How to Start Garden Egg Farming is bringing to your perusal the stepwise procedures involved in starting a Garden Egg Farming from beginning to end.
How to start garden egg farming in Nigeria
How to Cultivate Garden Egg:
- Land Preparation for Garden Egg Farming
- Planting of Garden Egg Seeds
- Needed care for Garden Farming
- Control of Pest and Diseases for a healthy Garden Egg Farming
- Harvesting of Garden Egg
- Marketing and Storage
Garden egg farming, is a business that entails the cultivation of garden eggs for commercial purposes. Garden egg, scientifically known as Solanum, from the family Solanaceae, is widely consumed in Nigeria and the world.
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Garden eggs have some medicinal properties and benefits proffers to human health.
These benefits include:
- Vision improvement
- Proper liver functioning
- Weight loss
- Control of blood sugar level
- Fight against cancerous growth and lots more.
Garden Egg is often eaten raw, used to prepare special delicacies, and added to meals as a source of vitamins.
Garden egg is a very lucrative farming crop that returns about 50% of expenses incurred during its cultivation. This is a result of its high demand by the market.
Garden eggs vary in size, color, and shape. The green-colored garden egg has a high composition of chlorophyll compared to the white. This makes the green species more medicinal and digests easily compared to the white ones.
If you’ve been looking out on what crop to cultivate that’s highly profiting, the garden egg is a promising one. But, it is essential that you know the nitty-gritty before venturing into the business to avoid loss.
Read Also: Step to Step Guide to Start Groundnut Farm
How to Cultivate Garden Egg:
1. Land Preparation for Garden Egg Farming
Garden eggs require relatively high temperatures, like tomatoes and peppers (vegetables) for optimal growth.
Therefore, secure a land without shade around that could debar sunlight rays. Also, let the soil type be sandy-loam, fertile, and well-drained (with pH 6.3 – 7.0), as this is best suitable for its growth.
Clear debris and grasses on the soil and apply NPK fertilizer at a ratio of 15:15:15 respectively to help boost soil fertility.
2. Planting of Garden Egg Seeds
Garden eggs are firstly cultivated in the nursery bed, before being transplanted to the main field.
You could plant seeds in buckets, bowls, or pots for the nursery. Ensure you place them outdoor for the outreach of the sun to trigger pollination.
When planting, drop 2 seeds per hole and ensure proper spacing to avoid competition for limited resources.
When transferring them (transplanting), to the main field, set 3-4 inch tall seedlings, 26-30 inches apart in beds.
Also, mix good compost manure with the soil at the bottom of each planting hole and cover with more soil.
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3. Needed care for Garden Farming
After planting, note that garden eggs are climbers. Therefore, the Eggplant tends to fall over to a side once loaded with fruits.
This is why it is essential to Stake the plants immediately after transplanting (about 2-inch from the plant) to provide support for them and make plants stand upright.
Also, it is of high necessity to apply mulch for healthy garden egg farming and to achieve a good result.
This is done to curb unhealthy competition of weeds, with your garden egg crops for limited soil nutrients.
Mulching is the covering of topsoil to avoid weed growth and conserve soil moisture. Also, ensure you water your garden egg farm from time to time and apply fertilizer to boost garden egg growth.
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4. Control of Pest and Diseases for a healthy Garden Egg Farming
Garden eggs are often affected by a range of diseases with different causative agents such as bacteria, fungi, and parasites.
Some of the diseases these causative agents pose include; fruit rot, bacterial wilt, fusarium wilt, Cercospora leaf spot, and lots more.
To control the outbreak of these diseases, it is recommended to spray fungicides/insecticides in your garden egg farm to eradicate fungal infection and insects such as caterpillars, bugs, spider mites, etc.
Also, plant resistant variety and remove any infected plant as soon as possible to avoid spreading.
5. Harvesting of Garden Egg
Garden eggs fully get mature after 2 months of cultivation (basically, about 10 weeks). At this juncture, garden eggs become firm, glossy, and well-sized to suit market demand.
Do not pull off garden eggplants with your hands. This might damage the plant stem. Use a garden pruner or sharp knife to cut off garden egg fruits from plants.
Read Also: Step to Step Guide on How to Start Poultry Farming in Nigeria
6. Marketing and Storage
Garden egg is widely consumed in the country. Locate potential buyers/markets to sell off your produce.
And note that while looking for buyers, store your garden eggs in a cool dry place. Avoid keeping them together with the likes of Apple and tomatoes because they produce the natural gas hormone in the form of ethylene gas, which could cause your garden egg to get brown and decay.
We hope this was helpful!
