dorispray:


Very thoughtful of you sir not to derail this thread, I'm navigating to the thread now.



Impressive! It's good to always improvise making use of what you can get available to solve your challenges, I'm a fan of that too.

I do sell Irrigation materials especially the Drip Irrigation system and it's accessories. You can reach out to me via my email address on my handle signature below if you need any assistance on that.

Benagro:

Do you have fairly used drip

PharoahIII:
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@ Now I know that the water requirement for vegetables is 1-1.5 acre-inch per week, which is roughly 65m3 of water daily per hectare.

65,000 litres for 1 hectare of cucumber per day? You shouldn't need up to that per day if you're going to use drip. We embarked on our first dry season cucumber farming in Nov and I reckon we currently use about 10, 000 litres for about 7500 plants per day through drip and we water 3 times a day during fruiting.

We use regular drip tapes with PVC main all set up on about 1 hectare, though we don't plant all 1 hectare at the same time. We pump water from a borehole into 3 interconnected 5000 litre tanks (15000 litres) and then from the tanks a network of PVC main lines channel water to the different sections of the farm through drip tapes laid on ridges. It's been working excellently so far.

PharoahIII:
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@ Now from my findings drilling boreholes will be prohibitively expensive as its depth will have to be in excess of 300ft in order to get to a confined aquifer...now the issue is getting a submersible pump that will even have a flow rate of 20000litres/hr at a dynamic head of 100m will cost even more than 1.2 million (for the pump alone) and such powerful pumps will have a power rating in excess of 6HP so we are looking at at least a 9kva gen and above, so I dont think drilling a borehole is viable.

DeLaRue:
2.6 litres per day per cucumber plant? That's just a little under 2 large bottles of Eva water. If you feel that's the absolute minimum you need to give your plants, I guess that's ok.

My cucumber plants get around 1.2 litre per day, and yield has been quite good.

Also, you expect to irrigate for up to 8hrs per day? We are not in America na. Have you considered the cost?

We irrigate for about 10 mins at a time, 3 times a day. Our irrigation tape's maximum output is 4 LPH. Although yours is only 2 LPH, it's still surprising that you plan to run it for 8 hours per day! For a commoditised produce like cucumber? You dey try o.

dmz1:
Mr pistotita please is the mud pump you are talking about the common petrol pumping machine?

Pistotita:


He knows what he is saying, though, there are errors in his calculation. But he is closer to the truth than you. He thinks like a modern farmer. He has issues, and I have told him the only condition I will put mouth in his case. You too also used sense in what you do, but you have not said the whole story. By the time I ask both of you questions, you will see the whole issue right in front of you. I have solved even more technical challenges than that. And you see how modern farmers are forced to down size in Nigeria. Some with the intention of going for 20 ha....they just slashed down to 1 acre max....lol. and then you see them using technology to maximize profit. But the choice of what they buy depends on the choice of workers. When you have illiterates that do not value what you provide and use them recklessly, you start wondering why bother using them in the first place. Why spend so much on borehole when these workers do not even appreciate the convenience you want in your farm? This stage I am, i cannot use local workers when i am on farm. Never. Except I call an ex worker to just make money for me and I will not be the main guy in charge but the fellow. All I do is just visit and most times i see errrors here and there. I have no choice but to just make corrections with love. Still there are many things I may not be able to correct. So I take the loss or little gain like that. This is why I do not visit farms. Cos truth is always bitter. Some will even want to make me tell them how to force their improvised cheap materials to give optimum production. And out of 100 recommendations I make may be 2 are implemented. So why waste my time when I know most will not like the truth. They end up hating me just like nairaland after finishing with them. But they always return to beg that they were foo.lish. Well I dont listen to them again. And that is where hatred starts. But I dont care.

I congratulate both of you that you are seeing these issues. I laugh when one tells me he wants to use 3 ha to start cucumber. And when i see the proposed equipnent I just smile. But one must not advise them; else, trouble don start. Like I said I want this thread to be based on improvisation trial OP is interested in. When you tell people ahead thier failure but they still want to go ahead, why hold such people behind. Experience is the best teacher which many do not have second chance from. It is like going inside the ring with iron Mike Tyson. Just 10 sec to max of 5 mins fight. Afterwards, you do not hear such names again in heavy weight competitions. Permanent knock out. But the way we take the consequences of our decisions depends on individuals. You know positive people when they face huge loss. But when someone passes aggression of his loss on others lol....

You are obviously under irrigating your plants. If you irrigate properly, you will increase yield. And it may do you good to downsize so you spend less on cost of production, and still get more yield (more profit). But you need to get more facts before you do that. I still think of a friend who continously argued with me that land close to river is bad. I pray the fellow starts asap so the truth can be revealed. Maybe the fellow thinks all small scale veggie farmers are stupid for moving close to river in the southern of Nigeria. Only newbies run after land tiu spend milliins on to get enough water Lol. Why? They do not know the quantity if water needed. And farmers who want to run pipes on 30 acres with just one residential borehole are the smartest in the world. Lol. I just laugh. Some want to even do trees which consumes more water. And they argue seriously. I do not get involved with such projects whem the owner is too knowing. Maybe will force the farmer to just do 1 acre of veggie by the side. And when all efforts yields nothing...I let the person alone never to ever do anything with such person again. That is bye bye. But I always do my best to see the end. When the fellow is stubborn, what does one do other than leave such person to go ahead. Experience will teach such person a bitter lesson. What we have tried and seen the end result. In fact, it is that guy I congratulate more cos he saw the problem before starting. You have started. You are just managing the troubles you have created for yourself. And it is why you said "this is Nigeria na". The question is that are you giving your plants optimum irrigation condition for optimum yield?

And then you wonder why seller bring some useless accessorries. They do not even know about them. The guy wants optimum with a very short period of time for irrigation. With his deep research, he has seen the influence of the sizes of pipes. I am sure he is now conscious of land topography (slopes), and other factors. He will not confine himself to the 1 inch pipe or the usual main line seller import. And you have given him hints of dividing the farm, but may still not be good for him because time is vital to him. Time is very vital to me too. And there are reasons for that too. All these issues come with either having the ability to see the future, or having the ability to adjust when trouble starts. Otherwise, it is failure. This is where experience comes in. I that started promoting small farms with sophisticated equipment know what I am talking about. I thank God smart people like you are coming up on NL. And when I laugh at cutlass and hoes farmers, they get bittered. I am just getting started with these clowns and failures on NL who are running after consultancy jobs. Lol.

My comments may be nasty to them, but those are what they need cos they will keep making newbies loss money. But when the orientation of many are changed, we will start having profitable veggie businesses in the south just like poultry farmers. Someone started promoting the proper way of doing poultry after many were wounded financially in Nigeria. And when one person wants to use N50k to do 3 ha people will all laugh at him after we have gotten it tight. Lol..but when these people keep making newbies think improvisation is the answer...hmmmmm. and they are struggling and telling lies here. And when they fail they pass aggression on me. Lol. Just like the boy rat ate most of his seeds. Lol. I laughed and laughed. No be this business? Lol. Very easy to know failures. Defamation my foot..Lol.

See, you all may not like my style...but you will be grateful someday that I rubbished many. This is the story of Nigeria. The man who will turn Nigeria around must be brutal and stubborn, but must know how to play with diplomacy and politics. And must be able to laugh at his critics. And must be a smart person to cut his critics short. Lol. Then, the fellow must not make himself available if he wants to live long. But must always be available at the same time. Lol. These farmers here are exactly the replica of the forces which do not want to make Nigeria progressive. Just the same. Lol.

Let me stop here. I will not derail this thread, but this topic is super interesting.

Yes.