Cassava, Tiptoing Into Farming

[loong]

Hi all,

I'm more active in the organic sub-forum as I grow my veggies etc on a small plot basically for home consumption.

We have recently rented 6 rai that was used to grow cassava and we decided to stick with cassava for now. It should have been 8 rai, but the previous tenants replanted the lowest 2 rai section last year as the tubers rotted because of the non stop rain. We have been offered the crop as it stands by the previous tenant. He wants 5,000 Baht and I would of course have to pay the 1,600 Baht yearly rental on the 2 rai. Does this seem a reasonable amount for a 5 or 6 month old crop?

I get the impression that he skimped on the fertiliser as he has said that the total cost for the 8 rai was about 4,500 Baht last year.

I have read the pinned cassava topic and absorbed what I can from it. Some excellent stuff in there, esp from Khonwan. So I do have some idea about how to approach this.

Unfortunately we took over this land at the same time that I visited the UK, so my missus was left to get the ball rolling. I had looked at the land before and it was obvious that soil erosion was a big problem. I told the missus that we should plant some strips of mung beans or cowpeas to help with this. Of course, she didn't think this a good idea and so it wasn't done. There has already been some run off less than a month after ploughing and the real rainy season is a while off yet.

She seems to have handled everything quite well though, but there was a short gap between ploughing the first 2 rai and the remaining 4. Pre emergence herbicide was sprayed on the 6 rai at the same time, but doesn't seem to have worked too well on the initial 2. That will need some weeding done.

For some reason the sticks from last year's crop were deemed unsuitable and she obtained some from a friend who claims that she gets 30 tons from 5 rai. I would be over the moon to achieve that. No idea what variety it is.

I am 100% organic on my small plot, but I am a realist and know that I have to use chems. Stupid as it may sound, never having used chem fertilisers, I really don't know the best way to apply it. Is it best just left on the surface or should it be mixed into the soil? Will it burn the cassava if it comes into contact with it?

The soil is very sandy and so will be prone to leaching and run off. I am wondering if it may be better to apply smaller amounts and more often than the 2 times recommended in the pinned cassava topic. I would be quite happy to walk around and apply by hand to the individual plants. Maybe take a hoe and scoop up some soil from the furrows to cover the fertiliser, I imagine that the rain will do its best to flatten the ridges before the canopy develops.

The missus did have a bit of a problem getting labour. Nobody wanted to work for less than 250 Baht a day (plus food, so 300 Bt). Not only that, they were not exactly speedy. I feel that it may be better to get labour from another village as it is often a problem when employing people that you know. When it comes to harvesting time, maybe it will be best to look for a gang to do it to contract.

I'm sure that a few of you may be rolling your eyes and thinking that here we go, another jumped up gardener that aspires to be a farmer It's true, I don't really know what I'm doing, but prepared to learn. If I can manage to break even or make a small profit with the first crop, I will be quite happy that we will be able to continue and improve as we go.

I will have to buy in some fertiliser soon. I will use what Khonwan recommends. I understand that cassava fertiliser does not require high P content and P is the most expensive part. Can anyone let me know what to expect to pay for fertiliser at the moment? I will have no idea if I am being given a reasonable price or not.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[SantiSuk]

All I know is that my wife netted 35,000 baht from 3.5 rai of cassava last year*. She owns the land and her family works it; I have no idea how they share the product but I do know that she's more the type who would give her family an easy ride rather than someone who would slave-drive them. I'm also clear that 35 grand went into her bank account and that she had paid out nothing - the family paid for the sticks, for water pump electricity, dung and did all the toiling and took some of the crop. .

In any event that suggests you have a great deal - although I should add to my inexpert eye that the soil around here in lower SiSaket province is extremely fertile (deep red and multiple crops of the market gardening variety a year), so yields might be comparatively high. Lots of red-plates and shiny new Kubotas around.

You will no doubt be aware that the casava price over the last year or so has not been all it was cracked up to be (so she tells me). She has been persuaded to switch to galangal this year and expects to net 100,000 from her full 5 rai. Of course with all the village doing the same herd-instinct thing they wont get anywhere near that. Not unless the whole world starts consuming Tom Yam/Tom kah etc.

* The 4.5 rai plot that the cassava was grown on cost just shy of 1 million baht 18 months ago. Implies an approx 4% net return on capital which is not great but not poor, given that the land has utility supplies and development potential, being directly adjoining a main highway in a commercially expanding area (well out of town but in a ribbon development of several expanding villages).

Edited May 31, 2012 by SantiSuk

[loong]

Hi Santisuk, good to know that your wife is getting a profit.

Yes I know that the price of cassava hasn't exactly taken off and seems to be stuck around the 2000Bt per ton. Hopefully will not go too much lower than that.

Well, galangal is probably quite easy to grow, It grows almost like a weed on my small plot and I cut/pull out a lot occasionally and it goes on my compost heap. Maybe what I have is not a viable commercial variety as the root is quite small.

[somo]

RE the 2 rai already planted it would cost you about 1000 baht/rai to plough twice and plant.

That is assuming you have a free supply of stems and doesn't include any ferilizer or weeding costs.

The value now really depends on the quality of the plants and tubours. If they were planted 6 months ago they will

have been starved of water at first and this can leed to a reduced number of tubors/plant so

dig around a few of the healthier looking ones and have a look.

When it is available I plough in about half a ton of chiken manure/rai but otherwise

use a mix of 46-0-0 and 0-0-60 fertlizer and spread it around prior to ridging as

that way it gets fixed in the ground better I feel but most people seem to just cast it all about soon after planting.

All in you will probably end up spending around 3,500 Baht/rai to produce about 4 tons of tubours.

It will then cost around 500/ton to harvest and transport to the wholesale company assuming you have one nearby.

Your profit then is dependant on the price you get for it. At 2.50/kg you should make about 4,500/rai

I am sure you wont lose and hopefully have lots of fun finding out what suits you best.

[loong]

Hi Somo, thanks for replying.

we had a look at a couple of plants from the existing crop. 4 tubers about 10 inches long and thick as a large cucumber per plant. I've no idea how that would translate to weight. This 2 rai section is the lowest and that is why it was waterlogged with the excessive rain last year. Probably a lot of nutrients from the higher ground would have washed down to this section. I have to bear in mind that there will be the risk of waterlogging on this 2 rai again this year. We never used to see any rain here from mid November until mid march, but the last 2 years we have had heavy rainfalls a few days in January and February. Can't rely on the dry season being so dry anymore - maybe a good thing.

I would guess that the costs with this 2 rai would be roughly (per rai)

payment to previous tenant 2,500

rental 800

fertiliser and weed control 2,000

so about 5,300 per rai. this would probably be an 18 month crop, but with 2 dry seasons, so could probably anticipate 6 tonnes per rai?

Using your figure of 500 Bt per ton for harvest ( 10Km to factory) would add another 3,000 so a total of 8,300Bt per rai. I think it best to use 2,000Bt/ton for calculations so 12,000 Bt - 8,300 = 3,700Bt profit per rai.

I believe that last year was the only time in memory that this section was waterlogged, but have to take into account that there is a risk that it may happen again, so will probably make a lower offer for the crop.

but otherwise

use a mix of 46-0-0 and 0-0-60 fertlizer

can you please let me know what you pay per 50Kg bag of these Fertilisers?

Thanks Somo

[Livinginexile]

All I know is that my wife netted 35,000 baht from 3.5 rai of cassava last year*. She owns the land and her family works it; I have no idea how they share the product but I do know that she's more the type who would give her family an easy ride rather than someone who would slave-drive them. I'm also clear that 35 grand went into her bank account and that she had paid out nothing - the family paid for the sticks, for water pump electricity, dung and did all the toiling and took some of the crop. .

In any event that suggests you have a great deal - although I should add to my inexpert eye that the soil around here in lower SiSaket province is extremely fertile (deep red and multiple crops of the market gardening variety a year), so yields might be comparatively high. Lots of red-plates and shiny new Kubotas around.

You will no doubt be aware that the casava price over the last year or so has not been all it was cracked up to be (so she tells me). She has been persuaded to switch to galangal this year and expects to net 100,000 from her full 5 rai. Of course with all the village doing the same herd-instinct thing they wont get anywhere near that. Not unless the whole world starts consuming Tom Yam/Tom kah etc.

* The 4.5 rai plot that the cassava was grown on cost just shy of 1 million baht 18 months ago. Implies an approx 4% net return on capital which is not great but not poor, given that the land has utility supplies and development potential, being directly adjoining a main highway in a commercially expanding area (well out of town but in a ribbon development of several expanding villages).

Interesting....so your wife harvested approx. 17.5 tons from 3.5 rai? (based on 2,000bht/ton)

5 ton/rai?....is this really possible?

[somo]

I haven't bought any fertilizer so far this year as I was able to get hold of 2 lorry loads of chicken manure. I will add some 0-0-60 later. Last year, as far as I can remember, 46-0-0 as about 650 Baht and 0-0-60 about 850 or 900

Mixing the two together gave you 23-0-30 at a price of about 750Baht which is much better value than say 15-8-15 at the same sort of price.

Sounds like you may as well go ahead and take the extra 2 rai as you won't lose if you leave it for another year unless of course it does suffer from waterlogging which will rot the tubours if it lasts a long time.

I have noticed an increasing number of organic fertilizers becoming available. These are mixed with water and sprayed on the leaves preferably the underside at a cool time of day. I have small plot next to outr house which i have planted as a test area. It's only 20 metres sq. but will divide it into 4 and compare different fertilizing methods. I suspect that a combination of one of these plus half the normal amount of chemical fertilizer may well be the way to go but it will be 6 months before any differences become apparrent.

As you have just planted you may want to consider setting aside a section for experimenting as well.

[loong]

Hi Somo,

went out today and tried a few places that sell fertiliser, they had urea but no 0-0-60. Also none of the 15-5-35 that was recommended by Khonwan. In fact very little choice and mostly around the 1000 Bt mark for 50Kg.

The missus is having to use the pick-up for work, so I had to go on my motorbike and could only take one bag to start with.

I got some 15-7-18, not ideal, but I wanted to get something in. At 940Bt it also includes 3% MgO, 4.1% CaO and 2% S

I will see if I can find out if there is a Sahagon anywhere near me as hopefully they will have more choice.

I wanted to get some sun hemp, but no luck with that either. I just got a small tub of yard long beans so will try them out.

At least I was able to get some EM and molasses, so will be doing some experimenting with that.

That's a good suggestion of yours to try out different things on a few small sections. Will brew some compost and manure teas and see how they work out. I intend to experiment with EM foliar sprays.

Thanks

[somo]

You are lucky as it seems you live near your land.

We have built a house in my wifes village but still live in Bangkok so I am not able to have a real hands on approach.

Having said that I am determined to experiment and learn as I am convinced that is the only way to to find the best practice. The farmers in the village all have different ideas so there is no point in seeking advice there and none have got rich from farming even though some have a lot of land. I find the experimenting side the most fun as well

Renting land as you have done is also the best way to start. No great outlay and a chance to learn. In a year or so you will know if you want to expand or not.

[loong]

The farmers in the village all have different ideas so there is no point in seeking advice there and none have got rich from farming even though some have a lot of land

Hi Somo,

The locals here are often quick to offer advice, but none of them are real farmers and don't know what they are talking about most of the time.

I have asked about a sahagon shop, but they are only aware of the dairy farming co-operative set up between here and Khon Kaen city. I don't even know where the government agriculture office is around here.

Yes, I live close to the land and can walk to it in 5 minutes, but a very roundabout route if I want to drive. Foot access may get more difficult as the rainy season gets going in earnest.

Hopefully, one year from now, I will still be keen to continue.

[SantiSuk]

All I know is that my wife netted 35,000 baht from 3.5 rai of cassava last year*. She owns the land and her family works it; I have no idea how they share the product but I do know that she's more the type who would give her family an easy ride rather than someone who would slave-drive them. I'm also clear that 35 grand went into her bank account and that she had paid out nothing - the family paid for the sticks, for water pump electricity, dung and did all the toiling and took some of the crop. .

In any event that suggests you have a great deal - although I should add to my inexpert eye that the soil around here in lower SiSaket province is extremely fertile (deep red and multiple crops of the market gardening variety a year), so yields might be comparatively high. Lots of red-plates and shiny new Kubotas around.

You will no doubt be aware that the casava price over the last year or so has not been all it was cracked up to be (so she tells me). She has been persuaded to switch to galangal this year and expects to net 100,000 from her full 5 rai. Of course with all the village doing the same herd-instinct thing they wont get anywhere near that. Not unless the whole world starts consuming Tom Yam/Tom kah etc.

* The 4.5 rai plot that the cassava was grown on cost just shy of 1 million baht 18 months ago. Implies an approx 4% net return on capital which is not great but not poor, given that the land has utility supplies and development potential, being directly adjoining a main highway in a commercially expanding area (well out of town but in a ribbon development of several expanding villages).

Interesting....so your wife harvested approx. 17.5 tons from 3.5 rai? (based on 2,000bht/ton)

5 ton/rai?....is this really possible?

Sounds a bit far fetched - I'll do some due diligence. Perhaps she's money laundering!

[loong]

All I know is that my wife netted 35,000 baht from 3.5 rai of cassava last year*. She owns the land and her family works it; I have no idea how they share the product but I do know that she's more the type who would give her family an easy ride rather than someone who would slave-drive them. I'm also clear that 35 grand went into her bank account and that she had paid out nothing - the family paid for the sticks, for water pump electricity, dung and did all the toiling and took some of the crop. .

In any event that suggests you have a great deal - although I should add to my inexpert eye that the soil around here in lower SiSaket province is extremely fertile (deep red and multiple crops of the market gardening variety a year), so yields might be comparatively high. Lots of red-plates and shiny new Kubotas around.

You will no doubt be aware that the casava price over the last year or so has not been all it was cracked up to be (so she tells me). She has been persuaded to switch to galangal this year and expects to net 100,000 from her full 5 rai. Of course with all the village doing the same herd-instinct thing they wont get anywhere near that. Not unless the whole world starts consuming Tom Yam/Tom kah etc.

* The 4.5 rai plot that the cassava was grown on cost just shy of 1 million baht 18 months ago. Implies an approx 4% net return on capital which is not great but not poor, given that the land has utility supplies and development potential, being directly adjoining a main highway in a commercially expanding area (well out of town but in a ribbon development of several expanding villages).

Interesting....so your wife harvested approx. 17.5 tons from 3.5 rai? (based on 2,000bht/ton)

5 ton/rai?....is this really possible?

Sounds a bit far fetched - I'll do some due diligence. Perhaps she's money laundering!

I think that 5 tonnes per rai is possible, but from what I have read 4 tonnes is more the norm.

I have also read of yields around 30 tonnes, per rai, but I think that whoever reports that is getting hectares mixed up with rai.

I am unable to connect to the Thai tapioca site to check, but I believe that cassava root was fetching around 3,500 Bt/tonne at one time last year. 3.5 rai producing 4 tonne/rai = 14 tonne. @ 3,500Bt/tonne = 49,000Bt Gross if sold at the peak.

[somo]

I think the land SantiSuk is talking about is irrigated. I see he mentions water pumps, irrigation rods and pipes. This would perhaps double the yield to 8-10tons/year. The cost of setting up and maintaining irrigation are usually too high to justify for cassava so i would be interested to hear more from SantiSuk about that.

The cost of the 4.5 rai sounds outrageous for agricultural purposes but for speculation who knows.

[loong]

Regarding the previous tenant's 6 month old crop on 2 rai. He won't budge on the price and will not take less than 5,000 Bt for it.

Looking at the section, it is like a dish, lower in the centre than the edges. I guess that is why water tends to pond there when extreme rainfall. It is also over-run with weeds and grass now.

I'm going to pull a couple of plants and cut and weigh the roots to give me some idea of what the total crop would weigh now.

Total crop from last season was 11 tonnes on 6 rai, will definitely have to improve on that.

The weeds are really taking off in the top 2 rai. The pre-emegence herbicide was definitely applied too long after ploughing. I am currently cutting the weeds with a hoe and scooping up soil from between the ridges while adding fertiliser. Time consuming though. Adding another dose of herbicide would be difficult as would have to clear around each cassava plant by hand anyway. In some places, cassava is not visible.

Looking at the surrounding fields of cassava and sugarcane, it seems that most do not bother with weed control. One of my neighbours is growing cassava on 1 rai and she has just cleared the weeds by hand, it took her 4 days.

[Bluetongue]

Yes we had some cassava on 2 plots last year, 5 rai approx yielded 15.25 ton at 2800 per ton, the harvest cost was 350 per ton. This field was started with chicken manure and used herbicide twice and fertilised once more with bio. It contained about 7,500 plants so works out to about 2kilo of tubers per plant. However I did weigh in one specimen at over 8 kilos, and there were quite a few like this. The local price started In October at less than 2k about 1.5, rapidly climbed to touch 3 k at one point and then just as rapidly declined to 1.4 before recovering to be stuck where it is now at 1.6 to 2. We harvested in December.

The second plot was under 1.5 rai, 2500 plants, chicken manure and hand weeded, we harvested ourselves and sold it as dried chips, 2.5+ ton for 5000 per ton. Hard work that weeding and harvesting I can tell you. Hand weeding took two of us about 3 days twice from memory.

I saw some mahn dug up just recently Loong some of it from a pretty soggy patch and the Thais involved didn't even pick a lot of it up, called it neo I think. The higher the moisture content the lower the price I thought. People dont budge on price much so if it was me I'd leave him to it, 6 months doesn't sound very old either so there may be some issues for you as to when he is actually going to pull it out.

[somo]

Loong, I would give the 2 rai a miss for this year and just keep an eye on it and see what happens when the heavy rain comes.

It may well be that it is not worth renting.

[loong]

Hard work that weeding and harvesting I can tell you. Hand weeding took two of us about 3 days twice from memory.

Obviously time consuming and hard work. From what you say, it does appear that handweeding would require about 4 man days per rai. If done twice in the growing season, I would think definitely too costly to employ people. It would come to more than 2,000 Bt per rai.

Unfortunately the cassava plants are quite close together which makes spraying with herbicide difficult.

I saw some mahn dug up just recently Loong some of it from a pretty soggy patch and the Thais involved didn't even pick a lot of it up, called it neo I think

I think that this is probably the Tha word "Nao" เน่า ,meaning "rotten"

You say that you fertilised with Bio, what do you mean by this? Did you buy a special organic fertiliser?

[loong]

Loong, I would give the 2 rai a miss for this year and just keep an eye on it and see what happens when the heavy rain comes.

It may well be that it is not worth renting.

Good advice, thanks.

I'm tending to agreeing with you. Just hope that all my fertiliser doesn't wash down onto his crop and give him a bumper harvest

[loong]

Somo,

during the last 2 months, since this land was first offered to us for rent, I have read a lot of different research and case studies re cassava.

It amazes me just how much confliction there is between these differnet studies, especially with regard to fertiliser requirements and intercropping. The only conclusion that I can draw is that one has to experiment and work out what works best for the actual land that is being farmed.

Your advice to do some experimenting on a few small sections of the land is well received and is obviously the way to have a good chance to increase yields.

[bottleymike]

My wife has a patch of 3 rai that she planted cassava on for the first year following previous pineapple crops.They were hand weeded with hoes by the family, and composted also by hand scattering pellet compost, and chicken shit mixture.My wife reckoned that the cost of ploughing the land and buying the compost and chicken shit was B20,000.

A crew dug up the crop and took them to the factory an hour and a half away on their vehicle,for a payment.

After their cut, we got paid B 53,000,so the profit was B33,000 on the crop.

We are growing the same again,so it will be interesting to see how the second year of the same crop goes.

[somo]

My wife has a patch of 3 rai that she planted cassava on for the first year following previous pineapple crops.They were hand weeded with hoes by the family, and composted also by hand scattering pellet compost, and chicken shit mixture.My wife reckoned that the cost of ploughing the land and buying the compost and chicken shit was B20,000.

A crew dug up the crop and took them to the factory an hour and a half away on their vehicle,for a payment.

After their cut, we got paid B 53,000,so the profit was B33,000 on the crop.

We are growing the same again,so it will be interesting to see how the second year of the same crop goes.

For these figures to work you must have been harvesting around 9-10 tons/rai which is double the normal crop! Mind you the outlay of 20k for 3 rai is also double the normal. I would be interested to know how many tons of chicken manure was used or the cost of it plus any more details you have like length of growing time etc

[bottleymike]

My wife has a patch of 3 rai that she planted cassava on for the first year following previous pineapple crops.They were hand weeded with hoes by the family, and composted also by hand scattering pellet compost, and chicken shit mixture.My wife reckoned that the cost of ploughing the land and buying the compost and chicken shit was B20,000.

A crew dug up the crop and took them to the factory an hour and a half away on their vehicle,for a payment.

After their cut, we got paid B 53,000,so the profit was B33,000 on the crop.

We are growing the same again,so it will be interesting to see how the second year of the same crop goes.

For these figures to work you must have been harvesting around 9-10 tons/rai which is double the normal crop! Mind you the outlay of 20k for 3 rai is also double the normal. I would be interested to know how many tons of chicken manure was used or the cost of it plus any more details you have like length of growing time etc

The land is rich soil, not sand or clay. And it had previously had pineapples on it for 3 years. As the land is in the mddle of the vilage you are limited it what you can grow without upseting the neibours ( no burning sugar canes etc) so we thought we would try cassava's.

The crop was left in for a year roughly, and the tonnage was over 8 tonnes a rai, at Baht 2,200 to us after the crop pickers took their cut of Baht 500 a tonne..

The chicken shit from the chicken battery farm costs Baht 26 for about 15 kilo's in a bag.I can't remember how many bags were used, but from memory not many.

Edited June 6, 2012 by bottleymike

[jamescollister]

Just slightly of topic, did 6 rai of cassava a few years ago, broke even. When checking the stuff out found a site, think the London school of economics, poverty alleviation for Africa. They had simple chopping and bagging machine designs. Like many things here value adding can make the difference between profit and loss. Maybe worth looking into if you are getting into cassava to make a profit, not just a hobby. Jim

[Bluetongue]

Hard work that weeding and harvesting I can tell you. Hand weeding took two of us about 3 days twice from memory.

Obviously time consuming and hard work. From what you say, it does appear that handweeding would require about 4 man days per rai. If done twice in the growing season, I would think definitely too costly to employ people. It would come to more than 2,000 Bt per rai.

Unfortunately the cassava plants are quite close together which makes spraying with herbicide difficult.

I saw some mahn dug up just recently Loong some of it from a pretty soggy patch and the Thais involved didn't even pick a lot of it up, called it neo I think

I think that this is probably the Tha word "Nao" เน่า ,meaning "rotten"

You say that you fertilised with Bio, what do you mean by this? Did you buy a special organic fertiliser?

It comes in a green or red bag with the word Bio on it 450 or so baht, the contents are there I just cant recall at this moment. We started with chicken manure in pellets and then added Bio some months later. I agree the 20000 cost for ploughing and chicken manure 3 rai in another post sounds very high. My ploughing total for 7 rai was 3160, 1043 for 7 bags of manure and labour for planting about 1000. I had to buy stalks as the previous year I grew corn thet was 1000 also. It is said to be better to use a bigger tractor and plough to get taller furrows and you have to watch the collectionas well as if they are paid by the ton theyy might leave a lot behind. The season before last BiL 1 got 2 and a half ton extra from gleaning after they left.

[somo]

My wife has a patch of 3 rai that she planted cassava on for the first year following previous pineapple crops.They were hand weeded with hoes by the family, and composted also by hand scattering pellet compost, and chicken shit mixture.My wife reckoned that the cost of ploughing the land and buying the compost and chicken shit was B20,000.

A crew dug up the crop and took them to the factory an hour and a half away on their vehicle,for a payment.

After their cut, we got paid B 53,000,so the profit was B33,000 on the crop.

We are growing the same again,so it will be interesting to see how the second year of the same crop goes.

For these figures to work you must have been harvesting around 9-10 tons/rai which is double the normal crop! Mind you the outlay of 20k for 3 rai is also double the normal. I would be interested to know how many tons of chicken manure was used or the cost of it plus any more details you have like length of growing time etc

The land is rich soil, not sand or clay. And it had previously had pineapples on it for 3 years. As the land is in the mddle of the vilage you are limited it what you can grow without upseting the neibours ( no burning sugar canes etc) so we thought we would try cassava's.

The crop was left in for a year roughly, and the tonnage was over 8 tonnes a rai, at Baht 2,200 to us after the crop pickers took their cut of Baht 500 a tonne..

The chicken shit from the chicken battery farm costs Baht 26 for about 15 kilo's in a bag.I can't remember how many bags were used, but from memory not many.

This is very interesting. Alowing 1000/rai for ploughing and planting and 1000/rai for weeding costs at a rough guess about 4,500/rai would have been spent on fertilizer of some kind which is about 3 times my budget but then I only get about 4 tons/rai. I have used chicken shit before and 50 bags/rai is considered more than enough.Cost me 22B/bag + 2B/bag labour to spread it so about the same. Total cost/rai = 12000. You must have applied a huge amount to spend 4,500/ rai.

The thing is though that getting 8 tons/rai makes it all worthwhile and more. I am going to devote one of my test plots to overdosing with fertilizer and see what happens. Too late to use chicken shit though as it is usually ploughed in prior to planting.

[bottleymike]

My wife has a patch of 3 rai that she planted cassava on for the first year following previous pineapple crops.They were hand weeded with hoes by the family, and composted also by hand scattering pellet compost, and chicken shit mixture.My wife reckoned that the cost of ploughing the land and buying the compost and chicken shit was B20,000.

A crew dug up the crop and took them to the factory an hour and a half away on their vehicle,for a payment.

After their cut, we got paid B 53,000,so the profit was B33,000 on the crop.

We are growing the same again,so it will be interesting to see how the second year of the same crop goes.

For these figures to work you must have been harvesting around 9-10 tons/rai which is double the normal crop! Mind you the outlay of 20k for 3 rai is also double the normal. I would be interested to know how many tons of chicken manure was used or the cost of it plus any more details you have like length of growing time etc

The land is rich soil, not sand or clay. And it had previously had pineapples on it for 3 years. As the land is in the mddle of the vilage you are limited it what you can grow without upseting the neibours ( no burning sugar canes etc) so we thought we would try cassava's.

The crop was left in for a year roughly, and the tonnage was over 8 tonnes a rai, at Baht 2,200 to us after the crop pickers took their cut of Baht 500 a tonne..

The chicken shit from the chicken battery farm costs Baht 26 for about 15 kilo's in a bag.I can't remember how many bags were used, but from memory not many.

This is very interesting. Alowing 1000/rai for ploughing and planting and 1000/rai for weeding costs at a rough guess about 4,500/rai would have been spent on fertilizer of some kind which is about 3 times my budget but then I only get about 4 tons/rai. I have used chicken shit before and 50 bags/rai is considered more than enough.Cost me 22B/bag + 2B/bag labour to spread it so about the same. Total cost/rai = 12000. You must have applied a huge amount to spend 4,500/ rai.

The thing is though that getting 8 tons/rai makes it all worthwhile and more. I am going to devote one of my test plots to overdosing with fertilizer and see what happens. Too late to use chicken shit though as it is usually ploughed in prior to planting.

Worth a try on a test plot to see how it works for your type of soil.

But I think that at least part of the reason for our relativly high yield was because it was the first year that this land had been used for cassava, after previous use for pineapples for 3 years, and corn for a couple of years before that.The land being fed the appropriate chemical fertilisers for these crops at the relevant times.

My guess is that the (fresh to a cassava crop) land had plenty of the nutrients cassavas need to grow well, as the previous crops did not use the same nutrients.

Thats why I shall be interested to see the yield on the land this year,as its year two for the same crop.My guess is that it will be down a bit,as some of the built up goodness in the soil will have been used by last years crop.

[loong]

Have been trying to clear the weeds on the worst affected 2 rai. Initially trying to do the whole lot by hand as the cassava is really to small to spray herbicide. It;s just too much though and will take forever. Been reforming the ridges at the same time and like others am finding quite a lot of tubers left in from the previous crop.

Now, am just clearing around each plant a bit to allow the roots room to grow. Leaving the weeds and grass at the sides will at least reduce soil erosion in the rain.

Will have to apply herbicide at some stage, definitely before the weeds set seeds. Never done this before, so not sure what is the best way considerting that the cassava is so small. Khonwan recommended a solution of 50/50 Sumisoya/paraquat or Sumisoya/glyphosate, but that was at 3 or 4 months. By using Sumisoya at planting time he reckoned that it should stay weed free for at least 3 months. I think that here they sprayed something called Grammoxone or something that sounds like that.

I'm assuming that these herbicides work by entering the weeds through the leaves and killing it back to the root. Do they work on the grass as well?

Sorry about my ignorance, but I would really appreciate some advice, especially from those with experience with using herbicide, when the cassava was only planted 1 month ago.

Is it best to use a small hand pumped sprayer very carefully to avoid getting any on the cassava plants? Should you really soak the leaves or is a light spray sufficient.

I think that I will get some and do some test spraying, on small areas.

I think that it takes about 3 days for the weeds/grass to die back. Is that right?

[somo]

I use Sumisoya just after planting and it does seem to work well.

No real weeds after 6 weeks so far but i have had to get the guys to spray unwanted

cassava shoots from old stems that were buried.

Once the weeds do come we spray them with a mix of paraquat and and a pre emergence chemi called Dyuron I think. Pronounced 'dye your on' I realy don't know if it is any good but have always just gone along with the sprayers advice.

I have had the same problem re weeds amongst very young casssava and it is a real pain.

The hand pumped sprayers can be adjusted to spray a narrow spray but watching the sprayers they use their feet to push down the weeds first so they are lower than the cassava leaves. A light spray with paraquat should kill most leaves.

It does it's damage almost straight away but the weeds do take a while to die.

bottleymike.

With the amount of manure I estimate you have added your soil will probably good for another 5 growing seasons

[bottleymike]

bottleymike.

With the amount of manure I estimate you have added your soil will probably good for another 5 growing seasons

I hope your right, as because this 3 rai is in the village center, we are limited to what we can grow there.Sugar canes out because of burning the canes before you cut them.

Pineapples are not economical to grow at current prices,and as the patch is one that eventualy could be used to build a house or business on, we don't want to stick rubber trees on it, in case we later decide to either sell it,. or develop it.

[loong]

I use Sumisoya just after planting and it does seem to work well.

No real weeds after 6 weeks so far but i have had to get the guys to spray unwanted

cassava shoots from old stems that were buried.

Once the weeds do come we spray them with a mix of paraquat and and a pre emergence chemi called Dyuron I think. Pronounced 'dye your on' I realy don't know if it is any good but have always just gone along with the sprayers advice.

I have had the same problem re weeds amongst very young casssava and it is a real pain.

The hand pumped sprayers can be adjusted to spray a narrow spray but watching the sprayers they use their feet to push down the weeds first so they are lower than the cassava leaves. A light spray with paraquat should kill most leaves.

It does it's damage almost straight away but the weeds do take a while to die.

bottleymike.

With the amount of manure I estimate you have added your soil will probably good for another 5 growing seasons

Sumisoya, from what Khonwan says is a pre-emergence herbicide. I was told that they sprayed gramoxone, which, thanks to google, I have found is a brand name for paraquat. Maybe that is why I currently have a major weed problem.

Google tells me that paraquet only kills where it comes into contact, but glyphosate will kill the roots as well. I think that I will possibly go with glyphosate to get rid of the perennial weeds (I hope) for this application.

Has anybody seen any sort of roller applicator here? Would probably be ideal as no risk of spraying where you don't want it to go.