"SEC | S20W5:"Planting & Care"

Hello friends, welcome to my blog. I'm here to share my view on the topic for the week "Planting and Care.""" We are still learning, and it is good to know we have a platform to help facilitate the teachings in agriculture. Thanks to Team-Agro and Steem-agro for this great fit.

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Nigeria is my country, and it is predominantly known to have two season patterns. We have the dry season as well the rainy season. These seasons are the same across the country in as much there are more rains in a particular region than the other.

The dry season begins from November, where we see little or no rains and ends in March with the same rain signals. During this period of drought, it is characterized by two discomforting periods in it. We have the harmattan and the heat wave period that comes with either extreme cold or heat waves.

On the other hand, we have the rainy season, which starts from April to October. A time of rains and wet ground. This is observed to be more regular in the south, which causes flooding and erosion unlike in the northern region. However, there are problems of flooding due to persistent rainfall when witnessed.

Among the two seasons, the rainy season is the preferred season for planting. It is a time of rain that helps prepare farmers as soon as the time comes with early warnings in march. Once it is march, when we start witnessing pockets of rainfall, all farmers are alerted to brace up for the real deal.

Many of our crops fall within these planting seasons, which ultimately makes it my best planting season. Most of the tree plants and seedlings do best in this period because of the moist soil, sufficient soil nutrients after the fallow period, etc.

The cost of irrigating a farm land may be ambiguous, especially for subsistent farmers, to handle it. Hence, leveraging on the rainy season allows for a better management of resources available to handle other farm operations.

The importance of planting trees is one, and the need to plant in the right places is another. The importance of planting trees brings us so much benefit directly and indirectly, which humans and the environment are the sole benefactors.

We see situations where trees are planted in cosy places for their beauty and asthestic presence. It is used for beatification in our environment. Most hybrid locations are known to have the presence of trees. I believe they also know why it is used aside from its aesthetic use.

Trees also serve as a means to remove toxins and impurities from the environment. Since they have a reverse way to human oxygen to carbondioxide intake and outtakes, it helps in ingesting what is removed by humans and other activities caused by humans, found in the free space. Our oxygen becomes cleaner and better off with trees around us.

It helps in shielding off climatic impacts on both agricultural activities and humans. Its covering serves as a shade during high sun intensity, as well as covering crops that would ordinarily be affected by high heat waves. By extension, it helps to reduce direct impacts to our soils, which probably leads to soil erosion and degredation.

For places we may find pleasant to plant on, we may look at those public arena. Public places like government residential homes, government facilities, public schools, entertainment or event places, at the beach, children playgrounds, etc.
We may have private places like private residences, roof tops, etc.

If we may think about organic and inorganic fertilizers, they are both good but come with their different effects on our soils. While the organic hinges on the use of natural methods to improve our soils, the other is a contrast by which it uses synthetic materials to boost soil fertility.

For natural or organic materials, we should be looking at animal droppings like that of poultry and cow wastes. We also have home waste and decomposing debris from withered leaves. These could all be better and natural fertilizers that we can lay our hands and get the land up and fertile.

For inorganic fertilizers, which I am not conversant with, I know that everything hovers around the NPK. This composition is made because of the regular demands of our plants for these nutrients. We a situation where an equal ration of 10:10:10 or 15:15:15 is advised.

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Using pesticides and fungicides correctly is as important as avoiding a mistake in its administration. Before administering these chemicals, we have to be sure to read through the prescription as tagged in the body. This instruction is a guide to correctly attaining the right use.

We should also be sure that we do not administer these chemicals during windy and hazy periods. This will not do us any good because of possible damage to other well doing plants. It does not align with the intention of precision use of chemicals.

We should also avoid the use of these chemicals when it is raining. This would amount to waste.no matter the level of precision used. Rains are capable of washing out all chemicals applied for purposes of handling pests and disease infestation.

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Roof top planting should be treated discreetly as this is like having a mini garden or flower in our living room. Therefore, the use of irritable substances may also have an effect on those dwelling around the home.

These are some of the home remedies that can help solve this.

The use of NEEM & Garlic Oil spray. These are repellant home remedies that help drive away the activities of pests.

We also have wood ash..that brown colouring substances from our burnt wood also brings magic to the board. It helps disperse pests from the garden. I could remember when we use this to disperse soldier ants anytime they invade either our homes or farms.

Lastly,.we can use make hand made traps. We have traps for rodents as well as for insects . The insect attractor helps drag them into a confine that makes them hard to come out.

This is my entry for the topic. I am inviting @chant, @wilmer1988, @heriadi, and @irawandedy