Today we will look into some more tips.

About watering…. You shold water your plants daily if you area is a hotter…if it’s a humid area then it will be okay if you water on consequent days. The best time to water is usually in the morning, because mornings are cool, without strong winds, this also results in less loss of water as evaporation.  Some people say watering in the evening makes your plant bed damp overnight and are likely to be damaged by fungal or bacterial attack…but my experience is watering in the evening also makes your plants more healthy. This may depend upon the place you live if it’s not too hot in your area it would be better watering in the morning, otherwise it will be good decision to water in the evenings too if you area is hot.

Try watering the roots not the greenery…. as they are easily damaged, or if you monetary side is good and you don’t have ample time to water daily a drip system can work great. Nowadays these are easily available in market and you can install it yourself.

If you could harvest rainwater for your plants that would be great.

As we have said before weeding is most important.  Some use wood chips on the mud floor to reduce the growth of weeds, but this can be costly and you would not like to spend too much on your backyard farm.

If your plants are attacked by pests it may be a sign of some other problems also, you should make sure they are getting enough sunlight, air and nutrients.  If you could practice with different types of plants or crops in your garden it would limit the pets to some extent. If there is a pest attack and you farm has only one kind of crop this will be easy for the pets. A diverse farm help prevent pests, by limiting the amount of one type of plant offered to enemies, and boosting biodiversity.

It is also a good procedure to foster natural predators in your farm like frogs, toads, lizards or birds. Beneficial insects can be your best friends. Some type of bugs are very useful in some particular types of vegetables, that we will discuss in coming posts.

There are a lot of organic weapons that disrupts the digestion of caterpillars and other leaf eaters. You can also use horticultural oils, insecticidal soaps, garlic sprays etc. some of them are readily available in the market. Most of them you can make it by yourself. I will give you a brief description about making effective garlic sprays and other organic pesticides which I have used in my farm and proved useful !

About harvesting …when it’s time for harvesting harvest your crop in equal intervals, like tomatoes harvesting makes them to fruit more and some of them give more new sprouts.  During the harvesting time if you see some sick plants just remove them from your farm as they can make harm to others.

Some Important Practises

Develop a regular habit of checking your small fields daily for any kind of emerging weeds. These are a nuisance to your hard work. If you catch them young it will save you a lot of work and headache. They are easy to pull up during their sprouting stage. They sprought out daily with great strength as we have put a strong foundation for healthy plant growth.

Just spend a little time say 15 - 20 minutes daily inspecting your plants, this will help you pull out the useless weeds and also look for any type of pest attacks too. Missing a day of spending some minutes in your farm wont’ harm much, but if you are away for more than a week......then I suggest please forget about it. Besides, one of the most interesting part of your daily visit is being surprised by the growth of your plants....you would never believe the climbers progress.

Another important thing is Being Too Organic.

Organic plant’s have their own way of taking care of themselves...but that doesn't give excuses for us to be careless. Even organic plants require pest control and fertilizer. Never neglect these two things. Try using inorganic chemicals. I’ll describe in coming posts how you can create you homemade pesticides briefly.

Slowly you will become an expert on which plants to grow in which season, what are their specialties and what type of organic pesticides they need and which one will thrive this hot summer.

Never over plant your farm. Being overambitious and over planting could lead to unpleasant results.

Like humans plants too need some space to thrive to the climatic conditions, moreover a little space between them slows down the process in the course of a pest attack. You could easily get in between them to volunteer their progress also... if they have ample space. When your plants get mature they need some space to bear their fruits also.

As I have mentioned above some flowers like marigold can be planted in between the vegetables...some of them have the ability to keep out some kind of miscreants.

About the sunlight you need sunlight unfiltered for some vegetables like tomatoes for more time of the day, this will give you a great result.. whereas spinach, lettuce and cabbage prefer shaded sunlight. So plan your farm according to the seeds or crops you prefer to grow.

Thanks for reading friends, see you soon.

Fertilizers..

Fertilizing your crops are as important as watering your plants. As I have mentioned above please don’t use any chemical fertilizers.

Chemical fertilizers are easily available in markets and are easy to use, no tensions on whether they will work or not...they are 100% effective. They are also easily absorbed by plant roots and they give a good harvest too. But the problem is the chemicals which we are afraid are again on our menu, causing a lot of health problems. So, if you could show a little patience and a little hard work it will pay off in a bigger way both in type of health and money too. I mean by making your own fertilizers using household leftovers making your premises clean and hygienic and that too in a cheap way.

Fertilizing too often can ruin your vegetable garden. On the other hand if you don't fertilize enough, your vegetables will wither and die. It's a dilemma faced by many gardeners. If you see vegetable plant leaves starting to yellow, chances are, they need fertilizer.

So let’s start with a simple one - A Compost Pit

Gather all the bio degradable waste materials in your household like leftover food, vegetable wastes, banana skins, unused vegetable leaves, overripe fruits etc. You could use the remains of chicken wastes too if you have, that’ makes a nice manure. Never use non-biodegradable wastes like plastic or other vacant tins etc. Try putting your left over’s in a large dustbin for some days and collect it for this pit.

·        Now select a place in your backyard near to where you suppose to grow your plants so that you don’t have to carry it from one place to other. Dig the pit. Please try to make the pit in a shaded area and save it from the rains.

·        Consider the amount of waste you have and then dig a pit according to it.(For a typical home waste pit you have to dig around 3 to 5 feet deep with a mouth width of around 3 feet in diameter).

·        Put your gathered organic wastes in the pit about 15-20 cm in height, then put a layer of fallen leaves of the same height. After that put a layer of cow dung (if you can’t get this in your neighborhood you could sprinkle lime or calcium or use the EM concentrate). After that put a layer of soil and repeat the process (At least 3 times) until you reach the ground level.

·        Cover the top of you pit with soil for hygienic reasons. This will avoid foul smell and prevent flies hovering over your pit.

·        Allow your pit to decompose your waste materials for about 45 days. After that your compost is ready to use. You could now dig open the pit and take it out little by little and use it for your crops. (Try keeping it dry after you break open I mean save it from rains)

In the mean time when your fertilizer is getting ready make you land and also plant your seeds.

We can make this in an another way with open method above the ground. This method is called Thumboormuzhy method created by Mr. DR FRANCIS XAVIER B.V.Sc & A.H ;M.V.Sc, PhD, ( Professor for Farms of the new Kerala Veterinary & Animal Sciences University. Teacher, Researcher and Extension scientist under various colleges and Research Institutions under Kerala Agricultural University & Veterinary University) which is called Aerobic Composting Method. That I will describe in the future posts.

Ok, today let’s do with some small information’s in farming. This includes some of my experiences and some of my friends too ...

Sometimes you dig through your moss to get soil....but the soil you get should not be as reproductive as you think. You will have to test your soil thoroughly before planting to see what is it’s deficiencies or requirements are, which is not practical in all conditions when you go with your backyard for a small farm to tend to your household needs. There’s a much more easy way to increase your soils’ productivity using the EM concentrates ,which I have mentioned in the earlier post. For eg, if you are planning to grow tomatoes in your backyard  it’s better to add egg shells to make your soil less acidic. (Two eggshells a plant keeps the plant healthy).

Make sure you till you soil nicely with a hoe or rotor tiller. Never use pesticides as this will slowly kill your plants too. You can mix some compost too in your soil to increase your soil’s productivity. (Here again the EM concentrates can be used to make compost. Other soil friendly procedure of making compost, I’ll describe in the coming posts). After all this hard work your land is almost ready.

Now for your seeds. As I have said before study your area and then select the seeds that you prefer to grow in your backyard. Make it in small quantity if you are a starter...,this will encourage and enthusiase you in many ways.

After selecting your seed plant them indoors or else try to plant them in shade....try using disposable glasses or small containers to give them a good start. Nowadays there are small seed growing trays available in market which you can use to grow seeds, these can be used again and again. But I prefer small containers or disposable glasses, this can be readily available at all times in our homes and can reduce the cost of farming too. (To fill the small containers use compost and your backyard soil in the ratio of 60:40). If each seeds are planted in individual small containers they will have ample minerals, water and space to spread their roots soon. After planting water them two times daily. You can see them sprouting within a day or two.

After the sprouting give them two to three days to get their strength....and then slowly take out from their containers and plant them in the place you have already cleared.

Some important things to remember :

If you want your plants to grow well, remember these tips about what to plant near what, and what to plant away from what.

Here is a small list:

·        Cucumbers don't grow good near fragrant flowers.

·        Plant tomatoes near basil and parsley.

·        Pumpkins and potatoes are never supposed to be planted near each other, because they are sort of the same thing, but you can plant watermelons and pumpkins near each other, just make sure they are not too close to each other or one will choke the other.

·        Do not grow tomatoes near corn, they both like nitrogen, and they will fight over it and you will not get good tomatoes and corn, so I am just telling you now to not plant them near each other.

Another important thing :

Decide how much light and water your crops need :

·        Watermelons need as MUCH sunlight as they can get, and when they are flowering, they need a lot of water too.

·        Tomatoes need quite a bit of sunlight, still always get as much as you can, and always give them a lot of water. Give them extra support too after flowering, sometimes they can tolerate the weight of their fruits.

·        Corn is a very thirsty plant, as grass is consider corn as a just giant grass, and give it a somewhat large amount of sunlight.

·        Pumpkins need a large amount of water when they have fruit, and they need a lot of sunlight too.

·        Beans need about as much light as tomatoes, but make sure their water is just so the soil is damp to a few inches down (the deeper the water goes, the better but don't make it muddy).

·        Chilies are like beans.

I’ll describe in brief in coming blogs how you can make natural fertilizers and ‘growth tonics’ for your crops, and more over the most important part controlling pest in an organic way. That’s the most important part as that’s where the poison comes in our food mainly.

Okay, today  we will have a peek into EM Concentrates.

What’s an EM Concentrate ?

The answer is Effective Micro-Organisms

This is a combination of useful regenerated micro organisms that exist freely  in nature which are not manipulated in any way. The EM solution increases the resistance of soil and plants and also increases the fertility and quality of the soil naturally at the same time improving the growth of plants too.

EM is a liquid concentrate in which the micro organisms are alive but dormant. This is a dark brown liquid with a pleasant vinegary yeast type smell.

EM’s can be used in many possible ways like recycling the waste of kitchen, in agriculture for the easy growth of plants. They can also be used in aquariums too.

Some of the micro organisms present in the EM’s are :

Lactic acid bacteria: these bacteria are differentiated by their powerful sterilising properties. They suppress harmful micro-organisms and encourage quick breakdown of organic substances.

Yeasts: these manufacture anti-microbial and useful substances for plant growth.

Actinomycetes: these suppress harmful fungi and bacteria and can live together with photosynthetic bacteria.

Nowadays EM concentrates  are easily available in markets.

Use 10-20 ml of EM concentrate in 10 liter’s of chlorine free water, (Water can be left open for 24 hours, if your water consists chlorine, it will evaporate during this time). This can be used as a foliar spray in the soil where you plan to grow your crops or plants or any anywhere in poor or stagnant soil, before planting. This will enhance and enrich the soil, which helps the plants in speedy growth, without using any synthetic fertilizers.

EM Concentrates can also be sprayed on biodegradable kitchen wastes and can be converted into high quality manures. The proportion for them also can be the same as mentioned above.

Importance of Organic Farming in lives...

Today, the increasing use of pesticides in the U.S., and around the world, is a matter of serious concern. According to a report released in 2011 from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), pesticide sales in the United States were approximately $12.5 billion.

The average child is exposed to 10 to 13 pesticides daily through food and beverages. Scientific evidence shows that eating organic foods can decrease the levels of pesticide metabolites detected in children. A strong and undeniable link between cancer and environmental and dietary exposure to pesticides is confirmed in a study.

In addition to cancer, there is compelling evidence that exposure to chemicals can lead to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative issues, and even cause epigenetic (DNA-level) changes that are passed on to future generations. 

Besides reducing exposure to toxins, a number of respected studies have shown that organic foods can also contain higher amounts of key nutrients. Scientists have suggested that the challenges organic plants face, such as fighting off pests without the help of pesticides and scavenging the soil to access nutrients rather than having synthetic nutrients instantly available, lead organic plants to build up antioxidant and nutrient stores to protect and strengthen themselves. 

The answer may also reside in the typically higher soil quality found on organic farms. The linkage between improved soil quality/stronger plants and more nutrient-dense food supports a basic principle of organic farming—feed the soil to better feed the plant. 

The organic farming industry has been the one bright light during the current recession. While many industries have shed employees, organic farming has been hiring workers, adding farmers and increasing revenue. Soil scientists and cultural historians have made a convincing case that civilizations rise or fall based on how they manage their soil resources

Soil microorganisms, found in abundance in organically managed soils, secrete glue-like substances that help hold soil particles together. Organic methods—such as crop rotation, cover crops, green manures and use of composted and raw animal manures—help enhance microbial activity and improve soil quality. Conversely, inputs used in non organic farming—including synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and fumigants—destroy many of these microorganisms, resulting in lower concentrations of soil aggregates also organic farming methods result in higher quality soil. Improved soil quality can increase crop resistance to diseases too.

Water may well become the largest problem facing global agricultural production in the very near future. Not surprisingly, food production practices can have a strong impact on water quality. Ground and surface water can be contaminated by the pesticides, fertilizers and animal wastes that are not absorbed by plants or soil.

Because organic farming practices help improve soil structure, water-holding capacity and nutrient cycling, these farms are more resilient in the face of climatic extremes. 

One way to reduce greenhouse gases is to decrease overall energy use. Studies are revealing that organic agriculture has lower net energy use and increased energy efficiency compared with non organic. 

Organic Farming Tips

Hi Friends....

This is my first ever blog and would like to share my small knowledge and information’s about Organic Farming with you. Hope you find it informative. Please feel free to give suggestions if I am wrong in any way.

What does it mean to have an organic farm?

The short answer is that organic farming means not using synthetic products, including pesticides and fertilizers. Ideally, organic farming  replenishes the resources as it makes use of them. Like feeding depleted soil with composted plants, or planting legumes to add nitrogen to an area that had been planted with heavy feeder. The bigger picture involves working in cooperation with nature, viewing your farm as a small part of all the natural system.

Here are some basics to get you started with organic farming :

What’s an Organic Matter..?

Organic matter is decaying plant and animal waste. It includes everything from compost, grass clipping, dried leaves and kitchen scraps to manures and fish heads. Organic matter is used as a soil amendment or conditioner. It can be worked into the soil of a new garden or used as a top dressing or mulch in an existing garden.

Importance of Soil

One of the basic tenants of organic farming is to “feed the soil and the soil will feed the plants". It's really common sense. Plants get water, air and nutrients from the soil. Clay soil is higher in nutrients than sand and hold water better. Sometimes it holds water too well and the plants can't get enough air. Sandy soil is well drained, but can use some amending to make it a great soil. This is where organic matter comes into play. Adding organic matter improves any soil's texture as well as attracting soil organisms that create nutrients in the soil.

(You can attract minute soil friendly organism’s to the place you wish in a natural way......we will discuss that in coming days, so please keep in touch.)

Organic farming means you won't be using synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, but that doesn't mean your plants are left to fend for themselves. There are an array of tools you can use to bolster plant health and ward off pests. Organic farming/gardening also isn't just about what you don't do, it's about trying to foster a more holistic, natural ecosystem.

Organic Farming Tips Before You Get Started

Organic farming/gardening is good for you and your family because it involves connecting with your food, eating healthy food, and healthful family activity, not to mention the benefits to your pocketbook. There are a few things that you should consider before you get started.

Some Useful Tips

Tip#1: Plan in advance

Decide what you’d like to grow. How much space can you devote to the project? How much time are you willing to spend? Find out what will grow in your area. You may want to grow citrus fruit and bananas, but if you live too far above the equator, you will find it difficult to succeed without some serious alterations. Plan your organic farm realistically with plants that grow well in your area. Find your region, and check your plants and seed to be certain that they will grow well where you live.

Also  determine the amount of light available for growing. If your farm space is walled in by high buildings, or tall trees, you may need to consider plants that love shade, or need only a few hours of sunlight per day to thrive. Attempting to grow sun-loving plants in the shade can be frustrating.

Tip#2: Start small

When planning your farm, it’s better to start too small than to start too large. .In order to enjoy your farming, you must be able to control it. Don’t get too ambitious.

Tip#3: Choose productive plants

Some plants are more productive than others.

Tip #4: Buy quality tools
When you buy tools, it pays to purchase quality.

Tip #5: Have fun!

Most importantly, have fun. Don’t make farming/gardening into more work than it needs to be. Your farm doesn’t need to be perfect. It’s great if you’re able to achieve a substantial return on your investment,

Consider these ideas before you begin, draw up a plan including what crops/plants you will use in what positions in your farm, get the supplies you need, and get started. There are very few problems you can’t overcome with the proper information and a little creativity.

More tips and instructions in coming days....please keep in touch.