I want to start vegetable plantation near visakhapatnam. The farmers there say that area is not good for vegetation due pest problems.I heard that ZBNF method suggest some kind of plants like tulasi etc to control pests in the farm. I want to clarify regarding practicality of such plants.
If any of our members actually implemented ZBNF methods layer crop plantation with varieties like tulasi to control pests in the farm. Please share your knowledge and experiences.
If there is any farmer near or around visakhapatnam district following and implementing ZBNF successful, I request your goodself to give me one opportunity to witness ZBNF implementation.
The information chandra sir gave is very good but I want to hear about its practical results where I cannot experiment everything in farming as a starter.
I want some more comments from natural/organic farmers. I want to grow my crops without using any sort of chemicals in/on the farm.
the right way to grow any crop would be keep the plants away from pests by a proper management.
chemicals or no chemicals that is not the answer.
in our management of pests we do not use any companion plants etc.,
but follow a good management practice right before sowing.
When you are getting into Natural farming. It may not work initially. you will have to hold on. There are no shortcuts.
(Not just that you will have to use all native variety of seeds- I will give you a example - If you just feed grass and hay along with some oil cake to a high milk yielding cow it will not work, she depletes a lot of nutrients and minerals) Same goes with hybrid seeds, their requirement is high.
Companion plants are a good idea. Although I have not yet tried. because we have a lot of wild tree which act as buffer. But my crops also get damaged. Its more of improving the soil and plants will thrive.
You can use cows urine along with other herbs to tackle pest.
Natural farming is all about trial and error and you learn what works best for you.
My Tulsi plants also get eaten by grass hoppers and so far I have not found any effective way. but when I spray cows urine they disappear for a day and then come back.
If you or some one around you knows to read almanac (panchanga). then you can easily tackle pest.
thumb rule (through out India traditionally farmers did this) always plant or soak seeds day after no moon for coming 5 days, after which you should not plant. Now there are some nakshatras which you should avoid and even Karanam(animals), horse, tiger etc are considered best when boar, rats and other animals you should not plant. I don’t have a clear picture on this so I am not writing it here(complete list). But I have the list written down from a elderly person. If any astrologer on the forum please comment.
If you have such a list written by an authentic person please share it with a disclaimer.
Some of us are interested in experimenting and then we can ll share the results. This will help to atleast provide statistical data to ancient methods, even if we are not in a position to prove the science behind it.
Such data is very precious please do not allow it to be lost in time !
Marigold is often mentioned as one option as it reportedly attracts pests away from main crop. Research papers also note that french varieties of marigold help suppress soil nematodes. I haven’t yet tried planting it myself so unfortunately can’t give first hand results but you could try asking other farmers if they have tried marigold for this purpose.