This teacher tries vertical cucumber cultivation for more productivity
Success Story
Shwetha S
Guripalla (Belthangady), Aug 04, 2021: Innovation is a secret behind success in agriculture. Many youths involved in agriculture in the recent days have tried something new and so has Dr. Sathyanarayana Bhat, an electrical engineer, serving as Associate Professor at SDM Institute of Technology- Ujire.
After a good response to his ‘Know Your Grower,’ concept last year, Dr. Bhat has tried something unique this season.
Also read: When a teacher explores new frontier during lockdown
For Dr. Bhat, whose family is from an agricultural background, agriculture is a passion, and engineering is his profession. He has successfully blended agriculture and engineering. His ‘experiments,’ are not restricted to the lab but are practical. They show their results in his fields.
Vertical Climbing Cucumber
Cucumber cultivation is common in Coastal Karnataka. Many farmers are into it. Even Dr. Bhat and his family grow it. But this time he came up with a new idea.
Dr. Bhat had planted new areca saplings last year. As usual, he thought of mixed cropping. Usually, bananas, Papaya, and Pineapple are grown with Arecanut plants.
They do not touch the ground and are not spoilt due to rainwater. Usually, the cucumber is smeared with mud during rains and it takes time to clean them before selling. But as the cucumber is grown vertically they are clean and can be taken to shop directly.
When areca nut saplings are small, people prefer planting bananas or Papaya as they provide shade to the areca nut saplings. But Dr. Bhat decided to try something new.
“Usually Cucumber creepers are grown in the field. I saw many success stories of farmers in other parts of the country who tried verticle climbing of cucumber creepers. Instead of open space, I decided to try it as a mixed crop with the areca,” Dr. Sathyanarayana Bhat told The Canara Post.
As the creeper is made to climb vertically the cucumber looks nice. They do not touch the ground and do not get spoilt due to rainwater. Usually, the cucumber is smeared with mud during rains and it takes time to clean them before selling. But as the cucumber is grown vertically they are clean and can be taken to shop directly.
The areca plants are at 9 feet of distance. In the row between them, he planted a cucumber creeper ensuring each one was 2 feet away from the other. A five feet pillar was put with nylon and cotton thread for the creepers to grow.
He has planted about 400 creepers in 50 cents land.
“The creepers grew in 30 days and started flowering. In 35 days I started getting cucumber. Till now I have sold about 1.5 quintals in the last ten days,” he said.
The output increases after 50 days and the grower can get about 50-60 kg once in two days.
Dr. Bhat has opted to grow the hybrid cucumber with a white tint.
“Local market gets greenish cucumber which is grown at Kadur and nearby areas. I thought of growing the white verity (usually grown near Hassan) as it would stand different in the market and attract the people,” he added.
Dr. Bhat has planned to grow three crops in a year.
“This crop is of 70 days and we can get three crops in a year. We have to concentrate on the creeper for the first five days. Later a visit once a day is enough,” Bhat added.
Dr Bhat and his family is actively involved in this initiative.
Market:
The ‘Nandana,’ brand of Dr Bhat is already a household name in Ujire and nearby areas. He sells the vegetable he grows to a shop in Ujire.
“The demand is more than our supply sometimes. As we lable our product (vegetables), people have confidence in the quality,” Dr Bhat adds.
