organicfoods:
Fertilization: When you are planing for your vertical farm (cucumber) You must provide enough organic matters and manure for them. They grow very fast and don't waste time consuming nutrients. If not for my experience in the manufacture of cheap liquid fertilizer, I would have given up. You mus be prepared to supplement the nutrients in the sack, especially during budding and fruiting. They tend to demand a lot of nutrients. Fast releasing nutrients would do you a lot of joy. So to avoid nutrients depletion consider stuffing the bags enough with chicken poo and also supplements, it is a must or else you become an actor in the epic movie "Story that touch" lol!
Pest Management: One big problem I encountered is pest control....Kai, the pest love it like mad, they behave as if their lives depend on it. If you are not prepared to do battle with the pest then don't even go into cucumber farming. One short cut I will be adopting is planting varieties of other vegetables along side cucumber. Crops like celery, marigold and basil will be planted...They tend to confuse deceive pest that recognizes their victim by smell. I farm organically so I used Neem oil, Ginger/Garlic Extract, and plethora of other pest management procedures.
Water: Cucumbers love water and if you can't supply enough then don't think of risking it. There is this thing about mulching that I noticed. Mulching the sack with leaves can save a lot of stress. Frogs and lizards love to hide around the bags as well. I initially I never trusted their presence, but after careful study, I discover that they are working on my side. They feed on the pests attacking the plants. They can however become a nuisance in early stage of the plants life...they clip the leaves of the tender plant destroying them. Squirrels also are great nemesis.
Spacing: Three plants in a sack appears to be too much for the sack. I think two plants are good to go. Three can be so crowded

Mercie123:




Now my legs are shaking!

Mercie123:

I think the craziest of these challenges is the Pest management. Please lay more emphasis on this and tell us what to do. I learnt some hybrid seeds have self-resistant to pest and all. Which seeds? Murano?

vanpeele:
very nice...I don't think you've mentioned the number of sacks, yield per week and duration of your harvests

organicfoods:
Sorry...I should have done that earlier. Was thinking of doing it in another post.

organicfoods:
Numbers of Sack Deployed: I deployed 440 sacks, planting 3 cucumber in each bags
Total Numbers of cucumbers: On the average I had close to 1,300 cucumber vines on the farm (Massive you will say)
Space: Not up to half a plot.
Variety: Murano2F1
Expected Yield per plants : 15 fruits per vine

Actual Yield per plant was 5 fruits on the average. (Reasons for this low yield was as a result of water management that affected us) I will discuss this in another post.

We divided the farm into four, planting them with 10 days interval. (Reason was to have a continous harvest all through)
Our first harvest was given out. We had a lot of Nairalanders and other visitors coming to the farm...plus the fact that we were shooting a documentary on the farm. On the average we had more than 200 fruits per harvest every week.
Our first harvest.

Mercie123:



I love your facts and figures. Please like how many seeds are in a 50g of Murano 2 F1? By the way, someone told me it's sold for N9,000 now.

organicfoods:
Yes it could that much. I know a can and half will do one acre.

Mercie123:


Ok I'm trying to have 1,500 - 3,000 sacks on my plot, possibly.

Pavore9:


Where is your plot located?

Mercie123:



I have both in Lagos and Ibadan but I'm starting with the one in Ibadan. Cost of production is way cheaper in IB.

Pavore9:


How is it cheaper? I guess you already have access to the land in Lagos,

Mercie123:


I could say 'cost of labour' is cheaper in IB sef. Yes, I've had the two parcels since 2013, both fenced and gated.

Pavore9:


Between Ibadan and Lagos, what is the difference in the market price of cucumber?

Mercie123:


Now that's a great question and I totally get what you mean but I can transport it to Lagos, can't I? On a second thought, transportation would add to my cost...hmmm...*pondering*

Pavore9:


The nearer you are to your market the better. Lagos offers market at different levels. I streamed online this morning listening to Fidelity bank's SME radio show. I was inspired by the resource person who co-own greenhouse based farm, owned by two well educated and widely travelled women with strong corporate backgrounds, having worked in the U.S, Canada, UK, France, Singapore etc. They even brought in a Kenyan who is a guru in greenhouse farming to work for them. They know their target market is upscale shopping centres, thus applying international standards in their operations in their farm there in Lagos.

What is your projected scale of operation? Who is your target market? These should influence your decision-making.

Mercie123:



I'll consider my first operation to be on a small scale after which I'll scale up. But I really hope to be harvesting as much as 1million fruits per season at some point. Rome wasn't built in a day but I'm pumped to gradually walk through this. I'll weigh my options.

Pavore9:


Starting out, let the location where you tend to be more often be your starting point and experiment with a pilot project of half a plot. You will really learn a lot from the practicals and gain the confidence to expand. There are many high value crops that can be grown with such bags even strawberries.

The capacity of the human mind is limitless.....it is good to be ambitious.