My First Weeding In The Minor Season Maize, Tomatoes Under Critical Observation Of Flowering & Fruiting

Greetings Dear Farmers and Gardeners of @GardenHive! It is another great opportunity to share with you again in my Garden updates. This morning I happened to visit my maize and tomatoes farms after 2 period lessons in School. As I have been giving you a series of updates of this minor season farming, it’s just a rush season since the rainfall pattern in this minor season has been erratic compared to the major season one. Over here too, most Farmers solely depend on the natural rain for farming. Only few large scale or commercial Farmers depend on the structured irrigation system for farming.

_{Image of myself weeding the maize farm. My first weed control in my maize farm}

So far, I have been able to finished sowing the whole farm with the maize grains. My first sowing was done in 15th August 2023. Counting down, it’s 15 Days now after sowing. Almost half of the whole farm has been planted with cassava. The place filled with cassava too has been planted with maize and it’s the part that I began sowing the maize grains first. This place cannot be sprayed with herbicides due the cassava. When I arrived in the farm, I decided to weed that side for the maize plants to relieve themselves. As at 10am, I was in the farm weeding with very carefulness due to the fragile nature of the maize plants. There were few obstacles here and there which slow down my weeding. For instance, the old harvested sticks of maize needed to be cut down to pave way for weeding. I needed also to convey the debris and deposit them at vantage points so that they don’t hurt the maize plants on the field. With little mistake, the debris cover the maize plants or break them down. These debris of harvested maize plants too serve as mulching which would later be decomposed and mixes with the soil and serve as source of plant nutrition. Though their decomposition take a while, yet good and rich sources of organic matter. I’ll still apply synthetic fertilizer like NPK and Urea, but it’s best practice of soil conservation and management to leave the plant residues on the surface of the soil to even conserve moisture content when the rainfall subsides or break.

_{The height of my maize after two weeks of planting. I'm yet to apply synthetic fertilizer}

I am trying all possible means to nurture these maize inter cropped with the cassava. It’s like for the cassava plant to overtake the maize plants in terms of growth rate since the cassava was planted earlier before the maize. If we’ll remember some of these cassavas were planted during the time of major season when were planting the maize. I’ve delayed in planting the whole farm with the cassava due to the fact that cassava sticks for stem cutting have become scarce lately. Actually, I’ve decided to cultivate only half of the whole farm with cassava even though cassava tubers have price currently, but I also need more maize grains for storage in case the lean season comes. The best method or practice I’ve decided to uptake to control the competition of the cassava growth rate with the maize plants is to trim or prune the excess branches of the cassava from their plants so that they don’t form canopies and engulf the maize. When it comes to weather conditions, cassava plants are more resistant to adverse weather conditions than maize. Cassava plants can tolerate drought to some extent more than maize plants. So, I need to control the growth of the cassava plants to pave way for the maize to sprout. Another method is to provide the NPK fertilizer to the juvenile maize at this initial growth. This is going to increase the growth rate of the maize more than the cassava plants.

_{The old harvested sticks of maize serving as mulching for the maize. I gathered them and deposited them at the base of the maize but extra careful was taken not to hurt the maize plants}

Well, I’m very excited to have covered most portion weeding in maize farm today. The maize stands look very good with few of them showing weak stems due to the excess rain which we experienced few days a go. About four times weeding I believe I can finish weeding the side of the cassava. The half of the farm which I’ve planted with only maize, I’ll apply selective herbicide of Nico plus and Kariherb to kill all the weeds. That would one week or two weeks time after the emergence of the weeds. The first Non-selective herbicide of Sunphosate that I applied has really support suppress the weeds from sprouting quickly. Before the weeds cover, the maize might have reached the kneel level. I’ll make sure to apply fertilizer at this side too to support the maize grow very quickly and fast.

_{A video of my prove of work in my farm field}

My Tomatoes under critical observation at this time of flowering and fruiting

After weeding the weeds in my maize farm, I visited my tomatoes farm shortly to observe how they are faring. I’m very happy to tell you Guys that most of my tomatoes plants have bear flowers and few ones fruiting. These are early maturing ones that I planted last time. It wouldn’t be surprise that I can harvest most the ripped tomatoes fruits by the end of this month September. A lot of plant protections have been carried out few weeks ago in order to prevent insects and disease attacks. For the initiation of fast growth is all about the use of fertilizers and proper weed control. Other management practice like pruning of the base excess leaves were also done. Water isn’t an issue since we are in good bumper raining season. I hope to see well productive fruit by this time as I experienced during the major season.