Hello guys.

So we are on a vegetable farming venture specifically for ugu,though we have introduced okra and pepper into same farm. So we made 52 beds on the farm with extra space for visitors. The land size is 100 x 100 in feet. We currently had plantains on this particular plot and another separate one also with plantains. But the other farm was doing far better than this one so we chose to convert this farm to a vegetable farm.
We started about two weeks now, and we already have updates from the first badge of 326seeds planted. So far, a total of 1300 seeds were planted with a spacing of about a foot on the beds.

We covered about 40beds with ugu, while planting the rest 12 with okra and pepper. Oh and yes dere were about two very small beds on one edge of the farm. I had some garden egg seeds so i threw some in there. Am going to be providing updates with pictures on this journey. Let's together see how profitable it will be.

Good one, will like to see update on this

The first set of seeds planted were two (4litre)paint buckets filled with 328 healthy seeds but i took out 2seeds to plant at home to track those at the farm . That covered 10beds because some of the seeds were not too big. The bigger the seeds, the smaller the quantity per bucket.
We got the seeds from Oilmill market in PortHarcourt here. They were pricey because its not actually the popular planting season but we chose to start NOW. Like they say, the best time to plant a tree was 10years ago, the next best time is NOW.
The rest seeds i bought cheaper because i bought in pods rather than buckets. I went to one of the Etche markets to get them. Next post, i talk about the funny and adventurous journey of getting those seeds. Keep in mind that i got total of 1,300seeds. From my calculations, i got those in pods for about half the price in buckets. The only setback is the small stress.

Oh by the way, i already have both farm plots purchased a while ago, so i didnt have to rent the space. I only paid the laborers for clearing and bed-forming.

Nice one OP, i'm about starting off with ugwu, pepper and vegetable on a plot also.

Please can you share further details for the knowledge of newbies, What varieties of pepper and Okro did you plant, how did you prepare your pepper nursery? did you plant Okro and ugu directly into beds or in nursery, did you use manure or fertilizers so far, what pesticides and fungicides do you have in place to ensure healthy crops since its rainy season? What is your planned spacing for okro and pepper?
Sorry about the many questions, I'm Just a newbie trying to catch up as fast as possible

Cheers

I got the Habanero pepper. As for the okra am not too sure till it produces but am guessing it's the star-of-david or eagle-pass variety. Fingers crossed there.
I planted directly on the beds with a 6 inch spacing. I actually did alternate the okra and pepper on each bed with same space. Reason is i did a small research online and found out the peppers help repel the pest that normally would infest the okras. I don't know how effective the pepper would be in "guarding" the Ugu though so i hope to transplant any overcrowded pepper onto some ugu beds to experiment later on.
I plan to keep the farm purely organic but i would be using neem oil later on for the ugu plants. I haven't used any manure yet till about the 3rd week.
Wish you luck on your farm. Let's do this!

austinomd:
Nice one OP, i'm about starting off with ugwu, pepper and vegetable on a plot also.

Please can you share further details for the knowledge of newbies, What varieties of pepper and Okro did you plant, how did you prepare your pepper nursery? did you plant Okro and ugu directly into beds or in nursery, did you use manure or fertilizers so far, what pesticides and fungicides do you have in place to ensure healthy crops since its rainy season? What is your planned spacing for okro and pepper?
Sorry about the many questions, I'm Just a newbie trying to catch up as fast as possible

Cheers

Update: Just want to show you guys how my one week old ugu looks like. This is from the 1st batch of seeds planted. Currently its about two weeks since that set was planted but i haven't visited the farm yet. I have the one i planted at home though but it isn't growing as fast as those at the farm, possibly because of the presence of rich compost in the farm. But i will snap and show you that later even though it won't be as big as that from the farm. The sand i have at home is mostly sharp sand so you understand the discrepancies.

Thanks for your response, i will be buying habanero pepper (avenir f1) and the okro i think i will be opting for kirikou f1 variety) i pray we succeed.

griinfarms:
I got the Habanero pepper. As for the okra am not too sure till it produces but am guessing it's the star-of-david or eagle-pass variety. Fingers crossed there.
I planted directly on the beds with a 6 inch spacing. I actually did alternate the okra and pepper on each bed with same space. Reason is i did a small research online and found out the peppers help repel the pest that normally would infest the okras. I don't know how effective the pepper would be in "guarding" the Ugu though so i hope to transplant any overcrowded pepper onto some ugu beds to experiment later on.
I plan to keep the farm purely organic but i would be using neem oil later on for the ugu plants. I haven't used any manure yet till about the 3rd week.
Wish you luck on your farm. Let's do this!

Following dilligently.

UPDATE : This is the Ugu i planted at home in almost-purely sharp sand. Its now 2weeks old. When it germinated, i mistakenly cut of the leaves springing up as i was trying to dig out stones from the ground around it. After a few days, i noticed it grew new leaves from two new sets of shoots.
From the first picture i just uploaded, you can see the cut-off shoot as well as the new ones. Amazing.

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Nice.
Learning

Following keenly....

nice one farmer, ugu farming is one of the vegetable farming i want to go into; please kindly give me some available hints on seed procurement and how to identify a viable seed.
all the best in your farm and i look forward to learn from you

ugu can grow this fresh on an almost pure sandy soil? Wonders! please what fertilizers or manure did you apply? what other tips do you think made it look this fresh? Please keep the updates coming as it grows so that those of us learning here will be motivated.

Cheers

griinfarms:
UPDATE : This is the Ugu i planted at home in almost-purely sharp sand. Its now 2weeks old. When it germinated, i mistakenly cut of the leaves springing up as i was trying to dig out stones from the ground around it. After a few days, i noticed it grew new leaves from two new sets of shoots.
From the first picture i just uploaded, you can see the cut-off shoot as well as the new ones. Amazing.

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Goodmorning guys.

So i want to share my experience gotten from sourcing the Ugu pods. As you know they come in various sizes and weight. I noticed however that most often the bigger the pod, the bigger the seeds and thus the bigger the leaves in the end. The heavier pods have more viable seeds than the lighter ones. Lighter pods because:

1)The developed seeds may be fewer in number. I opened some pods and i see more viable seeds at the middle section, while developing or nonexistent seeds are piled at the edges.
2) The seeds have dried up and become bad. Usually you see this from the outer skin of the pods becoming yellowish in colour and sometimes rotting away.

The fact the pod is light doesn't mean you don't get good seeds, it just means you don't get value for your money unless you beat down the buying price.

Now back to my experience.
I got to one of the Etche markets, Afara to be precise very early before 7a.m. I was told i would hardly get pods there. Disappointing though, but i asked a few market women who told me about Eketa market being one of the big markets. The next market day was the following day and so i decided to go for it. Before leaving though i got some corn as my compensation , as they were so cheap at 5 for #100, some 4 for #100 depending on the size. Went home, boiled and ate them .
Next day, went early again to Eketa market and started searching for pods but saw a few light pods which were quite pricey. I walked round and found more light and rotten pods. At this point i decided to go back home and stick to buying from Oil mill market in paint bucket measurements.

As the bus was moving slowly looking for more passengers, i looked out and started seeing bigger and better-looking pods in locations i had passed through early on. I quickly came down from the bus and started bargaining. Prices were far less than those bad pods o! I paid and started going round, more pods were in. It seems the real sellers were just coming from the farm now with their produce. The earlier sellers were selling bad seeds for far more.
Long story short, i got all the pods i needed and had extra cash to splash on corn again.
I will attach a picture of what a pod looks like.

The pods!

Picture Update on this baby after 3weeks.
Will be visisting those at the farm soon, pictures soon. Will do a picture comparison of those at the farm and that at home with sandy soil.

griinfarms:
UPDATE : This is the Ugu i planted at home in almost-purely sharp sand. Its now 2weeks old. When it germinated, i mistakenly cut of the leaves springing up as i was trying to dig out stones from the ground around it. After a few days, i noticed it grew new leaves from two new sets of shoots.
From the first picture i just uploaded, you can see the cut-off shoot as well as the new ones. Amazing.

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Before i leave you guys this morning, i want to say three sprouts can pop out from a single ugu seed. This is without me cutting any of its sprout or cutting up the seed in two or four, etc. Just on its own . It all depends on the seed you've got. This particular seed was very big though. See the pix below. I just cant wait to visit the farm to see what the different seed species i planted turned out to be. If some would grow naira or dollars would be groundbreaking!
Have a nice day!

UPDATE: The Ugwu at 4 weeks are seen in pics 1 & 2. Of course they are due for manure but the road was being tarred so we couldn't carry the bags through. Weeding was however done. Pics 3 & 4 gives you an update of the second planting done. A scan be seen, the seedlings are doing fine and are already two weeks old.

I also post pictures of my farms, the ugu(farm 1) & plantain/banana(farm 2) on twitter and instagram. So you can follow me with same handle @griinfarms.
Twitter url:https://twitter.com/griinfarms
Instagram url:https://www.instagram.com/griinfarms/