Author: Abdul Rahman

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Agriculture Corner

Special Purpose Crops in Agriculture

Special Purpose Crops | Arid Agriculture
Special Purpose Crop

Introduction

In agriculture field, specifically in agronomy, there are various crops that are grown with a special purpose under certain circumstances. As these crops have to serve a special purpose, so they are termed as special purpose crops. These special purpose crops crops have great importance in agriculture not only because they provide food for consumption to both humans and livestock, but also they help farmers to safeguard their economic benefits.

Generally, 7 crops are included in special purpose crops classification. These are;

  1. Green Manure Crops
  2. Silage Crops
  3. Catch Crops
  4. Soilage Crops or Green Chop Crops
  5. Relay Crops
  6. Companion Crops
  7. Cover Crops

Green Manure Crops

These kinds of crops are grown to increase the fertility of soil. These crops are grown and then mix in the soil during ploughing. Sometime these are grown, cut and left in the ground for an prolonged period prior to applying tillage operations.

Examples:

Brassica, Vetch, Clover, Alfalfa.

Silage Crops

These are the crops grown for livestock and dairy consumption. The crops are grown, cut and preserved as silage. They are cut in succulent condition and through partial fermentation, silage is made. The advantage is continuous supply of fodder to animals during dry periods or when green fodder is not available.

Examples:

Grasses, Miaze, Oat.

Catch Crops

These are also called as critical crops as they are grown to fill in the space in case when main crop failed due to any reason or sowing of major crop is delayed for some reason. They are grown to cover economic less to some extent.

Examples:

Sorghum and Maize for Fodder

Soilage Crops or Green Chop Crops

These are green fodder crops for the livestock and dairy animals. The Soilage crops are grown and harvested in green form and still succulent. These are fed directly to the animals in the farm.

Example:

Maize

Relay Crops

It is a crop that is planted as a second crop in the agriculture fields, however after the first crop has achieved its reproductive growth but is not ready to harvest.

Example:

The sowing of Sugarcane in Sugar Beet is an example of relay cropping.

Companion Crops

Companion crops are those crops in agriculture that are grown together. Like green legumes is grown mix with grasses. The objective is to increase the forage production as well as its quality. As these are grown together, so they are termed as companion crops.

Examples:

Maize – Red Beans (Lobia) and Barley-Oat

Cover Crops

These crops are grown with the objective to keep the soil safe from erosion. these are planted to cover the ground so that water and wind erosion don’t harm the soil plus it also safeguard nutrient loss by leaching. These are mostly spreading in nature plants i.e. the plant grown and cover large area of ground.

Examples:

Mash, Mong Bean, Grasses.

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2018, February 27). Special Purpose Crops in Agriculture[Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2018/02/27/special-purpose-crops-agriculture/[/box]

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Agriculture Corner

On-season and Off-Season Tillage

on-season and off-season tillage | Arid Agriculture

Introduction

An outline about tillage is given in Introduction to Soil Tillage and further, Objectives of Tillage were presented in previous article. This article deals with the two categories of tillage based on the ‘time of requirement’ or seasonal requirement. These are;

  1. On Season Tillage
  2. Off-Season Tillage

1. On-Season Tillage

On-Season tillage is carried out for raising the crops in the same season.  In other words, this type of tillage is done at the beginning of the crop season. On season tillage may be regarded as the tillage carried out for preparatory cultivation and after cultivation.

     Preparatory Tillage

This tillage is carried out before sowing the crop so that beds can be prepared for cultivation of crop. The objective is to open the soil deeply, loose the hard soil rocks, aeration, remove weeds and larvae of pests to achieve the desirable tilth. It has further two types that are primary tillage and secondary tillage.

Primary Tillage

The tillage that is performed after harvesting the crop to bring the necessary changes in the soil condition for making land fit for cultivation for next crop is called as primary tillage or ploughing. In primary tillage, the compact soil is opened. This is done with the help of various kinds of agricultural engineering tools like Mold Board Plough, Tractor, Power Tiller, Bose Plough or Country Plough.

Secondary Tillage

Secondary tillage is performed to bring a good soil tilth after the primary tillage. In Secondary Tillage, finer or light sort of operation are carried out such as cleaning the soil, breaking the soil clods and incorporation of fertilizer or manure in the soil. Planking and Harrowing are conducted for Secondary Tillage operations.

     After Cultivation

After cultivation type of tillage is carried out when the crop is in standing position i.e. after the sowing or planting the crop. This means, this tillage is performed before harvesting the crop. This is also called Inter-Cultivation.  Tillage operations carried out in this type of tillage are weeding, hoeing, drilling, earthing up or side dressing of fertilizer. Weeders, Spade and Hoe are used in after cultivation tillage.

2. Off-Season Tillage

Conditioning of soil is called as off-season tillage. The purpose is to condition the soil suitably for the forthcoming main season crop. Post-Harvest Tillage, Winter or Summer Tillage and Fallow Tillage are various off-season tillage operations.

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2018, February 10). On-Season and Off-Season Tillage[Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2018/02/10/on-season-off-season-tillage/[/box]

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Agriculture Corner

Objectives of Tillage

Objectives of Tillage | Arid Agriculture
Objectives of Tillage

Introduction

Tillage is the mechanical manipulation of soil to prepare it for crop cultivation by creating a favorable enabling environment for proper plant growth. It is carried our both by manually and mechanically. This is discussed in An Introduction to Soil Tillage. This article is going to highlight objectives of tillage .

Objectives of Tillage

  1. To prepare and organize the seedbeds in the field to a satisfactory level that can support not only the optimum germination of the seedlings but also aid in proper establishment of the plant.
  2. To control weeds in such a way that nutrients are absorb efficiently and effectively by the plants. This is also carried out to support a close plant-soil interaction within the rooting zone for proper nourishment of crop plants.
  3. To enhance the physical condition of soil.
  4. To break the hard pans of soil so that soil nutrients are readily available to crop plants.
  5. To manage the crop plant remains by incorporating them into the soil. The plant residues can also be retained on the top layer. This promises a reduction in soil erosion problem.
  6. To prepare soil for absorbing the rain water efficiently.
  7. To integrate and mix the fertilizers applied into the soil so that they are readily available to the crop plants.
  8. To form specific surface configurations for the purpose of sowing, irrigation, drainage, pesticide and fertilizer application etc.
  9. To destroy the eggs of crop pests and larvae of insects. This aids in destroying the breeding places of these pests.
  10. To accelerate the process of drying and warming of soil and exclusion of toxic gases.
  11. To facilitate and minimize the irrigation water usage in the crop fields.
  12. To increase the aeration in the soil

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” ]Rahman, M. A. (2018, February 07). Objectives of Tillage [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2018/02/07/objectives-of-tillage/[/box]

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Agriculture Corner

An Introduction to Soil Tillage

An Introduction to Soil Tillage
An Introduction to Soil Tillage

Introduction

Field operations are carried out to increase the productivity of soul. Soil tillage is one of those operations. It is one of the most researched topics in agriculture sciences due to its direct impact on crop productivity and soil condition. Jethro Tull is regarded as the father of soil tillage who introduced it during the 18th century. It was considered as an art. However, in recent years, tillage is now being focused as a science on the basis of research evidences. Before going deep in this topic, let us see what soil tillage is.

Soil tillage is the cultivation or preparation of soil for cultivation of crops in a productive soil environment. It is carried out by mechanical manipulation of soil such as overturning the soil, or stirring the soil or simply digging. The aim of tillage is to provide favorable growth conditions of soil to the crops. Soil tillage includes all the types of operations that are practiced for the purpose of modifying the physical character of soil.

In field crop production, it is not wrong to claim that soil tillage is the most time consuming and difficult task to perform. In addition to that, it also consumes large share in farmer’s budget.

Reason of Soil Tillage

The reason of soil tillage is to break the large sized soil particles into finer ones so that readily available nutrients can reach to the crop roots. Moreover, after tillage, surface area of soil is increased that allow good root growth in crops.

It is an interesting fact that tillage operations for soil preparations vary from place to place and even in some cases, in the same area, different tillage operations are carried out. This depends upon the climate of cultivated crops, soil condition etc. A lot of effort is required to turn a virgin piece of land into good seedbed, and tillage operations help in achieving that goal.

Types of Tillage

There are three of types of soil tillage in practice.

  1. Conventional Tillage
  2. Conservation Tillage
  3. No Till

Conventional Tillage

It is the simplest and oldest form of soil tillage in which farmers untie the soil by simply turning it over. This can be done both manually and mechanically. By manually, it is carried out with hoes and mechanically, it is done with a disc or plough. This type of tillage has few drawbacks. One of the most important is exposure of soil to air and water erosion.

Conservation Tillage

It is a method of soil cultivation in which the crop residue of previous year crop is left on the fields before and after planting the next crop. The aim of conservation tillage is to reduce soil erosion and water erosion in the form of runoff.  

No Till

No till is also called as zero tillage technique. As the name clearly shows that in this type of tillage, soil disturbance is avoided that is created with the tools such as chisel plows, field cultivators, plow and disk. In addition to this, soil cover is maintained in order to prevent erosion and loss of soil moisture.

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2018, February 06). An Introduction to Soil Tillage [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2018/02/06/introduction-soil-tillage/[/box]

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Agriculture Corner

Conservation of Water in Agriculture

Introduction

Globally, the resources of water are depleting and the rate of recharge of these resources is slow enough that situation of water shortage has been raised in many parts of the globe. According to United Nations, 40 percent of population on earth is facing water shortage and is projected to rise. Similarly, 783 million have no access to safe drinking water. The chief causes of loss of water and its resources are inefficient water use, wastage and poor management of water resources. This situation has clubbed the policy makers round the globe on a common ground to find sustainable solutions for conservation of water.

Before heading forward, the next step is to identify what are the chief water consuming sectors globally? Globally large chunk of freshwater resources are utilized by food and agriculture sector. More precisely, production of food commodities are the chief consumers of water whether it is agricultural crops of livestock animals.  According to Food and Water Organization of United Nations (FAO), agriculture sector consumes 70 percent of available water while industrial usage ranks second (20 percent) followed by domestic consumption (10 percent). Moreover, largest wastage of water occurs in agriculture sector. The developing nations are main culprits due to poor management of water and lack of technology to use and conserve resources of water.

What is Water Conservation?

So first, let’s discuss what is water conservation? The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines conservation of water as:

Water conservation refers to the preservation, control and development of water resources, both surface and groundwater, and prevention of pollution.

Conservation of water in agriculture refers to efficient use of water in irrigation operations and managed and controlled supply of water to allied sectors of agriculture to conserve resources of water. Through conservation of water, the objective is to ensure that the demand of water should not exceed the reclamation of resources of water, so that an optimal balance is maintained in supply and demand of water.

Below table shows water consumed by crops based on liter/Kg criteria.

Commodity Water Footprint (l/kg)
Sugar 197
Spices 7048
Fibers 3837
Tobacco 2925
Oil Crops 2364
Cereals 1644
Fruits 967
Vegetables 322

Importance of Conservation of Water in Agriculture

Incomplete……………..

Cite this Article in APA Style as

[box type=”note” ]Rahman, M. A. (2017, October 31). Conservation of Water in Agriculture[Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2017/10/31/conservation-water-agriculture/[/box]

 

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Vegetable Gardening

5 DIY Greenhouse Ideas

DIY Greenhouse | Arid Agriculture
The Geo Dome Greenhouse

Introduction

Greenhouses in home garden have dual purposes. On one hand, they increase the aesthetic sense while on other hand; they provide you with a chance to have fresh and off-season organic food at home. So today, I am going to discuss 5 DIY greenhouse ideas that will add scenic beauty to your home garden.

To have safe and secure vegetable gardening, I always advice my readers to build a greenhouse in the backyard or in a suitable location of home garden. A general confusion present in mind is regarding the size of greenhouse. Yes the size of the greenhouse matters, however if you are planning to build a greenhouse in home garden, the mathematics should be based on your family size. A general rule of thumb is to build a greenhouse that should feed a family of four from 20 square foot i.e. 5 square foot per family member. It should be enough to supply veggies for a whole season.  

A DIY greenhouse allows you to customize your greenhouse as per your requirements. To build a greenhouse, it should be kept in mind that it is quite a laborious task; however building it is fun, skill learning and hence very tactful to create.

Let us now move to the objective of this post. Below is a list of five different DIY greenhouse ideas that one can install easily in their home garden.

List of DIY Greenhouse Ideas

The ‘Barn’ Greenhouse

The first in the list of DIY greenhouse is the ‘Barn Greenhouse’ The Barn greenhouse in the home garden gets its name because of the shape of a barn and the appearance it carries that fit in any residence. It is mostly made with the wooden structure. You can customize it by using plastic sheet or glass for absorbing sunlight. I will prefer to go with plastic sheet. This will not only be cheap in cost, but also in case you plan to move your Barn greenhouse to other place, the cost of transfer will be minimized. Barn Greenhouse is most suitable for growing underground veggies like Carrot, Radish, Turnip, Beet, Sugar Beet etc. The Barn greenhouse usually cost around $500-700.

DIY Greenhouse | Arid Agriculture
The Barn Greenhouse

The Big Greenhouse

Second in the list of DIY greenhouse is the Big Greenhouse. In urban gardening, the big greenhouse is perfect, specifically of the size 10X16 structures. The plan for it is really basic.

It has a simple ‘A’ framed structure and you just have to lay beds inside of it or just plant in the ground. You will have an awesome amount of space to decide how to lay down the structure. Plus you get quite a room to grow your favorite plants and veggies.

DIY Greenhouse | Arid Agriculture
The Big Greenhouse

The ‘Hoop’ Greenhouse

Among several DIY greenhouse ideas, the most easily homemade greenhouse is the hoop greenhouse. It has a round formation and is very simple to build. To build a greenhouse of this type in home garden, few tools are only needed but you must go according to the plan and instructions given.

Most people use it in a cold frame fashion. A glow light can added to enhance its beauty. You can build this in less than $200. This is the perfect in expensive option.

DIY Greenhouse | Arid Agriculture
The Hoop Greenhouse

The 50-Dollar Greenhouse

4th in the list of DIY greenhouse ideas is the 50-Dollar Greenhouse. It is more than greenhouse for home garden. In fact it can e regarded as a small nursery at home. As this greenhouse is mostly built using recycled material, you have plenty of options to mold it according to your needs.

I advise my readers to 50-Dollar greenhouse at their home due to its simple yet resourceful features and options it provides you when it comes to grow organic veggies in home garden. The most important feature of this greenhouse is its less cost. So whenever you plant to build a greenhouse in home garden, go for 50 Dollar greenhouse option.

DIY Greenhouse | Arid Agriculture
50 Dollar Greenhouse

The Geo Dome

Last in the list of DIY greenhouse options is the Geo Dome greenhouse. This nursery type greenhouse helps me to remember some portion of a wilderness rec center I used to play at a recreation center as a child.

It is a roundabout formed nursery and exceptionally fascinating to take a gander at. Since this nursery is a roundabout shape it improves it for withstanding high breezes. The designs and apparatus are accessible. This seems, by all accounts, to be a truly cool nursery. It is said to have the most developing space so you have plenty of options to customize your vegetable cultivation plan.

DIY Greenhouse | Arid Agriculture
The Geo Dome Greenhouse

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2017, October 30). 5 DIY Greenhouse Ideas [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2017/10/30/5-diy-greenhouse-ideas/ [/box]

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Vegetable Gardening

List of Fruits Best for Container Gardening

List of Fruits | Container Gardening | Home Garden
List of Fruits for Container Gardening

Introduction

For those having interest in urban gardening and love for having fresh fruits and vegetable in every meal, should try new and innovative container gardening ideas at home garden. Trying and Investing in new container gardening ideas requires minimal investment of time and money and can be grown in your backyard or kitchen garden. Believe me, the repay is organic and delicious harvest of fruits and vegetables. Keeping this in view, this article will discuss list of fruits that can be grown in a container of your home garden.

Below is the list of fruits which can be grown quite easily in a container as contradictory to common belief that they need and wide and deep soil to grow and produce fruits. Growing fruits in a container is one of the best container gardening ideas practiced globally.  

Strawberries

Strawberry is the most popular fruit among children and adults due to its attractive heart shape and delicious taste. This makes it on the top of the list of fruits that can be grown in a container of home garden.

Strawberry belongs to a class of herbaceous variety which is highly productive and luscious fruit. As it is one of the most delicate fruit, so it requires extra care and need proper environment, water and soil pH levels to fruits properly.

Strawberries are the best plants to grow in containers and they thrive well indoors so one can have fresh strawberries all year long. They need sufficient sunlight. When kept indoors, the pot can be kept next to a window.

In addition to this, they can grow in alkaline soil which is fertilized prior to planting. Water the strawberries frequently until the plant grow roots and treat the plant with insecticide and fungicide to prevent any kind of infestation and fungal growth.

Watermelons

Watermelons ranks second in the list of fruits that can be grown in containers of home garden. Gurus of gardening, and especially those who practice innovative container gardening ideas astonished millions of people by growing watermelons in a container few years back.  

It is an establish fact now that watermelons are one of the best fruits to plant in containers and they flourish well indoors also. To make the whole process more easy, it’s better to use self-water container, which is the perfect option because after all, watermelons need plenty of water.

As, all types of melons are warm-weather crops. So they need sufficient light and heat source. It should be ensured to provide them sunlight everyday or the container is kept at a spot that is near to the window.

Tomatoes

Tomato is the fruit of every season. If one loves to grow tomato, but doesn’t have plenty of room and want to have a fresh supply all-round the year, then innovative container gardening ideas can solve this problem.

Tomatoes flourish optimally in container. The container should be large enough which is covered by a cage on the outside to provide extra support when the plant gets taller as tomato plant tends to extend vertically.

Growing tomatoes in a container of home garden can be a bit of a challenge as it requires consistent amount of water, just to keep the soil moist but not wet. Also, it’s crucial to feed them fertilizer and keep in sunlight for at least of 6-8 hours, which is the optimum amount of light and heat needed to grow. Tomato has proved a best companion in home garden. This allows it to grab a place in my list of fruits for container gardening.

Bananas

Among many container gardening ideas, growing Bananas in a container is surprising, right!  Well if it is, then you should give it a try, as Bananas are proved good producers of fruit in containers.

The basic requirement for banana in container of your home garden is a large and spacious container. Similarly, it requires tropical environment to grow and is fairly easy to grow among other backyard fruit plants.

On the other hand, it needs proper and consistent climate conditions, a lot of water because of its huge leaves, enough of sunlight and moist soil mixture with an alkaline pH. In addition, banana plant needs to be fertilized at least once a month to get best produce. So if anyone preparing his/her list of fruits for container gardening, Banana should be included.

Pomegranate

Last in my list of fruits for container gardening in home garden is Pomegranate. I reserved my favorite and best fruit for last. When i was thinking about innovative container gardening ideas 2 years back, Pomegranate stroked my head at once. The reason was simple. It is easy to get fruits of Pomegranate in a container because of its shallow root system as compare to other large fruit trees, perhaps it is easier to grow.

From medical perspective, it is rich in iron. In addition to the fruit, its juice is even healthier. It thrives well in plenty of sunlight; require regular water and fertilizer in given every 2 week time. Providing with these pre-requisites will result in scrumptious and succulent fruit.

I hope this list of fruits has sparked several other container gardening ideas in your mind. Don’t forget to share your ideas in comment section below. Cheers.

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2017, October 29). List of Fruits Best for Container Gardening [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2017/10/29/list-of-fruits-container-gardening/[/box]

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Agriculture Corner

Role of Agriculture Extension Officer

Agriculture Extension Officer | Village Extension Officer
Role of Agriculture Extension Officer (Pic Source : FAO)

Introduction

Agriculture extension officer has a pivotal role in agriculture sector of any country. However, in case of developing countries, the role of agriculture extension office increases many folds. In fact, extension worker or extension officer is the key component of agriculture sector after a farmer. This is because of his nature of duties that keep the farming community up to date with latest and innovative knowledge and farming techniques to increase the efficiency of agricultural produce. In rural areas, village extension officer should be equipped with state of the art knowledge base, so that his/her presence in the area brings positive results in production and yield of agriculture produce.

Keeping this in view, this article will now discuss the role of an agriculture extension officer in uplifting of agriculture sector. This in turn helps in uplifting the livelihoods of the framing community with sustainable food production and income.

Following are the 3 chief roles of an agriculture extension officer in any area that highlights his/her role for boosting agriculture production along with income of the farmers. These 3 chief roles will be followed by general roles that an agriculture extension worker should fulfill during his duties.

Chief Roles Performed by an Agriculture Extension Officer

Close Contact with Farming Community

Key role of village extension officer starts by understanding local customs and traditions of farming community of the area where he is deployed. A good understanding will not only help him winning the confidence of the locals but he can easily influence their minds. This will also help in getting deep insights of the problems faced by the farmers during farming activities.

Generally farmers prefer indigenous solutions of their problems. So by creating a good working relationship with the farming community, village extension office can bring fast pace change in agricultural practices.  

Craft a Cooperating Environment among Farmers

The agriculture extension officer has to establish an enabling environment for the farmers, where they can share their farming problems and seek collective solution. The extension worker may create a cooperative group where they can conduct discussion sessions.

Advantage of creating such group is that, village extension officer can influence farmers easily in time efficient manner. It is important to designate a leader in the group that should be selected from within the group.

Applying Appropriate Extension Method for Teaching

Another important role of agriculture extension worker is to choose from many, an appropriate extension teaching method. This extension method should be carefully designed because, though approach can be same as based on extension principles, but customizing it according to the demands and needs is important.

If the target farming community is large, extension worker may utilize print and electronic media. Since the introduction of social media, it is easy to disseminate latest information for a particular area or village for example, through dedicated pages or groups of that area created on Facebook etc. Similarly, local newspaper and radio medium can also be utilized.

To communicate with limited farmers, group extension methods like farm walks farmer rallies, demonstration, field visits, group meetings and motivational tours can be applied. Individual extension methods like individual farm visits should be paid when needed.

General Roles of an Agriculture Extension Worker

  1. Agriculture extension worker should have good leadership qualities so that he can impact and bring positive changes in attitudes, skills and knowledge of the villagers.
  2. Good agriculture extension officer has a comprehensive knowledge bank to convince farmers adopting new technology. For this, research base of extension workers should be strong. He should have optimum know-how of the agricultural conditions prevailing in progressive and especially in neighboring countries for convincing the farmers.
  3. Farmers can only be motivated if they are assured that their income will increase by following new and innovative technology in farming. Thus an extension officer should be motivational and have good communication qualities.
  4. Extension worker should perform the role of a bridge between farmers and scientific and research institutes. He should have good networking and working linkages with top scientific national and international institutes where he can take the problems of farming community to get scientific and logical solutions.
  5. Last but not the least, without feeling the problems of farmers and farming community, village extension worker cannot bring desire change in attitude as well as the farming practices of the farmers.

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2017, October 27). Role of Agriculture Extension Officer [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2017/10/28/role-agriculture-extension-officer[/box]

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Vegetable Gardening

3 Best Herbs to Grow in Home Garden

Best Herbs to Grow | Growing Herbs | How to Grow Herbs
Best Herbs to Grow in Home Garden

Introduction

Growing herbs is my hobby. There is always dedicated space available in my home garden for growing herbs. In addition to this, there are several herbs that I grow in Mason jar indoors. This is the beauty of growing herbs that they can be cultivated anywhere in open garden, patio, balcony garden in small or large container and pots. So today, I am going to answer two of the biggest question I received frequently from my readers that are; ‘how to grow herbs’ and ‘what are the best herbs to grow’.

Believe me, these two questions seems easy, however when you are faced in practical with these two questions, factor like confusion and confidence occupies the mind that increases the chances of failure. So in this article, I will try to discuss how to grow herbs and the best herbs to grow at home simultaneously to save my reader’s time resource.

Before listing best herbs to grow, I like to highlight the importance of growing herbs, especially for the beginners. Growing herbs at home not only saves few bucks, but also it fulfills your hobby and add flavors to the food cooked. Freshly picked herbs, grown in backyard or pots, add more flavor than the dried ones. Plus, growing herbs at home provides you with the option to add them immediately in daily food items such as soups, salads and stews.

List of Best Herbs to Grow at Home

Before discussing how to grow herbs, let me introduce you with top 3 best herbs to grow at home. These are;

  1. Rosemary
  2. Parsley
  3. Basil

There are several other herbs that can take space in my list of best herbs to grow. However, the above 3 herbs are easy to grow in home garden and for beginners; these herbs provide the learning experience. In addition to this, these 3 herbs can be grown in small places and indoors too. Regarding these herbs, let us now discuss the procedure of how to grow herbs.

Rosemary

Rosemary takes top place in my list of best herbs to be grown in home garden. This is because of its dual property of being used as a food item as well as a pest repellent at homes.  It has powerful property of curing indigestion, bad breath and pain. It is equally beneficial for hairs when use as oil.

Rosemary can also be grown in indoors from seeds. However, I suggest to grow Rosemary from clippings instead of seeds, as germination rate of seeds is low in case of this herb. Below table will help understanding the pre-requisites of growing rosemary at home.

Germination 15-22 days
Light requirements Abundant sunlight or full sun
Soil requirements Well drained soil and light in texture
pH of Soil 6-7
Fertilizer requirement Compost is preferred at the time sowing seed or transplanting. Then again add at the time of next season spring when new signs of growth are visible.
Plant Height Around 60 inch
Spacing between the Plants 22-36 inches
Ready for First Harvest 10-14 weeks.

 

Parsley

In list of best herbs to grow in home garden, Parsley gets the second place. Again it is a great indoor herb that can be grown in pots and containers. From medical perspective, Parsley has great power to act as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Thus this makes it a good herb for digestion and detoxification purposes at home. Pregnant women should avoid using Parsley due to its property of inducing uterine contractions that may lead to miscarriage.

It should be grown using the seeds. Once it reaches at the transplantation stage, pick it and transplant in wider spaces. Use mulch to keep optimum moisture. To get healthy foliage, cut the plant down to stem during early fall.

It should be noted during second year of planting; Parsley bear flower and thus become unfit for consumption. You have the option to let it bloom and use the seeds at the end of the season to replant in next season.

Parsley is a good herb to be used in food items like tabbouleh, pesto and salad dressing. Below table will answer further regarding how to grow herbs of Parsley.

Germination 15-28 days
Light requirements Partly Shaded and Sun
Soil requirements Moist and Rich Soil
pH of Soil 5.5 to 6.7
Fertilizer requirement Compost is preferred at the time of planting. Then add high- nitrogen every few weeks.
Plant Height Around 18 inches
Spacing between the Plants 10-15 inches
Ready for First Harvest Within 10 weeks.

 

Basil

Basil herb is famous all around the globe. Thus it is also included in my list of best herbs to grow in home garden. Basil is known for its intense clove-like aroma and anise-like flavor. It is used both as fresh and dried herb in cooking.

From medical perspective, it is used as anti-arthritic, deodorizer, anti-inflammatory, topical antioxidant and also insect repellent. It is rich in Vitamins like A, K and C. In addition to this, it also provides body with Calcium, Iron, Magnesium and Potassium.

Basil can be grown from seeds indoors. The seed should be planted in early spring to get optimum seed germination rate. After 2 weeks, transplants are ready to be transplanted outdoors. To get best production of leaves, it should be ensured that flowers to be removed from the stalks.

Germination 4-8 days
Light requirements Good performance in hot climate with full sun during morning while shade in afternoon
Soil requirements Moist, Rich and well-drained soil
pH of Soil 6-7
Fertilizer requirement Add compost during transplantation stage. Then
high-nitrogen with the ratio of 2:1:1 every two weeks thereafter
Plant Height 20-30 inches
Spacing between the Plants 10-20 inches
Ready for First Harvest

Within 10 weeks.

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2017, October 26). 3 Best Herbs to Grow in Home Garden [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2017/10/26/best-herbs-to-grow/[/box]

Categories
Vegetable Gardening

List of Fruits Kids Can Grow at Home

List of Fruits | Fruits at home | garden and home
List of Fruits for Kids Farming

Introduction

Growing your own food and especially fruits at home is an adventurous and marvelous activity. It is such kind of activity in garden and home that strengthens the family bond. If practiced by the family members together, then there is no better project that is super-fun as well as entertaining that provides a positive learning of new skills for both kids and adults. I receive many queries daily requesting to provide list of fruits that can be grown easily at home. So I decided to write about it. It should be noted that the harvested fruits at home bring more taste and love as compare to those purchased from shopping malls and markets.

Family farming is idyllic in garden and home. However, most people feel bit nervous at start by the fear of possible procedural complexities that might arise which can result in failure and a daunting experience if their initial attempts are not fruitful. 

Needless to say, learning the skill of growing fruits at home always benefit the families, especially kids for the rest of their lives. This also motivates them to eat more of the good and healthy food rather than fuelling their bodies with all the junk and carbonated food and drink items. At parental end, they should have list of fruits easily grown by kids. This will not only make them busy in a positive and constructive activity but also usage of junk items will be reduced.  

In addition to learn the skills of growing fruits at home, involving kids in garden and home farming is a great tool of excitement. It is also an excellent learning method which teaches kids with a sense of responsibility, cooperative learning, making them calm, patient and inspire them to plant fruits by themselves.

Nevertheless, after doing all the hard and meticulous work by your kids to produce scrumptious and bounty of fresh and organic fruit, you also have the option to preserve them as dried fruits for a yearlong supply of healthy and nutritious food for your children.

This article discusses list of fruits that are easiest to plant and grow in garden and home. This list of fruits also can also be regarded as a benchmark for kid’s family farming activity.

  • Tomatoes

First item in my list of fruits that should be grown in garden and home is Tomatoes. Tomatoes are the easiest to plant and manage even for the kids. The plant grows at a fast pace among all other kinds of fruit plants. This makes it an ideal fruit for kids to grow in garden and home, especially the bush variety such as ‘cherry cascade’ that can be planted in hanging baskets. Even as an adult and hobby, if you are planning to grow fruits at home, tomatoes should be prioritized in the list of fruits.

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