12 hours ago, eddie61 said:

Would avocados grow there? Seems that this crop could do well in isan

As far as I know, not all avocados grow well at this altitude (Isan). 

I'm currently growing 4 different cultivars here in Isan but it's still too early to say which one does well here. 

9 hours ago, myshem said:

 

They might do it but it's not legal anyway.

 

 

The OP is looking for suggestions about what to grow on his land, not legal advice. 

OP, one thread that I have to recommend time and time again is this one: 

There are some great ideas, tips, dos and don'ts, advice, feed back, etc. You might pick up a few ideas from that. 

 

Also, have you scrolled back through some of the previous threads on the farming forum? Again, there are some great threads running about mushrooms (you mentioned this as one area you're interested in), chickens (they could run free around the land providing eggs and fertilizer), various fruit, etc. 

 

I'd advise you/your in-laws to stay clear of the typical crops grown here. Everybody grows them and this pushes the prices down to a point that not a single farmer/grower makes money. Look for something that isn't grown here. 

 

At the moment I'm trying to grow finger limes and a few avocados and my missus is growing raspberries, blackberries and a few other berries. She's making some money from selling the plants, but nothing from the fruit yet as most of that is eaten by us. 

 

It can be challenging and frustrating at times, but it's always rewarding to sit back at the end of a long, sweaty day enjoying a well-earned cold drink looking out at what you've accomplished. 

 

Good luck and happy gardening! 

 

Edited January 30, 20197 yr by djayz

16 hours ago, BTB1977 said:

If you want a small farm in Thailand, you have to start with a large farm that is family run. Than just wait a few years. 

First of all, it is not my farm, but my gf land, where her parents is going to take care of the trees, and maybe make sure so nobody steel the mushroom, water, and other things. It is not a farm with houses on it, but just a village farmland area. However, the village is growing, and there is starting to be houses around close by, so I guess it is just matter of time before someone buy up the smaller parsells, and make a farm out of it! 

 

Anyway, the question is, what would benefit the trees growing together, and what should be planted first? Thats my question!

 

Once again, it is not ment to be season income from it, but rather a placement of a small investment for my gf future. 

 

I aslo like to look at it as my green investment for my bad guilt of having such a good time. 

Edited January 31, 20197 yr by Tagged

On 1/30/2019 at 9:28 AM, thaiguzzi said:

Yawn.

Give it a rest will ya.

In 15 years the only person who has worked/driven a tractor on our 64 rai (approx 25 acres) is, wait for it... me.

I think the heads up notes are appropriate for advising a newbie.  Of course you can get away with it, but in fact it is illegal.  You can jump the border and live for years, you can drive drunk without a license or insurance, you can get away with a lot of things, until something happens and you get busted and then you're screwed. I'm a calculated risk taker, but I don't advise anyone else to be. 

On 1/31/2019 at 10:28 AM, drtreelove said:

I think the heads up notes are appropriate for advising a newbie.  Of course you can get away with it, but in fact it is illegal.  You can jump the border and live for years, you can drive drunk without a license or insurance, you can get away with a lot of things, until something happens and you get busted and then you're screwed. I'm a calculated risk taker, but I don't advise anyone else to be. 

Im well awere of Thailand and thai rules, and how they practice them. 

 

Working on own house and farmland, have as far as I know, never been a problem, unless you have problems with someone in the village from before. So, no surprises I know of. 

 

But it is good to inform everyone what the rules is of course, so we all can make our own decissions based of what we know. 

Surprise, we have been talking to different people in the village, about planting trees, and now we know why the land is so cheep, or why we got it cheep. Paperwork and everything is as good it can be, but we are the land next to the national park. Thats why everyone say, food production is good there, but we should not plant any trees. 

 

Anyone with experience about that from before? 

 

And if it is to good to be trye, it is likely it is. 

Avocados as well but you need at least two trees as they sex themselves into male and female for pollination.

 

Edit: as above, I'd only read page 1.

 

Good luck- I am envious of you 3 or 4 Rai is what I would like but I prefer the single life. It would be nice to be able to buy land without any strings attached!

Edited February 13, 20197 yr by Psimbo

On 1/30/2019 at 7:36 AM, Tagged said:

We will plant hardwood first of all, and then the family can plant what goes good together with the hard wood. The land investment was far underpriced, and the rest of the family have connecting land, and nearby so they are farmers with green hands. They would know what they want, but as every other place I have been to, is when  neighbour start with something new the rest of the village do the same, so i said no Tamurin. 

 

bore hole with quality pipes, slurry, and pump 50 000,- ?

Wather tanks 5m3 10 000,-?

Bungalow 40 000?

 

Saplings? 

 

 

 

 

How long before you can cut and sell the hardwood (assuming your intention is to cut and sell)?

 

Is there any hint that into the future there could be negative laws about cutting the trees?

 

 

 

 

11 minutes ago, scorecard said:

How long before you can cut and sell the hardwood (assuming your intention is to cut and sell)?

 

Is there any hint that into the future there could be negative laws about cutting the trees?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The land price with healthy trees will increase year by year until they are old enough to be harvested. 20 - 35 40 years. Depends on the soil, water, etc. 

Edited February 13, 20197 yr by Hummin

This is a very interesting and informative thread. I am pretty much a newbie at age 55, but inheriting my wife's family land that her parents are now too old to deal with it. We also have another plot about two rai in an unpopulated area here in Songkhla.

 

My father-in-law knows a lot about gardening (and thinks he knows everything), but he can't speak central Thai so I can't pick up much from him.

 

I recently bought a pickup and want to plant something on the other plot, but my wife always discourages me because she says people will steal the crop unless you guard it constantly. The land also is prone to bad flooding, which wiped out a hardwood plantation my brother-in-law tried out there about ten years ago.

 

I am thinking that maybe I should just do coconuts, toddy palm and the stuff that is known to tolerate flooding. Down the road I might like to put a little shack out there and try my hand at living off the grid, but the prospect of theft is very off-putting in that regard as well. This is another idea my wife doesn't understand since we have a nice, comfortable home in the town.

 

I would really like to know what experiences other posters have had with agri-theft (I know it's not a word, but...)

 

To the OP, I would suggest getting a couple of neem (sadao) trees going early on, as they are easy to grow can be used for a number of ways, such as organic insecticide spray and are good cover for other plants that require less sunlight (such as pepper). The flowers are edible too.

 

Anyway, happy Makha Bucha day to all...time to collect tamarind.

 

 

Seems like hardwood is out of question, since the high lords, have proved their power to steel land close to the Nationalpark before with wood. It have nothing to do with illegal or not, just the legality of who owns the land. 

 

So, what should we plant with in mind the temperature will rise the next decade or two? We should have penty of water, so that should not be an issue I think. 

Seems like hardwood is out of question, since the high lords, have proved their power to steel land close to the Nationalpark before with wood. It have nothing to do with illegal or not, just the legality of who owns the land. 
 
So, what should we plant with in mind the temperature will rise the next decade or two? We should have penty of water, so that should not be an issue I think. 

Have you thought about Leucaena (Kratin) trees as biomass or animal feed.
Though it makes just sense if you have some contractor that buys your stuff.

12 hours ago, CLW said:

Have you thought about Leucaena (Kratin) trees as biomass or animal feed.
Though it makes just sense if you have some contractor that buys your stuff.

We arrived yesterday, and inspected the land. Nice piece of land close to 4 rai, and potatos seems to be what they plant that area mostly, but lately more of the plot owners have invested in Tamarind. 

 

We will go to ampur today, and discuss with them what we can do there. Im tired of all people who say what you can do, should do, and not to do, and they really do not know what they talk about. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Tagged said:

Im tired of all people who say what you can do, should do, and not to do, and they really do not know what they talk about. 

Welcome to ThaiVisa.????

There are thousands of expats tending their wife's farms. "good money in crabs"????

And here we go. 

 

 

Edited February 22, 20197 yr by Hummin

1 hour ago, vinniekintana said:

I stopped reading after...'family will take care of the land' ????

Then you lost the whole point with the tread. 

 

1 hour ago, heybuz said:

There are thousands of expats tending their wife's farms. "good money in crabs"????

And you to, since Im fully aware of my limits. 

On 1/28/2019 at 5:03 PM, Tagged said:

You got 3 rai farmland in Isan, what would you do with it? Time perspective is 20 eyars +. 

 

 

Make it in to a nice park-like garden. 

 

BBQ area, stone pizza oven, pond area, sitting area, walking trail with lots of trees. 

Edited February 22, 20197 yr by Happy Grumpy

1 hour ago, heybuz said:

There are thousands of expats tending their wife's farms. "good money in crabs"????

Yes my wife  inherited the family rubber tree farm about 2 years ago ... it's managed well "150 Rai" ( i keep my mouth shut) it's  ok but it's becoming a burden for us ,

always something going wrong when we are on holidays.

Yeh have a look at the kings plan land modules, they are really interesting for small hobby farmers ... 1/2 acre for fish would be interesting......corn, bananas... depends how fit you are too....or just trying to be self sufficient.

Just to clerify one more time.

 

There is no farming going to be done to make money. 

 

It is just a plan to preserve the land, and make it grow in the long end like planting hard wood. Parents is good to take care, and keep their land clean and neat. No worries they will not care for the trees. They surtenly know what they are doing. 

 

My gf have been to ampur now, and they told here she can do what she want, and not worry anything about government taking the land back. Can build house, drill water, and plant trees and fruit. 

 

The next step now is to make the land ready, start growing gras , drill water, and put up a small pump house. Plant 10 teak trea and 10 mahogny, make a clear bufferzone to the government land with fruit trees. So far so good. 

Just got the land prepared for planting hardwood, fruit, and gras. But Im not happy since I would like to use a land roller to, but there is nowhere to find. 

 

Anyone know if there are available in thailand in a size for an atv or simular wehicle. Some grass rollers size? 

Try looking for a rotary hoe or rototiller to break up the soil but leave some aeration

@IsaanAussie

 

Thank you for your answer. We did the discharrow and rototiller, but still very lumpy and not hwo I would like to leave it until the rainseason start. I would do it again and then fertilize the land. Any suggestions after they had thai potato there? What to do. Any place we can get examinated the soil here in Thailand? 

 

Ph we will check, and Im trying to figure out if we can use a mix of chicken shit and buffalo or any other shit? 

 

They say here the chicken shit is no good, only use buffalo shit, and then how much buffalo shit for a rai? 

 

Im sure many others have asked the same question, but do not find the treads now. 

 

 

In my part of Isaan I wouldn't even try to get a plough into the ground at this time of year. Our soil is mostly clay and as hard as a rock now. About the only way to break it up is with a ripper.

So since you have tilled the ground your soil must be better than mine or still have a reasonable moisture content. 

The hot season is starting and there will not be any reasonable rains until May at the earliest. My first thoughts would be to get your water supply established, dig any ponds, planting holes for trees, change the contours you have planned and start collecting organic materials to incorporate early in the wet season. Without moisture nothing much will happen as far as soil condition goes. 

I would be working on compost to incorporate after the first rains. Many of the weed seeds will germinate with those rains and turning them back in with the compost will kill most. 

I have found the extremely low organic matter level in the soil is the real issue. Check your local area for things like cassava peel, sugarcane bagasse that you can buy cheap and compost. 

If you find a local soil testing service beyond NPK testing let me know. 

The only rollers I have seen, are home make ones, 40gallon oil drum filled with concrete, with a 2 inch bar giong though, to mount a draw bar, but a roller of this type is the last thing you need ,it will compact the land and prvent draniage ,and if the land was already a rice field it would just add to the drainage problem, what you need ,but they are not avallable in Thailnad is a Cambridge / ring roller .

As IA said organic matter is the bigest problem with Thai soil or rather lack of it, you could as soon as any rain comes to put in a crop of Mung Beans, a legume crop grow them for say 2 months then get your disc harrow and work the mung beans in the land, a good green manure 

As for apping muck on land, when I was in the uk it was 10 ton /arca, but this was wet manuar, with a lot of straw in most muck in Thailnd is dry ,so 10ton/rie in the uk would be 4ton/rie, as i said with it being dry about 1 1/2 ton /rie would be about right, which is what we put on our Nappier grass ,can you find that amount of muck in your part of Issan .

Chicken muck is not that bad, has a high percent of urea lot of rice husks  in it , does not last as long as cattal manuar, around here it is all apped to sugar cane fields after cutting, and to some fields before planting .

A few years ago my neiboure was growing some cucumbers, he whanted some chicken muck, I went halves with a load, no weight to it seemed to go nowhere ,compaired to cow manuar, I would say to do any good you would need at least 1 1/2 ton/rie .

@kickstart

 

this is how the soil look like now. 

 

Not to bad, I just checked it a week ago just walking around and stamp it, the dirt did brake up, but a bit hard now. 

 

So we will do another round after we put on the buffalo shit, and mix it good before the reain sets in. 

 

We will put 25 bags a rai with buffalo shit to start with. And a bag with fertilizer pr rai. 

 

 

Where can I buy trees? Not just trees, but good trees. 

 

Yang Na trees, and other hard wood trees, and also Fruit trees. Petchabun, Chaiyaphum, Korat Khonkaen? 

 

I see some farmer use tires around their base of the trees they planted. 

 

What is the benefits of this? 

7 hours ago, Tagged said:

I see some farmer use tires around their base of the trees they planted. 

 

What is the benefits of this? 

They seem to be two benefits, one helps to keep the soil cool around the tree in the hot season, with some straw or grass on top would help as a mulch keeping moisture in, and looking at your land it looks a bit light ,anything that would keep water /moisture in cannot be bad

Our small fruit trees are suffering right now just too hot, I am using old grass silage as mulch may be a few old tyers might have helped. 

And during the rainy season stops /helps the trees becoming waterlogged, but I say if a good hole was dug at the start, with a few stones at the bottom it helps with drainage, it worked well with our lime trees they have never looked back, and water does sit they after a heavy rain