Greetings everyone!
I have recently joined this forum, and found it very amusing and informative.
I am a farmer based in Nasik, Maharashtra, and i grow Capsicums (red,yellow,green)
Recently i did plantation for my 4300 sq mtr polyhouse with capsicums.
Thought would share my experience with you all, for your comments.
Vivek
Congratulation! and welcome aboard.
Is it possible to share cost you incurred for construction of poly house and what equipments you have installed? Please share this information from guidance point of view.
Please share the details like,
)I hope these questions will help you answer most of the queries in this regard…
hi shri,
thanks for the welcome 
i am an old farmer ( read, experience wise, not age wise 
) and both my Polyhouses are 3 yrs old.
the polyhouse cost per sq. mtr (in yr 2011 was Rs.480)
this cost includes the structure (metal pipes), the UV protection sheet, and the side & upper net curtains, and also the labour charges for the installation.
this cost must have gone high, i am sure.
also now, there are various advanced systems with a bit of an additional costs, which would definitely benefit you.
talking about equipment, the below are the details -
thats about it shri. depending on the electricity availability, you would or wouldnt need the diesel options.
if visual pics would be helpful, let me know. also if any further details are required.
Vivek
hi kedar !
thanks for your interest. lets start on your queries :
Potential markets you captured. - kedar, i’ve gown Carnations, capsicum (red,yellow,green), broccoli and lettuce iceberg. major being carnations and capsicum. for flowers, i started off by supplying an agent in dadar flower market.
currently i am focusing on capsicum only. for red and yellow capsicum, again my flower agent helped me out in mumbai. apart from that, i supply a lot of my produce to local hotels, restaurants, exotic vegetable sellers.
the local market itself is huge. and also dont limit yourself to the original product, try doing some value addition to get better rewards.
now my last product being green capsicum, i sell it in the local vegetable mandi. (nasik mandi has a huge requirement)
Costs incurred. - both my site are 3 yrs old. but to give you an idea, the same are below -
Whew ! i am sure i must’ve missed out on something.
Life of this crop and total production expected. - different people have different answers, they only know the truth. my experience says that the life time of capsicum is 20 days germination, and than around an year after plantation. could vary depending on conditions. about production. again i’ve heard stories of people taking out so much production which makes me wonder. my actual production was 7.3 kg/sq mtr (good quality) and 1.2 kg/sq mtr (second quality)
Expected profit ( if you are comfortable sharing true figures ) - you said expected kedar, so theres no limit
Type of soil and changes done if any… - i’ve used a mixture of red soil, rice husk, POITA (soil which i got while the dam was being deepened), cow dung, neem cakes (pend)
oh damn… i have to go out kedar…
but i’ll definitely get back to you once i m back.
Vivek
Thanks Vivek. This is really helpful information.
kedar, to answer your left out questions,
Avg water requirement per day - the type of mixture and soil, i have keeps the water holding. meaning the water holding capacity is excellent. honestly speaking, i do not have a drop of water in my farm from march till the rains start. i have an artificial water pond with the capacity of 75 lakh litres. which was hardly used 30% last year.
considering the drip discharge and time, and my data, an average of 1 litre / plant is required for me. plz note that the requirement changes at various stages of the plant life, and also depending on the climate conditions.
Number of people employed and avg salaries… - as i shared earlier, my polyhouse is of 4350 sq mtr. i have two regular labours. i only get additional labour on daily wages for tying the plants. thats only it. rest all spraying, harvesting, packing is done by my two labors and myself.
average salaries for my male labor is Rs.230/day and the female labor is Rs.200/day. accommodation and incentives are different.
Right time to start plantation…- sooner the better. just consider the production starting phase and try to match it with the time when demand is high. during marriage times or festive seasons. capsicum can be planted anytime of the year. just keep the market demand and when will the production start.
Steps to maintain temperature… - this majorly depends on the location of your site. and the surrounding conditions. to keep the temperature low, i wet the walkways and the side walls of the bed. i’ve also seen people put news paper on the side walls of the polyhouse, to block the light, or apply some sort of cheap water washable paint.
in winter times, light bulbs can be used to warm the temperature, but than i’ve only read. never tried. never had to.
Trainings you took - i did attend few trainings organized by government bodies, pvt firms. visited a lot of farmers. i thought i got it all, but the real knowledge comes when u spend time, do things yourself, and keep doing research. also discussing with others helps a lot.
as water is not available at my site after the month of February till the rain starts, i have made this artificial pond with geo-membrane lining.
capacity is 75 lakh litre.
Very nice and complete setup, thanks for sharing Viks!
hi chandra,
thankyou for your support.
you are a farmer yourself… plz do tell about your activities.
Vivek
SIDE EFFECTS OF A STRONG SPRAY
i have planted marigold in,mid, and end of all the beds. this is mainly with the purpose of keeping sucking pests away. also as marigold plants are very sensitive and give the quickest response to pesticides and fertilization.
here are two pics, one of the capsicum plant, where there is crinkling, in the new shootings.
and second of marigold plant, where there is scorching in leaves.
this tells me loud and clear that i need to take it easy on my pesticide sprays
Hi Viks,
Thanks for your valuable information, by the way I am a software engineer working in Bangalore, now i am planning to move to my village and start vegetable cultivation. My father already runs a small dairy with nearly 20 cows, and I am planning to expand it also and want to make best utilization of available resources like set up a biogas plant with the waste we get from animals and use the waste from biogas plant to create vermicompost, and utilize this vermicompost in our feilds.( This is my Plan, hoping to make it success)
Now after going through your post, I was really amazed the way you had set up. Please find some time to answer my questions.
Thanks in advance and appreciate your good work.
Cheers,
Suresh.
Very good information to all forum members,
I would like to ask one more question to Viks, Sir, Pl tell us the that how many harvests can be made in year.I.e. intervals days for each harvest period and if planted in June, how much quantity can produced from one acre of cultivation, from each harvest till end of the crop.
BRREDDY
Kavali
Would love to know about multi cropping in polyhouse instead of monocropping.
r seshaadri,
tumkur
Hi viks
Iam sareeta from kolhapur.Thanks 4 sharing that much important
information to us again I want to know that govt giving any subsidy for
POLYHOUSE.
Sareeta
Hi Vivek,
thanks a lot for sharing so much useful information with the forum .
You have provided all the details that everyone interested in polyhouse is looking for .
Please keep sharing all the knowledge and guide the members .
Thanks & regards,
Prashant
Dear Suresh,
Horticulture dept would provide subsidy assistance to my knowledge. However, please do meet them and enquire from others if polyhouse would work in VSP area. Especially try to chat with folks who tried and wound them up, not to discourage you but to make you aware before you put in a major investment.
From what I heard, due to the high humidity and increasing temperatures, polyhouse is not working out well in VSP area and people have wound up their operations. Please do not take my word for it and enquire around. I would love to hear and have you prove that it is not the case. Please do enquire quite a bit and arrive at your decision. From what I see with farming ventures (especially for us passionate techies trying to foray into agriculture) like most other things first try to make sure your principal is decently secured before looking for returns. Good luck.
Jai Hind
Raj
hi suresh,
glad to know about your existing activities and future plans
having a vertical setup for making compost from cow dung will be really useful for you. all cow (waste) should be used for farming. its not waste for us tough
ok, about your queries -
I live in Andhra Pradesh near Visakhapatnam(where temperature in summer touches 42 and in winter touches 10), can i create a greeen house same as yours. - Suresh, you can make a polyhouse anywhere. but you will have to take extra care and precautions to maintain the proper conditions for the plants (say temperature,humidity,flux etc) depending on your conditions. during summer time, even i have problems of temperature crossing 45 degree. but then i wet the walkways etc. Growers like us, who don’t have ideal conditions, have to put in extra pain and efforts to create them.
temperature can be increased in winter times, by electrical bulbs (running cost high), or by the help of compost (more suitable for you as you have cows), this will give the best nutrients to your plants, as well keep the temperature warm.
Can i get some help from local horticulture department. - OFCOURSE you will suresh, thats why they are there. there are both central and state government departments to promote, guide about this. the central body is called “National Horticulture Board” and state level body is “National Horticulture Mission”. your a software person, so i m sure you know what to do now just google, and go through. they have some projects for dairy farming also.
As it Involves more investment, what may be the time i can get back my investment( positively if everything goes well and good with my work) - honestly, this is a very tricky question. considering that everything goes well and good with your work, you will have rewards (ROI) in about 2-3 years.
then again, there are times, if when you plan properly, you can have your returns within an year also.
For how many years you are cultivating the crop( i think we need to do some plant rotation to keep the fertility of the soil) - i have two polyhouse. first polyhouse had carnations for 2.5 yrs, then i grew broccoli and lettuce iceberg for 2 months, and now color capsicum. where as my second polyhouse, i’ve grown capsicum only.
i add a lot of cow compost and helping bacteria to keep the soil rich with nutrients. plus there are traditional ways where you use cow milk, jaggery, gram flour to replenish the micro nutrients in the soil.
Have you took some initial training or help from some one, please let me know i will try to get the same. - curiosity and interest is what you need suresh. they’ll lead you. i did some training by gov. and pvt firms. which were quiet useful. but the real knowledge comes from doing things yourself and spending resources (time and energy)
discussing with people always helps. there are lots of people out there who share your interest and are very happy and excited to share their knowledge/experience.
thats about it for now suresh. we can always have further discussions.
plz do tell me about your current activities, more about your cow project. i also am very interested in having a small dairy, as the by-products are very useful for farming.
Vivek
Greetins Mr.Reddy,
i would love it if you just address me as Vivek
for this, lets say the polyhouse is 1 acre and color capsicums are planted (red & yellow)
the first harvest should be ready between 110-120 days after plantation. the fruits become ready (size wise) in about 80-90 days and are green in color, it takes another 10-15 days for the colour to start changing.
there are different phases in the plant life, its a pattern. the flowers are converted into fruits. we know that. so to keep a plant with continuous flowering, fruiting, there are certain steps, fertilizers etc. my harvests are twice in a week. i prefer this as it takes time for the plants to process the fertilizers, i give after/before harvesting for development of new shootings, flowering, ripening of raw fruit, weight and size gain for raw fruits etc.
so its you who has to decide on the harvest pattern. one can have it weekly, alternate days also. these all depend on your daily work routine, labour availibility, market etc.
my actual production was 7.3 kg/sq mtr (good quality) and 1.2 kg/sq mtr (second quality) in my last crop.
Harvest wise details would be difficult here as i had a total of 107 harvests.
there are people who claim higher output. so i am putting in extra efforts, and using last times experience for this times plantation.
lets keep our discussion alive.
Vivek
Greetings Mr. R Seshaadri,
multi cropping is a very very interesting. every type of plant has some benefits and drawbacks.
i am sure you are aware of this all as you are familiar with multi cropping and must have done a lot of reading/research on this.
my major production is in capsicum, second being mangoes. i’ve planted marigold along with capsicums. the region where i am located is heavily infected with virus and has resulted in huge loss for our community here. so i planted marigold with the purpose to keep the sucking pests away. also i’ve planted corn all around of my poly-house from the outside.
this is with the aim of keeping pests away. not for production.
the purpose why one is doing multi cropping is important. is it for production purpose or for supporting and aiding both the type of crops, soil enrichment ? etc.
as far as mangoes are concerned, i grow beans as they enrich the soil.
i am sorry as i have limited knowledge to capsicum and mangoes, and supporting crops for them only.
i too would love to experiment further on this topic.
plz share your knowledge on this as well.
Vivek
