Dear All,
I am from Hyderabad and planning to enter into vegetable farming. Having little knowledge of farming. I am planning to start drumstick farming project in 1 acre and slowly increase to 5 acres. If any one here having good experience with this project pls share the knowledge i.e. soil types, drumstick verities , cultivation methods, water requirement & management, viability of the project etc and any other related information. pls do needfull. vamraj @ re dif fmail . com
Dear Vamraj sir, welcome to your decision of entering to vegetable cultivation.
Your first question, soil types , except Water stagnation soils and rocky/boulder soils, all other soils with normal ph and ec are good. Good EC water source is advantageous for crop.
2nd question, regarding varieties, there are so many varieties. Mainly you have to select either you want annual Moringa/Drumstick or Perennual. In annual Moringa, there is one variety named PKM 1,which is released by TNAU,Periyakulam, Coimbattore, doing very good,in performance,good yielding and with good market acceptance.
In perennual varieties, there are around 3 or 4 varieties, Bhagya,released by Dharwad agri university, another named by Rohit-1,released by balasaheb Marale, of nashik, maharashtra and another pavm, released by sri Alagara swamy of dindigal etc are performing well and nicely accepted by several markets of south India.
Hope this gives you an idea. Regarding cultivation methods, pl go to some moringa growing farms and observe.If you have any specific doubts, pl ask and some of us will clear to the extent possible.
with best wishes, g.p.rao, farmer
Hope this gives y
What of its medicinal and commercial ,pharma demands? I think there is a demand for the pulp for preparing mediines.
Anyone can throw some light on this and its potential?
Heena
@Vamraj
Try PKM 1.
plan to get product between dec to feb where u can get max price.
I am doing PKM 1 in 15 acres
@ Hina
Drumstick leaf power is now called as super food in USA. It is very rich in minerals, vitamins , antioxidants etc.
One of the popular tea brand is mixing this and claiming it as herbal health tea.
Drumstick leaf is very popular in Africa and WHO is propagating the intensive cultivation in Senegal Ghana and other countries.
Drumstick seeds are made as powder and given as antioxidant capsules in Korea and Japan.
Drumstick seed oil - it was called as Bern oil and was used in Watch making industries in Switzerland because of its low viscosity.
Now it is a major ingredient in all antioxidant and mineral supplements in the pharma industry.
Unfortunately Indian product got lot of bad image because of the pesticide content and foreign material.
The Awareness of Moringa ( drumstick ) in India is very minimal and usage is minuscule.
Thank you Bhayya PKM 2 is Marketable Variety. PKM 2 is not suitable for Market because it is Longer and not attract the Customers. Moreover PKM 2 is Improved variety than that of PKM 1 removing the disadvantages of PKM 1.
It is better to go for PKM 2 which is Marketable variety.
MANNE SN,Vasudha Green Farms,
vasudhagreenfarms@gmail.com,
9133498366,
Hyderabad,Telangana.
Dear Mr. Manne,
I was confused with your suggestion, you said " PKM 2 is Marketable Variety" vs " PKM 2 is not suitable for Market " vs “Moreover PKM 2 is Improved variety than that of PKM 1 " vs " It is better to go for PKM 2 which is Marketable variety.”
So which one you recommend PKM 1 or PKM 2 ??
VAMSI
Dear Sir,
Thankyou for your valuable suggestion, what is the space you maintained for this PKM1 ( 6X6 or 9X9), what is the yield you are expecting per acre and where is your farm located ?
Thankyou,
vamsi
Dear Vamsi sir, PKM1 and PKM 2. In the above two, PKM 1 is very well established, ( practically observed ) had,has and have good marketability, and good yielder also. Seed is also available at all most all govt universities and agri institutes.
As far as PKM 2, It is a well developped variety, as stated by TNAU, allmost double yield than PKM 1. It was learnt that it needs more and uninterepted water supply. Also learnt that it is not much accepeted by markets as its length is very much more, not handy.
Apart from above, I found that PKM 2 seed is also not easily available. I was trying from so many years/times with TNAU dept, and also with IIHR also, but invain. Pl also clarify me,whether I am wright or not.
I request if any one is having authorised PKM 2 seed, pl spare me for 1 acre, on cost payment. pl send a PM to g.p.rao
g.p.rao, farmer
Dear vamsi,
i have started in 3 acres near keesara, rr dist , hyd. brought seeds from shops at hyderguda. 4 various company seeds some are local variety and others r pkm1. directly kept seeds during 10th of this june month. germination in this method is less 50-60 % . seed rate is less and i took this risk.
plantation gap i searched online and i found at tnau 55 feet and few companies suggesting 7 or 8 feet. to occupy more seeds i went with 55. you can get roughly 4000 seeds in 1 kg (varies upon varieties). first buy 100g packet and count the seeds and after that go for required qty order.
Vamsi 
I have gone for 2 meters x 2 meters spacing and i have done inter cropping of guards ie pumpkin and yellow cucumber (Dosa).
Results were encouraging.
you have to do two prunings in PKM 1 to get more branches .
Even though PKM 1 gives one inch size dia pods ( 145 gr average), market wants only one cm dia pods (75gr average weight) .
The dont buy bigger dia pods in the market even though they have good edible flesh.
PKM 1 drops flowers heavily during rains .
Any pod above 2 feet market dont accept. thats why PKM 2 is not popular even though it is better version than PKM 1
Thank you vamsi garu for this information. What is the price per kg for local and for PKM 1 in Hyderguda? Few days back my cousin bought 4 kg PKM1 SEED @Rs.1400/KG. In your case Germination rate is very low might be because of poor quality seeds, normally germination rate will be around 80%. Do you have enough ground water in your land? 5x5 space is not recommended, at least 7X7 is idle. app 500 to 600 plants per acre is idle. can you post few pics ?
Hi everyone
I planning half acre PKM-1 and Half acre Rohit-1 variety. Where I will get the seeds from authentic shop near by Pune? If any address or contact number is there please share.
Check with experts before planting multiple verities in same farm. They may get cross pollinated.
HI All,
Can some one throw some light on the life of the plant (PKM1 or any other), because I heard that you start getting yield in six months and the life is 3 to 4 years.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Thanks
VK
Hi Vamsi,
I brought 100 grams packing packets. Price for local packing is Rs200 ( kg 2000 rs ) . pkm1 i brought from 2500 to 3750 rs ( 3 companies ) .
I am expecting around 80% germination. I sowed from 11th of june till 21st so still seeds are popping out.
Ground water is less at my farm. But still taking the risk.
Yes anything above 7*7 will be good. Checked the below link for high density plantation
agritech.tnau.ac.in/horticulture … ringa.html
Sill the plants are very small covered with weeds. De-weeding is going on … after that i will post you photos.
Dear Venu sir, PKM 1 gives very good ,fantastic quality yield till 3 years, if proper fertiliser schwdule is maintained properly. Another 2 more years also it gives pods but not that vigourasly and quality will be little poor and yield also comparitively less.
We should not forget that PKM 1 is a annual variety.
g.p.rao, farmer
Dear Farmer friends, TNAU, periyakulam, coimbattore ( vegetable division ) and IIHR, Hassargatta, Bengaluru are selling yhe pkm1 seed @ Rs 1,600/- per kg.
g.p.rao, farmer
Thank you Bhayya,
Sorry for the mistakenly posted.PKM 2 is the Best Marketable variety.
Thanks for useful information on Dru stick
Hina