Showing posts with label Farm update. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Farm update. Show all posts

Thursday 30 July 2020

ABCD farming Farm update June 2020 and July 2020

Sorry guys, I would able to post the last Month farm update i.e June 2020. 

Please refer the YouTube video. For farm update June 2020.





In June 2020, we harvested we harvested cow pea four times. In each harvest it yielded approximately 10 to 12 kgs of cow pea pods. The cow pea seeds were planted in four rows. The length of each row is 70 to 65 feet approximately. We have harvested the okra often, which was sown in between cow pea plants

A part of cow pea harvest are used for consumption. Few of them are dried to save seeds for adding to sambars in future, few of them are shared to nearby neighbours. 

Turkey berry, Brinjal, curry leaves plants, bottle gourd, okra, pigeon pea, Tomato seedlings (sankarametta variety), Jasmine, Hibiscus, Gauva plants are all grown well.

The moringa stem cuttings are yet to sprout. The cucumber giant native variety, flowers bloomed and having small fruits. But they are getting spoiled due to the stagnant of water. Ridge gourd didn't grown well. I saved the seeds of ridge gourd from hybrid variety. Maybe that would be the reason regarding. 

The chilly saplings which were transplanted near the cow pea plants have thrived well. Until now I didn't observed any diseases in these chilly plants.

The perrineal chilly is growing slowly, waiting patiently. I would not able to understand them.

When I observed pests in cow pea plants, I sprayed only fermented buttermilk solution mixed with water in the ratio 1:10 . After speaking, I observed little reduction in pests but not completely. Didn't applied any other manures. 

You can view the video here



Farm update July 2020

In July 2020, I have cut down the cow pea plants and okra plants as the harvesting has completed. After cutting down the cow pea plants, I observed the chilly transplants which are planted near the cow pea have really thrived well under them. 

The Bottle gourd plant which was planted at the last row has been spoiled. Don't know the reason. The chilly transplants are doing good.

Turkey berry (sundakkai) plant, pigeon pea, Tomato seedlings (sankametta variety), Jasmine, Hibiscus, Gauva are all growing well. 

The cucumber giant native variety grown well but the fruit buds are falling down. I enquired with few people, they suggested to sow in summer season. In the moringa stem cuttings, still I didn't observed leaves... Yet to wait...!

In another plot, this time sown okra seeds (hybrid seeds). I Didn't have more native okra seeds for sowing. Okra grown upto one feet tall.

Sown few native varieties Beans Black seed, srilankan beans, snake gourd, Sittu parangikkai (பரங்கிக்காய்), cucumber Dharwad green variety, etc... Beans Black seed sprouts destroyed due to some leaf miners. Three sprouts survived. Only one sittu parangikai பரங்கிக்காய் out of five seeds has survived. 

Tomato sankarametta variety seed which I sown, started to flower. I flower is different from other varities. The flower is large and oval spherical in shape.

You can see the flowering of tomato sankarametta variety in the video.





In perrineal Brinjal plants, I saw few pests. One of the pest which is in brown colour is making heavy damage to the stem of brinjal plants. These pests sit on the node of flowering bud of brinjal plant and they just eat them. I sprayed buttermilk solution mixed with water. The pests have reduced but not completely. The green and black color worms have considerably reduced. But these brown bugs are not reduced completely. You can see this brown bug in the video..you can give suggestions regarding..!




Finally, the video of ABCD farming farm update JULY 2020 will be updated soon. You can subscribe our YouTube channel for updates. #abcdfarming #farmupdate








Monday 4 May 2020

Farm Update April 2020

This month April 2020, we didn't grown much for the farmer markets.

We grown few bottle gourds, okra, cucumber for the Kitchen.


These are bottle gourds round variety which are growing well.

This month we setup a small plot for food security nearly 5 to 6 cents. We planted cow pea, pigeon pea, Ber tree seeds, purple beans, curry leaf, Jasmine flower plants and hibiscus flower plants.

Sown chilly kanthri variety and brinjal green variety  seeds in a small bunds for saplings propagation. After getting saplings will transplant to the raised bed.


First the ber tree seeds, second the brinjal green variety seeds, third the chilli kanthri variety seeds.

Need to mention the chilli kanthri variety seeds. You can harvest chillies for two years. First color of this chilly will be white, when it ripes it turn to red. Moreover it is more spicy than other chillies.




The purple beans which yields beans in high quantity and it is a dwarf and short term crop of about 2 months.



10 rows for food security


Would like to sow seeds of perrineals and trees as much as I can in this plot.


Tuesday 31 March 2020

Farm update March 2020

In March 2020, in farm we had Bottle gourd and coriander for harvest. The prices of the Bottle gourd were ranging from RS 60 to RS 80.



 Everything was normal upto March 20th 2020. Due to coronavirus outbreak all over India, the transportation affected. Most of the Vegetable merchants stopped trading. Transportion stopped between districts and states after the 21 days lockdown announcement.

 We waited for local vendors to sell, but in vain. So, we decided to uproot the bottle gourd plants.

 Coriander, we sold for 1/4th of the price in market.


Precautions to be followed to overcome Coronavirus:

• Everyone be Hygenic and help each other who is in need.

• Maintain social distance.

• While sneezing or cough, use hand kerchief nor cough on bent elbow.

• Reduce touching your eyes and nose using your hands.

• Wash your hands with sanitizer very often.

• Without an Emergency call, don't travel to crowded places.

• Always use Masks on outdoors.

• If you have severe cough, dry throat contact the emergency helpline no: 1075 (toll free) or  011 - 23978046


Thursday 5 March 2020

Sweet potato grown from root slices

Finally succeeded in growing sprouts from the sweet potato cuttings.
Failed in few attempts.



Method we followed to grow sweet potato sprouts:

* Purchased sweet potato from the local farmer market nearby.
* Made sweet potato into few pieces with nodes using knife.
* Folded the sweet potato peices with wet gunny bag.
* Left it until we saw little green sprout on the nodes.
* After that planted in the soil. (Loosen the soil before planting)
* The below image showing 20 days sprout after transplanting.
* This was the big peice of sweet potato, thus many nodes with sprouts.

Methods which have failed

* Purchased sweet potato in market and made into peices by hand. After that
directly covered root with top soil. watered the roots. But didnt grown. They
have wilted and decomposed. Dont know might be due to rain or tight soil or due
to slugs.

Edit: didn't grown well due to eucalyptus tree shade in summer.

Farm update February 2020

Farm update

The prices of the vegetables including bottle gourd decreased. Few resources say it's due to coronavirus. Thus, no exports or imports.

Bottle gourd price decreased to 60 RS per bag. The arrival of bottle gourd to Retail vegetable market also increased. Would not able to sell a bag to 60 RS in local markets.

Seed Saving

This February saved Brinjal and Okra seeds.

Extracting Brinjal (green) seeds will take long time. Need patience. The seeds will be sticky. Often add some water to your hands while extracting. After extracting the seeds, dry them under the shade. After drying, take a seed and try to break. If it is brittle, you are ready to save it in a bottle. If it does not breaks easily, you still need to dry under the shade. This variety is a drought tolerant. Planted 2 feet sapling on September 2018, still yielding but low in quantity. Found this sapling nearby the farm. At beginning, it took more time for yielding.



Saving the Okra (white purple) seeds is easy. See the okra plants, if any okra is dried, yo can pluck it and save in bottle. It can also be grown under shade. We grown this variety under bottle gourd shade. This variety is drought tolerant. It can grow to the maximum height of 4 to 5.5 feet.



Both the seeds are available for seed swap. Both are native varieties. So, only native varieties for swap. Kindly message us through the FB messenger at the top right corner of the website, if you are in desktop mode or visit contact us page to message us.

#seedswap #abcdfarming #okra #brinjal