory. If you put all these together, my standard for a plot is 225 bags minimum. If I mix varieties and at optimum, I should get above 250 bags. And if there is no disease, I will make 300. But I have not attempted to move beyond 1 plot. The knowledge is there, but I do not have the man power presently.

Let me share the procedure with you.

1. Bombard your land with manure. My standard is 1kg per hole. I use piggery manure more cos it is usually free. I do not go near poultry people who want to sell per bag. If using mulch, going to abbattoir and packing dried ones makes sense. That's 2.5ton per plot. I dig out 2,500 holes, and I put the manure there.

2. Add basal nutrient. I use DAP + Lime. Also, you can use SSP + Lime, or NPK + Lime. DAP is the best, followed by SSP. It depends on the soil nature concerning quantity. And this is what separates excellent farmers. Usually, I ask my friends send soil samples so I can formulate optimum nutrition. If you do not use basal, you have lost 10% yield. PH is important, part of the reason I ask for the soil sample. And salinity level is vital. If I noticed your soil is not too good for synthetic, or the organic matters are little, I tell you to go strictly on manure for the first 3 applications. Your soil should be ready for synthetic before flowering.

3. Fertigation with Nitrogen. Urea is the cheapest. Then, we introduce Calicium, Magnesium, and Potassium. We do not joke with Micro Nutrient from the start. I do daily fertigation. Yes, daily.

3. Precaution: Increase phosphorus at the beginning of blossom if you are not sure you have enough phosphorus.

4. Despite using synthetic, there are some strains of microbes that I detected salt cannot kill, and they are effective for fighting numerous soil diseases. We use these microbes throughout the growing period to fight diseases. And I may mix with additional microbes sold by commercial sellers. They also add up in fighting diseases but salt eventually kills them. There is a method for using them. Note. Having a tank for Fertigation and microbes application is vital.

5. Increase Calcium, Magnesium and Potassium from Fruiting to the end.

6. Use enzymes according to flowering pattern.

7. Spray more of MagSul, Amino Acids, Micro Nutrients on leaves, Feed via root NPK and other Major nutrients. I recommend buying battery powered sprayer or knapsack. You may end up spraying almost daily. Not necessarily chemicals, but organic stuff, Amino acids, enzymes to increase brix level of your fruits, Systemic detoxifying and sterilizers to remove chemicals quickly from the plants, etc. I know you no go do am cos it adds some additional cost of production. Lol!

8. Fight downy mildew to almost still with Mancozeb, Matalaxyl, and pyraclostrobin + dimethomorph. If you want 95% to 100% effective synthetic fungicide (will kill downy mildew fast), link up and I will give you the requirements. Of course, you must be on top of your game to use the imported ones. Sparingly you may spray Carbendazim. If battling Powdery Mildew, it is a different ball game. Alternate Contact and Systemic, and Contact + Systemic. Never use Matalaxyl more than two times. Mancozeb should be your main contact fungicide. Very effective, but using it alone or wrongly is not effective.

9. If nematode or worms is your challenge, use Carbofuran in your planting holes.

10. Insecticides: Dimethoate, Lambda-Cyhalothrin, Cypermethrin, Imidacloprid, Methomyl, Betacyfluthrin, Deltamethrin, and Dichlorvos are combos that are very effective.

Open field soil Sterilization, Increase Yield Bastardly
Sterilization of open field is possible. The concept is to use a process which can penetrate a reasonable depth. Eventually, infection will take place for long term crop like tomato since the root goes very deep, but you would have got good harvests prior to this. Some use soil solarizarion, but it is not so effective. The right way is Solarizarion + Chemical. There is a method to flush all the chemicals out before sowing you seeds. It takes, 2 to 3 months process.

If you use this method, you are going on dense population with 30cm emitters distance. And push up your population to about 3,333 - 3,500. And then use parthenorcarpic variety (do not mind the cost of the seeds). There is a method I use and I do not buy seeds. Of course this is beyond the scope of this thread. Perhaps you will make 500 bags, or even more. And you can go like 2 times. What I do is to create another 1 plot far from parthenorcarpic and put monoecious + gynecious, or predominant female flowering there. I make sure both have similar skin. And pack together in bags. So, there are very big and medium sizes fruits in each bag. That is a secret for extreme high yield.

You do not need 6 plots to make it.

You grow in experience on formulation of these synthetic chemicals.

Withdrawal Period is Essential
I hardly release info like this, but I just feel like. Please, do not abuse these chemicals. There are many in the list you should not spray when fruiting. Please, read instructions very well. If you find it hard to use, get an expert to formulate good combos and formulas based on your chosen cultivars.

It is around a week after sowing some tomato seeds which will yield average of 12 - 19kg. I saw two seeds already sprouting this morning. Pictures coming soon.

Pistotita:



Hahahaha Mr. Emeka my dearest vegetable friend. You are very right sir. But I am going to disappoint you that at this moment, I do not have. If I do, you will not see me on nairaland.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention
3 years ago, I had a tomato farm collapsed. Also, I teamed up with someone and had habanero on 1 ha destroyed. Habanero? I was devastated. Though, I later knew the reason. And lastly, I tried recovering with 1 ha cucumber farm, and fuel scarcity destroyed the farm when we started harvesting. I was ready to buy black market fuel, but could not get. 17 cans of Murano and Tokyo went into that farm. Over 15km drip. And come and see boys working. Around December. So, I just slowed down for a month. After, I went to Ibadan to meet an elderly friend, and he sat me down. He prayed with me. And we brainstormed together what could be the issues. Two areas we arrived at are: terrible workers, and bad neighbors. And the last area which I had to swallow my pride was me. I had my own short comings too.

Then, the elderly man got another farmer who came to talk with me. And after cross checking me, I realised that small plots garden can be profitable. This was my turning point. Being the person I am (very detailed), I decided to look for ways to achieve this. I did not stop at the man and the farmer, I checked colleagues who play with veggie as part time (cos they are the ones who do small plots) and I started getting tricks from them.

If you have been following me, I clearly wrote about my sales, and I clearly wrote about settlement of debts, etc. Is it a joke to send soil abroad? To get special seeds from seed banks when one is like $10. Lol. These are seeds breeders multiply, cross breed into hybrids. I was really testing many things. And I was running small plots of cucumber concurrently as living expenses and some other running costs.

Greediness is in the gene of Humans
By the time the prospect of my endeavor start showing to some of the people I was working with, their true nature started showing. And I am a careful person. My brother, when you are good with what you do, your first enemies are your friends, colleagues, and associates . "Na only him?" "Him dey too pompous". Bla bla bla. And workers issue na wahala. Even for the first period in my life, little investors i partnered with almost embarrassed me. I am being opened here, and I want people to learn from me.

Health is Wealth
And I was hit cos I strained myself too much. Bro, God saved me. It was after CT Scan that I got clear direction of what was wrong. But the signals had been there, and I neglected them.

1. For now, it is gardening near my house which is highly profitable. Will not invite premature death cos of millions from tomato during this period.

2. The day I decide to move into big a farm, it must be real commercial with my own farm machineries. It is a decision that I took. Never will I do useless 1 to 10 ha farm the way many do in south here. It must be a standard farm. So. If you expect me to have like 1 ha of farm and make 30 million naira bla bla bla cos of what I know, no way! I will wait till the financial aspect is settled (banks may be involved at that time). And I am ruling out partnership to start with. Life has no duplicate. The way people worship money is crazy. If I start narrating stories of close relatives that started burying charms to prevent me from entering a farm when harvest time was reached, I will not finish the story today.

People who knew me 3 years ago would tell you that anything less than 1 ha farm, I would not touch it then. But all has changed.

Not only Tomato
I am moving back to active service gradually. And I got this waste disposal site (LAWMA) compound that I tipped the security. Of course I will not disclose such location to anyone. In the city, close to me, and very convenient for me. Cucumber per kg is what I want to do there. Will start as soon as I complete arrangement with the guy and his boss. Not always tomato, zuchini is always profitable, cauliflower is there too. Purple egg plants too. But bro, I will not expand too much so that past mistakes do not occur.

My Team First
In order not to have previous experiences with workers, I traveled to the north some months ago to understudy 3 big vegetable farms (understudied human management). And I realised I have more to put in place. In Nigeria, owners have almost 100% control over everything even when they are absent. And if you know the way people go to juju makers just to tie people down to be loyal, hmmmmm. Wait until you gat a big project to do, then, you will realise how the thoughts of men are evil. Jeremiah said "My people are desperately wicked". But there are still plain guys. Many young brilliant chaps that are cut off pre maturely are not uncommon. Only if the victims had applied Godly wisdom.


Not only about farm skills
Success is more of adminstration. It is why I will never return as a farm director. My focus is bringing brains together to brainstorm and find solutions. Also, to be the bridge between workers and the board of any business. Of course I must be a member of the board, if not the chairman. There are many methods to solve challenges, not my methods only.

My bro, my dream is beyond N50 million naira sales every wet season. My dream is crazily, magnificently big. But for now let me concentrate on my mini plots. If I cannot enter tomato jackpot this year, next year is there. It has been there for many years. And it will be there for many years to come until power is settled in Nigeria.

I have many ideas. So, while I was on my sick bed, I just was thinking "will all these ideas just die with me if something happened?" Guy, if I share anything here, I have moved like 10 steps ahead. Greengo, Murano, Nagano, Cu999 are off my cucumber seeds list. Why not just help others doing it? Sure, money is still there. OK. How many can buy 1,000 cucumber seeds for N85,000? Lol. Let me write about them, anyone who can read should read. Anyone who wants to get wisdom, should. Why should I withold them when I am gone past them?

Again, I am beginning to look into doing my own mini poultry, rabbit, grass-cutter, and maybe goats. So, it is time to move to a place I can buy like 6 plots in the city. So, it means I must do odorless animal husbandry. Cos, big farms having organic section must practise animal husbandry.

Let me stop here. I am writing from my inner mind, and I can pour out Psalms, proverbs, Eccl and Songs here. Not Epistles only. Let me just stop. I am doing it gradually, systematically, accurately, with the pace satisfactory to me.

FMCASH:
Good job sir, the lime you're talking about is it the normal limestone for chick or it's a special brand? Thanks!!!

FMCASH:
How do you handle pruning on a plot of land?