Growing Statistics

[macb]

Well we moved into the house Feb 2005 in the March/April time the planting started, you can see from the first pic, in particular the coconut trees started at about 60 cms high, this morning I measured them average height 2.60 mtrs, thats would be an average of 1mtre a year and all the mango trees have fruit on as well.

First planting march/April 2005

Garden to-date Coco nut Mango and we had bananas as well

The Banana trees were planted February last year:

Garden Feb 2006

[Somtham]

Before I opened the post I was thinking, gee, what kind of fertilizer do you use on statistics and how often do you water them? Anyway, looks good Mac. How about a March 07 pic? What kind of coconuts did you plant?

rgds

[macb]

Somtham : Hot of the press I just been in the garden with the Digital hows that for response time:

The Bananas as I said ealier were planted last February :

Coconut now two years old the short variety of tree I can getr the Thai name off the wife later (5 years apparently before they fruit)

This is just a General shot of part of the garden or what might be minature jungle haha

This is the lemon/lime tree we spoke of in an ealier thread its planted on the North side of the house near the Hong Nam (Cess pit )

Mango's 2 year old planted same time as Coconut

Here's featured what I call the Betalnut tree its what all the elders chew (Does this make me a drug Baron Joking )

This papaya self seeded last September I think right next to two more Hong nams on the East side of the house.

Now this plant/Ornamental tree bought last year suffered attack from Common minah bird for some reason who tok a liking to the leaves well it died, now this year look at it a New lease of life.

Okay all the main planting is on the East side of the house so they get tthe brunt of the heat allday.

Manure is from the cows on the Farm. (Dried)

Watering in the dry Season we do every other day. Garden plants flowers etc every evening.

Yesterday papa and the kids brought hay/Straw and put around the trees to keep the ground cool.

Thats about it mate.

I think a couple of times the wife threw some Nitrogen around the trees, but this is not regular practice.

Hope this helps ( Where abouts are you located ? )

[macb]

Okay I asked the wife what the name was for our type of Coconut tree:

Its Ma-Phroa nam hom, apparently produces a sweeter coconut and the milk smells and tastes better. Aroi mak mar

Edited March 24, 2007 by macb

[macb]

Well I had a wonder round the garden this morning with the Digi taking some Floral pics:

Below Fuang-Far

The pic below is called le-la-wadee

Below Dor-an-chan

Below Chuan-Chom

[Lickey]

Hi MacB, great pics, eternall gratitude if you could tell me the species of the banana plant you have, the hands look brialiant, so many on one stalk!!the papaya looks the dogs to, i see you feed them on nitrogen and cow manure, and daily watering, we have 9 rai of papaya and will be improving the irrigation system in the next few days, but as papaya dies of, we want to replace with a high yield banana plant, if you could help with species, again, eternally gratefull. thanks..

[macb]

Hi MacB, great pics, eternall gratitude if you could tell me the species of the banana plant you have, the hands look brialiant, so many on one stalk!!the papaya looks the dogs to, i see you feed them on nitrogen and cow manure, and daily watering, we have 9 rai of papaya and will be improving the irrigation system in the next few days, but as papaya dies of, we want to replace with a high yield banana plant, if you could help with species, again, eternally gratefull. thanks..

Well the wife inform me its Kluai-nam-wa hope this helps:

Heres a pic of our first Manao (Lime) wife says never seen them this big

I think I said earlier we now got hay around the bottom of all trees this is to keep the soil and roots cool

[Lickey]

Thanks Macb, the missus knows these ones, she and mum planted 10 15 years ago, and they still produce!! albeit, perhaps only 4/5 hands at a time, and very small, lack of water this time of year i think! but thats the one we will buy when suppliers can get them out of ground..

Is it grass hay you use or rice straw you are using to keep ground cool and preserve moisture? thanks, lickey..

[macb]

Thanks Macb, the missus knows these ones, she and mum planted 10 15 years ago, and they still produce!! albeit, perhaps only 4/5 hands at a time, and very small, lack of water this time of year i think! but thats the one we will buy when suppliers can get them out of ground..

Is it grass hay you use or rice straw you are using to keep ground cool and preserve moisture? thanks, lickey..

Hi mate:

Its Rice Straw.

I think I said either in this thread or another these were only planted 14 months ago, the ones on the Northwestern side of the garden are doing better than the ones on the Southwestern side they are slower, it could be my fill very hard but they are getting more water everyday now from Father-in-law

[chownah]

Lickey,

A banana plant lives for only one fruiting cycle then it dies...before it dies it sends up new plants which clone off form the root of the original. This can go on indefiniely so that you have a succession of banana plants growing in the same location. This is the typical way people around my village grow bananas too, like your family. I imagine your family might have a problem with the plants falling down when they have fruit and a big wind comes....we do. The reason is that after a few years of bananas growing from the same spot the rotting bases of the old plants makes the ground soft and not good at supporting the new plants. What I have read is that you should take the new starts off of the tree and plant them in a new location and only keep growing for two year (two generations) in the same spot. What I've read says that you should get larger bunches of fruit and larger fruit and they should come earlier and be less prone to disease. I started doing this about a year ago and it seems that they are right but I haven't paid much attention to them since bananas are a fruit that you can more or less just plant and forget (except for watering in the dry season occasionally to keep them alive) thats what I've been doing since I've got alot of other things that require more attention.

I suggest you try finding some of the baby plants (they grow up from the base of a big plant) and removing some (cut them off with a shovel or large hoe...cut vertically downward where the baby is coming out from the parent so that you get the baby off with its base intact) and planting them in a new spot. Its really easy to do. Don't worry too much if you don't get any of the little baby's roots..it will grow new ones if you just be sure to keep the ground wet around the base of the transplanted plant for about three weeks. Bananas like a well drained and constantly wet soil and even thought they will grow in most soils they do respond well to added fertility and increased organic matter in the soil.

Chownah

Edited April 2, 2007 by chownah

[turnpike]

thanks for that snippet of info, chownah.

assuming my bananas, which are approaching 2 years and fruiting very well, start falling over/breaking and i manage to transplant some new ones to a different spot. any advice on how to completely eradicate the existing ones? seems to me they'd be hard to kill, but maybe i'm wrong. would it be wise to completely dig out all the old roots and backfill after?

i hated them when the mother in law planted them, but they do throw off some nice shade until my other trees are big enough to do so. also interesting how the fruit matures from that pointy red bulb. interesting 'cause i never had a clue before that how the fruit came to be.

anyways,thnx in advance for any comments.

tp

[chownah]

thanks for that snippet of info, chownah.

assuming my bananas, which are approaching 2 years and fruiting very well, start falling over/breaking and i manage to transplant some new ones to a different spot. any advice on how to completely eradicate the existing ones? seems to me they'd be hard to kill, but maybe i'm wrong. would it be wise to completely dig out all the old roots and backfill after?

i hated them when the mother in law planted them, but they do throw off some nice shade until my other trees are big enough to do so. also interesting how the fruit matures from that pointy red bulb. interesting 'cause i never had a clue before that how the fruit came to be.

anyways,thnx in advance for any comments.

tp

The fallling over thing usually becomes a problem after three of four years as far as I can tell so you needn't worry too much now unless you live in a high wind location. If you keep taking the new shoots off of the plant then when the plant produces fruit it will die and there will be no new shoots growing so that will be the end of it. After it fruits it will inevitably die so you can just cut the stem off near the base and you can dig up the part still in the ground fairly easily...it doesn't go very deep. and if you wait one year before you dig it out it will be rotten and really easy to dig out. You could probably just leave it there and sort of let it decompose and enrich the soil..but this theoretically might harbor some disease or harmful insects...probably not....I personally would dig out the remains since I'm an organic gardner and this is the best practice to avoid soil pests.

If you want to kill them immediately just whack them off at the base....they might send up a new shoot but just whack that off too....this should end it....if not then keep on whacking until it bites the dust. Their stalks are very soft and can be cut easily with a machete or large knife with just a few whacks. Not so difficult really.

Chownah

Edited April 2, 2007 by chownah

[Lickey]

Macb, rice straw, ok, will get some next time in season,

Chownah, you really are a mine of information, the banana plants are sprouting new ones, perhaps 4/5 per-plant, must have about 25 ready to transplant, perhaps a few gallons of water for 2 days would help them come out easier? the missus has banned the labour from weeding around the papaya, except for spear grass, hopefully enhancing the growth of the leafy creeper, clemento, I will keep you posted on this but at the moment, cant really see a problem, if it doesnt get into the new seed area of the papaya, and snipped off with scissors when it starts to climb the trunk, all should be ok,

today the wife came to farm with 4 kids in tow, she put them to work with spreading the sawdust and dead bamboo leaves around the papaya roots, {not my compost heaps! } they done half the 9 rai and wife gave them 15bht each, they were happy as hel_l with this and will come back tomorrow to finish job, While this was going on, i made a water gun, hose. plastic pipe and a 8mm nozzle, specially to do plants on the corners of field where it would be a waste of water for sprinklers, great, it shoots water 30ft and being directed at the base of plant ensures the plant gets about a gallon in 20secs, more efficient than a sprinkler i suppose? I saw a tottally dead papaya, just a stalk, i pulled it out and then directed the water jet into the hole, within seconds, the jet had made a hole 18in deep, 2in diameter, with a bit of work and a mud scoop, i think this would be great for planting banana, saturating the ground ect.

Big day tomorrow, big clay pot shoud arrive and will be busy piping and electrics and timer ect, but will try to remember cam and take some pics of the creeper .

Turnpike, you can prop up heavy hands if you want, then do as chownah suggested, thanks, lickey,,

[chownah]

Lickey,

If you are asking if you should give the transplants water for a couple of days the answer is definetly yes and in fact for banana transplants I try to keep them wet for two or three weeks...if you mulch with sawdust and bamboo leaves or rice straw or even cut weeds then you could probably water once a week. Generally speaking I think you can keep banana plants wet all the time for best results......as long as you have well drained soil you don't need to worry about over watering a banana plant unless the soil is so soft from over watering that it won't support the plant.

About planting depth: I just assumed that the banana plants growing around in the yard were planted to the correct depth....but it might be that they were planted at a convenient depth...convenient meaning easy and easy being shallow. If I find that I have a falling over problem in some soils I think I'll try planting them deeper for better support. I built a road over some banana plants and I cut them off at the base and then buried them with about 30 or 40 centimetres of dirt....well, a few days later they emerged and seem to be doing fine but time will tell if they will bear fruit or just eventually die off..so far they look great and they are about 1-1/2 metres tall and looking great....the moral of this story is that it seems that they could be planted fairly deeply so this might be a good strategy for solving the falling over problem.

Chownah

P.S. So far I have been planting the shoots at the same depth that they are when they grow up form the parent plant and that works great.

Chownah

Edited April 3, 2007 by chownah

[Lickey]

Hi Chownah, good information, thanks, tuesday not a good day, ms called man about big clay pot and he said his mum had died so this has put back nightime watering!! promised to deliver saturday, that aside, i asked labour leader to take of some banana shoots to transplant between papaya, he started to dig hole with the thai spade, I stopped him and used water jet, i had a hole 18" deep and a foot in diameter in 2 mins, scooped out mud, put in plant refilled with the muddy soil, he was well impressed!! but he did chop off new growth befofe planting, just leaving a brown green stub in the ground, assuring me that new growth would start in a few days,, we will see!!

4 pm and the distant thunderstorms were on the way, went home at 5 pm and the wind and rain came on really hard for 2 hours, this morning on farm, 12 high yielding trees had gone over and we picked up 50ks of fruit of the land, ms sold them at the local pok-pok shop, hopefully will have bro in laws pickup at weekend to collect rice-staw this weekend, as i understand from various web-sites, papaya loves the sun and carefull irrigation, because they are prone to root rot, so my plan is to give soil good cover, to retain moisture, rice straw, creepers, sawdust ect, water at nighttime only, and let the sun heat and dry the soil in the day,

Ms saw me watering the barren ground test area today, unbeknown to me she had planted some makua in another piece 4 weeks earlier, the plants are still the same size as when she planted them, which would suggest the weedkiller is still active, on cross-examination, it seems this was applied May last year, and still active, perhaps after the rainy season this will cleanse the soil? hopefully!!

Regards, Lickey..