Dear members
Greetings
I hold 30 acres of land in kadapa dist. Soil test as been done and the results are attached.
I am planning for an integrated farming with dairy, guava plantation.
Can anyone help me in designing the farm like water storage tank dimensions, micro irrigation mechanisms, plant varieties etc
Regards
Veera
The way soil test result presented looks really great and complete …
The soil organic carbon is comparatively better than expected in other parts of the country that is in the range of 0.40 to 0.75 % for similar soil type …
Nothing to worry about available soil nutrient status that can be supplemented and made good through external sources …
The only concern here is soil PH that reads 8.55 and excessive sodium that in turn sure damage root growth and crop development ie stunted growth .
You need to test your water quality also for its suitability in drip system and fertigation and adminstration of suitable chemical fertilizers in drip irrigation
Another major thing to take note of is to know annual average rainfall and number of rainy days …,peak rainy season and hot summer season also count on crop performance …
One more thing that need your attention is ground water availability and its depth .,
Your soil is ALKALINE mainly due to sodium ions …when you lift water from more deeper point that also may contain bad ions , it will aggravate the crop failure …
So it is best advised to reclaim your soil to reduce the amount of sodium ions and then add combination organic mamure …compost and farmyard manue along with green manure .,
In this alkaline PH , no micronutrients will be made available to the plants and what ever other nutrients that are already seen available in soil will not also be made available to the plants
your soil physical property is excelently well but chemical property is very bad that may cost you so much .
Of course guava is a salt tolerant fruit crop but when it is consdered on commercial terms it definirely compel you to convert your soil and adopt specific planting method for the crop which you choose to grow in your land
Hi Mr ramu
Thanks for a detailed reply.
Yes I m going to test the ground water in coming days and will update u.
Would you suggest the change of soil at the plantation (in dimension of 4×4) or can I go ahead with guava plantation in the same soil by rising the bed at plantation ?
I m considering taking water bore line from near river bed.
The plan is to avoid chemicals and go for organic methods.
I m considering to amend the soil by adding gypsum,.
Can u suggest me other best practices?
Thanks
Veera
yes .if you can afford to change the top soil , wel and good .It is one time remedy .
But to change top soil to the depth of 10 cms , you need 680 MT of outside soil per acre …For 30 acres you need 20400 MT of soil …
But since you intend to grow guava that is perenial and produce extra root volume every year that grow and move across entire soil surface over the years , you can better change top soil . Another reason is that guava roots are surface feeder having more root volume say 60-70 % within top 15 cms of soil depth .
If you want to grow guava in trenches , you may also need 1/3 of above estimate of outside soil requirement …
Gypsum is nothing but CALCIUM SULPHATE that when added to soil react with Sodium ions in the soil and produce SODIUM SULPHATE that is leached gradually …For leaching soil based sodium . you need to apply gypsum and plough soil under submerged condition and then water is retained in soil for few days to escalate chemical reaction .This will produce leachable sodium sulphate that is drained out after few days of ploughing the land .But one time leaching will not amend the soil .You need to do it for 3-4 times subsequently .It is rhe reason why farmers reclaim soil and grow paddy for 2-3 seasons unil most of the salt are removed and then they start growing vegetables or fruits
Regarding drawing river water for farm use , you can build a water tank with storage capacity of 10-15 million liter and this can be fed with river water .In this way you can allow the sediment in river water settle at the bottom of storage tank and pure water can be pumped into drip system from the storage tank .
If you could not afford to incur huge expenditure on above items of work , you can make a trench and plant around 900 to 1333 plants per acre .
Bcoz the excessive salt in soil will hamper luxurius root growth .When root is impacted it will in turn reflect on poor plant canopy …
Against this odd , when we plant more numbers of guava plants in unit area It will cover the soil surface soon and more plants per acre will compensate for yield loss due to less number of guava plants registering poor growth and yield in Alkaline soil type
Later you can use more organic manure every year during subsequent cultivation of guava field
hi all , a bit off track query.
can any one help how to get the soil report in maharashtra ahmednagar .we tried at mahatma phule vidyapeth rahuri wch is close by,but had to be aftr them people didnt come and later a guy gave a hand written report ,wch we cld not uderstand stand…can i get the well printed proper report …is there any online application for soil test…pls suggest brothers
