Hello Hive
It may really seem like we are growing a large quantity of food for ourselves or for commercial purposes of selling on the farm, but I must tell my hive community that even before we get to eat the food ourselves, we have neighbors and friends who turn to us to beg for something they can eat.
Just this weekend I have someone come to harvest the whole of my growing water leave plant you see here. She came to beg for some she could use for her soup, and while I thought that she had the knowledge of this thing, I have given her the permission to fetch some herself since I was in a hurry to get to the farm and cannot wait to harvest for her.
Here is what is left of my waterleaf plant, just the stump in the ground.
I was bittered when I got back home, only to notice that she had used a knife to harvest all of the growing water leaf plant and reduced it to just the roots like this.
I wonder what quantity of the leaf she needed that she didn't even leave me some in the garden, and the most painful part is that I have been eyeing those green leaves to make soup with them this week. Having grown some appealing green leaves, I want to eat of them myself.
Now someone came to beg, of which I couldn't say; she didn't only take what she answered but carted away with the bulk of water leaves in my garden. I went through the stress of growing this water leaf only for someone else to enjoy the benefits, sometimes I wonder if I'm making the right decision sharing with others. I wasn't greedy sharing with a neighbor but she was just selfish to harvest every growing water leaf plant. Maybe I will just learn to say No for certain things.
She carted away with everything and the seed pods as well which I could use to plant news ones. Now I have to search for seeds and start this process from the scratch if I want to have some water leafs in the garden still..
This is the very same way we feed a lot of people with our corn, rice, and other foodstuffs; our neighbors and friends share and eat virtually all the crops we grow, making the farming both beneficial to them as well.
Growing tuber crops, especially yam, is not something that entices me. Yams, cocoyams, water yams, and most of the species of this class often take a longer life cycle to mature. These are the reasons I dislike growing yam.
Yams will take 8–9 months for it to mature. While corn and other grains take half that time. Instead of growing yams, I would use that timing to grow corn for at least two sessions in that field and within that time. I will grow and harvest the late and early maize for that 8-month period rather than growing just yams for 8 months.
Then why do we still grow yams?
Our parents love to eat yams, and regardless of the time it takes to mature up, they won't stop growing this tuber.
Our yam seeds have been planted since last November; some germinated while others did not.
We couldn't do hand weeding this month and have applied herbicides instead. We have supported the yams with sticks to help them climb along like other climber crops.
Everything is up and growing well, but we cannot tell if the yam tubers underneath are doing well or not.
First they needed enough water to grow in size, but with the short drought from July to August, it is obvious that the yam tubers size will be affected as well.
The quantity of leaves produced by the yam stem cannot be used to judge if the yams underneath did produce well or not. Sometimes it is during harvest when we begin to dig out the tubers that we can only notice this.
While planting our beans the other day, I made a quick stop by at our yam farm to see how our tubers are fairing. The leaves and everything look good and healthy so far, yet we can only hope.
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You are sure doing great sissy, honestly I admire your strength....like men....you are one in a million 😍
Hahaha, thanks dearie 💕
U welcome 😍😍
Everyday I come on here, I see your post and be like "how does she do this consistently?"
I admire your energy sis. Kudos
Thank you so much.
We can only do our best.
So bad your neighbor plugged all the water leaves you worked for, as well as stunted the growth for new ones to spring up... Don't allow her wrong attitude affect your generosity, next time, don't give people access to your garden. Do the plugging yourself, no matter how fast you are rushing out, to eliminate disappointment... Nice one on your yam plant Ene👍