₦airaland Forum

Praktikals:
@op, thanks for sharing. May God multiply your blessings as you have taught us to multiply our ugu seeds.

Ameen and you too.

GreatNegro:
Pls, should I add manure or fertilizer and soil to the sawdust?

no you shouldn't, only water. The cotyledon of the seeds would serve as food for now.

mima247:
God bless u dude... my container gardening was becoming futile. but thanks to you I just learnt Austin radical

Thanks, God bless you too.

GreatNegro:
thanks Op!

You're welcome

5. The land History.

The locals mostly knows the part of the community where the lands are fertile and the parts that are not. Discussing with one can be very beneficial.


Look my son, that land over there is very fertile.

4. Absence of Nutrients Deficiency symptoms

When a soil lacks one or two nutrients, the plants growing on the soil shows some signs. Examples are yellow leaves and stunted growth.

3. Presence of Lots of Organic Matter

Organic matter are plant and animal materials in different stages of decomposition. Organic matter are store houses of plant nutrients and they are excellent soil amendments.

Organic matter (particularly humus) is responsible for the dark color of fertile soil.

2. Presence of Earthworm Cast.

Earthworms are farmers best friend. They help mix the soil, transfer nutrients bellow to the surface of the soil and help in decomposition.

Earthworm cast signifies lots of earthworm activities and it's one of the strongest indicators that the soil is very fertile.

1. Luxurious Growing Vegerations.
The plants growing on the land would be vigorous and dark green in color. Also the vegetation would be dominated by broad leaf plants.

When next you're choosing a land for farming, lookout for these tell-tale signs.

egopersonified:
The first time, a stem with about 10 leaves grew, and stopped growing till now, someone said there was too much cement in the sand around the area I planted it resulting in its stunted growth. The second
time one of the seeds grew very big and just started to wither, my neighbour said it was because I wasn't pruning it.



No oh, I thought the offering would be after I start harvesting

Ugu requires fertile soil for it to do well. Try adding manure to the soil and water regularly. If you are planting on sand, that's bad. Sandy soil isn't fertile and don't hold water. But addition of organic manure corrects some of it's deficiencies.

phyllosilicate:
"too much cement in the said" . can you describe the nature of the soil you are planting in?

Yes it could be the soil.

egopersonified:
I have planted ugu twice in my back yard, failed both times, I planted the third time yesterday and prayed for them

Funny you. What actually happened then?

Watch out for my step by step pictorial guide on how to multiply plantain/banana suckers to give 50 to 200 plantain suckers, using the PIF and MSD technique.

Step 8: water thoroughly.

Step 7: plant the seedlings

Step 6: Apply compost manure in the planting holes and mix with the soil in the holes. Please do not use fresh manure.

Step 5: prepare your bed and dig in planting holes.

Step 4. Plant the pieces back in the sawdust, after about 7 days, they would start germinating.

Step 3: use a sharp knife to divide each half into to. Ensure that each part has a root.

Step 2: Split the seed into two halves. planting in sawdust would make this step easy.

Ademat7:
image not clear

I'm find it difficult to upload photos, I would continue soon.

Step One: Plant the ugu seeds in sawdust. if the sawdust is in a container, ensure the container is perforated at the bottom so that excess water can drain out.
After about 5-7 days, the ugu seeds would look like this and we would be ready for step 2.

Materials required.

1. Ugu seeds
2. Sawdust
3.Composted manure

The biggest challenge of ugu farming is the high cost of ugu seeds. Follow to learn the highly guarded secret of obtaining four seedlings from just one seed.


Sorry Ugu seed traders.

Cc
seun, lalasticala, Pavore9, FarmTech

Ken4agent:
Followers of kenfarm thread, find below pix of our visit to a client farm at Ijebu Igbo for the land treatment. We did the soil analysis and the outcome of the analysis made imperative for us to balance the soil PH of the farm land to maximise yeild. Are you still contemplating on whether you need to do your farm soil analysis, consider it a wise decision to analyse your farm soil.

What you stand to gain by analysing your soil is enormous. Subsistence farming has gone pass the era of just burying seeds in the ground and go home to sleep with with your two eyes close.

Some farm land soil lack vital nutrients (macro & micro). Don't you think having an idea of the nutrient composition of your soil will help you know which treatment to give your farm soil? Treating a farm soil include introducing the lacking nutrient into your soil, neutralising the highly concentrated one, balancing the soil PH amongst others. Also, a high PH soil indicate the need to .......... and low Soil PH indicate the need to ...........

However, when the PH of the soil is known, it help you to know the type of crop to plant on your farm land. As a matter of fact, some crop strive well in a soil with high soil PH while some other crop strive best in a soil with low PH.

If this is scientifically proved, what do you think will be of your crop at harvest time when you fail to do soil analysis and go ahead to plant your crop that strive well in Low PH soil on your farm land with high Soil PH

A bountiful harvest is not for the ignorant farmers. kenfarm is bringing to your notice the info that help you make a difference this season

consult us via 08038623884 or 09091405861

Nice. One of the first decision a farm should make is carrying out a soil test on his farm. Soil acidity is a problem in southern Nigeria. If a soil is acidic, macro nutrients would be immobilized. Even if fertilizer is applied, the soil would hold the nutrients and not sulply to the crop until the soil is neutralize.

Soil testing helps farmers to know the capability and suitability of his land and it's not expensive.

You are doing a good job by educating people the need to carry out soil testing.

jobzytravels:
A Local farmer told me that a plantain sucker produces their best bunch at first harvest and the size of bunches they produce after that becomes smaller and smaller and also the lifeline of a plantain farm is 3 years. How true is this please?

It might be true if the suckers used in planting was infested with pests such as nematodes and beetles. The parasitic pressure increases year after year and the bunches becomes progressively smaller.

That's why one must plant with clean planting materials, ie suckers free from pest and diseases. One can plant tissue culture suckers or macropragated suckers from a nursery that follows the proper phytosanitary procedure.

If one must plant normal suckers, one must ensure that they are pared, ie the root and the outer part peeled as yam is peeled. Nematodes mostly reside in the roots and outer part of the corm. One must ensure that the paring isn't done in the new farm as one would be transferring the pest to the farm. After that, the suckers should be deeped into boiling water for exactly 30 seconds. The heat would kill any left over nematodes and beetles.

If clean planting materials are used, like Lesgupnigeria said they won't become smaller provided the plantation is well taken care of.

Very true, most people neglect the economic aspect of farming.