Our sprouting process started on 14th day of June 2020 indoors in sack.

Dubem50:

Sir, Don't thank me. Its likely You saved me half a decade of my life. Right at the very moment I wanted to start the experiment you just concluded is when you announced you have a by-product so why thank me? My plans has just changed from laying a foundation, to building on the solid blue print laid by such innovative Giants as u sir.
Infact as a result, I am going solo on this new scorpion verity, I have already sold all my ready to plant pepper seedlings of other verity I did and I am starting a new batch of nursery strictly for scorpion verities. I am really kin to see the out come of this and I will follow it up to the end.
And thanks to God almighty we are in rainy season so we are getting to work right away to review it's performance during rainy season.
And In addition to this, I will create a thread where all the steps and process used for it's review is updated with pictures consistently so as not to derail this cucumber thread.

Here is what I got on Saturday morning, yellow scorpion verity although.
Net weight 100grms
If I had known I would be doing this independent consumer review for this new product, I would have added at least 50grms of the red scorpion verity.
But with out delays, we have started working on what we have at hand immediately.
We have started the sprouting process already on Sunday.

okoroemeka:
Thank you for drawing my attention to that,the Cameroon pepper is definitely not a hybrid variety but an improved variety from ITAR Cameroon,it is liked by farmers because of high disease resistance and high yields,but we have also added two more incredible pepper varieties and it is the work of 5 years of selective breeding,the story started in 2015 when we planted an F1 avenir red pepper farm and discovered several things,first 1-2% of the red pepper crops produced only yellow fruits throughout their production cycle, secondly many of the crops falled to disease during the peak rainy season and thirdly few crops survived the disease,so we went to work and preserved the seeds from the yellow mutated crops and the survivors and planted the next year as second F2 generation,we futher discovered that 20-30% of the yellow pepper plants produces yellow fruits that turn red when fully riped ,also on the red pepper farm we discovered also some crops has diseased leafs,so we uprooted and discarded the offenders and selected the best performing crops for a futher F3 and F4 cycles ,we have now seen the perfect results we need in this F5 generation we planted exclusively for seed with no changes in flavour,aroma,fruit size yield and plant vigour,so we now have yellow avenir variety and red avenir disease resistant variety,but for trademark issues we have decided the varieties be known as yellow scorpion and red scorpion,the desire to embark on such a tedious task is caused mainly by the erratic supply of seeds from Cameroon and the germination and disease issues with the F1 avenir,I cannot help but thank Mr vituss aneke a silent nairalander and the first farmer to get the yellow scorpion variety (100 grams)in PH last week,the flavor,aroma,size and yield of the old F1 crop now in a yellow package.

Sir, Don't thank me. Its likely You saved me half a decade of my life. Right at the very moment I wanted to start the experiment you just concluded is when you announced you have a by-product so why thank me? My plans has just changed from laying a foundation, to building on the solid blue print laid by such innovative Giants as u sir.
Infact as a result, I am going solo on this new scorpion verity, I have already sold all my ready to plant pepper seedlings of other verity I did and I am starting a new batch of nursery strictly for scorpion verities. I am really kin to see the out come of this and I will follow it up to the end.
And thanks to God almighty we are in rainy season so we are getting to work right away to review it's performance during rainy season.
And In addition to this, I will create a thread where all the steps and process used for it's review is updated with pictures consistently so as not to derail this cucumber thread.

Choiceagric:
Hi all,
Please,do we have anyone that have agrotropic office address or their contact phone number,pls it is urgent

Ur location

Intendy:


Except for some previous batches of Avenir. I got over 90% germination and still survived. planted close to 2,000 sold around 5,000 seedlings band have out seeds to some friends which is also doing fine. that's bnotva rip off to me

Dat particular batch dat didn't germinate is what I call a rip off when u can't get value for ur cash at the time u want it, this is one of the things that drives protista mad with these our seed suppliers.

okoroemeka:
sprinkler irrigation is the worst thing for a vegetable farm except maybe ugwu,we tried raingun and hurriedly packed it away,the fastest way to ring dinner bell for foliar disease on cucumbers,pepper,etc is constant wetness of leafs,the best form of irrigation for crops like that is drip or hand watering targeted at the stem,also that seed extraction technique,do you know that 60-70% of pepper disease also infect the fruits and subsequently the seeds,if you extract seeds from a hybrid crop,an old farm that has a 100% chance of been left to diseases that seedling is already doomed before starting,almost all common pepper diseases and viral infections are all found in the seeds from antracnose, bacterial leaf spot to viral mosaic disease(leaf curling),so the best defense against disease starts from the seeds and extracting seeds without proper checks is simply not a good idea,the small advantage in reducing cost will be wiped off by high application of fungicides and subsequent loss to high disease pressure,pls be guided.

1. The quote about the sprinkler irrigation wasn't me that put up that solution, I was only trying to quote some one else and ended up mistakingly quoting that post, but even at dat, I know and I have practical farmer friends who don't use drip but use only sprinkler tubes in their farm, ( even using it to produce the almighty tomatoes in Rivers State here, the citadel of foliar diseases )and yet are very successful at it. So maybe u are missing out on some things in it's usage ( am no other saying drip isn't d best though, but here, some prefer spray tubes to drip and it has never given them issues)
2. I don't think I mentioned extraction of hybrid seeds in my post. Please check well, the fruits are from a farmer friend that has been planting that pepper for some time now. In as much as I am still trying to experiment on avenier fruits to see what happens, ( coz one of their sales personnel told me that it will give me good result and I even suspect dats y dey rip customers head for one tin dat it's germination is 50/50) but I can't come here and start writing about it coz am not yet sure of the out come....
...But wait a minute, I read on this thread or maybe ur own thread where u told us u r going back to your farmer friend dat plants avenier f1 to get recycled seeds so how far about that .
Infact that testimony of yours was what made me remember what d tecnicem rep told me and even made me wanna try experimenting on avenier in particular to see how it goes. But I never told anyone here to extract hybrid seeds but local opv seeds from healthy plants, planted by farmers arround their locality is what I endorsed.

kpas4kpas:


At Dubem50, please how such pepper seed of yours?
How can I contact you please

0-7-0+33-00+00-18
My digits

FarmTech:

.
Thanks bro. I have always used my bare hand to extract pepper seeds. I don't even feel the burn on my hands. Except I somehow touch other parts of my body.

U r welcome

[quote author=FarmTech post=89963330]
.
fertilize well with manure. Not necessarily too much but apply every week or two. Also spray insecticides like imidacloprid, Abamectin, emmamectin benzoate etc. If they proof too stubborn, spray under the leaves. Overhead irrigation (eg sprinklers) or rain also help in reducing their number. Clear surrounding bush....[/quote

bassey25:


God bless you.... You are really making the pepper venture more interesting. I am really enjoying your detailed and interesting guide on pepper nursery set up please keep up the good work

thanks my dear, I will give my best

Adeoye007:
@dubem50 why can't you air dry the seed instead of sun drying it.

Because it's faster and more efficient, u might be trying to air dry and if not properly cured d very first day, u might wake up the next morning to notice 80% of ur seeds have sprouted ( happened to me with the local variety of cucumber seeds I was try to preserve). And if it's seeds u hope to store for latter use, hmmm. Sorry for you. Dats y I first sun dry den if am gonna store over a long period, I continue with aidrying the next day.

Seeds after sun-drying them, ready for nursery

Seeds after the final rinse

PEPPER SEEDS EXTRACTION HACK
As soon as mama agreed to lease her ugu farm, I ordered some pepper fruits from a long time farmer friend who has also been in the Pepper production game. This guy spends no dime on hybrid cultivars but has been recycling his seeds from his harvest with consistent high yield and zero crop failure. And this is how I extracted the seeds with zero stress, no pepper burn ( the first batch I did with my neighbor was a horrible experience as we both had our palms on fire for five hours even with our gloves on) and high viability and purity.
1. I poured the whole pepper fruits in a plastic basin or any container and mashed properly/light pounded with an empty vodka bottle without damaging the pepper seeds.
The reason for this is to infect or introduce microbes to the pulp to help us break it down via partial fermentation (as this pulp plays a key role of preventing seed germination inside plant pod) and also help separate seeds from the pepper core( where they are tightly held together)
2. Pour some water ( it should be tepid water, ie, not hot not cold, just normal.) Into the basin, cover it up and keep in a room temperature for between 12 to 24 hours.
This creates good breeding condition for the microbes that breaks down the fruit pulp.
3. After 12 or 24 hours, put on a thick rubber glove, like the one u saw me wear on the pic first mash or squeeze the pepper with your hands ( protected with rubber gloves to avoid pepper burn) and with the aid of a sieve, continuously but gently scoop out the Pepper flesh and skin. Also sieve out any seeds that float because 98% of these floating seeds are not mature and hence ,not viable. But care must be taken not to agitate the seeds that are below as they are the real deal
4. Gently tilt and drain out the water in the basin and boom, the treasure would be staring right in ur. Eyes.
5. Pour clean water to rinse the seeds ,then tilt the basin to drain out the water completely while u use your sieve to collect your seeds.
5 sundry the seeds under the sun till it's properly dried, then go and start your nursery with it
6. If it is for storage, continue to dry under partial shade for some days before storing them.

lifestyle1:


Per plot or acre ?

Per plot, 50*100 feet
Land lease in Rivers State is a nightmare
And I was happily paying that amount because the farm land already has ridges in place + I had to make her a mouth watering offer.
But all in all, my profit is sure.

Brothers, that was how a business partnership was done. And d birth of a new pepper planting era
I have instructed my staff to use a mixture of paraforce and glyphosphate to weed the farm while we start our nursery for transplanting.

I consulted with her grandson ( who happens to be my watermelon pilot supervisor) who told me it was a symbiotic partnership that would even benefit the old woman more as she would be getting money from rent with out more labor input in her pumpkin farm.
He also went ahead and narrated how Fulani heardsmen consistently partied in her farm with their cattles.
Then I ran off to Mama's house to make the deal

Den a. Crazy thought came to me
.... I will meet the old woman, make her an offer to rent her ugu farm (which at this time, u barely see the ugu as grass has taken over the entire farmland) at a good price of 10k per plot, then I will use it for my pepper farm. I will also maintain her ugu and protect the entire land from Fulani heardsmen .
All mama needs to do is to feed her ugu plants with manure once in a blue moon while waiting for it fruit, while I keep weeds and insects at Bay since I am planting pepper ( which happens to be a companion crop for ugu) on same piece of land.!!

All these happened late January this year
Fast forward to March, i observed that the old woman could not keep up with weeding and maintenance of her ugu farm as her attention was buried in her cucumber farms.
Mama has about two acre of cukes that she was tending to as rain has arrived.
She would contract housa. Boys to prepare ridges while her duty is to do the planting all alone. Her son ( who is also a local champion in cuke production as he farms minimum of 5 acres per planting section) would support her with some bags of fertilizer,,, while her daughters and their kids would use paraforce to weed before the cukes start crawling and producing side shoots and runners.
She wants to take advantage of the early planting. Market. Price as it was obvious that the price of ugu leaves would soon drop as it has started to rain.
Cukes na Sharp Sharp money nah, who won miss out ,, not even mama

I then advised her to always plant on the ground with zero ridge during late planting and to make use of ridges during rainy season since she had no irrigation system in place
The poor woman thanked me graciously while I left for my own patch of land
The

The ridges did drain water with the speed of jet and d sun had no pity for the juvenile ugu plants and so, death was inevitable

"Ahhh, mama y u do ridge nah, y u go do ridge for late planting of ugu nah, u for plant am for groud." I said
Mama has contracted the house guys arround to make ridges for her during November period then planted first week of December hoping portharcourt rain will smile on her during December.
I bet the old woman never heard of the word " climate change"
It only rained once or twice and that was all for the month.

I went closer to for a careful observation on what happened.
As soon as I was approximately half a pole, the answer to her problem jumped out and stared me right in the eye

I felt for her as it was her grandson that was primarily in charge of my own little watermelon pilot plot

I saw an old woman ( very old, she even relies on walking stick to aid her movement) complaining bitterly while trying to remove some sprouting grasses in her ugu farm that her ugu plants have been dealt with by the heavy sun and late arrival of rain this year.
As at then, she has. Lost close to 45% of her plants

Just like I promised, I am going to give my little best, I will share some common tips that are not common.
So to start with, I will be teaching simple seed extraction and storage process.

This is the size of the Pepper fruit we are going to be nursing, I got them from a friend and then I extracted the seeds myself.
It has a consistent result as the farmer has been planting and recycling this particular verity for some years now with out stories that touch the heart

So today, pictures will start doing more talking than long essays and theories

You all can attest to the fact that Pepper nursery is a nightmare, we will start today by taking a close look at my past mistakes, and then, we talk about my current nursery ( about two weeks on Friday) then I give my own little tip on getting nursery bed right with pictures and demo

Dubem50:

Start with hot pepper and only hot pepper alone!!!
Sorry I didn't emphasize on that fact enough
START WITH HOT PEPPER AND ONLY HOT PEPPER ALONE, PRACTICE ON NOT MORE THAN ONE PLOT OF LAND THEN SCALE UP BY ADDING HALF OF THE LAND SIZE YOU STARTED PRACTICING WITH TILL AT LEAST 3 ROUNDS FOR EACH PARTICULAR SEASON ( either raining or dry season)
B4 going into large scale production.
I know I might sound like an idiot for giving you such strict instructions but when the jungle matures, u will understand better.

REASONS
1. HOT PEPPER is likely the easiest to manage as a newbie, no staking, easy marketing, has a higher chance to withstand excess rain fall than tomatoes,. Easier to learn the ropes.
Please and please again, don't start with exotic breeds that you must rip off your arm just to buy one seed, source from your locality and plant ones that are in high demand there. Use open pollinated variety for a start then when u a good at it, try hybrid, before trying to buy a seed that cost 1k just for one piece. Patience is the key, keep growing slowly but steadily at this entry stage of urs.
2. The pitfall of many newbie farmers is that they think that landmass=output or profit. They then neglect other factors such as good cultural practice, labor sourcing and management, quality farm input, proper irrigation system etc and plunge into acres of land, thinking that the gurus taking it slow and steady are stupid, within an interval of 2 months, millions have vaporized into thin air with out nothing to show for it.Then watch them sit on the judgement throne to apportionment blames; my staff caused the fall of the project, my farm manager was sick, oohhh , labourers messed me up.
Brother, that old adage " slow and steady wins the race" is strictly a farm principle. Never bite off more than you can chew.
3. I told you to perfect just pepper plant first before going into another thing because inexperience and distraction are the greatest enemies of a newbie not even lack of capital as many erroneously think. Never try killing two birds with one stone, I don't know if it works in other profession but as a newbie in agriculture. Hmmm, doom is your starting point
The key is to practice and perfect only one crop first, then go into another.
Personal experience: I lost half of my melon farm to weed just because I wanted to intercrop with eggplant. Reason being that it was my first time doing melons and I wanted to claim James Bond by multicroping . Went to source and prepare the eggplant nursery. My absence for just seven days dealt me a dirty blow. It will only take careful analysis to know that if I had decided right from the start to plant melon and dat alone, nothing could have kept me away from my farm, not even for two days. B4 I co rally labourers in this hot farming season when they are scarce and everyone telling u they have been booked, it was too late ( mind you, I have done first weeding ooo)
4. Note that knowledge and skills for rainy season production is different from dry season production for each single plant. So if u practice pepper during rainy season, don't be mislead thinking u r an expert already for both rainy and dry season. If u master rainy season, keep scaling up in rainy season production while practicing in microscale in dryseason or vice versa.
I can't tell u the importance of mentors or coach enough, my brother, even at my level, I still visit and work on people's farms for free just to add to my practical knowledge. I have an endless list of people both lower and higher than me I still call to confirm stuffs from.
My last advise for u is this, at this preliminary stage, don't look at the millions quoted by farmers, most of these guys have spent nothing less than a decade learning and fine-tuning their skills. You will only reap sorrow if you do.
Your ultimate goal is to gain knowledge.
Good luck

DAVE5:


Pepper, tomato and any other profitable product

Start with hot pepper and only hot pepper alone!!!
Sorry I didn't emphasize on that fact enough
START WITH HOT PEPPER AND ONLY HOT PEPPER ALONE, PRACTICE ON NOT MORE THAN ONE PLOT OF LAND THEN SCALE UP BY ADDING HALF OF THE LAND SIZE YOU STARTED PRACTICING WITH TILL AT LEAST 3 ROUNDS FOR EACH PARTICULAR SEASON ( either raining or dry season)
B4 going into large scale production.
I know I might sound like an idiot for giving you such strict instructions but when the jungle matures, u will understand better.

I am a farmer in Port Harcourt Rivers State and I have got my own share of experience both good and bad, smooth and rough when it comes to nursery and raising seedlings.
I thought of opening a new thread to share it with fellow farmers but on the other hand, I decided to share it here because I feel it's also a way of giving back to this little community that also contributed to my success in one way or the other in terms of perfecting my skills in raising pepper seedlings. So instead of creating multiple thread, I will prefer to pour all my knowledge here giving you guys weekly updates with photos so that if any body stumbles upon this thread, he/she would find it to be an encyclopedia of hot pepper farming from vast and different contributors and first hand field experience. Not e Farmers. I wish everyone of us also follows suit. Rather than reading through the thread and going our different ways with the knowledge we got, or even running to open a new thread, let's give back, let's make this one concentrated, refined and very rich.
B4 I open my own personal thread, I have promised myself to give back to this thread dat contributed to my success. And I won't give crap, I will make it detailed, rich and well laid out. And for those of you still learning, I will make out time out of my tight schedule to consult u via zoom video call or Watts app FOR FREE to help new or intending farmers catch up quickly.
I will start writing by tomorrow. I know it's gonna be tasking, but I will do it anyway. So get ready for a new ride on hot pepper.