Must be me, always thinking of of malnutrition. Actually my helpers had fertilized it with fruiting fertilizer. I requested them to spray foliar fruit enhancer. Then got some trees I curi curi put chicken dung. Too enthusiastic, and got carried away.

Maybe we can call this the "Malnutrition syndrome"

Moringa
Got an email about Moringa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moringa
Some claims that it's a miracle tree.
In India & Africa, there are plantation just for Moringa, like our rubber /oil palm plantation.

Just to share.

Oh yes, pruning is essential, we even cut off some fruits. It depends on whether you are targeting for big fruits or just quantity (Market requirement).

Para, won't be back until CNY. Have to look after farm now as my operation partner suddenly pull off (1st Oct) citing retirement. He actually went to JV with new partners planting Castor, as I wanted to wait & see before proceeding. Anyway, wish him best of luck. It's also a great opportunity to start taking care of the farm. May have to look for new partner / s, who can spend passionate time to improve the farm.
Sure, shall call you Yam Cha when back.

By the way, just tested an automatic sprinkler today. The sprinkler does not come with any specification, just green colored nozzle. Have to work out how many sprinkler can our pump (gasoline 4.5 hp) run.

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Added on November 9, 2011, 8:19 pmMy opinion is to start farming is simple. Do it on a small scale. Can start planting at your own back garden for your own consumption. You can also play farming with any farm close to you. Talk with the operator, go and help out during your free time (can also find out if you really like farming before jumping in).

When you are more comfortable, then do it in a small scale 1, 2 or any small acreage.
Knowledge can be learned. There are lots of avenue.
As with any business, budgeting is very important, do have some (more) for reserve.

Agriculture is big business. Just spoke with a second generation farmer (can not call him a farmer anymore). Their family owns a 50 acres farm, out sourcing it to privateer farmers in small plots. They just collect the harvest and do wholesale. Their fleets consist of 1 X 5 tons & 5 X 1.5 tons lorry. The two sons running the operation on shift, the dad stay at kopitiam 'blow water' (blowing his horns) only.

A strong & passionate desire, full commitment, positive optimism & motivation with great patience do really helps

Best of luck to you.

This post has been edited by MrFarmer: Nov 9 2011, 08:19 PM

Hi Para,
This is our play sprinkler. Bought it for $6.00 Guess it should work. Tested for a couple of days. At one time, the sprinkler stopped spinning, guess it might be something to do with the pressure. Am looking to install more later.
We are putting chicken dungs, fertilizer, fishes & EM (effective microbes) into the pool. Since we are pumping our water there, we figure this might help the plants to grow better.

Our pond is actually a small creek. As the water was too little during the dry season, we had dug into the creek and converted it to a pond. We had it done in stages, on the upper level a long pond and lower level is a small pond. We kind of lie built a small dam across it. The main long pond is also used as a reservoir as we pipe in some water via gravity feed. As it is rain season here, no problem now, but we were desperate for water last month. There are no clogging problem at the moment but shall see how to incorporate a sump of a screen intake filter.

As the pump is an old unit, we do not have much information about it.

Just that 143 cc, 3.5hp engine. The consumption is quite heavy, may have to look for an alternative lower consumption engine, perhaps a diesel type. As the sprinkler also does not come with any specification, everything is based on guess work & trial. We already had stop valve install as we were using manual labor with garden hose (16mm flexible garden hose) attached to the main PP pipe.

The green color coded sprinkler is listed as type 323, did not find any specs on the net. The nozzle side has a smaller water droplet size while the turning activator side has a bigger droplet size. These sprinkler is prone to pressure and water flow problem, both high and low. It has a window of workable pressure and water flow and it does not work above or below this window. The throw is about 20 ~ 25 ft diameter. We manage to fit 4 at the moment.

We had installed a Butterfly type sprinkler. From the design, the operation window (pressure & flow rate) is much wider. The water droplet size is much fine, bigger than mist. The throw is much smaller, about 12 ~ 12 ft diameter. Shall be trying to install more points.

Saw a young, immature rubber tree drying off from the top.


The leaves as well as the stem are drying up and dying.
The lower trunk seems to be good.

What could be wrong? Just one of this all of the whole lot. Tree was still fine a month ago.
Cutting off the dried section, till the trunk is fresh with latex. Hope it shall grow again.

How about organic fertilizer

Kenso, Cap Bunga, organic fertilizer, Super Green
http://www.kensocorp.com/index.php?cat_id=11&im=products
Super Green
13-7-8-2+TE+HA
Super Green incorporates both the benefits of chemical fertilizers and the advantages of organic. Superb combination to replace NPK Green

Functions: 2 In 1 Benefit Control Release Nutrient
Pellet 40kg/bag

Oh yes, before these, we were worrying about shortage of water. Now we are worrying of too much water. We had some floods here, some of of chillies are drown, 2 beds for green vege too (but was harvested in time) and some Cavendish Banana. Lost (in $) isn't much, it's the hard work that was wasted. Luckily we did not plant much, close to the waterline of the creek.
Had to dig a drain to drain off some excess water.

Sorry, had not been able to find any leads. Have absolutely no idea what it is. Maybe shall have to wait till I go to Lembaga Getah's main office.
Since our "amputation" , last check 2 days ago, there had not been any changes, no signs of any new growth, but it does seems to looks even "dryer". Hope it'll get well soon.

Sorry missed the topic. What plant is going for $1.80 to $2.50? Seems cheap. Here everything is expensive, but selling our produce is cheap .

We had an outbreak of chilli disease here. Came with the rainy season. Affecting our whole area here.

Hmmh, over here we have a guy doing it in his "laboratory" (Shoplot), going for $3.50 (no discount for quantity). Need to book, or wait till his schedule. Also it's a small one (plant). Resorting to suckling transplant. Had planted some, mostly for sucklings.

By the way, what planting density are you doing?

What pricing are we looking at the fruits there?
Still working on the feasibility/market study.
Any infor to share?

Oh yes, cost here are not cheap, maybe land are still available. Yes, backyard Tissue cultured. I see his equipment are just very basic.

I've seen people planting @ 6 X 10'. Me, am also thinking of 10~15' X 10 ~ 15'. Doing it wider, to integrate other plants in the middle.

Over here, I heard wholesale market price is $1.50/ kg. I sold 2 brunch, only managed @ $1.00. Hope you have better pricing over there.

Most probably so on the (low) competition, and / or low volume, hence high price.
As for the price, we sold it to wholesaler, claiming that they resell it @ $1.20/kg. Not sure about the grading. Those 2 were a small brunch maybe 7 ~ 8 kg each. We cut it to comb and got about 15kg. Still, it's better price than the Goreng Pisang, Pisang Kerling & Raja.
Btw how do we grade banana? ( all types?)

Was talking with a guy and found that there is people renting land just to plant Berangan. Wonder if this is feasible. Guess the 1st year is at a lost.

This is really a good motivation news. Shall look into this once I finished off my current work.

No worries, not looking at such a massive project. Just starting with a small acreage and some fringe of land in the rubber plantation (perimeter). Already have some (mix) banana planted in between young rubber plant-lets. Production is so little and inconsistent as we are transplanting the sucklings. So I started to went around collecting from other planters.

Spoke with a land owner who told me that there is this family (business) that specialize in planting and selling banana wholesale. They go around their area renting up all idle land to plant banana. Hence I got this idea and started looking into this. Shall start converting a 2 acres land to plant just banana for trial 1st.

Yes, wholesaler pays lower, but on the bright side we found 3 who takes all our produce and pays cash as soon as we download. We do not have that much banana anyway and they also take our other products like tapioca, pumpkins, Sukun, Avocado & etc.

Also from my experience Banana is still better than green vegetables (perishable), which can easily go for about a week or more.
You are absolutely right, and from my experience too, Production, Marketing, Logistic, Quality & Quantity. Having to move forward and backward in between to fine tune, before moving forward again.

It's not easy to be a farmer

I'm so impressed. They can make a prawn breeding farm to be like a resort. These guys are really great. Maybe 1 day we can do this to our farm, turn it into a resort.

Merry Christmas Guys.
Summing up my performance for 2010.
Planning my strategy for year 2012.
Looking at crops with minimal care
Short Term crops
Field Corns
Groundnuts
Pumpkins/Winter Melon
Sweet Potatoes

Mid Term crops
Bananas
Yam (for area prone to floods)

Any other suggestion guys?

Also had not come up with an effective / simple / cheap / weed management. Anyone with experience in this?

Happy New Year!
Looking forward to the new year. Experience and confidence had been accumulated and shall be put to good use.

Wow, I love durian, nangka & longan. Do organize a trip to your farm during fruiting season Must plant some durians so that I have some to eat.

Say Para, how are you managing the weeds? It seems like a loosing battle, I always get over run by weeds.

Are you expecting extremely heavy rain fall for 2012?

Am using herbicides
1) Glyphosate Isopropylamine (41%) Glyso 410 Agr Smart. For slow effect, longer period.
2) Paraquat Dichloride (13%) Halex Paraquat 130. For Quick effect, shorter period.

Am also using Knack Sack grass cutter to trim.

We usually plough land, then have a spray run of herbicides before we plant. Like we are planting pumpkins, the weeds are also growing and can easily catch up with our crops. We can only do manual grass clearing (which is too slow) as it's too tricky to use the grass cutter.

Am experimenting with the planting distance, say 5' X 3', train the veins more towards the 3 initially, and maybe we can do a trim / spray run on the 5 before they mature /flower. Any suggestions?

Can't use biological at the moment as the farm is not fenced and we and our neighbors have other crops that may be eaten too. Oh yes, we use to have geese during my childhood days. They are terrific good guard dogs. We had 3 males and a female, they (the 3 males) are fierce.

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Added on December 27, 2011, 7:36 pmHI elmer,
At 1 time I was looking into buying a farm, went to see about 10 farms. When I inquire about the reason, most of them give a general "standard" answer, which may or may not be true.

Lease on the land, kindly check properly as the owner can take back prematurely and compensation is usually not much. Lots of fixture can not be moved, like the ponds. I see a lot of these happens to even shop lots.

Are you an experienced agriculturist? If not, then most probably you may not maximize the 8 acres. Like maybe you are just testing with 1 pond, rest is not productive but you are paying for the rental. Labors / workers / helpers?

Conditions of machinery. Machinery maybe be expensive to repair / maintain unless you DIY.

300 K, you are then stuck with his problems. Can you solve those? How much more do you need to dump in before it's profitable? Work out you budget. You farming full time ( budget in your expenses) or part time. Say should you decide to stop, just like the 1st owner, how much can you salvage?

Compare what is the advantage / dis-advantage , saving / higher cost to starting your own farm? Owner can consider just selling off the machinery?

I am sure you would had look into all these. I am one of those who just jump into farming without without much consideration ( mong cha cha). Once into it, work hard, work smart and have great faith, it shall turn out well.

"according to him" Kindly do your own market studies. When I planted eggplant it was $1.80/kg "according to the middleman", when I start producing price is $0.50. When I planted pumpkin, middleman told me $1.00 / kg, 2 weeks ago, fell to $0.30/kg. (farm gate price)

Some good news for you. I see the Tilapia sellers taking orders for live fish, delivery during CNY since October. Here (east Malaysia, interior town) selling @ $12.50 (live, retail). They charge extra for delivery. Live fishes signifies "abundance" for the Chinese during CNY. Wishing you the best. Do keep us update, let us know whether you are "in" or not.



This post has been edited by MrFarmer: Dec 27 2011, 07:36 PM