Foreverford

Strange days indeed!! got Mr Poo to dig in the Pidgeon pea plants into the salad beds, [added N] covered the 10 beds with differenent mulchs,banana leaves,bamboo,tamarind waste from under the trees, so all looks good,,, done my usual walk round the banana/papaya plantations, Found 40 or so hands of banana and 30kilos of Papaya, [nice load for our honda wave!!]

On my walkabout, i saw a lot of tamarind pods on the ground, I tried one, it was lovely,deep golden brown sweet pulp, Im thinking, this cant be?? 6 weeks early?? so i collected a load of pods, took home to the mrs, she was suprised that they were ready so early, she put it down to temps of 36c daily after the end of the rainy season, So my normal 4hrs a day on the farm is 2hrs choosing which bananas to cut and 2 hours tamarind picking,so it doesnt leave me a lot of time for the salad beds,

Bananas are easy, take home,wash,dry, put in a paper lined bin with some acectelyne gas,24 hhrs and you have ripe bananas, 1 hour max, now Tamarinds,mmm they come in all different shapes and sizes, you need a hand that can tell the difference between 005gramme and 004.5gramme,thats the difference between a sweet and a not so sweet pod, My evening job is the intial sorting, the large pods go into a box,and mrs [with 20odd years of experience does the final sorting and bagging] Guaranteed good at 60bht a kilo, i do the smaller pods, 30bht a bag, but should be mostly good,,

4 days, 1455bht and counting,,, and a long season this year,

Happy days are here again!! Cheers all, Lickey,,

Hi Folks. Choke Dee Lickey it's a great feeling when you can see the gains of a lot of hard work, I hope the counting goes on for a long time.

We harvested the paddy rice this year on one farm and it has all been cleaned and bagged and then put into our storage shed. This is a 14 rai farm that is in its second year of poison free and this is the first crop of all organically grown paddy. We used cover crops of Paw Tueng (sun hemp) and Sanoh Africa (sesbania rostrata) and about 13 tons of well aged cow manure from many small scale milk farmers. I am going to try to create bio-char from the straw that was left over from the mechanical separation of the paddy. That straw was given away last year but all the remaining straw in the fields was incorporated into the soil. This farm was planted by scattering seed by hand and discing it into the ground as opposed to hand transplanting seedlings (a cost difference of 50-60,000 baht).

The crop was hit by lack of water in the early season as we experienced a real drought as the rest of the country was flooding. We were able to irrigate once and that was a huge advantage, thereafter flooding was an issue as the levees still need work but we barely survived the disasterous floods of last year as the klong rose over 3 meters and was about 20 centimeters from flooding for weeks (the main levee road will have to be raised nearly another meter for about 1/5 of a kilometer and we will use the dirt from the pond and canal that we will build on the farm to do this along with trying to make an entire road around the farm that will be able to handle vehicle traffic and every type of tree known to man).

The rice looked weak and slightly yellow early on as the earth was going through the metamorphis towards sustainability. The tried and true methods finally kicked in and the growth was exceptional and the set of seed was excellent to the point that with all the effects from the Phillipine typhoons nearly all the crop was knocked down due to the exceptional height and heavy seed set and the very very strong winds and rain. Fortunately the rain stopped and there was virtually no rot as the crop laid on the ground. We were able to hand harvest the entire crop and when cleaned we got 72 bags of paddy. That comes to a bit over 5 bags per rai and usually we get over 90 kilos in the bags so the yield was in the 450-500 kilo range.

Soon we will start the earth moving and grading to build levees and roads to achieve good water retention and drainage. This year we will try planting just Paw Tueng as a cover crop by irrigating the farm and pre-germinating by soaking the seed for 2-3 hours then scattering the seed in the stubble and then we will cut the stubble down over the top of the seed using "weed wackers" modified with circular saw blades with carborundum tips. All of this will be disced in when the beans start to flower. Hopefully we may be able to get two crops of beans in before the rice goes in again.

Anyone know anyone looking for organic Hom Mali paddy? Anyone know where there is large quantities of manure for sale?? Also of note we murdered a lot of tadpoles this year so there is plenty of vacancies at the Hilton Frog Condos on the old farm, this will be chalked up to the learning curve for our eventual commercial production of frogs. Our two other farms will be finished with the rice harvest soon and we will be able to evaluate what we have achieved with them.

Are you serious. You really can't find egg-laying hens in Buri Ram?

I'm not in Buri Ram at the moment but will be in early December as I will have lots of work to do on the farm. I don't live in Buri Ram so I am not well connected locally and resources seem to come and go. We are outside of Prakon Chai near the Surin and Cambodia border. I'm also interested in large quantities (big truck loads) of manure as a local source doesn't seem able to supply any more. I'm serious, definitely, and any help is appreciated. There have been nearly 100 hits on this so i think others are also interested. I have obviously shied away from the CP mega-corporation farms at the moment but i have been known to attempt many things in desperation ( note trails of manure residue from Prachuap Khiri Khan to Buri Ram before last rice plantings).

Reliable stock is very important as there are hundreds of stories of raising stock that ends up being nearly useless for its intended purpose. Again thanks for the response and any help will be appreciated,

does anyone know where we could buy young laying hens or chicks from good stock for egg laying. We are in Buri Ram near Surin and would appreciate any info. We will be ready to purchase in early Dec. thanks

Looking for laying hens or chicks from good stock in Buri Ram/Surin area but willing to travel for good stock. thanks "the falcon"

This thread may be interesting, it talks about sunn hemp for green manure, pls post any info you're able to find

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Improving-So...amp;pid=1721199

Thanks Smithson

I finally found a supplier of seed. Sun Hemp is called Paw Teung (pahh teu enhg) here and it goes for 40 baht a kilo if you are buying in bulk (I bought 200 kilos). They say 3-5 kilos per rai for green manure and Chownah has said he has had success in the 8 kilo a rai amount for broadcasting and discing. It germinates extremely fast, 4-5 hours soaking in warm water for me got some of the seeds to start showing its roots. Be careful not to soak too long if you want to "pre-emerge" your seeds as any longer than that or a delay in planting could be trouble. We just planted that and Sahnoh African (sesbania rostrata 40 baht a kilo and 3-5 kilo to a rai) last thursday the 25th and I will try to inform as the results come in. We are trying a few different methods to grow these two along with another bean that I don't have the name right now that is lima bean in size. The "Sanoh" is reputed to be a difficult grower with germination up to two weeks. Below is the contact of the company.

Thai Tanaht Praset in Chai Badan formely known as Lam Narai on Highway 21 half-way between Saraburi and Petchabun they are on the right side of the road about a kilo or two from the main clock tower on the highway.

Suenee 081-8202626

Tua Plu seeds in bulk are impossible to locate still but I will continue to look. I'd love to at least get a few cans but can't find them.

036-461701

Too too long on the computer and too sick to give more now but will update

Well I been away from this electric pencil for awhile and howdy to Fruity and Jandtaa and all. I need to update this. This year looks to be a good year for our first full year of organic (two years pesticide and poison free) and it appears that our methods are going to show a significant difference in yield, appearance and quality. It should all be cut tomorrow (looking at about 100 man days for 14 rai). i'm not going to go into all the results with our green manuring but as always when beginning "mixed" would be a good description for now, but more later. It appears that I have found the king of Paw Teung seeds and hope to purchase two tons from him this year (hopefully grow all our own thereafter) and am looking at around 25 baht per kilo. Last year found the last seeds in Thailand and had to pay 40. When he is able to perform on this I will post his contacts (the 700 kilos he had for us fell through once so we wait and see and hope he has no problems with his harvest of 2000 rai, purportedly). I would like to try Jandtaa's idea of mixing (pops in law did it with the Sanoh Africa (sesbania rostrata) and Paw Teung and it wasn't a good idea as they both have different growing cycles and didn't incorporate well) and anyway he might know why I told him not to mix those two anyway.

Anyone had any luck finding suppliers of large quantity of seeds for green manuring? I would love to get some rye (cereal). So good news possibly with the price of the Paw Teung alomost cut in half if it happens and I think it will. Will update with all our results later. Fruity it appears that we may have murdered a lot of tadpoles so there will be lots of vacanies in the Froggy Hilton. I'll get you over to see it hopefully in the beginning of Dec. Going after crab in California and tuna in Mexico for now.

HELP HELP HELP I still would like to find a local source of manure (some may remember that I hauled nearly 20 tons of finely broken down cow manure from Hua Hin (660 kilometers) from one of the King's Royal Projects to incorporate into our organic farm and would like to find some kind of source near Buri Ram (yeh good luck, also if they have any gold nuggets in it I will take them at no extra charge also). It appears someone has people going thru the villages searching sources of manure so that's good and bad news. Bad for me but good for the world as it appears that "organic" is making a comeback here. Choke Dee "...I know what I'll do. Buy me a Mercury, I'm crazy 'bout a Mercury, just buy me a Mercury and move it on down the line." For Ever Fords

Hi Folks I have a good Limo service (an individual who owns his own vehicle) that is driving me down for the volleyball tourney and I thought I'd try to find him some passengers (as a group, not a bunch of individuals) for his return trip. He has a nice newer van and is a very good and safe driver. I'll be arriving Monday afternoon so he would be able to do the return trip on Tuesday. I'm sure the price would be very reasonable. Choke Dee Tom 086-621-9693

Take the blue slip you got from the land office to the bank and you can transfer out the amount of money that you paid th land tax on with no problems.

If that is less than the original amount of money that was brought in then show the bank a copy of the TT3 for the money you transferred in and you should be able to transfer up to that amount out.

If that is still not enough to cover the money you want to send out then just show the bank your work permit and hey presto!

Thanks for the reply but I'm on retirement visa so no work permit. What is a TT3? Is that the form the bank originally gave me that I had to show to the land office that stated that "the purpose of the transfer was to purchase a condo" ? Thanks again

I purchased a condo 6 years ago and am now selling it. I want to send back the money that I invested in it back to the same bank account that I transferred it out of.

Two Questions

#1 - I only transferred about a million baht worth of money but the price was 1.5 million (I already had a half million in money from ATM withdrawals), can I transfer 1 or 1.5 million back?

#2 - I have the original transfer papers from the bank. Who will I need to get permission from to do the transfer back out of Thailand? the Bank? The Land Office?

Want to find a business that records VCR's to DVD's. Thanks for the help

If you have a VCR player I'm sure we can do that for you, but it's not really 'what we do'

Sorry i don't but I'm off in a few days so will do it there. Thanks for the offer

On a sale of a condo unit, the taxes and fees payable at the Land Dept on date of transfer are calculated solely from the transaction value reported to the Land Dept by the seller. The transaction value could be the sales price or if the Land Dept decides, they might use their own assessed value for the property being transferred. There is no calculation based on cost or profit made on the unit.

Thanks Tongol I thought it may have been that way. It is in fact a sales tax not an income tax but they do refer to it in the receipt for the sale as income tax. It doesn't matter what word they use it all ends up being Thai baht out of the pocket. Thanks again

Want to find a business that records VCR's to DVD's. Thanks for the help

I haven't seen this addressed but maybe I've missed it. The question is if I buy a 1 million baht condo spend 1 million fixing it up and sell it for 3 million would the tax be based on 1 million in profit. I know it is different based on the length of ownership but let's say for 2 years and for 6 years. If it is somewhere in these archives a thread would be gratefully appreciated Thanks much PS if the improvements are to be part of a two million baht "basis" would I need to submit the receipts to the Land Office at the sale for them to figure my taxes? thanks again

Anyone know of anyone that does shoe repair in Hua Hin other than the big guy next to 7/11 near the market. He's been there for at least a half dozen years but cost a fortune for me as a Falong and didn't impress me with his work. Thanks much

There used to be one on Nebkahard Road across from the Shed bar and guesthouse. I don't know if it is still there or not as I haven't been down that way in a while...

Thanks all for the info. I found the shoe shop on Naebkahard Rd (half way between the Night Market Rd and Chomsin Rd on the east side) and he did a wonderful job of repairing 3 shoes with what appears to be very superior workmanship. I'll definitely be loading up everything i need to repair and be back. Only charged 180 baht for a lot of stiching and gluing work couldn't be more pleased. Thanks again

Anyone know of anyone that does shoe repair in Hua Hin other than the big guy next to 7/11 near the market. He's been there for at least a half dozen years but cost a fortune for me as a Falong and didn't impress me with his work. Thanks much

Thanks all. Looks like no problem to get my next extension but wanted to buy some plane tickets today so wanted to make sure and couldn't go down to the Immigration folks as I'm out of the country. As always ThaiVisa is the greatest. Didn't even know this was available til a couple years ago. Don't know if it existed in 2003 otherwise might have helped me get my retirement visa a day after my 49th birthday (that is the day you become "50" years old by Thai standards). Still all in all never had any problem with Immigration because I always did my homework before going there and had reams of documents to comply. Thanks again for making my homework pretty simple.

I want to renew my Non-Immigrant "O" 12 month extension for my "Retirement" Visa three weeks before it expires. I've had and renewed it annually since 2004 (I have all my current updated "Financial" papers) but somewhat remember one time being told that I had to do it within the last week before expiration???? I need to do it just less than three weeks before expiration as I want to be out of the country thereafter. thanks for any help.

KCC Woodbines reign in the Hua Hin International Sixes

Published: 11/04/2009 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: Sports

>>The 14th Hua Hin International Sixes were completed yesterday in an exciting day's play despite a five hour overnight storm that threatened the finals at the Dusit Resort.

The 1st Masters semi finals featured the star-studded Narayangang CC from Bangladesh against the Gold Coast Tigers.

The Bangladeshis batted first and found The Tigers at the top of their game and only managed a lowly score of 58-3 with Habib scoring 26 runs. A captain's innings by Derek Delaney (34 not out) resulted in one of the biggest upsets in Hua Hin Sixes history as they beat the Narayangang Club with two balls to spare.

Bangkok Post

To all of you that looked at this post and didn't attend you missed out. This was the worse attended sixes in the history and probably the best that ever occurred. As usual you could quote a bunch of things about the play but was the real key to this event was the people that came by and participated and watched. Officials, paticipants and spectators this was defin8itely the best (and obviously the fewest people) group that got together this year as compared to previous tournaments when so many people and teams where there. So how does it go ""when the tough gets going, the best get there" or something like that. well anyway the people that where there (Yeah everybody else is soooooo busy in Hua Hin they couldn't make it to the finals at least) were realy able to see what a great group of folks were there. I say folks because as before there were women performing on the pitch (also young Thai women from up-countery that actually had a slight gripe that they couldn't represent the local team that has supported them and youth cricket here in Thailand for the last few years).

To all that were there you know what I mean. To the others it is a "world class' experience to be able to walk into the Dusit and participate in everything they have to offer and know that when you walk through the doors of their facility that you step on the same floor that every royal family in the entire world has done previously. So if Bintabat isn't the style that you prefer then try to get your act together and come out and support something that is truly an unique experience to be attained here in the land of rice and pineapples. To Tom Karnasuta and the entire Dusit Staff and all the people in front and behind the scenes (you know who you are) all I can say as a happy and appreciative observer of all you have given us is I look forward to the 15th event and another 15 to follow as you give all of the locals a real treat. To those that know, you have given the youth of Thailand an opportunity to change their lives in a huge way. Thank you

Now just the questions of grafting !!

You can start grafting at about average "finger" size , age is irrelevant. What you want is a vigorously growing young tree !

It will assume whatever character you graft on, no need to worry about "a" & "b"

The fertilizer I recommended earlier will do nicely !

And because you enjoyed it here's an older but really interesting

study on avocado pollination.

regards.

The avocado pollination thread was fantastic and finally spelled it all out for me. Excellent for a 90 year old report. Do you know what "Hass" is, A or B? . Ever see any "fuertes" out this way? Great for the home with wonderful flavor but not marketable. Thanks much

Gawd....Haha...it's me who needs the caffine jandtaa. Urea is 280% protien and I've gone and used that in the figures.

90lbs nitrogen is 41 kilos urea per acre. Still on the low side. Urea is 46-0-0 NPK. Every 50 kilo bag contains 23 kilos nitrogen.

The rest is just a carrier (filler).

Abject apologies my friend.

Regards.

Edit: Here's a nice little on for you.

http://www2.ctahr.hawaii.edu/sustainag/Database.asp

Give stylo at up to 214lbs per acre.

Thanks for this link. I've used the Rye (cerail grain) to cover before and it was extremely good. Nice to read what others say, it is one of my favorites and would be great fun to get into a half ton of seed. Know where to find any anyone (very reasonably priced normally)?????

I'm offf to try to dig up the botaical on my sun hemp seeds as that part of the thread helped answerr a few questions that I was pondering. i shall return. Forever in a Ford

Hi FF

Yeah I totally agree !! When I requested a couple of posts to be moved over to here I didn't realise that I couldn't then move the whole topic into one of the pinned threads but have to leave a link . I know how you feel it's bugging me as well ! I think if I give the moderators who are kindly moving them (I can only play around in here ) a link to the pinned thread it might work. Just about getting my head around it so please bear with me !!

Cheers fella J

P.S how were your spoilt walks ??

The proof that even golf can't do that was back in Monterey on the "17 mile Drive". Fog lifted so we could see where we were then came in and just whipped us in the middle of our round. Shortly thereafter it all lifted and a mighty and wild ocean (from the 60 mile an hour winds that rocked us in the desert) just was as glorious as i have ever seen it , it was brilliant blue and heavenly white in unending monsterous waves pummelling the rocky coast. The course, Monterey Peninsula CC, was in the finest condition of any course that I have ever experienced. Truly a magical day.

Hi Stoneman

Thanks for that . Big operation you have !!

I'm just looking to put a few in a small "edible forest garden" along with mango, jackfruit, longan etc.. etc... Haven't really researched avocado yet but met some one recently that has a producing tree that I can graft from in the future .

Here's a couple of questions

What's the minimum number of trees I'm gonna need to get good pollination and is there a maximum spacing (i'd like to spread them out amongst the other fruit trees.

can you explain a bit more about A and B flowers and why you need a mix is it similar to the pollination of apples ?

How old are the seedlings you're grafting and what method are you using ?

Do you need to graft type A flowered varieties onto type A rootstock etc ?

What NPK value fertiliser did you use as a booster (I recently came across some organic fruit tree fertiliser and wonder whether it would be similar)

cheers for any advice you can give

Jandtaa

Another green with envy type saying well done with your avos. Please stay in touch as we would be interested in purchasing some of your hass crop when it comes in Buri Ram is not a long way away for a few boxes to make a hot guacamole for the masses. I am also curious about your A and B flowers. We had a tree with nearly a half dozen different graphs on it (California) and it wouldn't produce in 20 years. I planted another small tree and immediately got fruit on the big monster.

I'm interested in purchasing a few dozen trees or more if you have any sources you can pass along. thanks and choke Dee

OK it's starting to come together I have moved a few posts to new homes ( I have left the neccessary links ) and edited a few to help them fit into their new homes. You may have noticed the appearance of some older threads from the general farming forum are now appearing here !! I'm working with Soundman to migrate relevant material over to this sub-forum so if you have any previous topics that you contributed to please PM me and I'll try to get them re-homed

Cheers all J

Howdy Again

I know you guys would do it if it was possible but I'll ask anyway. For example with the newer topic that we have on the manure when we hit on it we then have to go to the link and click on it. I'm usually at a pretty high speed facility (internet cafe) so it isn't a big issue to wait the extra while til it connects but for others I think this may be problemsome. Sure is petty and know that you need to do it this way due to the logistics of computers or whatever but keep up the great job.

Here was a good link to some info that could be here in the organic section. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Purchasing-G...hl=green+manure

I don't know about your area or about current availability, but in Chiang Mai I got free jack-bean seeds from the 'Land Development Office' (about 10k north of the SuperHwy on the Mae Rim (107) hwy, on the west (Doi Pui) side between the hospital and the (121) ring road).

At that time they had black beans, sesbania and others too. We didn't need a 'tabien baan', only my wife's ID, filled out a form with address and amount of rai. They calculated coverage rates and based the allotment on that; we pulled around back with the pickup and they loaded us up with the appropriate number of sacks of seed. I was only seeding about 4 rai, so I don't know what their upper limit is.

The land development office also does free soil analysis. The only problem is that it takes 45 days (sent to Lampang) and is a very basic NPK report with no interpretation or recommendations. I get better, more complete, 2 week soil analysis reports from Mae Jo University soil science department for 500 baht. And they have a soil science professor available to interpret and make recommendations for amendments if needed.

But you don't need a soil analysis to 'green manure'. don

I don't know why i never gave you a thanks on this posting but appreciate the doctoring help Dr. we will definitely be visiting the Land Development Office this year before any purchases. thanks for the info.

OK it's starting to come together I have moved a few posts to new homes ( I have left the neccessary links ) and edited a few to help them fit into their new homes. You may have noticed the appearance of some older threads from the general farming forum are now appearing here !! I'm working with Soundman to migrate relevant material over to this sub-forum so if you have any previous topics that you contributed to please PM me and I'll try to get them re-homed

Cheers all J

Howdy Again

I know you guys would do it if it was possible but I'll ask anyway. For example with the newer topic that we have on the manure when we hit on it we then have to go to the link and click on it. I'm usually at a pretty high speed facility (internet cafe) so it isn't a big issue to wait the extra while til it connects but for others I think this may be problemsome. Sure is petty and know that you need to do it this way due to the logistics of computers or whatever but keep up the great job.

Has npk come down that much? Cheapest I've ever paid for npk is 500 Baht. (any combination) Last year 46-0-0 and 15-15-15 were 1400+ Baht.

Hope you ploughed it in Thaiphuket, otherwise after the first big storm, your 100+ tons of kee vuar will be sitting in your grinning neighbour's field.

Regards.

Edit: 14 different sized trucks.....say 100 tons.....4000 Baht per ton. We pay 300 Baht per ton. (own transport) Oz gets the best price if he meant 100 Baht per cu mt.

Good guess on quantity. Should be a ballpark figure but it would be nice to get Thaipuket to respond on what he is doing because he could be in a real mess as has been stated if he is in fact putting down 5 tons of fresh manure per rai. He may need to put some kind of scraper on the land if it hasn't been incorporated too deep and work it into a few piles. If he is lucky and he has it stock piled then he has some black gold and can use it for years to come. He paid actually 400 baht a ton for 100 tons for 40,000 baht. If it is aged manure that is a very good deal in my book. If it were bagged it would be a steal (50 bags for 400 or 8 a bag) (I paid that for just the bags and the cost to fill them when I got a lot of free cow maNure), I wouldn't think it was bagged. This amount coming at one time is probbaly indicative of a dairy farm operation or a feed lot possibly with multiple trucks doing the hauling.

There is a man from Surin who scoures the countryside around and about Korat to where he is in Surin and can't find anymore so it is becoming extremely valuable and hard to locate. He is part of the organic rice growing movement over there and he is using and has used one 10 wheeler of aged manure per ten rai on an annual basis with huge and excellent results with soil fertiloity increasing immensly.

I was lucky enought to get one ten wheeler (The wife has a 14 rai plot for it) this year (unfortunately only 13 tons as most of the bags were a bit under the optimum 25 kilo weight) from the Kings Royal Project of many many small individual dairy farms in a local village near the Palace in Hua Hin. The 20,000 baht transport costs attests to the quality of the manure. It was all very very finely broken down as these small holdings haven't been cleaned for many years. The material is as good as you can ever want but it is a bit of a logistical tight-rope to organize the entire process and make it somewhat more affordable. At a cost of 0 baht for the material it can be a good buy at twice the price of 400 baht if i can bring down my bagging and transport costs. Ideally a tractor trailer truck would bring the costs more in line.

The more you look at it the more it proves that sustainaable (having your own chickens or livestock in sufficient numbers to create your annual needs of manure) is the optimum scenario. For us who aren't in that situation anyone who knows of any sources of manure in the greater Issan area be advised that you would have plenty of friends wating to treat you to an evening at the local pub with a T-Bone steak dinner for giving up the source of your black gold. This year I'm going to try to get in two green manure crops after the rice comes in and with another load of gold and a bit of Biochar from a newly invented Straw Carboniser (I've got the idea now all the brain needs to do is figure out a design) we'll be looking for improved results. subba subba