10 Tips to Make Farming More Efficient

1)   Choose Your Crops Wisely

Photo by: Pexel

Choosing the right crop will help you get a good yield from your land and it will also help you be more productive with less work. To help with crop selection, make a list of the crops that grow well in your area.

For example, you might have a list of beans, tomatoes, corn, and lettuce. Pick the crops that grow best in your area and would provide you with the most yield. Each year make a new list of what types of crops would grow best on your farm.

2)   Keep Your Land Cropped

Rotation is a good practice because it can help to mix up nutrients in your soil and improve crop production. A good rotation plan uses at least half of your land every year.

For Example, good rotations for soybeans are to grow soybeans for about 6 weeks before rotating them to field corn or another type of crop.

Another good suggestion is to rotate corn fields by growing them for 2 months before switching to soybeans for 2 months.

Growing corn every year will leave you with a field that is higher in nitrogen and phosphorus content because these nutrients are released into the air as a fertilizer.

3)   Always Keep Your Soil Healthy

A pH level is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a substance. The scale ranges from 0, which is most acidic, to 14, which is most basic.

Soil pH levels in these five zones are measured on the following scale:1-5-6-7-8. To maintain an optimum pH level, the soil should be amended with lime or wood ashes.

4) Use High-quality Fertilizer

Fertilizer is used to increase the growth and yield of your crops. It also helps keep your plants healthy, preventing them from suffering from stress, which can lead to a variety of ailments.

High-quality fertilizer contains a blend of ingredients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. This balanced mix of nutrients provides the plant with everything it needs to grow and be healthy.

A high-quality fertilizer will have a label that includes the manufacturer's name, the percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the total weight of the product as well as a list of other ingredients. 

5)   Plant the Right Variety

One of the most popular vegetables is broccoli, which can be grown in a garden or in pots on a windowsill. Broccoli should be planted between November and March because it is frost-sensitive; it does not thrive in hot weather or dry soil.

If you're growing a tree, you should use a tree variety that is specifically bred for trees. The way you plant a tree is important. Different types of trees require different environments and conditions. The type of tree you have will dictate what type of soil it needs, how much water it will need, how long it will need to grow before producing fruit, and the shape and size it will be.

If you're growing a plant, you should use the closest branch of an existing plant cultivar. This will reduce the risk of cross-breeding with other plants and will help you avoid getting diseases that come from different types of plants.

If you're growing squash plants in your garden, you would want to use a squash variety that is specifically bred for vegetables. There are a few varieties of squash that are bred for vegetables, which are the best choices for gardeners. They include 'Delicious' squash and 'Buttercup' squash.

6)   Keep Your Soil Moist

Maintaining adequate moisture in your soil is essential for healthy plant growth.  When you're watering your plants, make sure to water them deep enough to ensure that the water penetrates deep into the root zone of the plants.

Avoid giving them too much or too little water, as this can affect their health and overall well-being. Most plants will show signs that they need more water when the soil feels dry to the touch.

When this happens, it's best to soak them in a bucket of water until they are completely saturated. Once they're finished soaking, allow them to drain completely before placing them back into their designated pot.

When you plant your new seeds, make sure to use a pot that is one size larger than the seed when fully ripe.

7) Feed Your Plants Appropriately

Plants need food to grow, so you should use a fertilizer that is appropriate for the plant variety you're growing.

Fertilizers come in many forms. The most common are liquid, granular, and solid. Liquid fertilizers, like liquid plant food, can be mixed with water before feeding plants directly or diluted and sprayed on plants.

Granular fertilizers, such as 20-20-20 or 5-10-5 are applied dry to the soil or familiarly. The most common solid fertilizer is urea, which can be mixed with water and applied to either crops or the soil.

8)   Fertilize in Intervals

Keep in mind that different plants need different amounts of food and water to grow properly. For example, you should fertilize your tomato plants twice a month and fertilize vegetables every two weeks like broccoli and asparagus.

What is the best way to fertilize plants? Both flowers and vegetables need fertilizer. The best way to give fertilizer to your plants is by using food-grade compost or complete organic fertilizer.

If you can’t find a food-grade compost, you can use a commercially available one. For most vegetables, use an all-purpose, organic fertilizer. to make your compost, mix equal parts of dried grass clippings, leaves, and garden dirt. Start with as much as you have and add more as necessary.

9)   Consider a Greenhouse

The natural light that enters through the greenhouse helps the plants grow at their maximum potential. The benefits of using a greenhouse include Controls heat and cold weather conditions.

Protects plants from extreme weather such as strong winds, hail, and frost. Provides a warmer environment which increases plant growth rates. Allows you to grow year-round crops such as tomatoes, apples, and roses.

10) Do not Overwater

Give your plants enough water, but not too much at once or too little over time. Plant watering is not just about knowing when to water them, but also about knowing what to use.

There are many different ways to give your plants a drink, from a simple garden hose, or sprinkler system, to drip irrigation systems.

It all depends on the size and needs of your garden. in a hydroponic system, water is fed to plants through a nutrient solution that can be modified according to the plant's needs. Plants are watered on an as-needed basis with this feed solution.

The roots of plants in hydroponics are continually bathed with oxygenated water and nutrient-rich water. This feed solution is diluted with distilled or deionized water to have a total alkalinity of 1-3 ppm as CaCO3.