Eid al-Adha




Today is 12 Zulhijjah islamic calendar. Eid al-Adha is a "Festival of Sacrifice" or "Greater Eid" is a holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God. Eid al-Adha annually falls on the 10th day of the month of Zulhijjah (ذو الحجة) of the lunar Islamic Calendar. The festivities last for three days or more depending on the country. Eid al-Adha occurs the day after the pilgrims conducting Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia by Muslims worldwide, descend from Mount Arafat. It happens to be approximately 70 days after the end of the month of Ramadhan.

Muslims who can afford to do so sacrifice their best domestic animals (usually sheep, but also camels, cows and goats) as a symbol of Ibrahim's sacrifice. I choose to celebrate Eid al-adha at Yong Peng (F&M in law's house) since my wife still in "Pantang" 44 days after gave birth Qiesya Qairiena. We took 1 portion of cow meat for Qiesya Aqiqah.

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Cucumber plant update








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Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV)


A few of cucumber plants has infected with cucumber mosaic virus with heavy daily rain distribution to this area.
The cucumber mosaic virus has one of the broadest host ranges. Cucumbers infected with the cucumber mosaic virus develop a slight yellowing and mottling of the older leaves. Expanding leaves typically become twisted, curl downward, and develop a "shoestring" appearance as a result of a restriction of the leaf surface to a narrow band around the midrib of the leaf. Diseased plants are stunted and produce small quantities of fruit.

The disease affects a number of important vegetables and ornamentals including tomato, pepper, cucumber, melons, squash, spinach, celery, beets, and petunia. A virus distributed world wide, affecting most cucurbits. New growth is cupped downward, and leaves are severely mottled with alternating light green and dark green patches. Plants are stunted, and fruits are covered with bumpy protrusions. Severely affected cucumber fruit may be almost entirely white.

MEANS OF CONTROL

* The virus is readily transferred by aphids and survives on a wide variety of plants. Varietal resistance is the primary management tool, and eliminating weeds and infected perennial ornamentals that may harbor the virus is critical.

* Virus diseases cannot be controlled once the plant is infected. Therefore, every effort should be made to prevent introduction of virus diseases into the garden. Sanitation is the primary means of controlling virus diseases. Infected plants should be removed immediately to prevent spread of the pathogens. Perennial weeds, which may serve as alternate hosts, should be controlled in and adjacent to the garden. Avoid planting tomatoes next to cucurbits, spinach, or other vegetables and flowers susceptible to these diseases. Control of aphids will help reduce the likelihood of cucumber mosaic.


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Botanic Pesticide

Botanic pesticide is from organic ingredients, one of alternative for farmer use to control the pest in their garden and farm. For home gardener this alternative is more suitable and simple thing to do and very economic cost comparared with chemical pesticide. Other than that, the chemical pesticide will take effect to user if they wrongly apply to their plant or miss placed. So, botanic pesticide is one of safely solution to avoid human injury if there is miss using and miss place the chemical pesticide.

Pest catagory : (chew)
Beetles, grasshopper, butterfly, shell, others

Pest catagory : (suck) virus vector & deceases
Aphid, Scaler, White fly, mites and others

Preparation of Stock Solution
1. 1 Liter of water
2. 1 spoon cooking oil / vege oil
3. 1 spoon detergent
4. 4-6 pieces of garlic

Pour in cooking oil into 1 Liter of water. Grind the garlic and add in into water+garlic solution and stir. Filter all the ingredients solution. Final preparation to use, 1 : 4, stock solution : water.

* for chewer pest, add in a few of chilly powder
* for sucker pest, add in a few of essential oil or ginger (blended).

Thats are the procedure that can be used for small lanscape or home gardener. For bigger scale plantation, we can sugest to use :

Onion extract
To control antranoks and other chilly deceases. Blend 50gm onion in 1 liter water, filter and spray to the infected chilly.

Tea Tree Mixture
To control damping-off - mix 5 ml tea tree oil into 10-20 Liter water. Apply this solution by moisture up the soil (Soil Drenching)

Ginger Extract
To control fungicide - Blend 20g of ginger in 1 Liter water, filter and spray 3 times a week.

Neem leaf extract
To control white fly, aphids, thrips - Mix 2 kg of blended neem leaf with 30 g detergent. Lets the mixture for 1 night and filter. For each 5 liter portion to be mixed with 15 liter water and spray to your plant.

Garlic extract
Also to control vector as above, white fly, thrips, mites - Mix 100 g chopped garlic into 0.5 liter water. Add 10 ml cooking oil and 10 g detergent. Leave it for 1 night and filter it. For spray, mix that mixture with water in portion 1:200

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Cucumber Diseases and Pests

You can grow your cucumber starter plants indoors up to 2 weeks before you’re ready to plant. You can also plant seeds directly in the garden. Arrange your garden in small hills and plant around 4 seeds per hill. Separate your seeds by about 2-3 feet. You can also ground your cucumbers in rows. Space your rows about 4 feet apart, with the seeds about 2 ½ feet apart in the rows. Remember that some cucumbers varieties are suitable for container gardens.
Cucumbers unfortunately suffer from a variety of pests and diseases. Aphids, pickle worms, mites, and cucumber beetles are common pests you may see in your garden. Diseases you’ll need to look out for are anthracnose, powdery mildew, downy mildew, bacterial wilt, and angular leaf spot.
The cucumber beetle is a particularly nasty pest that attacks plants early and also spreads bacterial wilt. Look for this pest as seedlings emerge. Also look for signs of bacterial wilt early on. Plants infected with bacterial wilt will droop and eventually die.

We recommend using a natural pest control method to treat problems with your cucumbers. If you use chemical pesticides, you may be harming the bees that will fertilize your vines. Chemical pesticides can also harm other beneficial insects and soil organisms.

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Today diary...

Today 18.11.2009 I went to garden and start work in early morning. The weather is quite good with a little sun shine, not so hot until afternoon time. In the morning, I've been transplanted about 350 of cucumber plants into the ridge and after lunch, I pick up two bundles of ready stacking bamboo to the farm. After that I finish up all the bamboo support for cucumber ridges which are not complete yet. Since everydays we receive heavy rain, many cucumbers plant are collapse onto the ground so that I tie up all the cucumbers plant with rafia ropes. 6.30 pm go back home.



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Know Your Pesticide

When we talk about pesticide, many gardener do not know how to control the pest in their garden. In this scenario, they are sometimes wrongly apply the pesticide to control certain pest in their garden.

Below are two of pesticide which is to control the fungicide and the mites. Antracol is a fast-acting organic fungicide, has been produced and marketed in Indonesia for more than 30 years. It is especially suitable for protective control of Phytophthora and Alternaria on vegetables. It features good residual activity. Good results have been obtained with Antracol also against leaf spot diseases on vegetables. Antracol is well tolerated at the specified concentrations by the crops for which it is recommended. No risk of resistance formation (multi-site)/useful in anti-resistance programs for different pathogens (downy mildew, Alternaria, scab etc. ). Important source zinc supply in case of deficiency for many crops, such as potato, tomato, grapes. Excellent phyto-compatibility for various crops, also in early development stages Product Benefit - Works effectively at any season (dry and wet season) - Suitable to be applied in low and high land crops - Reliable, has been a market leader for more than 30 years. - Supply trace elements (zinc) - Excellent phytocompatibility for various crops, also in early development stage.



Whereby to control mites on vegetables and other crops plant is Mitec by Bayer. This type of pesticide is suitable to control mites from 'Amidine' group which is effect on direct contact and also through breathe to nerve systems.





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Preparing cucumber netting support



Above are the pictures how we prepare the netting support for cucumber plant. The materials are, bamboo stick, rafia rope and metal strand.




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On Hold Chilly

We have to re arrange the schedule for our farm since nowaday is raining day. So, to avoid inconsistent crop plant grow especially for chilly plant, we decided to keep chilly project in this new farm ON HOLD until the weather is good. To keep our farm keep producing crops, we switching to cucumber plant until early next year (Jan-Feb 2010) then we will grow the Local Kulai Chilly and others few crops plant.

About 2300 cucumbers successful transplanted into the soil and coming 4000 will be ready in a few days to be transplanted.

Below is the 3 days cucumbers seed in the media trays (1 1/2 inch height)


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Preparing Cucumber Support



On 11.11.2009, we went to our friend farm to get the bamboo for cucumber support preparation since the cucumber plant is about 1 and half week. The cucumber is very fast growth compare with other crops plant. In the first two weeks, we need to get all the support ready at the farm. Cucumbers also require a decent amount of growing space in the garden so that's why we need make the support for them. Cucumbers are not picky about soils.

However, we have to make sure the soil is well-draining and has a pH of around 6.5. Add plenty of organic compost to your garden soil before you grow cucumbers. This will ensure that they have the proper nutrients to grow strong and healthy.

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Transplant Cucumbers


On 4th November 700 cucumbers baby had transplanted in evening time after rotoring the soils and today only 700 cucumbers successful transplanted to the ridges due to continues raining from morning til evening time.



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Plowing, Rotoring and Ridging


Picture after plow

After the clearing the land, we need to plow for the whole area at lease 1 time. But normally for vegetable, we need to plow two time following by rotoring and finish by ridging job. I advice to use 4 wheels drive tractor instead of two because this type of machine is more powerful and fast doing their job. We hire Eurostar tractor 4 wheels drive combination of rotor and ridge (2 in 1) for easy and fast job.



Rotoring & ridging in progress...




Photos of ridge width 3 inches for cucumbers and 4 inches for chillies




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Land Preparation

Land preparation typically involves leveling, plowing, rotoring, and ridging the field to make it suitable for crop establishment. 2-wheel tractors or 4-wheel tractors can all be used as power sources in land preparation. The initial soil tillage can also be performed with a rotovator instead of a plow.

Flooded Soils

The vast majority of Asian rice fields are first flooded with water before tillage. This tillage of flooded soil is referred to as puddling. Soil flooding and soaking is performed once and requires sufficient water to bring the topsoil to saturation and create an overlying water layer. Soil puddling destroys soil structure, which reduces percolation rates and loss of water. It also results in high resistance to root penetration, low porosity, and permeability and in the formation of a soil plow pan; all of which can restrict root growth.

Puddling is very efficient in clay soils that form deep cracks penetrating the plow pan at about 15 to 20 cm soil depth during the period of soil drying before land preparation. Although puddling reduces percolation rates of the soil, the action of puddling itself consumes water. There is a trade-off between the amount of water used for puddling and the amount of water “saved” during the crop growth period as a result of reduced percolation rates. Puddling is less effective in coarse soils, which do not have enough fine clay particles to migrate downward and fill up the cracks and pores in the plow pan.

Non Flooded Soil:

A well-leveled field is a prerequisite for good water and crop management. When field are not level, water may stagnate in the depressions whereas higher parts may fall dry. This results in uneven crop emergence and uneven early growth, uneven fertilizer distribution, and possibly additional weeds. Effective land leveling will :

* Improve crop establishment and care,
* Reduce the time and water required to irrigate the field, and
* Ensure more uniform distribution of water in the field

Land preparation for dry seeding typically involves consists of plowing or rotovating followed by harrowing and leveling of dry and friable soil. The crop is established by broadcasting or drilling seed that has not been pre germinated.


Farmers can reduce water use by shifting from puddled to non-puddled land preparation. Large amounts of water (20–40% of total water use) are consumed during land preparation of flooded soils because of the need to initially soak dry and cracked soil, and to keep the field continuously flooded. Most of the wasted water is lost by drainage through soil cracks. Dry land preparation does not require irrigation water because it can be done when the soil has the correct water contact and is friable for plowing or rotovating and harrowing.

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Day 8 Cucumbers

Snap shot day-8 cucumber in the media tray waiting for transplant into soil.

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Cucumbers Variety


We bought two types of cucumber from different variety at this time which is from Hybrid F1 Harmony from Cropcare Biotech (UK) Ltd and local cucumber seeds ,CH cucumber from Chian Hup. I had receive 1 packet of cucumber seed which called Hercules variety from one of malaysian's agro colleague from Indonesia cost about RM 16.00 per pack (900-950 seeds). We still need to know which variety is most demanding from agriculture wholesalers. About 2,300 seeds from CH and Harmony variety have been soil into tray media and will be transplant in 5-6 days after seedling.




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My wife gave birth!


Sorry for not updating the blog. I was busy with my family in last few days. My wife gave birth baby girl 3.35 kgs on 31.10.2009 at 10.26 am. She were discharged from Hospital Batu Pahat on 01.11.2009 at 12.30 pm. So, i want to share my new baby picture with my friends who always read my blog. Her name is Qiesya Qairiena.




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