Eating is an agricultural act - Wendell Berry

Saturday, July 17, 2010

ODing on karamani

you have read the ragi-planting story.
you also may have seen the photo of the same field 68 days after planting. in case you missed, here it is.


we were faced with a crossroads scenario.
what to do with the karamani (cow pea)? it was clearly suppressing the ragi.
which was the main crop and which was supporting?
and so and such-like.

the matter was simply answered by annamalai, our local veteran farmer, who grumbled initially at this hare-brained combination planting.
with a huff, he declared that the karamani has had its time in the sun and its time to let it go and give a new lease of life to the ragi.
so onward we followed, and in 3 hours the field was cleared up.



we ended up with around 10 kgs of karamani. most of it was left to dry to seeds and use as the bean.

and now the ragi looks like it is good to go. a few showers in the last 2 weeks has helped its cause.
our estimate is that the crop will be ready to harvest in 120 days.
today we are at day 86.
next time, we do not plan to use this combination of karamani and ragi.