Devroll Legodi – African Farming

VEGETABLES
Devroll Legodi, Bronkhorstspruit, Gauteng

We are in the middle of harvesting spinach and green beans. We grow a variety of vegetables and herbs but our dominant crops this season are spinach and green beans. We should have started harvesting the spinach in September as we planted in May, but we were hit by late frost that delayed things.

We grow most of our vegetables under shade netting. We harvest spinach at least three times a week and maintain a strict fertilisation and pest control programme. After every harvest, we put down LAN and also apply fertiliser through our irrigation.

The 28% nitrogen (N) in LAN is good for leaf growth. With the right maintenance, including irrigation and weeding, we can harvest spinach for nine months of the year and we will be harvesting the green beans until at least May next year.

Later in December, we will start harvesting butternuts, crown pumpkins, and watermelons. We have planted watermelons on 2ha divided into four portions, which have been planted two weeks apart. We should be able to harvest them until March 2022.