Nursery Practice on Garden Egg and Pepper

Bed in the making

One of the cultural practices adopted by the farmer to get the best out of his greatest asset - the soil, - is planting operations. These are the farming activities related to the actual sowing of crops. Nursery practice is one of such activities. This measure is adopted where certain crops like garden egg and pepper seeds are not always planted directly in the field but has to be ‘incubated’ before being pricked to the field where it will produce and complete its life span.
We launched this year farming operations with the nursery practice to raise garden egg and pepper. In order to do this, site selection was first done. Fertile soil is always needed for this and was so selected. This is followed by pecking of beds and bed making. The soil on the floor of the bed is mixed with rich poultry droppings. Afterward, both the garden egg and pepper are broadcasted on the bed to intercrop. They are then covered with light soil. This is to prevent rodents from picking the seeds and facilitate germination. The planting depth is about 1cm and planting distance is uneven. Seed rate is also not definite. The day you sow the seeds is the day they emerge from the soil that is about 7 days. We sowed 0.2Kg seeds of Garden Egg and 0.1Kg of Pepper seeds on Tuesday, the 11th March 2008 and they emerge (germinate) on Tuesday, March the 18th 2008. The seedlings are watered as need arises. Poultry manure is also added if need be. Mulching is done just after sowing the seeds using palm fronts. This is followed by a shade, using the same palm fronts. This is done when the seedlings emerge.
When the seedlings are mature enough to withstand direct sunshine, the shade is removed.
The seedlings remain there until they are transplanted. We plan to transplant ours on the first week of May when enough rains shall have come. Transplanting the seedlings will be published in May. Watch out....