Farm Update 30-Dec-2015

Tilling:  Entire pieces of land have been tilled with tractor.  The tractor is owned by Subbu's brother. With half cage wheel, they have completed the job.  Half cage means attaching a cage wheel to the tyres so that it can run on marsh soil without getting submerged.

Paddy :  Subbu  and Sumathi (temperory lady staff) have completed planting of Ambi-16 variety of Paddy on remaining patch of land.  He could get around 60 Nos of 24 day old rice saplings in around 24 cents of land. The crop will come to maturity in 90 days.  Though I have reservation in planting anything other than country variety, this time let it go with hybrid. After all we are testing the ground for the first time.

The paddy has been laid with adequate spacing between them in what is called as System of Rice Intensification (SRI).

Vegetables:  Over the tractor tilled soil, the mud bars have been constructed using 3 man power. This is for vegetables.  Presently Sweet potato, Onion, tomato, chilli, brinjal have been planted.  The seeds will sprout in a week.  Apart from this bottle gourd and ridge guard also planned in few quantities.  I am missing the farm now.

Nursary :  We discussed and decided to remove the existing nursary and re-do the same with iron pipes, perhaps little smaller in size.  There will be ceiling at 7 Feet. There will be no side covers. That was causing wind to shake the pandal.  this activity ofcourse can be done after 10 days.

Plantain (Banana) :  Near the wind tower, the banana plants have rooted properly. It requires de-weeding and cleaning.

Sugar Cane:  Has come to market.  Subbu will buy few and try this time.

Vettiver :  The vettiver that survived near the tower has grown very well. They need to be re-planted near the mud pond to arrest soil erosion. That was the original plan.

Coconut : Each of the new coconut saplings in polythene bags (with mud) has cost Rs. 150/- each.  10 of them have been planted.

Farm Update 31-May-2015

a) Last week was without any event.  There is heavy sunshine at the farm even today. This is the hottest part of the yea known locally as Agni Nakshatram ("fiery star") or as Kathiri Veyyil, with maximum temperatures around 38–42 °C (100–108 °F). Though there was a prediction that there will be monsoon rain, it is getting delayed by about 10 days.

b) Subbu had to pump water from neighbouring well as usual. There is zero wind for 3 days and hence no production of water from windpump.

c) We wanted to change the 1.25" pipe to 1.75" inch pipe in the boring.  This is to get more water and prevent friction between the central rod and pipe for windmill to operate smoothly and without noise.  That was finally done.  Ordered for TATA pipes @ around Rs.600 per 10 feet. Total length 100 feet. Also purchased a large drum for panjagavya and some accessories.  Alas after replacing the pipe there was no wind to test its working for atlest 3 days. I donot know if today there was wind.

d) The windpump pipes were replaced by own team. The new pully was put to good use. I was told it made the job easy of lifting the pipe assembly which should have weighed 130 KG.  only two ladies could life the assembly while the men replaced the pipes.

e) The nursary has been started with seeds of Brinjal, tomato and one more I donot remember.   A modest 50 polythene bags that was purchased 2 months back had been prepared with mud, cowdung. I heared the seeds have germinated too in about a week.

f) The only target now is to enrich the soil. We have to catchup on what we lost.  The soil is not fertile and we have not cared for;

1) Ordered two tracktor loads of cowdung. That came in about 10 days from neighbourhood. Cost Rs. 2000/-.  This cowdung will be used to prepare panjagavya, gana jeevamrudam, apply on soil directly and the compost pit topping.

2) Considering the demand, I asked subbu to go for more cowdung. I need to confirm tomorrow.

3) "Sanappu" or garlic was planted between the newly laid red banana roots. they have germinated. It will be manually mashed to soil to add enrichment to soil.  We need to repeat this steps.  Though opportunity for spreading multi grains exist, subbu is still not in for that idea.  Sanappu is ok for now.

g) The week ahead should see activity planning for trying one more crop. I want to put groundnut. For want of water, we kept it aside. If monsoon comes, we will go for it. Otherwise we have to run the show.

h) Subbu wanted to harvest the fishs. Enough he said. We need to maintain that tank properly. It is silting with mud.  Now they have to workout how to catch the fishes. Perhaps some fishes will be saved in another tank for future.

Farm Status and Micro Planning for a week ahead

Around 300 saplings of Casuarina (Savukku) is still in polythene bags.  Subbu said it has already grown upto a feet and the roots are piercing out of the bag.  No more can they be contained and they need to be rooted at once. Earlier this decision was stalled owing to the fact that watering the saplings after it is installed on the ground would be difficult manually for Kannan using hand pump. Now that the routine in the farm is settled, Kannan gained more confidence he can handle this.. But alas!

The ground is as strong as a rock. spade/hoe is not going in. Subbu is to call a JCB tomorrow (Rs. 650/- per hour and Rs. 300 bata for driver) and cut a narrow furrow next to the fence to put the saplings on the ground. I think a couple of hours of work is enough. I asked him to make further furrows on east fence also so that we buy more of the saplings and plant them. One more helping hand for pumping water and we will be comfortable.

Last month we found a good nursery to purchase plants. The village is called Parassala in Kerala near Kaliyakavilai.  That is close to my native at about 2 hours driving. I sent Subbu and party over there for a picnic to find whats up. They said it will take a full day to see the entire nursery. So many plants. Rates are not cheap, but quality and volume is assured. I will buy remaining set of plants that I missed last time. Some of them are very obvious and I wonder why I missed them. By the way am I going to make a botanical garden or a farm ?

Common Name	Tamil Name
Teak	Teak
Coconut	Thennai
Hibiscus	Sembaruthi
Spanish cherry	Magizham
coral Jasmine	Pavazhamalli / Parijatam
	Kattu Karuvepillai
Bael	Vilvam
Pongamia	Pungai
Mahua	Illupai
Rain Tree	ToonguMoonji
Rose wood	Thodhagathi
Arjuna	Neer Marudhu
Portia Tree	Poovarasu
Rudhraksh	Rudhraksham
pambu kala chedi	Sarpagandha / Nava Konji
Singapore Cherry	Then Chittu
Galangal	Chittarattai
Indian cork tree	Mara Malli
Kaim	Neer Kadambai
Hill Mango	Kiluvai
Anjan	Aachi, Malai Athi
Wild Lime	Kattu Kichili

With such a hard surface (which had been tilled 6 months back), I wonder how I will make the soil pliable and soft.  I guess the answer lies in putting more cow dung and adding organic humus.  They must act on the soil and increase moisture content.  Bringing foreign soil and mixing is costly. I donot want to do that.  Presently cow dung is available from nearby farm (a truck load 1200/-).  Hmm.. I must buy a bullock cart - long pending one. I had advertised in forums with no reply for past 7 months. I think I must buy a trailer with 4 tyres that can be pulled by one or two bullocks. I donot like two wheeled ones as they will stress the animal if too much load or too little is present. Perhaps two trailers are required to be purchased.  One can be used permanently for fetching cow dung from nearby cow sheds and another for other uses. Last time how did they load and unload cowdung. They used hands and hoe. I wouldn't appreciate that. I must buy gum boots, hoe and plastic trays for compartmentalizing cow dung loading and handling.  Need to study this logistics aspect to make this work more interesting.

Kannan has not yet prepared the Gana Jeevamruthuam that I prescribed to Subbu last week.  Atleast the raw cow dung is being applied.  At this stage concepts like Zero budget farming, Natural farming, Permaculture etc are far far away. I need to dilute them and create stories and deliver somehow. If only I had some volunteers who can visit the farm and impart these knowledge I will be grateful. I can pay some honorarium. Otherwise I will have to act fast and courier diagrams and CDs and keep following over phone.

But the grass growth is seen dense after tilling the land last time.  The grass should act as mulch and protect the soil hopefully until it is opened for use later for cultivation. I feel once the border plants grow with watering by Kannan, they must create a micro climate and preserve the moisture for long time in soil. When I was touring in North west India recently I saw that many of the fields got their water only from the frost or dew. The plants were as healthy as if they had been watered. I am talking about desert climate.

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