Manures - Egg Lime Formulation (Muttai Rasam)

As part of our Agriculture for Everybody blog series,  we are going to see Egg Lime Formulation (Muttai Rasam).


Required Ingredients

S.No.	Ingredient Name	Qty in Litres/Kgs/Nos
1	Lime	20-25 Nos
2	Jaggery	250 Grams
3	Egg (Chicken or Duck)	10-15 Nos

Method of Preparation

1. Cut the Lime and extract the juice into a bucket.
2. Dissolve the Jaggery and mix it with the Lime Juice to form a solution.
3. Place the eggs as it is into the bottom of the bucket and ensure that the eggs are not floating.
4. Close the bucket with an air tight lid and place it in a shaded place for 10 days.
5. On the 10th day, the eggs along with the shells inside the solution would have become rubbery, like a rubber ball.
6. Mix the eggs along with the shell well in the lime and jaggery solution.
7. Now find out the number of litres of solution arrived at.
8. Add equal amount of Jaggery solution alone to this.
9. Again, close the bucket with an air tight lid and place it in a shaded place for 10 days.
10. The solution is ready to be used after this.

Method of Storage

1. The manure should be kept in air tight bucket and placed in a shaded and cool place.

How long can we store the Manure?

1. The manure can be stored for 6 months period.

How to use the Manure?

1. Spray System - The manure can be applied as a foliar spray.
2. Flow System - The solution of manure can be mixed with irrigation water, either through drip irrigation or flow irrigation.

Note:

• Dilute 15 ml of Egg Lime Formulation to be diluted with 1 Litre of Water before applying.
• The Egg Lime Formulation can also be used along with Panchakavya or Vermiwash.

When to use the Manure?

1. Generally, it is accepted that every 15 days the manure can be applied.
2. The manure should be sprayed only in the early morning or late evenings.

How to collect Desi or Local or Native or Indigenous Earthworms?

As part of our Agriculture for Everybody blog series, we are going to see the way to collect Local or Native or Indigenous Earthworms.

1. Identify worm-inhabited soils marked by visible earthworm castings on the soil surface
2. The identified place should be of 1.0 m X 0.5 m or 1.0 m X 1.0 m size
3. Take 20 Litres of Water + 500 Grams of Jaggery (Native Sugar or Unrefined Sugar or Brown Sugar or Karrupatti) + 500 Grams of Fresh Cow Dung
4. Dissolve the Jaggery in the Water along with the Fresh Cow Dung and mix them well
5. Once dissolved properly, sprinkle the concoction on the previously identified place
6. Cover the place first with straw (Rice or Wheat or similar) and small lumps of cattle dung and on top of it cover the place with Jute Bag or Gunny Bag.  Mainly the Jute Bag is to ensure that birds do not eat the earthworms
7. Sprinkle water for 20-30 days daily in the morning and evening time on the covered bag to keep the place moist
8. You should be able to get earthworms after this.  This will be in hundreds only
9. You should collect the earthworms along with a little bit of the soil with it for better retaining them
10. If you want more earthworms, you should do the same in a bigger area

Seed Disease Control Treatment - Bijamrita

As part of our Agriculture for Everybody blog series, we are going to see Bijamrita which is used to control seed borne diseases and this is popularised by Subhash Palekar.

Required Ingredients

S.No.	Ingredient Name	Qty in Litres/Kgs
1	Water	21 Ltrs
2	Cow Dung	5 Kgs
3	Cow Urine	5 Ltrs
4	Lime	50 Gms
5	Soil from bund	Handful

Note:

• Cow's Urine should be from Local Cows and not from cross-bred or foreign breeds.

Method of Preparation

1. Take a cotton cloth and place the Cow Dung and secure it at the top by tying it well.
2. Immerse the contents of the cloth in the 20 Litres of Water for 12 hours.
3. Similarly, take the lime and add the lime to 1 Litre of Water and let it be for a whole night.
4. Squeeze the contents of the cloth thrice to ensure all the essence is captured in the 20 Litres of  Water.
5. Add the handful of Soil collected from the bund to the essence and stir it well.
6. Add the Cow Urine, Lime Water to the contents of the 20 Litre of essence and stir it well.
7. Bijamrita is ready for use.

Method of Storage

1. Not Applicable

How long can we store it?

1. Not Applicable

How to use it?

1. Seeds to be immersed well in the essence and should be allowed to dry.
2. Once it is dried well, the seed can be used for sowing.

Which pests are controlled?

1. Generally, seed borne disease are controlled and the germination improves.

Seed Dormancy Treatment - Vegetables - General

Seed Dormancy Treatment - Biogas Slurry

1. Soak the seeds in Biogas Slurry for 30 minutes before sowing.
2. Sow the seeds immediately.

Seed Dormancy - Cow Dung

• Take 500 Grams Cow Dung and 1 Litre Water.
• Mix both the Cow Dung and the Water well.
• Soak the seeds in this concoction for 24 hours and keep it in a cool dry place.
• Sow the seeds immediately on the next day.
• Expect germination to improve by 90% for vegetables like Bitter Gourd, Ribbed Gourd, Snake Gourd, Bottle Gourd and Pumpkin.

Seed Dormancy - Cow Urine

• Soak the seeds in cow urine for 12 hours and keep it in a cool and shaded place.  This will improve germination.
• Sow the seeds immediately on the next day.

Seed Dormancy Treatment - Dasagavya

• Soak the seeds or dipping the roots of seedlings in 3% solution for 20 minutes.  This enhances seed germination and root development.

Seed Dormancy Treatment - Panchakavya

1. Take 980 ml of water.
2. Add 20 ml of Panchakavya to it.
3. Mix them well.
4. Soak the seeds in this concoction for 30 minutes before sowing.
5. Sow the seeds immediately.

Seed Dormancy Treatment - Water

1. Soak the seeds in water for 12 hours and keep it in a cool and shaded place.  This will improve germination.
2. Sow the seeds immediately on the next day.

Fodder Trees for Livestock

As part of our Agriculture for Everybody blog series, we are going to see the different Fodder Trees which can be grown for feeding our Livestock.

S.No.	Botanical Name	Common Name / Tamil Name
1	A. leucophloea	Velvel, White babul
2	A. nilotica	Karuvel, Black babul
3	Acacia  planifrons	Umbrella tree / Kudaivel
4	Acacia catechu	Karungali
5	Ailanthes excelsa	Match wood tree
6	Albizzia lebbek Vagai	Vagai
7	Azadirachta indica	Vembu
8	Dalbergia sisoo	Sisoo
9	Delonix regia	Gulmohar
10	Enterolobium saman	Rain tree
11	Erythrina indica	Mulmurungai / Kalyana murungai
12	Ficus  religiosa	Peepal tree / Arasamaram
13	Ficus bengalensis	Banyan tree  / Alamaram
14	Glyciridia maculata	Glyricidia
15	Hardwickia binata	Acha
16	Leucaena leucocephala	Subabul / Soundal
17	Madhca indica	Illuppai
18	Melia azadirachta	Malaivembu
19	Pitheclobium dulci	Kodukapuli
20	Pongamia glabra	Pungam
21	Sesbania grandiflora	Agathi

Choosing the Crops (Groupwise) based on Shelf Life

As part of our Agriculture for Everybody blog series, we are going to see how to Select the Crops (Groupwise) based on Shelf Life.

We have already seen several options of choosing the crops.  One more addition to that can be the following.

Generally, most of the crops we produce have short shelf life.  In this scenario, the farmer is forced to sell the produce immediately as the produce gets rotten easily.  It would be prudent on the part of the farmer to allocate a small portion of the land to produce crops which have longer shelf life.

In this way, the farmer can save the produce and sell it at the right price.

The following are some of the examples of both Shorter Shelf Life Crops and Longer Shelf Life Crops.

Shorter Shelf Life Crops

• Sugarcrops like Sugarcane
• Vegetables like Tomato, Ladies Finger etc
• Flowers
• Fruits like Mango, Guava, Jamun etc

Longer Shelf Life Crops

• Cereals like Paddy, Wheat
• Millets like Maize, Millet, Ragi , Cumbu etc
• Pulses
• Oil Seeds like Castor, Groundnut, Gingelly etc
• Fibre Crops like Cotton, Jute
• Plantation Crops like Coconut, Cashewnut, Arecanut etc
• Spice Crops like Ginger, Garlic, Tamarind etc
• Vegetables like Elephant Yam, Tapioca etc
• Fruit Crops like Jackfruit etc