Complete garden egg farming information/guide

Garden egg serves as a very essential crop in various homes and many cultures. Apart from it’s huge profit and Return on Investment, It is loved by larger number of people in the world and used by many people in different cultures as a kola.

In this article, am going to write about the procedures to cultivate garden eggs and some informations about this crop. Table of contents below.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WHAT IS GARDEN EGGS

GARDEN EGG CULTIVATION

HOW TO HARVEST GARDEN EGGS

STORAGE OF GARDEN EGGS

IMPORTANCE/USES OF GARDEN EGGS

WHAT IS GARDEN EGG

Many people reading this article, by now might start wondering “what is garden eggs?” this is why i took out time to explain what garden egg is first.

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GARDEN EGG is a green and sometimes vegetable crop that is full of vitamins and other materials and it is used for many purposes which includes eating, using it to show a sign of welcome or acceptance to visitors (in some cultures), and also preparing different kinds of delicacies with it.

Garden egg is normally eaten raw after harvesting and it’s leafs are also eaten raw or used to prepare some kinds of food.

Both garden eggs and it’s leafs are washed with salt before eating after havesting to kill some kinds of diseases that inhibit them.

GARDEN EGG CULTIVATION

I believe I have enlightened you on what garden egg is all about, now let me you all you need to know about the cultivation and the process involved in it.

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Cultivation of garden egg is very easy and taskless compared to other crops that require much energy and strength to cultivate.

In the case of Garden eggs, just like any other plant, you need land!. I mean you need a very good and fertile land, i suggest loamy soil is the best to plant this crop.

Unlike other crops, this particular type of crop does not require much land, unless you are doing it for a large commercial purpose, thereby 2 plots of land is okay for a start for an average commercial farmer of this crop.

When you have your land, you need to prepare it very well so that the land can be good for planting this crop.

Make sure you uproot the trees in that prospective farm land if there is any and also clear the land off any sort of rubber or tin. You can do this by raking the farm land. (You can do this with a tractor if you can get one).

When you are through with the preparation of your farm land, take some manure and spray them on the empty farm land that you have cleared!, you can do it with any type of natural manure like pig dung, fowl dung, sheep and goat dung etc, I highly recommend using this type of manure because i have used them and still use them, they are just good and natural.

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Leave the land for some days, so that rain fall could totally mix up the manure with the soil thereby proving the soil nutrients and fertility more, and you can add some green leafs (compost) if you like and allow them to decay on the farm before you plant your crops or you can still put them after you plant you crops and they sprout.

Now it is time to plant your crops. Plough the farm land with anything, even with hands, make holes of 10cm deep and give a gap interval of 40cm so that the garden eggs could have enough space and to give enough space so that weeding could be easier.

After making your small holes, it is time to plant. Plant at least 2 or 3 garden egg seeds in one hole, to avoid over crowding them. cover with sand and leave them to germinate.

They will start sprouting out in some weeks, by this time, you can add green leafs right beside each of them as a compost and a protector also from some pests.

Do make sure you keep away fowls, goats or even squirrels from the farm as they will eat your garden eggs, including it’s stem. There are some pests that do attack this plant also, they are caterpillars, ants and many more of them, please make sure you have an insecticide ready to spray on the farm once you notice any sign of pest attack.

Weed is another disturbing factor to this kind of crop, for the fact that garden eggs are planted during the raining season and on a fertile land also, this may breed weed along side your crops, it is very important to remove them immediately they start springing up, so that they don’t either suck the soil nutrients dry, out grow the crops and over shadow them or breed some diseases and pests that could attack the crops and kill them.

You do the weeding with either hands or small hoes or go for labourer who could do that for you.

HOW TO HARVEST GARDEN EGGS

After you are through with planting and taking care of your garden egg crops, the next step is to harvest them when they have matured.
This usually takes about 2 to 3 months to mature, depending on the breed of garden egg you planted. They will bear fruit and the fruits will begin to grow big until it is big enough to be sold in the market, and some of them at this stage might start riping, this is how you know they are ready for harvesting.

To harvest this crop is very simple, you just have to pick the fruits with hands or better cut them carefully with pocked knife or kitchen knife.

It is very advisable to do the harvesting early in the morning on the day you will sell them so as to reduce the perishable rate as it is a very personable crop.

Also you need to harvest the leafs the same way too and take to the market also as it is in high demand too.

STORAGE OF GARDEN EGGS

Like I mentioned above, Garden egg is very personable and so it requires a very good storage system or plan.

There are two ways to store them, they are:

The use of refrigerator: This is the best way or method to store this vegetable crop, although I will not suggest storing or keeping them in the refrigerator or freezer for a long time, as they may loss their nutrients, or natural taste when kept for so long like weeks or months, depending.

This is how you store them in the refrigerator, just pick them from the farm, wash them with salt and water, rinse them dry and place in a plastic container or bag, and put in the refrigerator.

The second method of storage is for farmers alone who intends to replant the crop next farming season, so this type of storage is for the seed alone.

In this method of storage, you don’t need to pick the garden eggs from the farm, just leave the ones you intends to replant the next season of planting in the farm to stay and over mature there or even start decaying, by this time, go and pick them, open them and bring out the seeds, take them to the sun and dry them under the sun for a long time, so that they dry absolutely well, place them inside a dry container or bag and keep them in a room with a fair bit of hot temperature, They can stay there for a long time without spoiling, and also make sure you keep them out of reach of ants and insects.

MARKETING OF GARDEN EGGS

Marketing of garden eggs is not hard at all as this it is on a high demand here in Nigeria and many other countries, once you have harvested, retailers or wholesalers will come to you, if they know you or you take them to the market and sell. In markets here, both the leaf and the fruit are sold immediately you are in market as traders will be crowding to get it, so this keeps you in the position of controlling your the price.

IMPORTANCE/USES OF GARDEN EGGS

GARDEN EGG has many values,that is why it is a bit costly in the market because of it’s values and importance. I will explain the the values or uses below.

One of the importance is it serves as food.
In many Nations, garden egg has many recipes, this includes making sauce with it, making African salad (Abacha), eating both raw for both the egg and the leafs, cooking of vegetable soup with the leaf etc. Even animals love this vegetable and they feed on them at any slightest chance they have, animals like squirrel, rabbit, sheep, goat, pig, guinea pig,fowl etc.

As I mentioned earlier above, it is used in many cultures as a sign of respect and warm welcome to visitors. Some Garden eggs are presented to the visitor or visitors and once they accept and eat, they have accepted the welcome gift.

In some cultures in Africa, this ritual must be done before they visitors will even accept to take a sit and begin to say their purpose of visit, sometimes it is accompanied by alligator pepper.

Garden eggs serves as good source of medication. It contains many vitamins and minerals that is good for the body in every ramifications.

It is said to build up the blood and doctors and medical practitioners in Nigeria will always tell you to eat enough of garden egg leafs once you have shortage of blood in your body.

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CONCLUSION

I greatly hope this article have helped you with more knowledge about garden egg, please share this article on social networks and ask me any question via email.

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