By FarmersJoint in Crop and PlantationGod has truly blessed our country and continent.
Did you know that Nigeria is the largest producer of ginger in Africa and the second largest in the world after India? Every year, Nigeria produces around 500,000–700,000 metric tons, while India leads with 1.8–2 million tons.
Ginger powder satchet
But here’s the real advantage: Nigerian ginger is rated among the best in the world for its strong aroma and high oil content. That means global buyers are hungry for what we grow.
Unfortunately, most of our ginger leaves the country in dried, raw form. We sell it cheap, while others abroad process it into high-value products and make the real profit.
Here’s the truth: a ton of dried ginger sells for about ₦12–13.5 million, but when you process it into ginger powder, oil, tea, candy, or extracts, the value multiplies several times over. That’s the power of value
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By FarmersJoint in Crop and PlantationHave you heard of aquaponics before? It is a modern farming system that combines fish farming (aquaculture) with growing crops without soil (hydroponics). In simple terms, you raise fish in a tank and use their waste as fertilizer for plants. The plants, in return, clean the water, which goes back to the fish.
This creates a natural cycle where both the fish and crops benefit each other.
How It Works
Fish Tank: You keep fish like catfish or tilapia in water.
Fish Waste: As the fish eat and grow, they produce waste in the water.
Grow Beds: The water carrying the waste is pumped into grow beds where crops are planted in gravel or other media.
Bacteria Action: Helpful bacteria change the fish waste into nutrients that plants can use.
Clean Water: The plants absorb the nutrients, and the clean water flows back to the fish tank.
This
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By FarmersJoint in Crop and Plantation 
How do you tackle a cucumber seedlings that is dark green, has thick leaves and stems that easily break? That’s a classic sign of excess nitrogen, often caused by using fresh, uncomposted manure.
What happens when there’s too much nitrogen?
1. Plants grow slowly
2. Leaves yellow at the edges (a sign of potassium deficiency)
3. Stems become brittle and break easily
4. Yields drop significantly if not corrected
How I Fix Excess Nitrogen in Cucumber Plants
I follow 5 key steps to bring my plants back to life:
1. Remove leaves covering the growing tip If the head is blocked by large leaves, the plant won’t grow properly. Cut them off to free up light and airflow.
2. Prune side shoots and flowers This helps redirect energy to the main vine’s growth, especially in early stages.
3. Spray foliar fertilizer with micronutrients I use a foliar mix that contains
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By FarmersJoint in Crop and Plantation 
Burgundy mixture is a simple diy copper fungicide that is effective against many fungi diseases in crops. It is a mixture of copper sulfate (CuSO4) and sodium carbonate (sodium bicarbonate, Na2CO3). It is also known as “sal soda Bordeaux”, not to be confused with Bordeaux mixture, which is a mixture of copper sulphate and hydrated lime (Ca(OH)2).
The chemicals listed here can be bought in places where Industrial or Chemistry lab chemicals are sold. But it is cheaper to buy from Industrial chemical sellers. In Anambra State, Nigeria, you can get them from Uga market, close to River Niger Bridge Head.
How to Make Burgundy Mixture
The amount of ingredients to use depends on the percentage of copper sulphate in the mixture. A 1% Burgundy mixture will contain 1% copper sulphate (that is, 1kg copper sulphate in 100 liters of water). Sodium bicarbonate is usually added at a higher
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By FarmersJoint in Crop and Plantation 
This is part 3. If you haven’t read part 1 and 2, read them here: Part 1 and part 2.
Fertilizer and Manure Application:
After planting the suckers, I applied 20:10:10 fertilizer 1 month after planting. Dosage is 30ml per plant. By this time, new, white roots have started growing. I buried the fertilizer in a shallow hole 10-20cm away from the plants, making sure I don’t damage too much roots. Note: I applied Carbofuran (for nematode control) into the same hole with the NPK. More on Carbofuran later under “pesticide application” below.
Second NPK application can be made 2 months after planting, 50cm away from the plant. I used 30ml 20:10:10 per plant but those that were growing fast got 60ml.
About 1 month or so after the second NPK application, I planned applying organic manure at 11L pig manure per plant but I couldn’t get
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By FarmersJoint in Crop and Plantation 
Readers note: This is a continuation of the part 1 series. It is important that you read part 1 before this. Thanks.
Peeled, chemically treated plantain corm. You can see the tunnel I made to reach the weevil inside.
Transporting Suckers:
Suckers are very bulky and transporting them over long distances can be a nightmare. You can reduce transportation cost by cutting the pseudostems in half. The larger the corm sizes, the greater the survival rate. Even if the pseudostem eventually dies, new suckers will emerge from the corm if you leave it for some weeks. Suckers with large corms can be cut off a few centimeters above the corm.
Chemical Treatment of Suckers: After peeling the corms, I wash them and using a knapsack sprayer, I spray a mixture of insecticides, fungicides and foliar fertilizer on the corm. But note, peel the corms outside your
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By FarmersJoint in Crop and Plantation 
I have grown crops like cucumber, pepper and okra and I know how much pesticides they can consume. Growing them large scale can be very expensive. While thinking of a low cost alternative, plantains or banana comes to mind (cassava and cocoyam are also cheaper to grow). I have 10 plots of land (rented) but since the past 3 years, half of it remained empty because I could not afford using it for expensive crops. So I decided to fill the empty plots with plantain and pawpaw. I will be writing about the pawpaw farm in another post.
Spray tube irrigation in my plantain farm Soil Requirements:
Plantain require a deep, well-drained soils that are rich in organic matter. The plants will grow optimally in soil with a pH between 5.5 and 7.0. They need water to yield well. So plant them during the rainy season. If rainy
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By FarmersJoint in Crop and PlantationDo you know that weeds can cause over 50% yield loss? Weed control is very important in every crop farm. The trick is to control weeds until your crops form a canopy that covers the land. This will prevent light from reaching weeds and they won’t grow fast enough to be a problem. The trick is not to totally eliminate weeds – you can’t achieve that in a large farm – but to frustrate their growth to the point where they’ll not cause yield loss.
Manual weeding is time consuming and painfully laborious. It is not practical to weed hectares of farmland by hand. That is why successful farmers are known to use chemical weed control. It is far cheaper than manual or mechanical weed control.
You may be wondering which safe herbicide to use in your cassava farm. Some people have learnt the hard way in the past when
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I have farmed cucumber twice. I started at a very small scale and then scaled up a little. This enabled me to learn the ropes and keep loss to a minimum. My first trial was a near disaster as diseases nearly wipe out everything. Second trial was better as I made a reasonable net profit (1.33 ROI but without including cost of fixed assets like knapsack sprayer, boot etc, ROI was about 2). Below are some of the things I learnt:
Update: For recent info on cucumber farming, read: My Cucumber Farm Journey 2023
1. Humid Condition Attracts Diseases: I planted when the rainy season started. At the peak of rainfall when rain fall almost daily, disease struck. I suspects downy mildew. This disease first appear as yellow spots on the leaves which later turn brown. It expands and kill the whole leaves and the plants soon die.
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Weeding manually is very costly and labor-intensive. But with herbicides, weeding becomes easier. Below are herbicides you can use without killing your soybean crops.
Post Emergence Herbicides:
These are herbicides that kill weeds that have grown out from the soil. You can apply it to kill weeds before you start land preparation. See manufacturer’s label for dosage. Below are 2 post emergence herbicides you can use.
1. Glyphosphate: This is a systemic herbicides – meaning that it enters the weeds’ system and kill them completely. It kills both broadleaf and grass weeds. It will kill soybean but because it has no residual activity in the soil, you can use it before you plant soybean but not after. It acts slowly and takes about 2 weeks to kill weeds.
2. Paraquat: This is a contact herbicide because it kills the part of weed it comes in contact with. It does not
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