₦airaland Forum

OluchiDelly:
Bro I mailed u many weeks ago, I ve not seen ur reply.

Sorry o, I can't access any email sent to that email address.

vosquare:
Please, who knows how to use golden friend npk well? I think I'm missing something here. My cucumber have not been yielding well since I've started using this npk. And also mix it with urea sometimes just to get better result but still the same.
Applying the npk through venturi is even worse. It uses like 2 to 3 days before it dissolves.. Kai.

Although, I have no experience of using Golden Friend, I've heard it said that some of these fertilizers are not up to standard. I use Wacot but it is now difficult to get in my area.

I'm also on the lookout for other good brands.

I'm surprised your Urea takes that long to dissolve. We use Indorama Urea, and I've found it to be highly soluble, although we apply fertilizers manually.

If you're not getting good results with your venturi, have you thought about applying a urea solution as a spray on the plants (though you have to be careful) or using a product like Haifa Bonus, until you can get a good 15-15-15.

Looking at it more closely, it seems your planting material is cocopeat?

If yes, then you need to be even more careful about watering these seedlings because cocopeat hold on to water much longer than most types of sand. So, water only after the surface has gone patently dry.

Once you move them to a location with better light, and they stabilize after a day or two, you should consider fertilizing them with a solution of 1 tablespoon of urea to 4 litres of water every week for the next 2 to 3 weeks.

That should invigorate them. If it doesn't, then it could be that the seeds lost their vigour long before you planted them.

Psalm4kute:
I'm confident all of this were sufficient for the nursery.. I just dont know where I went wrong

Certainly not the light part.

I'm looking at your latest pictures and the place is still dark Take these things away from their present location and put them where there's plenty of light.

I note also that your planting material always seem to be wet. Allow the material to dry up from time to time before adding water. Peppers don't like their oots permanently wet.

Oktane:
I read the replicated message below and decide to share it here. It appears quite objective to me.

Copied!

This may not be what it seems at all. It seems like a "normal " Nigerian business man practise.
Many people will be indicted if this is considered a fraud.

It is essentially a deception of the Nigerian banking system but which even bank executives are aware of and get their share and the bank loses nothing at the end of the day. The american system is not defrauded by a single penny .This is how it works.

1. Mr x wants to buy 6 airplanes for his business. The cost of air planes is $1m each so total of $6m.

2. He approaches the bank for a loan but says the planes are $12m

3. He cannot get an invoice from the airplane manufacturer for that value, so he gets his own registered company abroad to issue an invoice to his company in Nigeria for the $12m . He does not claim his company abroad is an aerioplane manufacturer, but rather an aviation trading company who will supply the planes

4. Bank gives him a properly executed loan for the naira equivalent of $12m which he has to pay back and will probably also provide some guarantees and additional security and provides the fx either by transfer or by letter of credit.

5. The $ 12m is released and transferred abroad to his company ( the seller) , the company pays the $6m to the manufacturer and actually does aquire the airplanes and $ 6m balance is sent to his own personal account.

This is a victimless crime.

American govt will probably indict him on a technicallity of moving fumds but not really of a crime as such within their system.

So you see he is already denying it and he is right logically and legally.

Your example has fraud written all over it, yet you claim it is not fraud

Your claim that the crime is victim-less is bizarre. There is no such thing as a victim-less crime. If the law of a land says an action constitutes a crime, then it is a crime. If an individual, as in your example, uses false information to secure a $12 million (instead of $6 million) payment from his bank, surely that is fraud. In most countries, including Nigeria and the US, obtaining money from a person through fraudulent misrepresentation is a crime. How can it not be.

Finally, this statement by you "American govt will probably indict him on a technicallity of moving fumds but not really of a crime as such within their system" is risible.

Couple of things:

1. Lagos State doesn't have the money to complete it.

2. I heard (not confirmed) that there was a particular problem with the technical planning which needs to be corrected, but the correction will come at a high cost.

3. Best bet is for the state govt to shift to a PPP arrangement, and seek a private partner that can finance all or most of the cost. This is going to be difficult because not many companies will be interested in taking that risk, particularly as the project is unlikely to be sufficiently profitable, if at all.

I would not be surprised if this project remained unfinished until well beyond 2025. Infact, I believe there is a small, but serious risk that this project will never be completed.

Psalm4kute:
Today, rats did the unthinkable to my pepper nursery, 7 trays containing 128 cells having 7 days old germinated etna f1 seeds totally destroyed

Ah, sorry o.

What kind of wahala is this now

What farmers go through ehn.

Mrs Osinbajo doing the 4 finger sign so reluctantly, you could tell she would rather not be in that place.

I would hazard a guess that she can't wait for 2023 to come so she can pack her load and return to a quiet family setting in Lagos.

This woman will not allow her husband to get involved in any fight for 2023 presidential candidacy. I think she's had enough.

okoroemeka:
only good systemic fungicides will save a pepper farm ....,as long there is a brief window of sunlight that allows a systemic application to dry on the leaves it will translocate throughout the whole crops including the roots and new leaves

I just want to highlight for the sake of those interested or new to farming that systemic fungicides don't all have the same mode of action.

Many don't translocate up, down, and sideways throughout the plant. Some only move from one part of a leaf to another part of the same leaf - meaning these types don't travel very far, and so you have to ensure that you spray all parts of the plant.

The problem with this approach is that: in most cases 'spraying all parts of a plant' still leaves the underside of most leaves untouched since they tend to be difficult to reach when spraying, especially with a plant like cucumber.

You'll be surprised to know that Ridomil only move up through the plant. To my knowledge, it doesn't move down or sideways. This means that if you only spray a cucumber plant in the normal way that most of us do, with most of the spray material landing on the top of the leaves, the Ridomil will not translocate to the underside of the leaf, and so, if a fungus is on the underside of the leaf, a supposedly 'thorough' spray will be ineffective against it.

Manufacturers like Syngenta and the rest of them can do a lot better by including more helpful information on their packaging about how particular products work.

Right now, most farmers are left to their own devices, with the result that many exceed recommended dose of these chemicals in the wrongful belief that the recommended dose is ineffective. But the real issue in most cases is that we do not understand the fundamental basis of the workings of many of these products.

I genuinely encourage farmers who can, to research the product they intend to use on their plants. Products aimed at the same problem don't all work in the same way.

Psalm4kute:
Seedlings are 5days old today and some are already starting to sprout from the cococoir

The emerging seeds are desperate for light...you can see that from the tray in the bottom picture.

You need to move your trays to a shaded location with plenty more light. Otherwise your will end up with leggy seedlings.

250 million dollars (about N90 billion) to tackle malaria.

I bet politicians in the 13 states are rubbing their hands with glee waiting for the bonanza to arrive in the knowledge that less than 50% of their allocation will go anywhere near malaria treatment.

The constant shouting of 'Africa' 'One Africa' has very little meaning to me. It's largely meaningless, quite embarrassing, cringeworthy and borderline irritating.

Building friendships, peace and extending a hand of partnership across nations and continents is worthy. But we must build our individual nations. I honestly don't feel any more connected to someone in Ghana, Mali or Sudan that I feel for Inuits in the far corners of icy Canada. My goodwill extends to all good people of the world.

Shouting one Africa all over the place means what exactly. Even within Nigeria, we barely tolerate one another. I notice it's musicians mostly shouting and screaming this one africa stuff.

Now they are holding a so-called one Africa event in every continent, but the so-called Africa. Just makes the black man look a fool.

I'v not grown any hot pepper before but I've had success with green pepper.

Could the problem of getting Avenir F1 seeds to germinate be down to the relatively cool weather we have had in the South up to October ending.

As we head into the heat of November, may be people should plant any left-over Avenir seeds again & see.

OluchiDelly:
Alright. What about the myth from our southern farmers that the heads will not fold during dry season. And that's the season our Hausas storm market with theirs despite the fact their weather is even hotter.

It's not a myth. Day and Night temperature that is consistently above 32 and 28 degrees respectively can lead to head not forming. During the hot season, the South experiences these conditions.

While day time tempetature in the North often exceeds that in the South, many parts of the North experience cooler night temperature than we have in the South. It is the cooler night temperature that enables their cabbages to form head.

It's a good start, but 20 vehicles per State will work out at an average of 1 vehicle or less per local government.

The number of vehicles is too small for effective coverage of each state.

I'm surprised Ibadan - Ife road can cost that much. Hopefully, they'll do a good job.

I'm sure people around that axis & those who ply that road regularly won't like what I'm going to say now - this road is a very very low traffic road.

I'm surprised the government is prioritising it & willing to spend nearly N80 billion on it.

My Oyo & Osun people, no beef o. I'm happy for you.

Getting the required majority in the National assembly to remove the VP will not be easy. So, a PDP senator from Rivers, or Oyo or Enugu state will vote to remove a VP because he didn't support RUGA? I doubt it, though you cant trust most Nigerian politicians if enough dollars is on ground.

The man will not resign.


Let's see how this plays out.

So if a civil servant has attended seminars 'abroad', he should be kept in the same job forever

What's special about attending seminars abroad.

I need micronutrients for an experiment on my farm.

Does anyone know where I can buy.

opelyem:
However, when I travel I see a lot of abandoned greenhouses.

That's the answer to your question right there.

Use your head, not your heart.

Not surprised the list is packed with German cars.

Most of their cars are not very reliable. Plenty of power, yes. Good interior, yes. Above average good looks. But when it comes to reliability, fuel economy etc they generally are behind Toyota, Lexus & even the South Koreans.


For what you get for your money, nobody beats Toyota.

Good. I've been trying to explain to a PDP friend of mine.

He texted me this morning telling me how, APC has underperformed GEJ PDP in tax collections, upon all the noise. He seemed very happy about the 'bad news'.

Some Nigerians wish for & celebrate bad news about their country, purely for party political reasons

They manhandled him far more roughly than I thought.

Dragging him back so aggressively from that entrance could have ended really badly. Imagine he loses his footing & hits his head on that concrete/tarmac!

I think politicians will now be very concerned about copy cat actions even here in Nigeria.

Many significant politicians attend social events in small towns away from metropolitan areas, with one or two mopol & that's it. This level of security can be easily overwhelmed by irate youths.

My first and probably only experience of being asked 'how was your night', was from an employee. For a moment, I thought I misheard him.

It really is a weird question to ask. Makes you a little irritated


The first mistake OP made was to greet the British guy, 'good morning sir.' Nigerians are obsessed with calling everyone 'sir.' If nothing else, you straightaway belittled yourself. Outside of primary or high schools, the word 'sir' is rarely used in public discuss anywhere in the UK. You will never hear that word used in business or professional circles in the UK. Every one is on first-name terms, even your boss at work expects nothing more than first name.

Even in Nigeria here, my employees cant complete a sentence without littering it with sir this, sir that

When I return to the office, as I come out of the car, 2 of them will walk out of the office to collect my bag, laptop, even phone I have told them several times that this is totally unnecessary, and meaningless. They continue to do it. One even told me, 'Oga, ah, sir, no o, we cant allow that o.'

If I get out of my desk in the office, at least one of them will jump up to see whether I need anything. Quite irritating.

All of this overbearing 'respect' stuff adds up to nothing and creates unnecessary inefficiencies.

So, if there are a million married men in that country, the government will spend scarce public money to compile a database.

Presumably, every woman seeking a partner/boyfriend will have to check a million names just to be sure a prospective boyfriend is not on the list?

Most African governments are inept.

Idemujoseph:
Good note. Sir Anything about clemson spineless?

I believe NHAe 47 - 4 is actually Clemson spineless.

tpben:
Another downside of growing cabbage is that it takes approximately 120+ days to mature and you only harvest once Cucumber is money spinner. Mehn anything can grow in the south, onions, carrots etc

From day of transplant, our cabbages are ready between 68 and 72 days. A lot depends on variety.

Just like cucumber, you can make money on cabbages. If you have 10, 000 cabbages on an acre, that could give you betweem N1.2 million or more in just over 2 months. If you're organised, you can easily have up to 25,000 plants at different stages of maturity at any given time.

Growing cucumber at that sort of scale is a major challenge. Think of the bamboo palaver alone, & most importantly, the amount of work required to prepare the land before planting. With cabbage special land preparation is not necessary. It's more rugged & will generally grow in most types of land.

However, I find cabbage to be highly labour intensive. Because of its weight, harvesting, moving it to the packing area, packing in giant bags and even loading into vehicles require a lot of heavy physical work. Cucumber doesn't have these challenges. One man can handle all the work in a small scale cucumber farm & still be bringing in money.

Cucumber is easier, but if you have the manpower, knowledge, and resources, with cabbage, you will laugh to the bank & have little or no competition in your local area. Market women will just be rushing your super fresh cabbage.

okoroemeka:
this is very interesting we did nursery of Gloria variety by technisem and they wilted immediately the nursery cover is removed for hardening,but a friend did the same Gloria variety but from a Danish seed co,and it worked like magic,I guess a successful cabbage farm starts from the seed.

The rugged, world-famous Gloria is the one from Seminis Seeds. That's the one you want. The Gloria from Technisem is completely different.

Who told these companies that every customer wants a giant phone.

I was looking to buy a phone yesterday and was surprised that for those who prefer smaller phones - around 5.5 inches, there's almost nothing from Samsung these days.

One of our cabbage croppings. Picture below.

When we first harvested and started selling in our city, the market people couldn't believe the cabbage was grown locally.

We would harvest in the morning & by 11am, it was already in the market. The ones from the north simply couldn't compete on freshness & taste. We were selling N1000 per bag more than the ones from the North, yet we always sold out.

A lot of things we think cant grow in the South actually do, and if you chose your time cleverly, you'll do very well.

That said, the people in Jo's can probably plant cabbage all year round, whereas, in the south, it is challenging to grow cabbage successfully outside the rainy season.

Cabbage seedlings in the net house before transplanting. There's about 6000 seedlings in that photograph.

FarmTech:
.
Pls, does cabbage like rain? How easy is it to grow?

Cabbage does well in the rain, but like everything else, it needs attention.

As someone mentioned, successful transplanting is the holy grail of cabbage farming in the South.

Our latest transplant was more than 90% successful. Sometimes, our success rate is less than 50%. Painful

This picture was taken this afternoon.