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jandtaa

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    Green manures, cover crops and nitrogen fixing trees

    in Organic Farming, Smallholding and Kitchen Gardening

    Posted · Edited by jandtaa

    Cheers for the pointer FF !! I,ve been looking into green manures and plan to use a mixture of 2 or 3 maybe more rather than a monoculture (possible candidates thua dam- cow pea/ thua daeng-rice bean/ krham pa-white hoary pea/ thua pae yi-lablab bean/ mahae- pidgeon pea/thua phra-jack bean) , this one sounds excellent for short term cover and if I mix it with a couple of other species I should be able to get ground cover for the duration of the wet season (a period for which I will be returnig to the U.k.). I will also plant plenty of sweet potato-man thet (excellent for long term ground cover as well as providing a crop). At the moment I am bringing on seedlings of NFT's such as sesbania-kae ban/leucaena-krathin as well as senna siamea-khi lek ban ( this is not a nitrogen fixer but has a high nitrogen leaf content, ideal for mulch and well suited to pollarding) . The idea being that the green manures are short to mid term plants (improving the soil and suppressing invasive weeds)while the NFT's are mid term nitrogen fixers to be coppiced/pollarded shortly after the onset of the wet season to provide mulch for the fruit tree seedlings (mango, jack-fruit, longan, lychee,guava, coconut as well as some more unusual local fruits which are planted at the same time), during the dry season the NFT's provide shade for the fruit trees. I also have seedlings of Tamarind which will be my long term nitrogen fixers and I'm also trying to locate Inga edulis-Ice cream bean tree for this same purpose. Very interested in the link posted by camille , thanks! Because we are trying to imitate a natural forest (allbeit with solely fruit trees) but speed up the natural cycle by "chopping and dropping" the NFT's, shredding will speed this process even further and fungii is essential to the ecosystem !! I think I have seen shredders on sale in Chiang rai in a variety of sizes, I know that they are used for shredding the residue of maize plants after the harvest and maybe would be suitable for our purpose ! Gradually as the fruit trees grow the NFT's are phased out/shaded out and the end result should be a closed canopy of edible forest !! Also incorporated into the system are other edible plants such as eggplants, chillies, gingers, bamboos, fruit bearing vines, pineapples, roots, edible fungii and herbs ("stacking" the plants in both space and time). Well thats the theory !! now to put it into practice !! (see a thread called forest garden for some other useful links) happy organics folks !! Jandtaa

    • Like 1
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    Mulch (a Key Component To Growing In The Tropics)

    in Organic Farming, Smallholding and Kitchen Gardening

    Posted

    mulch great stuff !! I like to use a mixture of coconut fibre (brilliant for retaining moisture), banana plants; old leaves, chopped up trunks once they have fruited and thinned suckers (all a good source of organic pottasium), burnt rice husks and weeds (altough I burn any that are seeding). I collect all these towards the end of the rainy season and start to compost them using my homebrew BIM. Once the hot phase of composting is over (about 3 weeks) and I'm happy the materials are no longer using up nitrogen to decompose I apply it my vegetable beds to a depth of about 5 inches. This is not like well matured compost used for potting but a very coarse material which breaks down slowly over the growing season, in fact the banana leaves and coconut fibre take about 10 months to fully decompose. I top this off with another 5-10 inches of rice straw into which i make planting holes down to the level of the first layer fill them with homemade potting compost and then either direct seed our plant out plug plants. By the end of the following wet season everything has completely broken down giving maybe an extra 2 inches of topsoil and I start again. This has created raised beds on clay soil from scratch without buying in any "din dam". I started after the end of the rainy season (when the clay became workable but still had good moisture content by loosening the soil to a depth of 12 inches watering in some gypsum (an organic clay breaker) and proceeding as above 3 years ago. I now have some half decent soil !! Sure its a slow process and the area I was working on was only a kitchen garden but mulch really works!! My new project is a 2 rai site and I'm taking a different approach, It's paddy field I bought a couple of years ago and after a couple of rice harvests off it I'm turning it into my home plot. In the past 2 months I've had dug 2 fishponds the spill from which has raised the level of the plot by 50-70 cms I've just finished a post and rail perimeter fence made from eucalyptus. I'm gonna try the permaculture method using NFT's and sheetmulch to try and establish a wide range of fruit trees (a forest garden). See my earlier document link for some of the methods and the thinking behind it. I'm familiar with the mulch mats used in the U.K. and have started making my own by sandwiching corrugated cardboard with layers of old feed sacks using pva glue, hopefully the plastic feed sacks will slow down the termites but who knows. Love the idea of recycled matresses and will try and pump the mother-in-law for info as she used to make and sell them according to the wife. I know that in the U.k. the use of carpet is now frowned upon by organic growers due to the residue of cleaning chemicals in them (sometimes you just dont think of these things) !! My old man taught me the trick of reclaiming wasteground years ago when he took over a very neglected allotment plot just outside Barnsley by growing comfrey pissing all over the place, laying carpet and leaving it for an entire year. You can imagine the locals (most of whom used their plots to house their pidgeon lofts and were hard as nails coal miners) faces when this southern softie turned up and proceeded as aforementioned !!! A year later though I helped him roll up the carpet and it was pure loam not a weed in sight and more worms per square foot than I've yet to see again !! He grew some fantastic veg on that site for over 10 years !! I believe he stumbled across the method in an old book by Henry Doubleday . Other methods proscribed included reversing your car over over tough brassica stalks to crush them and speed up the composting process and collecting dogends from pub ashtrays to make a nicotine insecticide, definitely a man before his time !! happy organics folks

    • Like 3

    Early posts (pre sub-forum)

    in Organic Farming, Smallholding and Kitchen Gardening

    Posted

    Lickey I have a busy day fencing today but I will post a recipe that would work with your system. you have to make a solution that is not to strong or it can burn the leaves slightly also the addition of washing up liquid will help the spray to adhere and  suffocate the aphids. In my experience this is exactlly what happens the aphids die and without a food source the ants move on. Spaying a couple of times may be necessary and always check on a small area first .Got to run willpost again later.    

    Insect pests, plant diseases and integrated pest management

    in Organic Farming, Smallholding and Kitchen Gardening

    Posted

    I've been brewing bio-indigenous micro-organisms for a couple of years now. its a homemade version of EM and use it as a base for a number of potions including my knock-em all down insecticide which includes chilli, galangal, lemongrass and garlic. effective against aphids, cucumber beetle and caterpillars so far but I do use it as a last resort as it also harms beneficial insects. this year I've let some dill (pak chee lao) and coriander (pak chee) go to seed as the umbillifiers attract predatory insects such as hover flies and parisitic wasps thev'e also attracted a nice little colony of ladybirds and I haven't had to spray yet this year. I've a good collection of organic potion recipes (well I am a chef by trade) which I will sort out and post when I have alittle more time 

       

    Slaked Lime

    in Farming in Thailand Forum

    Posted · Edited by jandtaa

    Yes this is what the ag stores sell ! It helps to neutralise acid soil, is used in cooking (soak your pork rinds in solution and then deep fry to puff them up), white wash/plaster and plenty other uses !!

    poon khao = quicklime (calcium oxide)

    ปูนขาวธรรมดาที่ทําโดยผสมนํากับปูนเเท้ = slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) / hydrolysed lime

    calcium oxide is hydrolised or "slaked"  by adding water  :o

    dont know what quantities you require but hydrolysed lime is also used in the chewing of betel nut (its the lurid pink stick which helps release the alkoloids in the chew) and is also available uncoloured at most markets.

    (by the way check your pork scratchings next time they often have touches of pink from the dye in the lime!!)

    Rice Straw

    in Farming in Thailand Forum

    Posted

    up here in Chiang Rai when manually cut I would guesstimate that 40 % of the tiller length remains in the ground (how low do you want us to bend over ? ) some people will then use a mechanical thresher the resulting straw is then gathered by the local lads and sold to cattle farmers or mushroom growers or kept for own use (cattle feed or mulch for vegetables sometimes composting ) others that still thresh manually sell strictly to mushroom growers to cultivate " hed fang kaow" straw mushrooms. As soon as a plot of paddy is harvested a local wiil turn out his cattle onto your land to eat the stubble and any late season weeds. many people will burn off the remainder before replanting corn or soy beans but there is very little left by the new planting season.

    Roofing Manuals

    in DIY Forum

    Posted

    AAAAAGH !!! I've been having a nightmare with the attachment editor and managed to totally balls up my previous posts by deleting the attachments !!!  :o:D:D

    Hopefully this time it will work !!! The self estimate calculator is in Thai but is fairly self explanatory (the first input box is for your roof pitch note that there is a maximum angle for each brand of tile !!!)

    self-estimate calculator

    excella rooftile installation

    ceris_traditional_roof_tile.pdfTrilon_InstallationGuide.pdfmonier_manual.pdfprestige_manual.pdf

    once again apologies for the previous posts . Maybe a kindly moderator can sort out the mess Ive created !!!  :D

    Cheers Jandtaa

    Roofing Manuals

    in DIY Forum

    Posted

    Here are some useful installation guides from the leading Thai roofing manufacturers I also include a link to a site that has a helpful self-estimate calculator

     http://www.cementhairoofingcenter.com/products/index.php?group=6 

    Agricultural Permaculture / Forest Gardening

    in Organic Farming, Smallholding and Kitchen Gardening

    Posted · Edited by jandtaa

    Moisture retention,weed supression and to maintain a lower soil temperature are a few of the reasons I use mulch.You are also correct that nutrients will be leached from the mulch into the soil and over time you will increase the amount of organic matter in the soil but if you are using animal manure make sure it is well composted first. Also ensure you maintain a gap of between 8 and 15 cm's from the plant stems to prevent any rot. I have found from experience that by applying the mulch at the end of the monsoon season while the ground is still saturated my clay soil does not bake to a hard crust and become impermeable to water in the dry season.I would recommend applying an initial layer of mulch to a depth of at least 15 cm's and top up as neccessary you will be amazed how quickly it will break down here in the tropics. when you want to plant just make a hole in the mulch put in a couple of handfuls of potting compost and put in your seeds or transplants.  As to convincing your Thai family good luck! I have found the best way is to just get on and do it yourself. When I first started brewing my own EM and building compost piles my family thought I was mad (whats new!) but now they are eating the fruits of my labour my missus seems quite proud and brings villagers round to see my veg garden and explains how I grow things. Because of the amount of material needed and the labour costs of applying it this method of mulching is probably not suitable for large areas.If you are talking about mulching an orchard say the method I use for my longans is homemade weed mats around the trunks and grass planted between the rows is piled on top when it is cut along with any dead leaves.

    Seeds of acrocarpus fraxinifolius (sadau chang) are available from http://www.echotech.org/mambo/index.php?op...d=55#Acrocarpus

    Root Trainers

    in Farming in Thailand Forum

    Posted · Edited by jandtaa

    no sorry the seed trays were an after thought to the root trainers that I'm really after and I was in a hurry and didn't make myself clear. Whilst in LOS I have only been able to find polystyrene modular trays or black polythene bags. What I am after is something like a super 40 celltray or deep plug propagation trays although inserts for a standard seed tray would also be suitable.

     cheers Jandtaa

    Agricultural Permaculture / Forest Gardening

    in Organic Farming, Smallholding and Kitchen Gardening

    Posted

    No problem I am embarking on a similar project myself. Inspired by the fact that although the wife is impressed with my ability growing eggplant,chilli,yardlong bean etc (I am virtually self sufficient in the U.K. and grow organic lettuce on a small scale commercial basis ) she still buys fruit and vegetables on a daily basis from the local market which she tells me "comes from jungle" or "up mountain", I decided to research planting a forest garden.I started my nursery garden at the onset of the present monsoon season and when I return to LOS in October will dig a large pond and backfill a 2 rai plot of paddy I bought a couple of years ago.I have also been stockpiling manure and rice hulls which along with the copious amonts of rice straw I will compost with my own brew of bio-indigineous micro-organisms to create a mulch layer.I cannot emphasise enough the importance of mulch here in the tropics.At present I am contemplating creating natural appearing clearings within the "forest" and planting them up as circle gardens to grow my vegetables in. I shall begin planting in June if everything goes according to plan.

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