Aloe Vera

                                                                      Aloe Vera


Planted 2 months ago and its all grown and ready to be used. Its fresh serum is good for skin problems and hair treatments . Helps to reduce hair fall and scal dryness.

Fertilizer:  cowdung

Pomegranate

This is one of the experimental plants for us since it has started flowering but not other signs of fruiting. The flowers simply falls off every time it flowers.

It was planted about 2 years ago. As fertilizer cow dung and bone meal were used in a ratio of  70:30. Now it has grown about 4 feet height. 

Will update once we figure out on its fruiting pattern.

Guava

This one was planted ova er an year ago and has started fruiting after since from then. there are many varieties of them. Its green apple guava. we used organic fertilizers and they are cow dung and coco peat. for planting, make a pit deep enough for the root to cover, that is about 3 inch max. mix the mud with coco peat and cow dung for planting. water lightly everyday till it starts growing taller and branching. Once it starts fruiting cover each of them with any plastic covers to save them from birds around. This also helps in ripening of the fruit  faster.

This fruit is also a pricy one in cities.It doesn't much area of the land ad the roots doesn't grow wider. This tree lives bearing fruits for about 40 years.

Tip: Its a wonderful fruit to be fed to babies from 6 months of age. Cut the ripened fruit in to two halves and scrape it with spoon to feed babies to make it swallowable.  Avoid giving seeds initially though.

Rambutan

This is a fruit that taste like leechi.its again a very pricey fruit.
we got a baby plant from one of the nurseries. we usually get the plants from agricultural authority organized nurseries. As always took a 5 inch deep pit, make it ready by adding some cow dung and any organic frtilizers available. Mix the mud to be planted well adding some water( depending on the soil).now plant it and the cover the pit well.water it lightly for a few days. Its been about  8 months since planted it.

Now its always better to not let it grow very tall cause once it grows too tall, plucking the fruit and saving it from birds are very difficult. In order to maintain the tree short you need to slightly pull the branch downwards by tying with a coir rope to a heavy stone. Keep doing this for every branch.
As an organic fertilizer you can always use cocopeat other wise known as coir dust.Its made from coconut husks.

Brinjal (Green)

Now, this one doesn't need much maintenance. Its been about an year since we planted. we started collecting brinjals from the plants after 2 months. I don't remember how many times we have collected them cause it keeps yielding one after another.


Plough the land well for planting a plant or a seedling. Mix the soil in the area to be planted with cow dung. plant it. start sprinkling water every day. All that you need to do now is to plough the land well once in while after the plant is well grown. Cow dung makes the crops to grow in better sizes.


Tip:  There are many varieties of brinjal dishes to serve with chapattis or with rice.




  

Orange

Orage tree, this was planted a year ago and has grown about 5 feet. Orange usually grows in all types of soil provided the soil has good drainage property.you need to have the land well ploughed and levelled for planting.Make sure to avoid water stagnation and water logging during rainy season.Intial year require well watering. We have so far used only cow dung and ellupodi as fertilizers.

MANGO TREE 

Its only been a year since we planted it. Its a grafted type, so its not going to grow tall like the usual types. It might grow up to 10 feet max making it very convenient to care for the tree and to pluck the fruits.

we use cow dung as a fertilizer.once the tree starts to sprouts flowers, you need to make a smoke bed under the tree though not too near the stem. For this you need semi dried leaves and other similar things, make sure you don burn the tree by making fire, you only need the smoke. This procedure helps in reducing the occurrence of pests in the fruits.

once every month lossen the soil around the tree.sun and heat is a necessary requirment for mango trees. you need regular water buy not heavy.

Tip:Raw mangoes makes excellent chutneys and mango curries.
       Riped mangoes gives you the best home made jams and marmalades. 

                                                                  Nutmeg (Jaathi)


This was planted  about 3 years ago. it grew about 7 foot but didn't yield, so we got the budding done last month(december) and we are waiting for the results.We use cow dung and ellupodi as fertilizer once every 3 months.

Usually it starts fruiting when it is about 6 months and grows about 3 to 4 feet high.It doesn't grow too tall.We have 5 of them planted which have started fruiting.The fruit looks like apricot, though it is quiet hard and yellowish in color when it ripes. pluck them once they are ready

A very good hing about this fruit is every single part of this is useful.
The outer shell can be used for making chammanthi( a thick chutney), wine and can be shredded into salads( only a little)
Its very good for better digestion. Add a couple of its leaves to your drinking water when boiling the water. its again good for your stomach.
Once you take its cover off, you would see a black seed in oval shape covered with red line shaped flower around it. The seed is called 'Jaathikka' and the flower is called 'Jaathi pathri'.
Jathikka is used as a home remedy for diarrhoea. Take half a spoon of the jathikka grinded and add equal amount of honey and take it 2 0r 3 times for diarrhoea.
Dried Jaathipathri is used as a spice in many recepies flavour and aroma.

It is also a good option if you would like to make little income from farming because Jaathikka costs around Rs.360 - 380/ Kg and jaathipathri costs abut Rs.1100/kg. Make sure you don't break the flower when you seperate it from jathikka and make it yellowish in shade in drying since unbroken flower with yello shade is considered as the supreme quality.

 

                                                    Elaichi/Cardamom ( Elam)


One of the wel known spices in kerala. it's final touch to many recepies makes it simply wonderful and rich with a special aroma. In any recipe you only need to use only 4 to 6 max.

we got a baby plat from one of the nurseries near by. It needs shade and slight amount of sun. so we planted it under a mango tree.its been about 3 years since we planted it. we have collected elaichi   from it 4 times till now. They are ready to be plucked once they turn green in color and then dry them in shade, do not leave it under the sun.

we mixed the mud with ellupodi ( organic fertilizer) and cow dung for planting. you need to water it really well. In summer, its is better if you could water it twice a day.

Tip: It costs varies for each quality.
        For a finest quality, it could go up and above Rs.800/Kg in idain markets.

            NONI FRUIT




                                                                                                                NONI PLANT


Noni is a fruit that helps in rejuvenating cells in the body. Its been over two years since we planted it and it has grown about 8 foot. It started to bear fruits in about 6 months.This fruit is said to have the ability to reduce the chances of developing cancer.

Directions to use: Pluck them once they turn pale yellowish in colour.
                             store them in a glass container
                             Keep them in the sun every day and in a cool place otherwise
                             After a few days it starts to accumulate brownish water at the bottom
                             after about 2 weeks squeeze the remaining water or pulp out of the fruits and store                               it in an another glass bottle along with accumulated water.
                            start taking a spoonful and mix it with a glass of water and drink it every morning.

Bush pepper (kutti Kurumulaku)

This is an another chilli plant. we opted for the bush type because its easy to care for the plant and to pluck when its ready.The traditional variety of the plant is creeper type. Its very difficult to get people these days to pluck the pepper when its ready if its a creeper type. this can be planted in pots as well, a very good option for people with less land around.

This can also be planted any time during the year and starts yielding pepper in about 3 months. we only used cow dung as a fertilizer.If you find any sort of fungal activities, you could spray organic pesticides available once a month.

Rate per Kg in India : around 500

Tip: Excellent for cold and cough if taken with honey
        Grind it into paste and use for frying fishes along with the other spices you use. Spicy food                 lovers would enjoy it.

Bird's eye chilli (KANTHAARI)

This plant is very commonly found in most of the Asian countries. you could start with seeds or with planting baby plants if available. This plant can be planted any time round the year (generally my mother in-law says anything that bear its fruit underground has to be planted on a different time of the month from the plants that are to bear crops above the ground.)

This is a bush type plant. The fruit is mostly green, red or orange in  colour and smaller in size compare to green chillies.It keeps reproducing untill the plant dries off. you need to water the plant really well at least once a day. Dung is the best fertilizer for this plant.

This chilli can be used in most of the dishes but requires only half in amount compared regular chilles since its very spice. its very good for people with higher cholesterol levels.

Tip: you could make excellent soups,pickles and chutneys with them
      if you also want to make a little extra money, this is a good option as it costs between Rs. 300-           Rs.500/kg and of course its very much in demand in India.

the reason

Hi guys, i may not be that good at communicating, but i wanted to share with you guys about my ideas and experiences on farming and agriculture. I started thinking about farming when my baby boy was born. It felt good to have veggies and fruits agricultures at my own place for that made me feel relived about the pesticides.My sole inspiration was his innocent face and to make sure whatever he eats is really rich with all those vitamins and things as it is supposed to be and not a bunch of pesticides.