Thread: Farming 10 rai??

Originally Posted by Norton

Originally Posted by Ciaphas

I wouldn't go with avocado as it takes ten years before they fruit. We have 10 rai of papaya in a similar soil type that grow very well and are reasonably easy to manage. I think you get a good price for papaya at the moment.

Always an issue with most fruiting trees. Takes a long time. Papaya, grows like a weed so good. Dragon fruit is good as well and brings a fair price.

Papaya is good too because there is always a strong local demand for the fruit. As well as watermelon, people around here are making good money from watermelon.

I'm going to try a few avocado trees just because I like avocados. But cheap imports from other countries will kill the commercial viability me thinks.

Originally Posted by Carnwadrick

^^^ grafted avocado plants should fruit within three years but you need good draining soil so need to mix in loads of sand and even light gravel to your clay ground, good luck

What is the domestic avacado market doing these days? Good place to be? Certainly, it might be considered a "specialty" market {or not} that would make for a decent profit, yes?

Originally Posted by somtamslap

Originally Posted by Norton

Not sure about the avocado

It seems a very small plantation maybe worth a crack, what with Pak Chong research station so conveniently .

Take advantage of these folks....!!!!! they really are helpful with advice and recommendations. Been there, done that.

E. G.

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

What is the domestic avacado market doing these days? Good place to be? Certainly, it might be considered a "specialty" market {or not} that would make for a decent profit, yes?

Presently I am in California but just got back from Issan where I seen quite a lot of avocados on stalls at the market but few interested buyers. I plan on growing a tree or two on our property in Si Sa Ket but just for personnel use

Keep it simple ,the locals are growing Sweet Corn dragon fruit and manioc,they are almost certainly right

i am not a farmer, but ...

we have a clayish soil here. it packs down like rock and seems impervious to anything. takes a strong back to break it up into usable dirt. nid has been working an area to make her garden. once broken up it supports crops very well. actually amazingly well. but it is very difficult to break up.

we just got a roto tiller. spinning blades tear up the soil kind of thingy. what it does for this soil is unbelievable. what was a compacted rock like area becomes some of the finest seed bed quality dirt i have ever seen. i would never have believed it if i hadn't seen it.

so, point one. get a tiller of some sort. 10 rai should be large enough, perhaps in conjunction with some neighbors, to get a small tractor. otherwise a roto tiller. break up that clay. then see what you have to work with. you may be surprised.

next point. in nid's garden she has had great success with long beans. tomatoes have been a failure. she says too much water from the rain. various greens, of which i know nothing, also do well.

mango, papaya, lemon, orange, and other trees are doing well. bananas are like weeds.

during the season, just past, her papa grew field corn. i tried some sweet corn with moderate success.

across town nid's mama grows tobacco for her own consumption.

there is a dry land rice. it doesn't require the soaking field to be planted and doesn't seem to need much water either. i have seen it but know nothing else about it.

in our area of clayish soil these are the things i have seen.

don't forget animals as crops. if nothing else grows then maybe cows, buffalo or chickens? these are also excellent sources of fertilizer. the buffalo drop reasonable amounts on the road, so if you want some for free it is there. otherwise ask your local and they will be glad to start bagging it for you, for a small fee. nid's sister has pigs, so we are using that.

mai sok trees (the huge leaved trees used for construction lumber) are ubiquitous around here. but after talking to some people i just don't see the money in them. after 10 years or so they sell a tree for 500 baht or so.

lastly. if growing for sale look for the market first. when a crop is ready it is ready. no time then to see where you can sell it. avocado, sure. i love them but nid is just so-so for them. so, when i get my trees going, they will probably just be for me since i don't see any large market for them locally. (btw, when i was passing through chiang mai i bought 3 for 35 baht at a local mkt. big ones. at rimping ex-pat mkt in chiang mai they were 65 baht each. there are markets and there are markets)

best of luck. we are treading the same path.

Originally Posted by somtamslap

Originally Posted by Norton

if you do get some to grow I'll be a regular customer

If your ever in Pak Chong at around this time of the year, well about August through to December actually, check out the night market. You can get a kilo of very tasty avocado's for 40 bt ( thats about 4 fairly decent sized ones), that compared to the 50 plus bt per piece you get in Tesco is quite a bargain.

Is that the night market in the middle of town, on left side as heading in from highway #2 ? I have been there twice and never saw any....possibly wrong time of year though I guess.

Royal Project (Doi Kham) stores often have affordable Avocado. (When in season)

I'm also tempted to plant the seed.. Chances are the resulting tree won't be producing proper avocados though, but it's still a nice tree.

Our Farm has red clayish soil and our Tung Trees seem to like them. We do not have anyone from Pak Chong growing the Tung yet, so if you are interested, please do let us know, we would love to have you join us.

Trying to attach picture of our farm for your viewing, if someone will tell me how to attach a pic, would really appreciate it. Thanks! (stupid me)

^ Thorzen, would love to see the pictures, mate. You'll have to upload them on 'photobucket' or another similar website first then, you could add them. Start a thread, I'm sure many would be interested.
I'm still well into the idea of farming this land, gotta drill for water first and it should be all systems go in the next year or two...lots of time to think and experiment with different types of crops..

You can use my trials for the 'negative' arguement if you like

Originally Posted by somtamslap

^ Thorzen, would love to see the pictures, mate. You'll have to upload them on 'photobucket' or another similar website first then, you could add them. Start a thread, I'm sure many would be interested.
I'm still well into the idea of farming this land, gotta drill for water first and it should be all systems go in the next year or two...lots of time to think and experiment with different types of crops..

Thank you for your lead. I have signed up for photobucket: - 'thorzen_2009'. Will take your suggestion and start a new threat. Right now we are trying to plant all the young ones we have before the end of this rainy season, worried as the constant rain up north right now is not helping, can't get much work done. Need to get them into the ground in the next 2 months so that we can start all over again for the next crop!

Would appreciate all comments and suggestions as we need all the help we can get! THANKS ALL!

For those interested, I hope you will be able to view some of the photos of our farm with red clay soil on my album on photobucket/Thorzen_2009 Cheers!

Went to the Pakchong Research Centre today to pick up half a dozen avocado trees. A German chap just down the road from me has got a few and after 4 years of growing have started to produce fruit already..



Unfortunately today was their wan yoot so I had a stroll around and had a look at what else they were growing..

These are guava I think..



Mango trees



Papaya



Not sure about these..couldn't get lose enough to look at the fruit..Looked a bit like mangosteen though.

Another unknown fruit.



Grapes



Tomatoes



Dragon Fruit

Custard apples.



Chilli



and corn, by far the most grown crop here



Food for thought...

I bought some avacado from here, doing very well.

Did not see the tomatoes though, might have to go check them out.....where were they located ??

Also there is a Jap famr at Saraburi that does tours....for free...it is organic and seems to specialise in their own fertilisers and bug sprays etc ems or something like that. we are going to go have a looksie one day.

Went back down to the Research Station to pick up the avocado trees only to be told they were out of them and wouldn't have any more in until next year. Hopefully be able to pick some up in Klang Dong just down the road..loadsa nurseries there.

I did, however, come away with a couple of rambutan trees and a couple of durian trees (prob wishful thinking in this part of the country, but if they come up trumps I could be on a winner).
Did some research on the rambutans and they start producing an awful lot of fruit after a couple of years. They originally come from Malaysia, meaning the word rambutan is Malaysian.. Rambut means 'Hairy' and adding Utan on to the end of any Malaysian word turns it into a noun..

So I've got a couple of hair trees to add into the mix.

^ Nawty, let us know when your next in PC and I'll show you the tomatoes.

FYI - we have also planted lime trees on our red clayed farm but it is only a few months old, so could not tell you until later if they will give good results.

Oranges seem to do quite well around here too..
The mother in law has a few trees in her garden, completely uncared for and they are now producing alot of fruit. They're about 5 years old and about 12 foot high.

Spent the day lining the border of the land with various trees today. Good to get out and do some hard work after such a long stint of attempting to use my brain. I'm hoping in half a decade or so we might reap the benefits of these..
Good time to plant as well as in rained heavily for most of the day..rambutans, guava, a durian tree, a chompuu tree, bananas, papaya, lam yai and eventually avacado will go into the mix..
Here's a pic of the first few going up.



Back to it tomorrow.

good to see.........

Does anyone have a phone number for the Pakchong Research Station?

I have gone to the universities website. It is not listed in their directory. I have called numerous numbers for various agriculture departments & nobody knows what I am talking about. I'm getting a bit frustrated.

I live close to the Mekong, so it's not very convenient to drive there to ask a question...which is do they have Haas avocado seedlings.

Any help is appreciated.