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

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How to avoid cross pollination between two varieties

Cross Pollination

Cross pollination is pollination that happens between plants, where the pollen from the male part of a plant pollinates the female flower of another plant. This process  can happen naturally or it can be induced. Cross pollination of different types of plants happens when two types of closely related plants pollinate each other, for example: Two different types of green leaf vegetables, two different types of corn, or a pumpkin plant and a squash plant. If this happens, the seed that is produced may be good, but more often the seed will be weaker than the parent plants, or may not grow at all when planted. Therefore, it is best to avoid cross pollination happening.

Here green variety zucchini cross pollinated with yellow variety zucchini.

By the same way cross pollination occurs in most of the vegetables. Some of them are pumpkin, brinjal, bottlegourd, cucumber, etc....

A few techniques for reducing the chance of different types of plants cross pollinating:

• Plant one type of crop each planting season. For example, one type of corn or one type of eggplant

• Green leaf vegetables, lettuce and cabbage flower at the end of their life. Let only one type of green vegetable, one type of lettuce, or one type of cabbage reach the stage to flower and produce seeds

• If different types of plants are further apart, and many other plants are planted in between them, the chances of cross pollination are reduced

• Hand pollination, such as of pumpkins, melons, luffa and cucumber will allow you to choose the type of seed which will be produced

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Reducing Mosquito problems

Mosquitos are the major problem nowadays. On rainy season, the population of the Mosquitos increase due to various factors. The Mosquitos are one which causes dengue and transfer diseases from one person to another. The medicine for dengue is present in nature. The doctors advice to take the papaya leaves syrup at the early morning to reduce the symptoms of dengue. Here, let us discuss about a topic on how to reduce Mosquitos problems in our surroundings.

Extra water during the wet season can be stored in ponds or banana pits by using trenches and swales. This will prevent stagnant water forming on the ground, so that mosquitoes will only be able to lay their eggs inside the pond. Fish, frogs, lizards and insects that live in and around the pond will eat the mosquito eggs and larva in the water. Because of this mosquitoes will reduce in number, and hence the risk mosquito spread disease will also be reduced. These insects and small creatures will also eat some of the pests that feed on your vegetables.

Other ways of handling mosquito problems:

• Don’t leave water stagnant in open places, cover all water tanks and containers.
• Treat waste water properly.
• Keep small fish (tilapia are best) in containers of water that will be used for washing, not in water that will be used for drinking, they will eat mosquito larva.
• Keep fish in rice paddies to eat mosquito larva.
• Prune off old banana leaves regularly, because mosquitoes like to stay there.
• Add neem leaf regularly to every pond.
• For compost pits, soak a handful of neem leaves in a bucket for 2 days, then pour some liquid with the neem leaves into every compost pit. Repeat this every 3 months.

#mosquitoproblems #mosquito #dengue #stopdengue

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Seed Testing how it's done for selecting quality seeds

Seed Testing

Seeds can be tested to find out how many will grow. When testing seeds for personal use, place the seeds in a container of water. The seeds that sink are the good ones to be planted, the seeds that float are the bad ones and should be thrown out. Usually, almost all of the seeds will sink. For seeds that will be sold or exchanged, it is better to test them first to find out what percentage of the seeds will germinate and grow. This viability rate can then be written on the packets. There are a few methods to test this, one is to count a number of seeds (for example, 50 bean seeds), then plant those seeds and count how many grow (for example, only 40 seeds grew). Divide the amount of seeds that grew by the amount of seeds that were planted to find the percentage of beans that grow (40 : 50 = 0.8). This number is then multiplied by 100% (so the result is 80%). So, the viability rate of these seeds is 80%.

When conducting this test it is important to make sure the soil mixture used is of the best quality. Take good care of the seeds and protect them from pests, such as snails and ants. The test must continue until the seeds have passed the germination phase. The seedlings can then be planted in the ground.

#seedtesting #goodseeds 

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