Hello steemians, I will be sharing with you my Cucumber farming experience...the bad then the good. Noticing the lessons and applying them in farming cucumbers or any other crop for that matter in your market or home garden will indeed be beneficial...happy reading.
Sometimes in 2015, after several months of learning about cucumber farming practically on a farm, i decided it was time to start farming. I moved to a new city and close to the major market, leased some 2 acres of land and started my farm. I was able to cultivate only about 1/2 acre or 2000square meters of land, then the worse happened despite my huge investment I couldnt harvest anything. Basically, I had to actually get to the bottom of the matter and see why things went south. I actually saw the following challenges:
(1) I was not always on the farm everyday as I wasn’t leaving near the farm yet.
(2) The orientation of my bed was against the flow of water and since the area was water logged, there was no drainage thereby suffocating and rottening the cucumber roots.
(3) I used ONLY inorganic fertilizers which were applied apparently too close to the plants by the labourers I hired.
(4) I used too many pesticides because of a high pest infestation.
(5) I used non-hybrid seeds.
Having known this, I went back to the drawing board, re-strategised and started a new farm. This time, I had to make sure i never repeated any previous mistakes. I moved down to a part of the land that have never been cultivated, I planted hybrid seeds, mulched and made sure I visited the farm everyday and this time, I went organic, though not 100%! I got a biological pheremone(Tsukill) to curtail insects and made sure i used only organic ammendments.
Well, this time I got it right…or so I thought, well i started the farm in mid August when the rain siezed but then the rains returned in september and my siting the farm in a water logged area, downy mildew wiped the farm away even with my fungicide sprays the disease didn’t respect the fungicide. Fortunately was able to harvest over 30 bags on 1 plot of land…better than before…the story continues.
Enjoy some pictures
Fresh and wonderful looking cucumber fruits shortly before harvest
Labourers currently harvesting the cucumber fruits
Harvested cucumber fruits, thoroughly washed and bagged and ready to be taken out of the farm
Bagged cucumber fruits been carried out of the farm by the labourers.
I hope you fare better next time!
Sure, i will...thanks for reading my post!
Why just cucumbers ?
I decided to sole crop on that particular land space to maximize yield. Thanks for reading the post.