jidestroud:
Day 57: (Beetles Infestation)

It's been a very week on my garden. Recently, a new development sprung up on my Corn plants. My Corn kept losing its ears every morning so tonight I decided to keep watch. Lo and behold, This is what I saw; beetles beetles beetles, a very scary sight.

Any suggestions in getting rid of these pests is highly welcomed. As of tonight, I have already hand-picked about 60 of the insects.

Help needed ASAP.

Seun:

You may need to abandon your organic approach and spray some effective pesticides. You can consciously choose pesticides that are less damaging to the environment than others but are fully effective. There is no advantage to using organic pesticides. They are all poisons.

Alternatively, you could just keep handpicking them nightly until they are all gone. If you are persistent, just like with weeding, it will work.

I've seen pictures of people wrapping developing grains in nylon bags, presumably to protect them from certain pests. It might work for corn.

oyetpel:
Please i need where to get vegetable seeds in ibadan for my small garden.

oyetpel:
Please i need where to get vegetable seeds in ibadan for my small garden.

jidestroud:
Day 50 (The Rains and Diseases)

Sad day for me in my garden. Why won't the rain just stop?!!! Tomato plants and the rains is a no no. It's been a week with barely a day going without the constant downpours. It has started to take its toll on my Tomato plants with many of them coming down with diseases. Had to destroy a couple of them (there's no coming back from it honestly, prevention is the key. Once infected, best option, pull out and dispose appropriately).

Moreover, I have got my pretty little garden flooded.

Time to replace the empty holes with new seedling (Rio degrande), and do a little adjustment to the garden.

1. The need for mulching
2. Use of black nylon bags to cover the whole beds (prevents the rainwater hitting the spoil, splashing on the plant leaves)
3. Spray the whole surroundings (this will be of little benefit though, all will still get washed away by the rain)
4. Get a more resistant variety.

The fluted pumpkins, cucumbers, Lagos spinach, Corn are doing just fine though.

Lesson learnt: Farming is no joke at all biko! It's real business.

[quote]

lovelani:

what type of vegetable? you can get some at agro shop in or around IAR&T apata

1kinggy:


Try any agro store for local varieties like pepper, tomato, okro, soko, tete and ewedu. Some of them also have "foreign" veggies. For foreign veggies like radish, cucumber, beetroot, etc, you can get at shoprite.

oyetpel:
Day 20 (Weeding operation on my 2nd maize farm)

Front section

So there are some tiny weed growing besides these maize plants, so since i didn't have anywhere to go. I uprooted them off, so that they won't be sucking nutrients meant for my maize.

jidestroud:


Wow...this is lovely. Please like I said earlier, do make provision for fertilizers. Corns are such heavy feeders, you need to make up for this to get maximum yield.

Keep it up. (I could trade my garden for yours right now )

oyetpel:
My snake potatoes seems to be growing well.

Seun:
This is great, but pls Please create a separate thread for updates on your farm. There is no need to hijack this thread.

jidestroud:
Day 71: Garden Update (Corn first Harvest)

It's been awhile since I last updated on my garden activities. Lol. Well, so far so good, aside for the last loss I suffered with regards to my tomato plants due to heavy downpour of rain, everything has been going on fine.

The corns did perfectly well. @seun, I didn't have to use any insecticides or inorganic chemicals at all. The Vegetable oil did wonders. (Pictures included)

The tomato plants I was able to mulch did very well compared to the ones I didn't. (Now I knw better)

The cabbage is just wooaaah. Doing just fine. (Spraying with homemade neem leave/seed mixtures daaailllly, can't afford insect eating my precious)

And the cucumbers are very much visible on the vines.

The tomato plants in sacks are also doing excellently well to my surprise. The average height of the tomato is about 50 - 60 cm.

Ndbc:


How did you succeed in Cabbage, I have tried to grow Cabbage but it seems not to adapt to my soil.. what's the best method to use ?

irynterri:
Nice job you got here, I'm looking towards planting tomatoes, but the rains are so heavy, I would love if you could give more info on the sack planting,e.g how many seeds per sack,are the sacks indoors or outdoors to prevent the rain + pictures too.. Thanks

jidestroud:


First tip to record success in any plant I am to grow in my garden is KNOWING THE SEED TYPE and ITS REQUIREMENTS for growth i.e, Soil for optimum growth.

For the cabbage, as stated earlier, I plant the F1 VICTORY Cabbage. (It's an Hybrid that supports both extreme weather: Excess Heat and Too much rainfall).
I simply nursed it in cups (a seed per cup) and transplated in about 3weeks.
I only transplant healthy ones (main looking at it, you should be able to tell which)

Soil requirements:
Well, wished I had a kit to do the actual soil testing (in the pipeline though), I simple used a well drained sandy-loamy soil. Ofcos, I added my chicken compost for amendments for a more compact soil.

That's all I did. Hope it helped. (Just know the seed you are to plant and read up on it, THAT'S MY SECRET)

Ndbc:


Thanks for the explanation,

i didn't do nursery process but what i did was to sprout the seed and plant direct to the garden, i also plant with a good soil "full of Organic matter (a mixture of loamy soil, chicken manure and compost) which i normally use only on planting holes.

On the seed aspect, i have not seen any other Cabbage seed to compare with the type i have (F1 though) but i believe that the rain was just too much for the tender sprouts.

I have to follow the nursery process that u used and see what will be the outcome.

Thanks for your help.

jidestroud:


Thanks.

On the issue of sacks for planting tomatoes, the root structure of the plants comes into play. The type of tomato (either determinate or indeterminate) will determine if it would do well in sacks or not. Determinates do well in sacks because most are shrub type plants. So my advice is first of all, go for determinate type.thanks, I intend getting my seeds from the local market close to me, I'm not certain the seller understands what is a determinate tomato seed, I would also love if you can share the price of the seeds you got and any idea where I can get it in Abuja?

Secondly, one tomato will do per sack. Ofcos, you have to first of all nurse the tomato from the nursery stage up to the transplanting into the sack.

The sack helps in controlling the issues raised with the heavy downpours. You can move the sacks. Lol...I do that most times. Aside that, the raise sacks helps prevent splashes of raindrops hitting the ground.

A picture of my sack tomato is included. Feel free to ask other questions.

jidestroud:


Thanks.

On the issue of sacks for planting tomatoes, the root structure of the plants comes into play. The type of tomato (either determinate or indeterminate) will determine if it would do well in sacks or not. Determinates do well in sacks because most are shrub type plants. So my advice is first of all, go for determinate type.
Secondly, one tomato will do per sack. Ofcos, you have to first of all nurse the tomato from the nursery stage up to the transplanting into the sack.

The sack helps in controlling the issues raised with the heavy downpours. You can move the sacks. Lol...I do that most times. Aside that, the raise sacks helps prevent splashes of raindrops hitting the ground.

A picture of my sack tomato is included. Feel free to ask other questions.

jidestroud:


Glad I could be of help. For best approach, nurse your cabbage seeds first. Then u harden them gradually before transplanting them into mother earth. Even if you where to use dispersal method. You still have to create a level of shade for them and ofcos, you still need to transplant using proper spacing because the heads needs enough spacing when it starts to form.

All the best. Keep me posted on its development.

Attached is a picture of my nursed cabbage. (I plant 2 seeds per cup and later reduce to 1 per cup that's after cutting down the weakling among the two...lol)

jidestroud:


Thanks.

On the issue of sacks for planting tomatoes, the root structure of the plants comes into play. The type of tomato (either determinate or indeterminate) will determine if it would do well in sacks or not. Determinates do well in sacks because most are shrub type plants. So my advice is first of all, go for determinate type.

Secondly, one tomato will do per sack. Ofcos, you have to first of all nurse the tomato from the nursery stage up to the transplanting into the sack.

The sack helps in controlling the issues raised with the heavy downpours. You can move the sacks. Lol...I do that most times. Aside that, the raise sacks helps prevent splashes of raindrops hitting the ground.

A picture of my sack tomato is included. Feel free to ask other questions.