What to farm

[nidnoyham 30]

Organic Garlic, is often browner, has different sized cloves and doesn't keep as well as the other stuff.

 

I have tried to convince Si that when Herbet my dog takes a dump near her chillies in the garden, that it makes them organically fed, she isn't convinced.

[THE DOCTOR 0]

if your still concidering msangosteen you will have 10/ 12 years with no return they are very slow at anything they do you may have to build shade houses for them for up to 4 years

depending on where you are they dont like cold weather 10 deg or less

 

rambutan will give you something back in half that time and they dont need the shade house protection

saying that i farm in north queensland not thailand but if it was my place here i would get a d9 and push all our mangosteen out they have been too much trouble 900 left

 

ps anyone want to buy a mangosteen / rambutan tropical fruit farm / cattle

 

innisfail north queensland

 

40 million bht ono

THE DOCTOR

[papillon 695]

There was a bloke on here that was growing orchids, can't remember his name though.

[BBB 3]

There was a bloke on here that was growing orchids, can't remember his name though.

 

The wife would love that shes got 100's but she'd never sell any.

 

Got back from Thailand yesterday so just seen the new land, paid the money and now have someone clearing it. Its 54 rai and decided to put bananas on next year, then we are going to look into palm oil but need to do a bit of research into this.

[BigusDicus 9,838]

Maybe one of you guys could grow some decent tomatoes. The tomatoes Iv'e had in Thailand so far have been crap.

 

Absolutely agree!

[BigusDicus 9,838]

I wonder if "Boutique" farming might make sense?

 

Someone suggested you do careful market research. Why not visit with the chefs at the finer hotels and restaurants. Ask them what they would like that they currently cannot easily buy. Forecast their usage.

 

There have got to be many items that chefs would love have.

 

On similar subject; a couple of years ago I ran into someone at TQ1. He was somehow involved with a new winery somewhere outside of Pattaya. I had a couple of newbies in tow and was too busy to find out as much as I would have liked.

 

I am curious as to how they are doing? Does anybody know?

[sinbinjack 244]

In Pattaya this year I bought some Night Black wine .a full bodied red wine from a Thai winery I paid 199 baht but that was an introductory price.I found it a very nice drop of red ,fruity and with a good smell ,Aroma for the posh,I got it in the little market they have just outside the Big C on 2nd rd they had many varieties and were allowing tastings ,so I tried a few and to be honest the only thing worth drinking (for me anyway) was the Night Black red wine ,everything else was a bit to like home made from a kit.There was even a Mangostien wine .I believe that the winemakers that made the red were aussies, but I don't know for sure about the other wines as they all seemed to come from different wineries.

Edited October 18, 2007 by sinbinjack

[Mescalito 19]

I was talking about this with my brother recently; he's a winemaker here in California. He thought grapes, whether wine or table, might be a good prospect. His view was that with the much rainier climate you could get two harvests a year instead of just one like you do here (and most other grape regions, for that matter).

[redctt 0]

I recall a friend of mine,who i have not seen for several years ( went to LOS to manage a building company)

he used to teach the thais how to set up and grow blue gums. they grow relatively straight, and make excellent house frames, once machined to size

[joekicker 53]

Eucalyptus got a bad rep for a while, with people stressing how it rapes the soil and so on. Some plantations survived, and it seems that the main storm is over. They are a very decent crop for a number of end-use purposes.

[wobbly_1 18]

post deleted

Edited November 10, 2007 by wobbly_1

[scorpions 6]

Any one experience with a coffee farm in the LOS? Looking only for best Arabica quality ones!

So far mushrooms are working well.

[sinbinjack 244]

So far mushrooms are working well.

 

Dont you need heat and humidity for fungus to grow, it should be easy to grow mushrooms.

Edited November 12, 2007 by sinbinjack

[joekicker 53]

Any one experience with a coffee farm in the LOS? Looking only for best Arabica quality ones!

 

I don't know much about this except that all coffee in Thailand is in the far North and far South. There *is* a lot of it.

 

So far mushrooms are working well.

 

Really? I thought they grew in the dark, damp, etc.

[BigusDicus 9,838]

Maybe one of you guys could grow some decent tomatoes. The tomatoes Iv'e had in Thailand so far have been crap.

 

Guys,

 

I am a tomato fanatic. My girlfriend and I grow several varieties of heirloom tomatoes at home. To me a 'Caprese' salad (tomato, fresh buffalo mozzarella, thinly sliced onion, fresh basil) is as good as it gets. Almost as good as sex (hum, perhaps my sex life could improve....).

 

I originally replied to the above quote with agreement. Had never seen a good tomato at either a restaurant or markets such as Tops or Big C.

 

I am currently in Pattaya. Have been walking across 2nd Road at Soi 13 to the new mall. There is a market there. Cannot remember the name, perhaps Villa? The whole mall is still a work in progress as is the store. They have a ways to go in some areas before they will fully challenge Tops or Big C. I am very impressed with their meat and produce sections. The selection of tomatoes is very good.

Edited November 12, 2007 by BigusDicus

[nidnoyham 30]

If i lived in LOS, cross breeding local and imported tomatoes, to get a easily grown large tasty fruit, would be an ideal hobby for me. I could bugger about all day doing that. Easy work, interesting and working with Mother Nature. What more could a man ask ?

 

Apart from the huge amount of money you would make if successful. I would market them with the name..... ????? Hmm, I'll give that some thought.

[scorpions 6]

Dont you need heat and humidity for fungus to grow, it should be easy to grow mushrooms.

 

Really? I thought they grew in the dark, damp, etc.

 

 

Just have a look to one mushroom field.

 

 

Nobody have any contact to an existing coffee farm here? Will need to travel North and South.

[packhike 13]

My wifes sister grows oyster mushrooms and the spores. They grow them in a triangle shaped hut that is

about 10-15 meters long in plastic bags using sawdust brought up from southern Thailand mostly by the city Trang. They do extremelly well and profitable. They are the biggest supplier of mushrooms in their province. They mostly supply everyone from restaurants to other small time mushroom farmers with the spores. Everytime I go back they keep expanding the farm.

Edited January 19, 2008 by packhike

[nidnoyham 30]

Rice, has gone up to 10,000bht per tonne, from 6,000 last year. Could this be the new oil ? countries like P.I. and Indonesia are looking for guarantees of supply by Thailand and Vietnam. Trade agreements are being negotiated to keep the rice flowing to their warehouses. The shortage is coming from the trend towards non food crops.

Edited March 28, 2008 by nidnoyham

[sinbinjack 244]

Rice, has gone up to 10,000bht per tonne, from 6,000 last year. Could this be the new oil ? countries like P.I. and Indonesia are looking for guarantees of supply by Thailand and Vietnam. Trade agreements are being negotiated to keep the rice flowing to their warehouses. The shortage is coming from the trend towards non food crops.

This is one of the reasons that the "greens" dont want bio fuels as it will put food prices up.I hope the Alaska story on another thread is true ( though I will reserve judgement for the time being)and we have loads more oil in reserve than all the doomsayers are admiting.

[Gary 4,108]

Rice is still a VERY labor intensive crop. It's getting difficult to get workers. My wife works right beside the workers she hires and comes home at night with her little butt dragging.

 

Many of the local farmers have gone from rice to sugar cane and cassava. Both crops are being used for ethanol production and prices for both are pretty good. This has driven the price of rice up. My wife is a small farmer for sure with maybe a total of ten rai out of the twenty set up for growing rice. An average Thai farm is ten rai and it takes the entire family to plant and harvest that ten rai. She thinks that with much of the rice paddy diverted to the energy crops, rice is the way to go and maybe there will be more workers available. Time will tell.

[nidnoyham 30]

Rice is still a VERY labor intensive crop. It's getting difficult to get workers. My wife works right beside the workers she hires and comes home at night with her little butt dragging.

 

Many of the local farmers have gone from rice to sugar cane and cassava. Both crops are being used for ethanol production and prices for both are pretty good. This has driven the price of rice up. My wife is a small farmer for sure with maybe a total of ten rai out of the twenty set up for growing rice. An average Thai farm is ten rai and it takes the entire family to plant and harvest that ten rai. She thinks that with much of the rice paddy diverted to the energy crops, rice is the way to go and maybe there will be more workers available. Time will tell.

 

 

come on then Gary, get that little hat on and get stuck in. Bend down and think of Thailand.

 

Have you got your own rotivator for preparing the ground ? How much is it to hire a combined harvester ?

 

I might get into this farming lark while I'm still young.

[Gary 4,108]

come on then Gary, get that little hat on and get stuck in. Bend down and think of Thailand.

 

Have you got your own rotivator for preparing the ground ? How much is it to hire a combined harvester ?

 

I might get into this farming lark while I'm still young.

 

Working the ground is the EASY part. It's pulling up the seedlings, bundling them and then re-planting them that is the hard work. Last year I went out and watched for a while. The workers were teasing me about wading in and helping. I asked my wife how much she would pay me and she told me 150 baht a day just the same as the rest of the workers. I told her that I wouldn't work for that. She came right back with; "GOOD, you're not worth 150 baht per day". No doubt she was right. After an hour or two I'd need help trying to straighten up.

[packhike 13]

Just thought I would add that my wife has planted angelwood tree, dragon fruit,

Hawaiian, mexican, and Thai papaya trees, American tomatoes, lettuce

carrots, and cucumber. These are all the ones that are growing successfully.

[nidnoyham 30]

packhike'

 

If you get those tomatoes to grow to a good size, you could have a few customers for them on this forum.