sorry my mistake...

that whole week apart from Monday i've got no problem

come down and let's share inputs

Nutrient deficiency?
Papaya



Rubber Tree

@MrFarmer:
Insect feeding/sucking sap from your leaf ? i saw some small white white thing on the leaf.

Mr Farmer:

The top two photos on papaya have pest problems, night-flying beetles. If you find black frass (crap) on the lower leaves, then you're likely to have night-flying beetles. This is the initial stage of attack. My cacao tree was devastated by night-flying beetles in this same way. You can use malathion mixed with a sticker-solution, or use Dipel which is a biopesticide. Dipel is more expensive though, and washes off quite easily, so use this only intermittently with chemical controls.

Third papaya picture shows nutrient deficiency. You may need to clear the grass nearby, and apply some additional kieserite and urea. Reduce you potassium inputs (eg. bunch ash, MOP etc.), or better still, don't apply until budding is seen. I feel that there could be competition effect between potassium, magnesium and nitrogen happening.

You mango tree has sap-sucking insect attacking it. Looks like symptoms of red spider mites, but please check the underside of the leaves first. If you see reddish-colored crab-like/tiny spider like things dashing about, then confirmed. Otherwise, you could have other more mobile sap suckers, like rice bugs or mictis. For mites, you need to use Mitec, or apply soapy solutions (like mild, diluted detergents, unscented bath soapwater etc.), followed by malathion or cypermethrin. Both are class 1 chemicals, so be careful. The newer formulations may have lower classifications, but still, be careful.

This post has been edited by Michael J.: May 4 2012, 09:53 AM

Thanks Kissan. Shall check.

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Added on May 4, 2012, 6:07 pmThanks Michael.
Sorry, I don't understand the "competition effect". I understand that nutrients is just dissolved and wait to be absorbed by the roots.

This post has been edited by MrFarmer: May 4 2012, 06:07 PM

Mr Farmer:

Nutrient competition in soil is related to the chemistry of soil. It may be a little technical, but what you'd need to know is that everything has a balancing point; too much of one thing can be just as bad as having too little.

The explanation of nutrient competition is as follows. It might sound sexist and crude, but please bear with me:

Think of nutrients as women on a shopping spree during the Big Sale. There are young teenage girls, there are 20-something girls, there are the more median aged women, and there are the more mature women.

Now think of clothing outlets as being plants, who depend on the "nutrients" paying a "visit" to their outlets in order to survive.

Each outlet would have particular types of items on sale prefered by those within certain age groups, and therefore "need" the specific age groups of women to come visit their store. Eg. teenage girls might go for clothing items worn by the Hunter Game's leading lady; 20-something girls would probably go for Korean girl-group fashoin, etc. etc.

So these outlets will have promotions from time to time to "attract" particular age groups of women to "visit". Often, these promotions are very targeted, whereby the age groups will hardly overlap. But once in a while, the outlet smight put on promotion something that is desired by multiple age groups (eg. LV bags are quite popular, I'm told). What happens, is a mad rush, which clogs up the outlet, resulting in delayed sales. In the case of actual outlets, well, they always get paid in the end; but for plants, this competition can starve the plants quite badly, damaging it significantly.

The second scenario is something like the above, except that in this case, there are less women during the Big Sale, and they are accompanied by non-targeted groups of people. We shall call them "non-targeted nutrients". Visualise them as the brothers, boyfriend, husbands, fathers, etc. etc. of these women. And all these fellas are super kiam siap dudes. And instead of being accompanied by one dude, each woman is accompanied by 2-3 or more (i.e. there are more dudes in the shopping mall than gals; not gonna happen, but hey, think creatively).

Normally, the "non-targeted nutrients" are quite liberal when going to the shopping malls with their women. But during Big Sale time, especially when there are less "nutrients" a.k.a. women for the outlets to woo and entice, these kiam siap brothers, boyfriends, husbands, fathers etc etc will hold on to their women tightly. Because they know, with so few other women about, the chances of "overspending" at those enticing outlets is very very high. In other words, if the women want to enter an outlet, the dudes will pull them away, thus preventing them from "visiting" and "spending" in the outlet. In plants, this literally worsens the state of starvation faced by the plant, accelerating whatever nutritional disease that is already present.

Now, with the right balance of all the above, things become very peaceful. No mad rushes, no controlling boyfriends/husbands/fathers etc. The outlets get their fair share of spenders, and there is no overspending.

Get the analogy?

In the case of what's probably happening to your plants, substitute scenario 1's "women" with potassium and magnesium. But consider magnesium as the more mature women who aren't nimble and quick-moving as the younger women (potassium), and are less in number in the shopping malls. The aggressiveness and sheer abundance of potassium being attracted to the plants outcompetes magnesium in being absorbed by the plant; this results in a "false" magnesium deficiency, which means that even though magnesium may be available is good quantity in the soil, the sheer amount of potassium greatly reduces the chances of any magnesium being absorbed. The more mature women (magnesium), although lower in number, generally have more cashflow than younger women (potassium), and so can impact the outlet's sales figure quite significantly; losing their business will put a dent in the bank account of the outlet in the long run.

Hope this paints a clearer picture.

And to any female readers we have, my apologies for the analogy; but you gals do make it simpler for us guys to visualise things.

This post has been edited by Michael J.: May 5 2012, 01:19 AM

this is the first time someone had used this kind of analogy...which also explains your flair in writing...

good explanation bro

Hi People,

Just released this Month's Newsletter



http://www.mediafire.com/?mbwfc20gcssbqsu


Have Fun Reading and remember...Agriculture & Aquaculture = BIG BUSINESS

Just in case you guys have not already read this:

Sabah expected to receive investment of more than RM1 billion from American company
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v6/newsindex.php?id=664808

I think I had brought up this about a year or so before.

Hi, I'm not a farmer but I do farm a bit at home for own consumption.

Need the guru here to advise a bit.

Do you plant the seeds in square container and later transfer them to the ground after they start to sprout ?

Or you just spread the seeds to the ground and let them grow from there ?

I notice some farms looks so organize and beautiful when the veges are planted row by row line by line like queue up.

Thanks for any advise

Usually farmers plant seeds in plastic seed tray first in a Greenhouse. Seeds/sprouts are vulnerable to insects attack at early stage. You also cant use pesticides otherwise your sprout will wither/dead. After that when the sprout is "BIG" enough , then transfer to ground.

Its like caring a baby, u need to protect n feed him.When he become a kid, let them be more independent.

Ohiki, you don't have to be a farmer, everyone with interest in agri / agro are welcome here. I wasn't a farmer, but some how, shall be one soon
Depending on what you are planting. Plenty of methods are available, all should work if you are familiar with it. Tell us what you are planting and I'm sure someone can be of help.

Not all farm are that well organized. Take mine for example, village style, we do try to plan in a straight row, but it usually ended up crooked. Had always requested my helpers to use a string, but....always ended up using just by sight. Planting distance, you can always use a stick and cut it to length. Also when growth rates are not consistence, weeds shall comes in. If your area is not the long / large, I thin just using your sight should be good enough.

Ohiki, if you are planting veges like siew pak choy, choy sum & other similar just spread the seeds

if you are planting like chilli then its best to use the planting tray.

Thanks everyone !

Just sawi only... it's painful if need to transfer the little fellow from plastic tray to land when they sprout...might kill the roots if not careful lol...

I guess if it's vege with many leaves just spread it on the ready plot of land and let them grow. If it's those that grow upward until knee length then use plastic tray to keep them safe.

Just curious, with huge piece of land you had, how you prevent wild animals or people coming in to curi your sayur ? Fence it ?

By the way, anyone rent these land before ? Looks cheap...RM250/acre... I think is from agrotourism kinta highlands...

http://www.mudah.my/Tanah+Pertanian+di+Kin...nd-14609236.htm

This post has been edited by Ohiki: May 14 2012, 01:52 PM

For Sawi, you may want to just spread the seeds on a raised bed, let it sprout and eliminate the weaker ones and weeds. This shall save some time and work.

With large acreage, it depends on your perception. Here (East Malaysia), we don't fence, wild animals / pest, we usually leave it and just consider sharing with them. They were here 1st anyway. As for people, we do welcome guest, at times we don't see much people in the more remote land. Anyway products at farm gate price is very low. We usually give away some produce to guest that come. Yes, we do have an experience of people curi 36 rubber trees that were planted for about 9 months. My helpers engaged a Bommoh to put a curse on the thief . Fencing is too high cost.

Land prices is very subjective. If you are in love with it, you'll may want to pay higher. If you have no use / do not like the land, you'll most probably don't want it, even if it's free. Bear in mind that there are lawyer's fee, quit rent and other expenses involved. Development cost is also very high, like access road.

$250/month X 240 acres = 60K/month = 720K/yr.
Internal infrastructure shall cost a lot. Unless you have a project in mind that can cover this expenses and make a profit.

Just sharing my personal opinion.

OMG...you curse the poor fellow

No problem, opinion is good.

Facing some bug attack on my jackfruit trees....haha

and I forgot to use "anti-hair fall shampoo" one of the tree

May I suggest the Jackei Chan Shampoo, by Bawang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bawang_Shampoo

Had 1 sour sop small tree, eaten by a numbers of caterpillars over night. Had no choice but to pick all of them off and kill them. 98% of the leaves are on gone. Good thing is that it recovers very fast.

Guys, check this out.

Jambu Batu - about 1kg per fruit. fuii yohhh..


Any one knows what this breed is?




Attached thumbnail(s)

just wondering anyone here using fish bone fertiliser for your plants? any advice of where can i get them?