Suggestion needed on vegetable and fruits planted in my farm

Farm Questions
1

Dear All,

As most of you might be knowing. I have already planted vegetables and fruits in my farm. These days I am facing problem related with the growth of the fruits plants and leaves eater insect in the vegetables plants.

My fruits plants are getting yellow in color and dying and my vegetables plants leaves are being eaten by a small insect of orange in color, kindly read this post and suggest some measure.

[url=http://www.rameshwari.com/2012/09/fruit-and-vegetable-plantation-at.html]http://www.rameshwari.com/2012/09/fruit-and-vegetable-plantation-at.html[/url]

Start the video at 1.00 minute and 10 minutes. To watch the insect video, watch this video youtube.com/watch?v=J2bkJ665VPw

As my farm is completely natural so I would like to apply all natural measure (without chemical).

Thanks and looking forward to hear from fellow members.

2

Yellowing of leaves could be due to Magnesium and Zinc.

I guess even in natural farming, one needs to add organic fertilizers (cover crops, organic matter, animal/bird excreta etc) initially. Fukuoka himself has mentioned this in his book ‘One straw revolution’. What I feel is that till the time the soil structure is improved and has enough organic carbon/humus, one may need to add these “external inputs”.

I would also suggest that you take up a smaller patch of land (may be coconut) and start giving it organic fertilizers like cowdung/urine, compost etc and see if it is makes any difference in terms of reviving the plants/trees.

Good luck
Biju

3

Thanks Biju,

Do you think that Goat dung is effective. I might get a tractor full of dung wondering if this would be fine for the fruits trees and vegetables plants.

4

Goat dung will definitely help. I have seen many people in Hassan, Mandya and Mysore district of Karnataka use goat manure in coconut and sugar cane fields.

I am also in the process of of reviving my coconut trees (they were neglected for the past few years) and have been using general dose of cow dung. Couple of months back I had the care taker apply river silt too to the base of each and every coconut tree.

Basically what I intend to mention here is use of any type of organic manure/compost will help to improve the soil structure there by micro organisms which in turn will ensure the plants get their daily dose of their ‘food’. To become 100% natural farmer it will take few years I guess. ie the soil structure to improve and have abundance of ready made fertilizer in it to be available for plants is going to take time and initial supply of organic manure/organic matter will definitely help.

Another things that you may want to try is ‘compost tea’ or ‘jeevamrutha’ or ‘pachagavya’. I personally have been using compost tea in my home garden and it seems to be very effective.

I started my home garden exactly 2 and a half years back and the type of soil was ‘clay’ initially. There was no life in the soil. After adding compost and using compost tea and adding composted chicken manure, I was able to revive the soil to a great extend. Currently I can go a good 12 inch deep and still find porous soil.

Happy farming
Biju

5

Thanks Biju, I still do not have cow and wondering there is any cow nearby my farm. I myself is planning to buy a cow for my farm but it may take sometime.

As you might have seen in the video, there are a lot of grasses in my farm and I am going to keep them as it is. Also have plan to cut some grasses and apply as heavy mulch around my fruits trees that would perhaps revive the living organism nearby the tree and help them grow. If you have any other great thing to do with these grasses let me know.

May be after few months from now have plan to cut those grasses and make compost. Have learnt something this first year hopefully 2nd and 3rd year will also have many lesson and 4th year onward will start actually harvesting the fruits of natural farming.

Thanks

6

hi Sheo, also you may want to have a look at this blog post
[url=http://www.farming-experiments.blogspot.in/2011/07/few-experiments-with-sun-hemp.html]http://www.farming-experiments.blogspot.in/2011/07/few-experiments-with-sun-hemp.html[/url]

purushottam

7

Hi whiteClover,

Thanks for pointing to this blog, looks great. I will follow this.

Regards

8

the blogger, Mr Nandanan, is a farmnest member too.
I came to know about him, through these posts
[url=http://farmnest.com/forum/natural-farming-organic-farming/is-organic-farming-natural-farming-practical/msg480/#msg480]http://farmnest.com/forum/natural-farming-organic-farming/is-organic-farming-natural-farming-practical/msg480/#msg480[/url]
[url=http://farmnest.com/forum/new-trends-in-farming/agriculture-to-grow-bigger-than-software/msg2909/#msg2909]http://farmnest.com/forum/new-trends-in-farming/agriculture-to-grow-bigger-than-software/msg2909/#msg2909[/url]

regards,
purushottam

9

None other than adding organic fertilizers, and you can ask organic produce companies for organic fertilizer names.

10

We are URGENTLY in need of Pinapple suckers for my Land near Hyderabad,Andhrapradesh.Can anybody supply the same for TWO Acres of Land.