Passion fruit can be an attractive crop for Kenyan growers supplying fresh-fruit markets, juice processors and other buyers. However, successful production depends on more than planting seedlings and installing a trellis. The site must support healthy root development, the support structure must withstand the weight of mature vines, and the orchard needs consistent management from…
A citrus tree can grow plenty of green leaves, produce long shoots and develop a broad canopy without giving a satisfactory crop. In some orchards, trees flower heavily but set very few fruits. In others, flowers appear normally, only for most of the young fruits to drop before reaching a useful size. These problems can…
Watering seedlings sounds simple until you start losing plants for opposite reasons. Some seedlings wilt because the growing medium is too dry, while others turn yellow, stop growing, or develop root problems because they are kept wet for too long. The challenge is not simply to give seedlings more water. It is to maintain enough…
Papaya is one of the fruit crops where planting material can directly affect orchard planning. Unlike many fruit crops, papaya plants can occur as male, female, or hermaphrodite types, and their sex expression has practical consequences for pollination, fruit production, plant population, and the amount of land occupied by non-fruiting plants. For a farmer establishing…
An avocado tree can produce a strong flush of leaves and branches while still developing into an unproductive or difficult-to-manage tree. Left alone, some trees become excessively tall, crowded in the centre and difficult to spray, inspect and harvest. Others develop weak branches or dense canopies that limit light penetration and airflow. This is where…
Starting an avocado orchard is a long-term investment, and one of the first decisions can determine how well the orchard performs years later: the quality of the planting material. It is easy to look at a row of avocado seedlings and choose the tallest or cheapest plants available. But a good avocado seedling is about…
Seeing a fruit tree covered in flowers only for the blossoms to disappear without producing fruit can be frustrating. The good news is that flowering itself shows the tree has reached an important reproductive stage. The problem is usually what happens between flowering and successful fruit set. A tree can produce plenty of flowers and…
Rainfall is one of the biggest variables in Kenyan agriculture, but knowing that a rainy season is expected is only the beginning. Farmers also need to understand when the rains are likely to start, how they may be distributed, whether dry spells are possible, and what the forecast means for their particular crop, soil and…
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