Greetings Dear Gardeners! I'm very excited to share with you once again my #Gardenjournal update. I have began the sowing of corn couple of few days ago. I've been working tirelessly in the farm combining various activities in the field that's why I don't often get ample time to share post on my blog. We are rushing to meet good time of rain to irrigate our crop, since the rainfall pattern has been erratic during minor season. It could happen that the rain would stop early November or even enter December there about. We can't actually predict how it's going to be. However, as a Gardener or Farmer, we should be on the lookout to prepare for unforseen conditions. Early planting, early control of weeds, pest and disease control has been the ultimate measures.
Well, back to my sowing, I decided to adopt new and improved variety of corn. It has always been good to vary the planting material periodically to get higher yield and also the market demand. Even though I've sown most of my farm with the white corns. I decided to sow some part of my farm with yellow corn. I went to a nearby Agro shop which has been selling all varieties of farm inputs and buy satisfied improved yellow corn seeds which has been sealed from Seed & Plant Protection Division. I bought 2 of the kilograms of these corn to sow.
I began sowing on my prepared fields. Of course this field is no any other place that the old place to I farm for the major season maize. The field is very for this second season maize production since all the debris from the harvest maize have been left on the surface of the soil serving the purpose of mulching. When these debris decompose they would mix with the original soil and improve the fertility content of the soil. Moisture conservation is the second beneficial element if the rain stops for sometime. On sowing the yellow corn seeds on the field, two (2) seeds only were allowed to enter the hole made with my cutlass. This is to allow good germinate and higher yield. The intervals of 30cm with rows and 40cm in between rows is best if fertilizer would be applied. That's what I did exactly. But if fertilizer wouldn't be applied, it's advisable to give a wider space than this. Well, my farmers prefer using dibber for sowing, but I've familiarized myself with using cutlass for sowing. That helps me to move faster.
One thing that I prefer about this variety of corn is that it has early maturity period 2 weeks before the local white corn will mature. We can record the date, the white corn was sown 1 week after this yellow corn but the yellow corn will form cobs before the white ones. I wonder while many farmers do not often grow this yellow corn. This might be the fact that the white corn first emerged and it has been in the system for long. As we know most farmers, trying something that they aren't familiarized with become a problem.
The second benefit is that the yellow corn has high nutrient content than the white one. This explains the main reason white this variety of corn is preferred by the poultry farmers. They often buy yellow corn the feed their birds for more production of eggs and fast growth rate.
In terms of market prices, the yellow corn has higher price more than the white corn. If the white corn is sold at $43.98(500gh¢) or 153.3 Hive , the yellow corn would be sold at $52.77(600gh¢) or 183.8 Hive. So the second reason while many farmers don't often produce more of these yellow corn may be the yield. Maybe comparatively, the white corns have higher yield if given all the necessary requirement.
I am trying to provide all the requisite condition for my yellow corn and compare the yield with the white corn. Watch out!