Here in Eastern Indonesia Velvet bean is known as the Evil bean- Kacang jahat. It is rampant and a really different plant to the well known and useful bean of the tropical ag literature. So what makes this so nasty? The pods have fine hairs that are extremely itchy when you get them anywhere near […]
To grow great watermelons we need to increase soil fertility without having to buy/use chemical fertiliser. We set up, in late April 2010 at U a trial using two rows of four planting holes with Velvet bean foliage and two rows of four planting holes without velvet bean foliage. The plan is to allow the […]
Watermelons are commonly grown and some farmers believe weeds are good for the melons. However, we figure that weeds do three bad things. Drop lots of weed seeds to become a problem in the future Compete with melons for water- a real problem in dry season Compete with melons for soil fertility- a problem year […]
We are working on a remote island in Indonesia with a very pronounced dry and then wet season. Shallots, bawang merah are a key crop and are grown without fertiliser on a free draining, coarse textured alluvial soil. We have an attitude or starting point relating to working with farmers that can be summed up […]