Finnish:


I've been coming almost every day since I made that post, I bookmarked And started stalking your post self.

Hahahaha
I won't disappoint this time God's willing

Hintona:
If only Nigerians knew and were interested in their history this way.

Queen Mary is not as bad as history paints her to be. She was an intelligent, strong woman but quite unpopular. Her father Henry VII killed more people than she did yet he wasn't referred to as bloody Henry. Even her sister Elizabeth I who took the throne after she died ordered the disembowelment of 800 Catholics while Queen Mary ordered the burning of only 280 protestants.

[b]In the end the protestants of England won and so she was seen as a bloodthirsty queen [/b]because she was a Catholic.

Some people think the reason for her unpopularity was sexism but that's a story for another day.

Protestants won and anyone who was not for them was otherwise and common we're humans. That's what we do even in our society today, the majority carries all, dictates all.

Finnish:
Dawson126.

I'm at school now and even in a class. I'd send the pictures this week Wednesday or Thursday. Sorry I forgot this until I went through your post.

Finnish:
Dawson126.

chicoMX:

I believe you're referring to Queen Mary II, who was succeeded by her sister Queen Anne.

Queen Mary II never even knew Queen Mary I. There was space of years between them. And Queen Mary II was a protestant unlike the Catholic Mary I. It wasn't that Queen Anne never had a child, in fact she did before becoming queen. She had William, Duke of Gloucester but he deid in his teenage years, during the co-monarch reign of William III and Mary II. And Queen Anne had lot of children who died at birth or never did make it pass the childhood. This led to the crisis of succession of having to choose the Hanovers because when Anne died, the closest royals to the throne were catholic and they had been a lot of wahala caused already by them eg the gun powder plot, revolt and all. The parliament just feared giving them a chance could turn things the other way again

KAM3KAZI:
Religion has to be in the top 3 causes of mass genocide

What you should fear is not religions but the ideologies instituted by its elites and teachers. To each of them then, they and their followers were doing the right things.

God and religions are not to be blamed here.

Did God or each of the religions' gods give any of their followers swords,guns or bombs directly? Na unaself dey bind am, they lose am, dey give unaself interpretation, swords, guns, bombs

People die, ideologies stay longer

Queen Mary I's act of prosecutions was very graphic and inhumane. The English feared this era to the extent when Queen Anne died without a child who should become monarch, they bypassed close to 56 people of strong royal claim and bloodline to elect Sophia, Electress of Hanover, a protestants (somewhere around present day Germany) and her descendants, giving rise to the Hanoverian Dynasty, which technically the current Elizabeth II is a member

Siggynigeria:
Nawa...

Stingynigeria na your name,OP. Na you post,na you again fest FTC.

As for JAMB, the fight will implicate a lot of top top officials o. You hear Dibu's case again?

This is more or less organized kidnappers strategies.

Did train derailed? Was anyone hurt? They know if any train was to come, news would have reached them before hand.

These folks know what they are doing. Train is somewhat an alternative route to escape their kidnapping business along the roads by potential victims and therefore, must have been affecting their income generation, all they have to do is to shut off that alternative route and see potential victims return to the road.

BMathew:



Noted, thanks for this.

Alright, I'll remove it now

mosdep:


You are welcome Brov. I am a newbie in the cowpea farming business. Incidentally I planted my first set of cowpea seeds in the first week of September almost same time you planted the ones you are showing on this thread. Like I mentioned I have gained much insight from your posts so far and its helping me to take the right decisions. Thanks once again. Here are the pictures of the two varieties i planted:
What are your views observations and suggestions?

I am always happy to be of help sir. As for the cowpea, they're just doing fine, you might just need to consider weeding soon and however it goes, please keep me posted sir.

BMathew:

[/b]

Really appreciate your time. Let me have your contact to get in touch and I will also drop you a message via mail. Thanks

Call and whatsapp 090*********. Once you get this, let me know so as to remove my contact. Thanks sir

mosdep:


Great job. Quite insightful

Thank you.

Are you a cowpea farmer or you're looking forward to being one?

BMathew:
Great work, really appreciate it.
SW we're getting there gradually.... Please keep us posted.
And is there a special well treated cowpea seed and how can we get?

Yes you can get and there is. Whenever you're ready, I will be happy to help.

OP, this is a good idea and this section is surely the closest session it could be posted because agricultural contributes and suffers quite a lot to the foregoing.

Not only will nature lovers meet to interact, but all farmers meet there to discuss issues and also share their experiences and solutions.

Good morning, do have a nice day!

I was sleepy yesterday and could not remember the last thing there

5. Weed management

We all know weed compete with crops for all necessities they need to do well. On this I'm not too good due to my busy schedule, right now I'm towards the North Central for field work but I surely do have some kind of perception or lemme say judgement when weeding is necessary and could affect my cowpea.

Cowpea does not have good weed competition ability. When it comes to competing with weeds, na lazy crop.

One of the issues of cowpea production is weeding. This is because selective herbicides for cowpea are still under experiments and not much are already in market, therefore you would have to do manual weeding.

Would you now avail yourself to allow your cowpea grow leaves excessively at the cost of effort of weeding? Hell NO. You'd want them to fruit as early as possible to reduce this!

That us why it is necessary too.

There is what is called "Farmers Field School" FFS. It believes that, farmers should be trained on the (their) field all rudiments of (modern) agriculture in other to make better decisions and manipulations for and by themselves without no constant rely on the agric experts or the agric extension agents.

This was how Java in Indonesia was able to solve their problems in rice production.

I am an (ardent) believer of it..
To be continued . .... .

Question:

Oga, I no get money for SUPA (this is for phosphorus) fertilizer (a bag costs close to 15k here) and I really wan do this beans farming ,see na, the bag still dey cost well well

Response: phosphorus can be supplemented organically or let me say semi organically. Look at the animal bones, like what percentage of it are phosphorus?

Let's leave it here today. It is a topic for another day, I wan sleep, abeg.

4. Phosphorus

Although all nutrients are very important for fruiting in their adequate amount but for legumes like cowpea, phosphorus is a big problem. Why?

You see phosphorus is very important for photosynthesis and respiration in crops. No matter the brightness of the sun, if phosphorus is not adequate, expect delay flowering, fruiting and and fruiting that produces small seeds/grains

It is what they make during photosynthesis (the process where plants make food from simple substances of carbon dioxide (most of the air you breathe out) and water) that they will store, if there are now hindrances to this, what do you expect?

The problem of phosphorus

The south soil contains more phosphorus than the north soil but the problem here is that it is easily fixated (quickly combine with other nutrients in the soil, thereby not readily to use). Therefore, in reality, the north soil may contain more easily used phosphorus than the South's.

Another advantage, is the heat or the high temperature. This encourage more that are fixed in their soil to breakdown relatively faster than South's through the effect of weathering.

This is why for your cowpea to do well in the south, you need high but adequate temperature, and cowpea will not fruit well or early, until such temperature is present and that is only possible in the south when the rain is going!

3. pH

Loosely put, the degree of how acidic or basic your farmland is.
Have you ever wondered why most crops do well around pHes that are near neutral acidic soils? The answer is just metal ions solubility (how quickly those your soil nutrients will dissolve in the water of your soil). At those pHes, they will not dissolve quickly and be transported away from crops so fast (nutrient mobility). Cowpea is not left behind in this.

Have you seen fertilizers that they put humic and flavic acids as their components? This is what exactly they do, they just make what is available but not acquirable to be easily acquirable (forget the chemistry) hence their employment in back side growth booster in poultry keeping

The humus, that black rich soil thing is also important

2. Water/ rainfall

Cowpea is a drought crop. It does not need too much water, but adequate water for its establishment. Water and nitrogen excesses results are almost the same in cowpea. The similarities are (i) they will cause it to have excess leaves and crawls (ii) they will delay flowering, fruiting and maturity. Now, water will cause your seed to rot, the plant to decay, the legume to rot. Therefore, a good agric expert backdates the onset of dry season to plant cowpea.

For example, if you're planting a 70-75days maturity cowpea and you're expecting onset of dry season (very scanty rainfall) around November ending, it takes 15-20days for a cowpea flower to mature to a harvestable brown coloured fruit, if you substract this from the above, it gives 55days which means you should except flowering by 45-55days (±10days), if you back date well, it means you should be thinking of planting around mid-early to mid-late September.

Water is very important for fruiting in cowpea, this means, it will enjoy a two week scanty rainfall and the residual moisture(water reserve) in the soil will be enough for the remaining days of fruiting. Cowpea root could extend close to 0.63-1m and there will also be sun to dry your produce!

What could make cowpea flower quickly?

Previously, as common now with soya bean, cowpea usually respond to the length of daylight (the duration of the day eg shorter night ,longer day or vice versa) termed photoperiodic sensitivity. In respective of when you plant them, they would surely flower and fruit around November.

This is not the case for cowpea again due to breeding by crop scientist. Cowpea is no longer photoperiodic except the old varieties. Cowpea need good understanding to manipulate and it is responsive to bending.

What then could be responsible?
The answers are:

1. Sunlight intensity: This is how bright the sun is. Cowpea is a light loving crop and the intensity received goes a long for it. You would remember I wrote I had to wait till September to plant the seeds to be sure of adequate weather regimes.

Someone we both planted the same variety, told me last week that his, which he planted some days before August 15th has started flowering and fruiting, while I told him I was expecting same for mine this month ending or early next month, unknown to me that mine on the field too are in this stage

One thing a good agric expert will tell you about cowpea is your planting date to avoid stress and workload of having to maintain the farm. Cowpea seed/grain contains about 63% of carbohydrates and 24% of proteins e.t.c. The crop need enough light to make them through photosynthesis and will have to wait for the right amount of sun brightness.

I just received messages from my good friend that the beans are fruiting already! Not just flowering alone but fruiting! In less than 39 days! That's just a month and 6 days.

I will comment later with the pictures he sent and how this was possible. This, when I'm done with what I am doing here

Once again, welcome on board

We will look at water, rainfall, temperature and sunlight effects next time. I'm sorry, I need to rest small, I had a hectic day

Now let's talk about the soil type and soil fertility for cowpea (beans)

1. Cowpea enjoys well drained Sandy loam soil. That kind soil wey dey good for maize. You don't need nitrogen fertilizer as such except places with issues with rhizobium (check up for its work). In fact, cultivating it with fertilizer will reduce its own ability for make nitrogen for itself. If you use fertilizer with nitrogen, the leaves will be much (check previous post for disadvantages) , it will crawl well and no go produce on time. If you wan sell the leaves to livestock farmers, abeg go ahead.

2. Beans is very very sensitive to aluminum. In fact it is toxic to beans. This is the reason beans don't do well in heavy and clay soil. Sometimes last month, a friend came to market on fertilizer product, although it was good and would give a good result but what turned we off was the fact that most of chelates of the fertilizer were aluminum ions based (please forget the chemistry) , I just explained to him why I couldn't use it.

3. Problem of beans is adequate phosphorus. If your soil have issues with phosphorus, common for most south soil (1 reason north dey alright for beans) (please forget the chemistry) , you might need to supplement it especially for farmland that has been cultivated before or many times. When this is important mostly is during that time wey hin won dey produce. SUPA fertilizer is well recommended.

Throughout my stay in the agric school at the university, my field exposure, I still haven't seen cowpea varieties with stronghead against insect pests as FUAMPEA 2. Milk beans coupled with some still dey try.

One of my bosses I respect so much planted SAMPEA 31-32 thereabouts and Ife Brown, she spent lot of money and effort in wadding off insects wey dey chop her beans last month beans wey still never dey flower o, if dem con start to they flower n ko? Although I tried to convince her about the FUAMPEA but her reason still stood on, the beans was made for the north and core north where rain is minimal. Although I had not had experience of the variety so o couldn't convince her further.

About the insect pests infestation

Planting early maturing varieties is good and those varieties with good characteristics of resistance to pest infestations is good.
Segmenting your farm too is good for example of you check your capital and time, instead of cultivation 2 or more hectares on a single farmland, you could plant them in acres on different farmlands in the same location. Try to do away with alternative hosts (crops) around you farm, examples include those ones mentioned in disease management. Crop wey still better na cassava, insects no dey worry am much,na wetin dey mainly around my farm segments be that, most of farms around are done with their crops, so mainly cassava is available as residual crop

About the diseases that affect beans

There are quite a lot of diseases that affect beans usually most come as a result of primary infestation or damage caused by insect pests. And these insects were the majorly challenges encountered in cowpea cultivation in the south of Nigeria primarily because the load of them were found naturally there. Therefore, proper pest management equals a lower disease load

Things you have to note is that beans is very susceptible to fungal and nematodal attacks, therefore the land you want to use could be a place where deep feeders e. g cassava have been planted or shallow feeders e.g cereals have been cultivated.

Places which have been used for vegetables production including tomatoes, potatoes, pepper, groundnut are not suitable for beans cultivation without not properly checked and treated for fungi and nematodes.

Beans cultivation is not also encouraged for monoculture over a farmland without thorough understanding of its mechanism

More. These pictures were taken close to two weeks now

Pics

I am having challenges posting pictures now. I will do, once it goes through