Nowadays youths have deserted agriculture for no good reason leaving the task of growing vegetables like cabbages, which is meant for labor-intensive youths, to be done by blubbering old guys.
In my view, doing vegetable farming needs dedicated guys with much time to look after the vegetables. You better think twice before you enrol yourself in that list of deserters because from as small as a 10 by 10 metre piece of land, you can harvest 800,000 worth of onions, 400,000 worth of tomatoes or 300,000 worth of cabbages depending on the one you choose keeping in mind that onions are smaller and require more intensive management.
That's it for the vegetables. If you feel you wanna put some of your time into trying out agriculture which I know you have already decided, try to keep note of all your expenses because that is the key to successful business.
How to bed cabbages.
Bedding is simple and it's not what we used to study back then when we were kids. I tried using the methods in such agriculture books, but they were all useless.
What you'll need.
- A used up mosquito net try not to use a brand new net - that's undermining the extent to which malaria has taken Africa.
- Four or six strong 1metre stakes
- A bunch of weeds or dry grass
The dimensions of the bed are 1 metre by infinite because length is determined by your mosquito net. Heap soil to form a raised bed. Apply some organic manure or fertilizer then make shallow lines from end to end along the length. Apply the seeds and cover with fine soil.
Cover the bed with weeds. These provide enough warmth for germination. Drive the stakes into the corners and cover them with the net. It should look like one of mine below.
After that, your main job is to water intensively, morning and evening till they germinate then continue watering once every day for the next two to three weeks.
The transplantation will be around 1 month from bedding.
Planting and Maintenance of cabbages
Transplanting is simple. Make the cabbages stand 30cm from each other side by side. It's hard work, but remember that you are not an old lag so you just got to do it.
After transplanting, spray the cabbages with an insecticide plus liquid fertilizer mixture, but the fertilizer isn't a must because you can prepare your own or just apply compost. It's a must to spray. Failure to do so will leave grasshoppers to munch the young leaves at the center of the cabbage making it remain flabby without rolling into a ball. So make it a must.
Continue to spray once every two weeks if their is no sign of intensive insect infestation. When the insects become so stubborn reduce the spraying frequency to as low as 5 days to save your cabbages, because most times they are attacked by green worms. The insecticide we used to use was Striker because it saves money in terms of mls per 20 litres.
Harvesting cabbages
The time to reap what you sowed always comes for cabbages around 2.5 to 3 months. Even a kid can do this Simply cutting and transporting to the place of sale.
This is the most stressful moment because you have to think like a business person. Make a feck deal and your profits fall, fail to get a deal and you'll sweep into losses because they happen in business. If you can't handle the stress, sell the cabbages to already established sellers and get the sure , but small pay. I am not saying that selling to other sellers or B2B business is bad, because it also gives you back a profit.
Apply the simple procedure and you'll get what you want, money.
I got cabbage knowledge while on an apprenticeship to my cousin brother who's a police officer. We had tragic losses at first because of rain issues, but we re-pulled the trigger and shot the target. You too can. Just do it. Remember that I didn't have enough money to start my own farm, but my cousin and some friends did me a favor and I was up and going, a skill that I will write about later.
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