Cedagrochemical:
Year 2023 wasn't a good year for me on the farm. The batch of workers and Farm manager employed early 2023, spent half of the year doing land preparation while money kept going down the drain in paying lazy workers salary and feeding. I finally gave up, and brought in a new batch of 3 workers sometimes around August. They were very hardworking but clueless about modern cultivation techniques. I couldn't get a supervisor, so I had to use my sales reps at the store. They go to the farm to check what's happening once in a while and give picture update. Production was good but it was hell moving the cucumbers out of the farm as the road network was nothing to write home about. Buses kept turning back once they get halfway to the farm.

We lost 3/4 of our harvest to rot as the cucumbers were bagged and kept outside for days without getting a bus to convey them to the market. At a point, I asked the workers to stop harvesting and just leave the cucumber fruits to rot away and to be overtaken by Downy as it made no sense to keep spraying fungicides, keep harvesting a lot of bags of cucumbers only for it to spoil because we couldn't get them to the market until after 5 days Post Harvest

Hello everyone, I am Dammy popularly known as Ceda. I am known to sell Agro inputs but a lot of farmers are not aware that I started as a farmer, still a farmer and will forever be a farmer . I specialize in the cultivation of tomato and cucumber at the moment. I like to experiment a lot, yes! you read that right

After much encouragements from friends and family, myself and my team will be doing our first cucumber for the year 2024. I was able to get some workers thanks to a lovely customer turn friend of mine. I got a very passionate youth who was willing to learn and partner with me on the farm. He is going to be my Farm supervisor. Our team is complete!!

On the road network, I am partnering with another vegetable farmer close to me to grade the farm road to make it easier to convey farm produce once harvest starts.

This year, I will be doing varieties I have never tried before. I have always planted Jorad F1 all my life as a cucumber farmer, this year, I will be doing Cu999 and Dakar F1 of Thai seeds, Daewy of East West seeds and most likely one variety from Technisem seeds ( I will decide on the most suitable one at the right time

I will be sharing all inputs used, reason for using and we will all see the results together. Picture updates will be done mostly weekly but conversations can be done on a daily basis every time I am available.

Lets do some cucumber farming together this year

dgitrader:
I love your persistence despite the initial setbacks and recurrent huddles.
If you don't mind share your LGA or town, let's get a clearer picture of your environment

Following

More grace!

Zwooks:
After all your labour. Is it so hard to go to the nearest car park to find a bus .

kirn:
Nice

Cedagrochemical:
My people, I am so sorry for the break. we had to pause for like 2 weeks because our workers decided they didnt want to work again lol. I am sure somebody just whispered 'so soon'?

Nezzjnr:
Cedar Agro stores... I sight you Ma

safarifarms:

Getting reliable and consistent farm hands is one of the greatest challenge of farming especially when it comes to crop production.

I had many bad experiences.
This particular reason had made me abandon crop production for a while. You should be very happy that they left when the work has not really started yet.

Cedagrochemical:
As at this morning 9th April, 2024, I was told the seeds have started germinating

Variety: Jorad
Date sowed: Sunday, 7th April, 2024
Total seeds sowed - roughly 15,000 seeds
Germination rate: undecided at the moment but about 3600 seeds were nursed for replacement

No basal nutrient added aside manure

Cedagrochemical:
Yes, so soon but I am grateful we were just about to plant before they carried their load and left. We had to pause all farm operations. But before they left, they were about 80% done with land preparation. Manure hole was drilled using an earth auger, drip tape laid and irrigation network tested to check for leakages, pumps were serviced

femu:

Land size is 1.5 acres
Spacing adopted is 30cm, double rows

What's the land size to be cultivated?

kirn:

Keep updating us cos we are following.
But madam, can you brief Us on why those workers decided to go ? What propelled their collective decision ? We are here to learn

Cedagrochemical:


Well, I was told the total package we offered them isn't what the agent that brought them offered them wjile they were in their state. It was so much complains everyday but the new workers are doing great. I will likely post pictures of the plants growth today before that, I will be listing out some of the products I will be using for this batch

Cedagrochemical:
This is what the EDTA micronutrient looks like. A little goes a long way, I use just 2kg for an acre per week

Cedagrochemical:
For my Foliar Fertilizers;
Croplift by Yara Fertilizer for my vegetative stage: I don't feel good if Croplift isnt added to my feeding routine especially for the early stages of the plants. It contains a perfect blend of Nitrogen, Phosporus, Potassium and micronutrients needed by young plants to thrive even in a harsh weather condition. Its usually my first choice but if it isn't available, I go for Tecamin Max by Agritecno. I will be using this foliar from week 1 which is this week till week 3 or more depending on the overall health of the plants all things being equal

Tecamin Flower for Flowering stage; Although my first choice would have been Controphyt PK by Agritecno, but its currently out of the market. We will stick with what's available. Tecamin flower is also up to the task

Agriphyt ZnMn; Ever since I learnt the role Zinc, Boron and Molybdenum plays in flowering and fruit formation, I never joke with them. I used to have a foliar that was 12% Zinc and another one of like 5% Boron, I used this combo for a batch of cucumber and the result was crazy. I could restock them, they became scarce. This is the closest product to what I need although the composition of Zn in this mixture isn't as much as 12% in the other product used. Little is better than nothing, I added it to my shopping cart

Lastly is Micro nutrient EDTA; A friend gave me a little when I did tomatoes years back, OMG, the tomato fruits came out big and the plants gave so much flowers. This one isnt for sale, its a personal use product but if you can afford it, I can help you get some. Its quite expensive