Page 107 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 7
P. 107
AFRIKA IS GOD'S
GREEN HANDS
TAKING CARE OF THE PLANTS
AS THEY GROW
Nicholas Munyororo
3) Exposure to sunlight.
his month, we gaps in order to avoid wasting
Farming God’s Way counter-
continue with our the spaces.
acts these stimuli by:
implementatio n Today we shall continue to see
of Farming God’s what we need to do as the plants 1) Not plowing and minimal soil
TWay practically in continue to grow and start facing disturbance - drastically reduc-
ing weed seed disturbance,
the garden. We started by illus- challenges as they do. The first
scratching and exposure to light
trating how to dig the holes and challenges the young seeds face
2) God’s Blanket cover - mini-
to measure out the density of as they come up are weeds. It is
seeds on the farm when planting important to understand weeds mizes weed seed exposure to
maize. We also looked at how to in order to know how to elimi- light
3) Planting at 60*75 cm spac-
correct acidic soils, application nate them from your garden.
ing - effectively cuts out light by
of organic inputs, planting and
closing the canopy from as ear-
applying God’s blanket (mulch). Weeding
We left off where the plants Weeds significantly lower crop ly as 5 weeks, thereby reducing
had emerged from the soil and yields because they compete weed seed exposure to sunlight
even further.
we had seen that sometimes with the plants for water, nutri-
Do your first weeding when the
there are gaps larger than we ents, light and space. Weeds
weeds are still small (around
intended caused by chickens or are stimulated to germinate by:
rats or squirrels digging out the 1) Disturbance of the soil, three cm tall) which is usually
seeds before they emerge. We 2) Scratching of the seed coat 10-14 days after planting. When
weeding is done at this “white
addressed how to fill in these and
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