farming practices

What is zero tillage management?

zero tillage

Zero tillage management require different skills to preserve higher yields. It combines various farming techniques, equipment, crop rotation practices, cover crop, fertilization and pesticide use to achieve better soil properties. Crop rotation eliminates soil weeds, pests and diseases. By rotating the crops on a multi-layer cycle, pests and disease amount will decrease due to the reduced food supply. Cover crops are used to control weeds, increase nutrients in the soil and to pull mobile nutrients back to the surface of the soil from the lower layers by growing plants with long roots.

How do you prune tomato plants?

plants

Before making any cut on the plant, it is important to know what variety is being grown and then it is important to observe any yellow leaves on the plant. If the plants contain yellow leaves, then it is considered to be the right time to start pruning. The suckers on the plants, i.e., tiny new branches that sprout at the junction of stem and old branch should also be removed. Another indication for pruning is when the plant starts flowering.

What is Tricho card?

Tricho card

It has a layer of sticky substance which has pasted onto them, eggs of a surrogate host infested with Trichogramma larvae. It is an eco-friendly and non-pathogenic product used in various crops as well as in horticultural and ornamental plants, such as paddy, Apple, Sugarcane, Eggplant, Corn Cotton, vegetables and Lemons. It acts as a productive destroyer and antagonistic hyper parasitic against many bored eggs, hyper parasites, shoots, fruits, leaves, flower eaters and other pathogens in the field.

What are the properties of Black rice? 

Black rice

The pericarp of black rice is black due to the presence of the black colour pigment called anthocyanin which is rich in antioxidants and poses a variety of health benefits such as anti-ageing, anticancer, anti-diabetes, lowering the risk of obesity etc. Black rice is glutinous and contains a high level of nutrients such as vitamin B, E, iron, thiamine, magnesium, niacin, phosphorous and it is also rich in dietary fibre. Similar to normal white rice, Black rice is also free of gluten and cholesterol, low in sugar, salt and fat.

When and how to harvest Macadamia Nuts?

Macadamia Nuts

Macadamia nuts mature in 6 to 7 months after flowering and must be allowed to ripen on the trees. The macadamia nuts fall to the ground between March and September. As the macadamia nut dries over the next few weeks, the moisture content falls and the kernel shrinks away from the inside of the shell. Then, this allows the shells to be cracked without damaging the kernel.

What are the causes of the decrease in bee population?

bee population

Truly, technology has aided food creation by the invention of different techniques and equipment to aid food production. However, its environmental effects are troublesome; one of these is reduction in the population of bees. The structure of agriculture, we adopt is quite unfavourable to the well being and survival of bees.

The use of agro- chemicals in the form of herbicides and pesticides has really affected the activities of bees. Research has shown that every batch of pollen a honey bee collects has at least six detectable pesticides in it, hence serving as poison to them. Also, early cultivation uses natural fertilizers, like clover and alfalfa to develop the yield of the crop. These natural fertilizers serve as good nutritious food for bees. Instead of that now we are utilizing the synthetic fertilizers which are in turn detrimental to the well-being of the bees.

What are the growing media and nutrients required in hydroponic mushroom farming?

mushroom

The growing medium must contain the good nutrients which will be your crops only form of energy. Although mushroom do not produce carbohydrates or sugars, they do need them for development. The best way to provide nutrients is by mixing in unbleached flour with a media of perlite and vermiculite. The vermiculite perlite must be roughly 50-50.

Other media that have proven effective for hydroponic mushroom are expanded clay aggregate. A suggested growing medium to use for mushrooms is vermiculite. As a source of nutrients, vermiculite is mixed with a small amount of water and brown rice flour and formed into a sterilized cake. A mushroom hydroponics system usually consists of a small tank filled with expanded clay aggregate pebbles, humidity gauge, a water heater, light and air pump with an air stone attachment.