Thread: The vanilla farm

will be getting in trucks of rice husks, cow poo and rice straw and coconut husks soon will use this pile and EM suggested by a very helpful member to start a very large pile

PM Ant.. he's got lots of bullshit to offer.

Serious?

Were is he located?

Good to see it moving now,
i was expecting a much bigger pile to be honest,
how many cutting you will be putting down?

The pile is about to get a lot bigger i am trying to bring in truck loads of material.
trying to convince someone to bring at a reasonable price is tough.

This pile is just the starter pile will be added to truckloads hopefully coming soon.

Sorry for taking so long to find out about the Coconut husk.
Now today went to have a look.
10kg bag 35b uncut
10kg bag chopped large peaces 3cm X 3cm 35b
10kg bag chopped small peaces 1.5cm X1.5cm 35b

Originally Posted by Ratchaburi

Sorry for taking so long to find out about the Coconut husk.
Now today went to have a look.
10kg bag 35b uncut
10kg bag chopped large peaces 3cm X 3cm 35b
10kg bag chopped small peaces 1.5cm X1.5cm 35b

That's good to know, not that I'm interested in vanilla, but am interested in coconut husks.
There is no coconut business out here, they just rot on the ground. Now if I ever see any money again I want to set up making coconut charcoal bricketts.
2 French guys doing it in Vietnam, fairly simple operation, equipment wise and gather they can't keep up with demand. Jim

Here is some pic's

Originally Posted by jamescollister

want to set up making coconut charcoal bricketts.

Funny you mention that. I was at a petrol station here in Cha-am yesterday and saw a van selling above product.

Not the husks, the brickettes.

Originally Posted by charleyboy

Originally Posted by jamescollister

want to set up making coconut charcoal bricketts.

Funny you mention that. I was at a petrol station here in Cha-am yesterday and saw a van selling above product.

Not the husks, the brickettes.

There you go, I had not seen them in Thailand yet. They are said to burn at a more even rate, better for cooking.
Out here a bag of charcoal [fertilizer bay size ] 200 Baht I think. so in theory you could make around 100 Baht profit per bag.
Unfortunately money is short, bad rubber prices, so not a lot left over for expanding our business. Jim

Thanks Ratchaburi

I got you PM and will be calling to see if any discount on 1000 bags
or un bagged by the truck load.

Vanilla is a vine from the jungle, where will you grow them? You need some huge tree's to grow them against to. There are many good video's about it on youtube.

wow kudos mate....looks like a lot of work. Are you gonna build a shade house etc? All that labour intensive pollinating, watering etc...
Wife grows 100 or so orchids for our own enjoyment..learning curve for sure...don't like direct sun, too much or little water..yadda yadda....planted a few quick growing large shrubs around the crude shade house ( shade cloth on wires to hardwood log uprights).....soon can take down that bloody ugly shade cloth......

If your intention is to provide an income, maybe consider spending all that effort growing mushrooms or even bananas in the interim?...less work , far quicker returns on investment of cash, time and effort. ....

found this guy when I googled....

www.facebook.com/dreambeanshi

good luck

Originally Posted by crepitas

wow kudos mate....looks like a lot of work. Are you gonna build a shade house etc? All that labour intensive pollinating, watering etc...
Wife grows 100 or so orchids for our own enjoyment..learning curve for sure...don't like direct sun, too much or little water..yadda yadda....planted a few quick growing large shrubs around the crude shade house ( shade cloth on wires to hardwood log uprights).....soon can take down that bloody ugly shade cloth......

If your intention is to provide an income, maybe consider spending all that effort growing mushrooms or even bananas in the interim?...less work , far quicker returns on investment of cash, time and effort. ....

found this guy when I googled....

www.facebook.com/dreambeanshi

good luck

yes i will be building a shade house and hopefully bringing in 2000 cuttings over time.

Am also looking at couple other things but the 2000 plants will take up almost all my area..

Had two big trucks of rice husk char brought into day on is just to plow under to help small garden other is for my composting pile

This is one i am mixing with my starter compost pile and a truck of rice husks and rice straw and manure will be adding about 5 gallons of pre mixed EM to this batch to start it off right.

These piles look awful small on picture for some reason

I would like to know how much the CRH cost you. I also think you have done well with the first compost heap, I thought it would be smaller by now. Look at it this way. You have a bare patch of ground which is then covered with grass and weeds a mile high. When that decomposes it goes back to no much more than it started. Nothing for nothing!

Originally Posted by afghanpicker

i read somewhere it has good bacteria that helps the process along

Change your books. Urine is sterile when produced.

sorry not sure I really understand the preliminary huge, time consuming, and probably expensive compost pile project.

okay most orchids are grown in coconut husk like material...fair enough you have that.

from my googling I found that home made fertiliser applied to plants in the above growing medium of coconut husks requires 4 basics, Calcium (from egg shells bones etc), Potassium ( bananas?), Nitrogen ( tea leaves?) , phosphorous ( Tamarind?)


Just think that maybe when eventually utilize that pile it may have lost some of the essential nutrients, assuming it contains them?

Originally Posted by IsaanAussie

I would like to know how much the CRH cost you. I also think you have done well with the first compost heap, I thought it would be smaller by now. Look at it this way. You have a bare patch of ground which is then covered with grass and weeds a mile high. When that decomposes it goes back to no much more than it started. Nothing for nothing!

CRH
300 baht a truck

and first compost heap is really 4 times smaller than when started i have added some coconut checks and fir to it a couple weeks ago

Originally Posted by crepitas

sorry not sure I really understand the preliminary huge, time consuming, and probably expensive compost pile project.

okay most orchids are grown in coconut husk like material...fair enough you have that.

from my googling I found that home made fertiliser applied to plants in the above growing medium of coconut husks requires 4 basics, Calcium (from egg shells bones etc), Potassium ( bananas?), Nitrogen ( tea leaves?) , phosphorous ( Tamarind?)



Just think that maybe when eventually utilize that pile it may have lost some of the essential nutrients, assuming it contains them?

I have added EM to this pile and a month before planting will be adding coconut shells as the post for the vanilla to climb.

I am trying to get a good organic mix of material for the planting beds as most of my soil here is either clay or sand and the need a good raised bed to root into and then the coconut shells to climb for there feeder roots

Originally Posted by crepitas

sorry not sure I really understand the preliminary huge, time consuming, and probably expensive compost pile project.

okay most orchids are grown in coconut husk like material...fair enough you have that.

from my googling I found that home made fertiliser applied to plants in the above growing medium of coconut husks requires 4 basics, Calcium (from egg shells bones etc), Potassium ( bananas?), Nitrogen ( tea leaves?) , phosphorous ( Tamarind?)


Just think that maybe when eventually utilize that pile it may have lost some of the essential nutrients, assuming it contains them?

2000 vanilla plants takes a lot of compost and most of the stuff has been pretty cheap.
the village people who i let graze there cows are giving me all their cow poo and a rice processor in the village is giving me husks. and when the harvest comes everyone with out cows are going to give me rice straw.

also this compost should be ready by next yrs planting of rice and i plan to give some to village who contributed to the pile for their rice field.

hence to huge piles?

It take a village

You might look for people who grow vegetables after this years rice harvest. A lot of mine goes into that area. The amount quoted from ordinary compost applied to rainfed rice paddy is between 6 and 10 ton per hectare. A lot of compost.

They are so poor up here if you have cows you save all year for rice or if desperate sell for some cash.

i have seen what looks like 20-30 40 kilo bags dumped on a 10 rai rice field

Originally Posted by afghanpicker

They are so poor up here if you have cows you save all year for rice or if desperate sell for some cash.

i have seen what looks like 20-30 40 kilo bags dumped on a 10 rai rice field

Not so much an indicator of being poor, more a labour only method of getting some organic materials into the ground with the rice stubble etc prior to ground preparation. Most people rely on this for germination stage and then fertilise as the rice crop grows. Now more previously waste materials like CRH and sugarcane baggase are being sought after for this type of work. Of course demand has and will continue to make those materials more expensive. The days of being glad to get rid of this stuff for free are disappearing fast. More is the pity.