Use sets instead of seed for onions
'With sets you'll get a perfect stand regardless of the weather and be able to harvest earlier.'
The importance of side dressing
Many vegetable crops fail due to a lack of nitrogen. Side dressing is a safe way of ensuring that plants get enough of this element, says Bill Kerr.
Veggies galore!
'The Chinese eat an average 440kg of vegetables per capita a year against a world average of 200kg.'
The correct spacing for onions
'Sunlight is the ultimate limiting factor. Water and nutrients will only optimise the limits set by day length.'
Direct seeding for onions
'Transplant shock will make the plants bulb at a small size, or go into hibernation.'
Are markets really the problem?
'Anybody can deliver to a market at any time - be it one unit or thousands.'
Onions require understanding
'Stick to what you know and make changes gradually over a few seasons,' writes Bill Kerr.
How the Brits do it
'Five buyers for an entire industry simply doesn't add up in a free market scenario,' writes Mike Cordes.
Making monoculture work
To many farmers and home gardeners, crop rotation is a holy grail – they’ll never plant the same crop consecutively in the same ground.
Why cabbage should be your first choice
There’s nothing worse than not having success with your first crop, so choose one that is cheap and easy to grow. In other words, choose cabbage.
Blight can make a bean crop worthless
Last week I mentioned that halo blight thrives in cooler conditions and spreads very rapidly in wet ones.
Failing land reform programme threatens litchi industry growth
Numerous failings within South Africa's land reform programme, and the uncertainties this is causing, have resulted in no new investment taking place on existing litchi farms.
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