this ogre was enjoying my brinjal plant when i spotted it

tomatoes in pots

one hell of a task. this is compounded if you are an organic freak i.,e no insecticide, pesticide or weedicide. locally they call it "marori" where the leaf wilts and collapses leading to no flowering but no fruit or negligible fruit. on top of that the mosaic virus strikes with alarming regularity.

maybe tomorrow i'll post a picture.

garlic harvest

this year after a couple of years of frustration did i get it right on how to grow garlic. here's is what come out of my labour

harvesting methi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh7BvGxMxuU

cabbage in pots

for the first time this winter season i tried growing cabbage in pots. the result is there to be seen

potato produce

this year i tried sowing potatoes.

as potatoes grow under the ground i was not sure how this experiment will pan out considering i sow only in pots.

i needed bigger pots so i used big matakas(used to store water in summers). the produce was unbelievable. a small video on the produce.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRtp2aFRyxU

Bio-pesticide: student find

here is something i can vouch for. though normally i use tobacco with garlic. this time i am going to try this combination and check the results.

Onions, garlic and chillies don’t just spice up your favourite dish, they can also keep pests at bay. And now five school students in Uttar Pradesh have used them to prepare an eco-friendly pesticide.

The biopesticide has been prepared by students of GRM Senior Secondary School in Bareilly. It is one of the few projects from the state to be selected for the National Children’s Science Congress (NCSC) to be held at Dimapur, Nagaland, from December 27 to 31.
“Just by analysing some of the basic biology principles under the guidance of our biotech teacher, we managed to develop the pesticide,” group leader Saheli Gupta, a Class XI student, said over telephone. Gupta and four of her schoolmates have come up with the innovative pesticide that unlike chemical pesticides does not degrade soil fertility.

According to members of the group, the World Health Organisation and the UN Environment Programme estimate that each year, three million agricultural workers in the developing world experience severe poisoning from pesticide. “As our pest control formulation is totally free of chemicals, there is no question of ill-effects on the soil or an adverse impact on health while using it on crops,” reasoned Reena Varshney, the biotechnology teacher who helped the students.
“Organic compounds like allicin found in garlic, capsaicinoids derived from green chillies and sulphur compounds extracted from onion give the pesticide the strength to fight pests,” said Varshney. Besides being eco-friendly, its low manufacturing cost also gives the biopesticide an edge over its chemical counterparts.

“For a hectare of crops, farmers require nearly one kilogram of chemical pesticides costing around Rs 350 in the market. However, for the same area, the pesticide developed by us will cost just Rs 20,” said Varshney. “Around 100 grams of onion mixed with an equal quantity of garlic with a handful of green chillies in a definite quantity of water and then a simple filtration process - it is that simple,” said Imran Hashmi, another member in the group.