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Monday, November 14, 2011

Transplanting brinjal...

After raising the brinjal seedlings in the shade net for over 35 days, we transplanted them on October 16th. Typically, the seedlings are ready by 25 - 30 days but we had to wait out a little more due to delays in EB supply.
We engaged 2 - 4 labourers to transplant seedlings for 0.5 acre. Since there were other competing activities at the time, we completed the planting activity over 2-3 days. To give you idea, 0.5 acres is 55 beds with width of 1.2m and length of 30 m. Drip was aligned in the center of the bed. Seedlings were planted 30 cm away (keeping drip line as center) and 45 cm from the next seedling. There are multiple grid sizes being used depending on the variety but 60 x 60 cm and 60 x 45 cm are quite common.




















It takes 4-5 days for the seedlings to establish. Do not be disappointed if they look dull and weak in the first few days, like in the picture below.




















A week later, they all look more invigorated!




















A closer look..they are flowering already!




















Some of you may have noticed that we started off with one drip lateral but in the later pictures two laterals were present. Since we are irrigating only half an acre (system was designed to irrigate 1 acre at a time), there is too much water pressure on the sub mains. As a result, we are irrigating with 2 drip laterals (equivalent to 1 acre) but cutting the operating time by half (now down to 1 hour).

Drip laterals are inline (built in drippers) spaced at 60 cm with a discharge rate of 4LPH. 
We are following fertigation every 3 days comprising of Urea, All 19, Mono Ammonim Phosphate (12:61:0) and Potassium Nitrate (13:0:45)





7 comments:

  1. Congrats ! Another successful milestone.
    Which variety of brinjal did you plant and when is the harvest expected.
    When you get a chance, could you please consider doing a post on how you designed your drip system and layout for phase 1.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Raja,
    We chose Ankur seeds (green and white stripe variety). These are typically smaller and are not as "purple" as one would expect. Reason being this is readily marketable in and around Sivaganga. Since we do not intend to be "brinjal kings", we chose the variety that sells easily. We hope to start harvest by Feb-March..
    Yes, a blog on drip is in the making...Stay tuned!

    ReplyDelete
  3. hi!! great to see, moving forward!! really appreciate your willingness to share ur experience.

    as u said in ur previous blog there are less mentors in agricultural field. ur blog will be very useful to people who venture in to agri..

    i want to put one question?? when there is somuch talk about organic farming...farmers shifting to organic practises...why u have used chemical fertilizer...chemical fertilizers make the land unfertile after a while...

    regards'
    chari

    ReplyDelete
  4. Chari,
    This is a great question. I have wondered the same. You can venture into organic farming once you are established and have other sources of revenue generation. I think it will be a lossy venture if you start off with organic. I am sure there will be people who will disagree. The point I am making is that the yields may not be as much in the first few years with organic.
    However, if you read all my posts, I try not to use chemicals excessively and blend farm inputs with organic material as well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. yes, it could be true!!
    one more thing i would like to know ..
    are u concentrating only agriculture or ur employed and doing this parallely.

    regards
    Chari

    ReplyDelete
  6. some of the sites below could be useful to u

    http://www.ciks.org/publications.htm

    http://www.vokkalseeds.com/Expertise.html

    http://www.sahajasamrudha.org/

    http://pheromonechemicals.in/home

    http://www.arjunenergy.com/vermicompost-beds.html

    http://velkan.co/plasticpots_accessories.html

    ReplyDelete
  7. How much yield you got in half acre with Ankur seeds. I am planning to cultivate brinjals on 3 acre land with Drip system and precision farming methods.

    ReplyDelete