₦airaland Forum

okoroemeka:
blood of Jesus!!!!my brother I can't chance that seed on the open field,it will yield like crazy in an enclosed greenhouse with drip fertigation

Lolzz... it's an excellent variety though

okoroemeka:
pls how can I get the seed

My friend bought her cuke seed from Johnny seeds. They are expensive. Parthenocarpic cuke seeds are usually expensive. But their yield more than makes up for d cost of buying them. The one I bought in Nigeria last 2 years has been discontinued. But East west seeds has a parthenocarpic beit alpha variety in Nigeria called Basimah f1. Very very expensive 1000 seeds cost about 35k. Crazy!

okoroemeka:
but cocoboms how will u prevent bees from cross pollinating it with other monocieous and gynaocieous varieties

You'll have to plant that variety alone.

okoroemeka:
from the little I know,that cucumber variety is only meant for climate controlled greenhouse it produces only female flowers and need no pollination, it is not meant for the open field and will not survive tropical conditions.

That's not necessarily true. Some paethernocarpic cukes can survive tropical conditions.i have a friend growing one in kaduna currently. I have also done a very small trial here in abuja. The results were good.

okoroemeka:
the demand for foodstuff around here is terrible,you can even collect the money of prioduce not yet harvested.

Sir, have you ever thought about growing a paethernocarpic variety of cucumber?

manya:
N15000 per pack of 500 seeds, minus transport.

Thank you sir

okoroemeka:
from fist sowing in nursery to harvest in dry sunny conditions is 90-100 days,but during rainy season in damp and overcast conditions its 120-130 days,so for each you minus 30 days of nursery and u get the answer.

Thank you for the detailed explanation sir

okoroemeka:
no need testing avenir just plant it,less trouble and more resistance to disease than tomato

Hello OP, for this Avenir f1, how many days from transplant to first picking of ripe red pepper ?

Yampotatocarrot:
How long before one starts harvesting?

For young spring onions, I'll say from 40 days after transplant. But for fully matured onion bulbs, ranges between 90 to 120days after transplant depending on the variety.

Those pictures I posted have poor quality. These are better images below

okoroemeka:
northern farmers are making a killing in agriculture that's how they buy all the DAF and MAN trucks they use,someone will plant watermelon after harvesting he will go and buy trailer.that onions looks great,pls I heard that onion bolt how true.

Yea onions bolt...but you have to use the right variety that is highly bolt tolerant. There are several varieties that are highly bolt tolerant.

Yampotatocarrot:
Loooooooooooooooool, I get your point. Funny enough, I've never met anyone that says they farm onion.... Seems those planting t are really secretive o, abi na me never check wella

You need to check on it. Farmers up north are silently making money from it. There's hardly any cooked in Nigeria dey don't use onions to prepare. Even fried eggs and noodles need onions these days....lol.

I'm doing a small trial of onions in my backyard garden.

EMMAACHILE:
Yes. They have new seeds now but I won't know whether its improved over the former scarce one. Its now sold in seeds of 500.

The irony is that this Vega f1 seem to have some dry leaf problem that looks like anthracnose susceptibility which is more of a rainy season than a dry season problem.

I will post pictures tomorrow and will inquire from east west rep in Nigeria about this problem you mentioned.

Anthracnose is truly more of a rainy season problem. I think it affects d fruits more in red royale f1. But red royale is excellent for its taste, height of plant and size of fruit. I'll love to grow it commercially.

Any idea how much the 500 seeds are sold now?

Yampotatocarrot:
Seems tomatoes is a "great project' in Abuja. Have a colleague there who is informing me now that he is going into tomato farming from next year... He is planning to use a greenhouse. Although I've advised him to gather sufficient information on t before plunging into it.

It's a "great project" in any major city in Nigeria South of Abuja. Another "great project" would be onion farming

okoroemeka:
@cocoboms pls keep us updated on the tomato project, I will try it ,been running away from it so long,it is time to confront my fears and tackle tomatoes.

You are funny sir. You are running away from tomatoes.

EMMAACHILE:
Go for the Red royale from east west. You need to get a feasibility study before you embark on that project.
The Vega f1 is good but fruit size is small. The red royale will be a better option.

Why not divide the hectares into two tree crop? If you want this, i advise you for the momax3 moringa. You could be plugging cash in months.

Do the east west seed agents in Nigeria still stock Red royal f1? I thought they discontinued it cos of its anthracnose susceptibility.

mrvitalis:
Nope.. Just fresh consumption...

One of the reason people like me don't eat pawpaw enough is cos I'm not sure of the sweetness of the pawpaw I'm going to buy next

My land is 45 mins from owerri
45 min from aba
Just over one hour from umuahia
Less than 2 hours from port Harcourt
2 hours 30 minutes from bayelsa
Just over 3 hours from enugu...

So we plan to sale to this six cities... Once the sellers are guaranteed of the sweetness of our pawpaw they would look for us

We are also getting trucks to move it around

It's a risk I'm willing to take... Embarking 10 million for the project... So I'm ready.... Worst case I lose all my money

Thanks for your concern though

I love the strategy...but why not start considerably smaller and still supply these six cities. Then when you see d volume isn't enough to fill these markets, you scale up. 20 hectares is like 40,000 papaya trees oo. To even do custom drip irrigation on 2 hectares is not cheap.

mrvitalis:
Like I told you before boss... Today we are going to pay for the land we leased in IMO state, it's supposed to be 20 hectares minimum but my surveyors would tell us the exact number

I want to go with Lady Red but this vega is impressive with its number of fruits... Would definitely love to consult you even if it's paying

Looking at irrigation pipes at allibaba, being a mechanical engineer ...im really looking for a way to do the irrigation at the cheapest cost...

Would really love to work with u on this

Sir, you wanna do 20hectares of papaya perhaps you are thinking of going into export or processing

okoroemeka:
this is encouraging, to do tomato profitable it will be during the rainy season when the Hausa products are off and prices ate high, but that time humidity is high

You are right about the rainy season. That's where tomato varieties like padma f1 from east west, cobra 26 f1 from technisem and Emerald f1 from sakata seeds shine brightly above most conventional varieties. There's less pest invasion during d rainy season. Fungal issue and bacterial spot wahala come to d fore.
Here in Abuja markets, tomato price goes up from beginning of April which is when I'm targeting this dry season.

okoroemeka:
East west padma 108 f1 tomatoes staked

This picture is not padma sha. Those are cherry tomatoes in d attached picture.

okoroemeka:
bacterial wilt,furasurim wilt,mosaic virus,blossom end these are some disease that attack tomatoes, it is not easy as u are saying,if you plant 5 crop at your backyard it will do well,try and plant 2000-3000 on open field and see wahalla from all angles

Believe me, as an experienced farmer, if you can comfortably do cucumber on a reasonable scale, tomato would not be all that complicated. The weekly spray program you give your cukes is d same spray program you give tomatoes with all d important agrochemicals mixed in d knapsack. There are quality tomato varieties with high resistance to those diseases you mentioned. Blossom end rot would be far from your tomato if you follow your calcium fertilization religiously. All these issues have solution, it all depends on how well you can follow a lay down program for tomato cultivation.

But like I said earlier, every farmer has his or her specialty. There are some crops that give you joy to grow than others.

okoroemeka:
hmmm,my dear I think in all veggies tomatoes are the most delicate and easily prone to disease,you have to know what you are doing,if any disease enter tomato farm is bye bye to the crop it is unforgiving you have to be consistent on fungicides protocol,but never the less we are flexing to try east west padma 108 f1,its the best or nothing.

That's why the first and most important thing to do is start with d right variety for d particular time of the year. By the way, there's also Emerald f1 tomato seeds by Sakata seeds. It's high yielding and disease resistant. There are some determinate tomato varieties from continental seeds with excellent disease resistance.

Yampotatocarrot:
U correct about the pollination stuff, although I didn't have to self pollinate my cukes when I planted them. I'm looking at t that tomatoes require more care, right from the nursery stage till its planted... N they r more susceptible to diseases than cukes

On the commercial aspect, I believe cukes give more return than tomatoes on the sane piece of land (might be wrong with this though)

I must also add that tomato is one of the highest demanded veggies in any market globally, even in our local markets. Every farmer has his or her specialty though.

Yampotatocarrot:
While we wait for him to answer, I think tomatoes require more care.... Too risky a venture compared to cucumber and even pepper.

Haven't planted t yet, but Jethro has a down-to-earth thread about t

Honestly, I think differently. If you are growing tomato using ground culture, it's not that complicated. It's only when it's rainy season that it's quite hectic becos of the need to trellis.

For tomatoes, you don't have headache with pollination like you do with cukes. For cukes, you have to spray weekly, so I feel if you can do that, you'll have no problem spraying tomatoes weekly, cos they have similar pests.

@ okoroemeka,

why don't you grow tomatoes though, I'm wondering, cos the price of tomatoes in the east is so so attractive. A report I got from Nnewi market shows it's still fluctuating around 15k for 50kg basket. Kind of seems like it would be more profitable than cucumber what do you think ?

okoroemeka:
yes they produce but the number of male flowers is so low that pollination can be a problem,but you can solve this by planting 100 marketer variety to every 1000 murano so the bees will have more male flowers for pollination.

Okay sir thanks for the tips.

okoroemeka:
we have planted murano f1 and murano 2 f1,no cucumber can compare with 999 in size,if you see the size of these monsters in the rainy season you will bow.

Hello sir, I'm yet to plant murano 2 f1. But I'll like to know, does murano 2 f1 produce both male and female flowers on same plant?

okoroemeka:
I will need cabbage that can fold head in high temperatures, whatsapp 08119942049

NUZAKA F1 CABBAGE is the cabbage for you then. I've grown it in my backyard garden when temps get to d 40oC and it forms heads. All you need to make sure you do is irrigate it very well.

okoroemeka:
we put small sticks and tie it on

That's quite interesting. Some cuke farmers just tie d ropes to d cuke plants.

okoroemeka:
staking 101 on 1500 stands of cucumbers money must be made no other option,that target must be reached on matter the difficulties.

Sir, did you tie the ropes on the cuke plants or on something else ? The rope looks far away from the cukes

[quote author=okoroemeka post=73289554][quote]Sir, did you tie d ropes to d cuke plant or onto some thing else?

okoroemeka:
two main causes of aborted fruits are bad pollination and leaving matured fruits to stay longer than necessary.

OP, keep up the good work you are doing on and off the farm. From your posts, is it that cu999 produces alot of male flowers as well as female flowers?