Today, I want to talk about my vegetables. My name is Odudu Okopide, am a computer scientist and I also love agriculture.
I have a land where I plant and nurture pumpkin(vegetables), what is popularly known as Ugu in my country.
Every Saturday, I go to the my farm where I have my plantation to water it for good and healthy growing and a blissful harvest every three(3) weeks.
Most of us can testify to the fact that vegetables is one thing we humans can't live without. Infact, we need them. Below are some of the health benefits of taking vegetables.
Health benefits
1.Eating a diet rich in vegetables and fruits as part of an overall healthy diet may reduce risk for heart disease, including heart attack and stroke.
2.Eating a diet rich in some vegetables and fruits as part of an overall healthy diet may protect against certain types of cancers.
3.Diets rich in foods containing fiber, such as some vegetables and fruits, may reduce the risk of heart disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.
4.Eating vegetables and fruits rich in potassium as part of an overall healthy diet may lower blood pressure, and may also reduce the risk of developing kidney stones and help to decrease bone loss.
For those of you who would love to cultivate pumpkin(Vegetable). *I'm going to give you tips and guidance on how to have a healthy plantation.
Steps in Cultivating Pumpkin(Vegetable).
1.Get a good land with loamy soil. then you do land preparation i.e clearing of grasses, tilling the soil(making of ridges)
2.Get vegetable seed for planting.
3.Plant!Please, kindly note that the procedure for planting vegetables during the dry season is different from planting when its a raining season. During the rainy season, you have to dry the vegetable seeds for two days before planting. But during dry season you can plan the vegetable seeds without drying it.
4.After planting you allow the seed to germinate, which will take about two weeks (14 days).
5.Then you allow it to grow for another 30days before doing your first harvest, so as to allow new suckers grow. After which you apply manure(fertilizer).
6.Allow the vegetable to grow for another three (3) weeks to do another harvest. Then harvest will continue every three(3)weeks.
7.After every harvest you need to weed the grasses and re-apply manure to help it grow better. Within the period of harvest you will discover that some of the plants are already growing seedlings. Note: the ones with seedlings should not be harvested so that the seedlings can grow well for the next planting season. Allow the seedlings to be mature(4-5 months). If you can do all this you will be a proud and happy farmer like myself.!
