Progress at Three Different Plots

I want to share some pictures that display the nature and progress of the different plots I am cultivating. The first plot is on the road to Guaman-Odumase and is a three and a half acre cocoa, plantain, banana, and palm oil agroforestry plot. This plot is convenient because of the road access, and will be great for harvesting and transporting:

The main road between Atakrom and Guaman-Odumase bisects this plot.

This is a shooting plantain corm.

There are also about 150 oil palms that are about 1 1/2 years old and were purchased with the plot

The second plot is at Guaman-Odumase and is four acres. It is part of a larger eight acre purchase but I will post pictures of that plot once it is weeded. This plot is intercropped with cocoa, plantains, bananas, some oil palms, and some taro root.

The plantains and cocoa saplings were alternately planted every five feet. The plantains will grow to form a canopy by the end this rainy season.

This part of the farm is already developing a healthy canopy.

It is difficult to capture the vastness of four acres of land in a photograph, but this is a photo from the hill-top (bordering the forest reserve) and continuing to the other boundary of the farm. The plot has been weeded up to the cottage but the entire four acres is planted.

This is a healthy cocoa sapling and plantain. The plantain will grow four or five feet within the next month.

This photograph gives you a better idea of how the rows look. Plantain, cocoa, plantain, cocoa, etc.

The third plot shown here was recently purchased and contains a matured palm oil plantation. There are about 300 palm trees. The rest has been planted with plantains and will be planted with cocoa in the next two weeks:

Plantain trees

This plot is also bisected by an access road.

This is the boundary of the palm plantation. These trees are probably four or five years old and are producing substantial amounts of palm nuts.

This is the inside of the palm plantation. Cocoa seedlings will be planted between the trees and, once they reach maturity, the palms will be uprooted and tapped for palm liquor.

These trees were recently harvested, but this tree is producing palm nuts and will be harvested soon.

Cocoa Saplings and Ammonia Sulfate

I've been regularly supplementing the soil on my plots with NPK, but I'm also giving my cocoa saplings a good growth spurt through the application of ammonia sulfate.

This seedling was given a half matchbox of ammonia sulfate and photographed for the first time on 5/3/2012 (Figure 1) and the second picture was taken on 5/12/2012 (Figure 2). Note that two different cameras were used, and that explains the color difference:

Figure 1

Figure 2

This seedling was given a full matchbox of ammonia sulfate for the first time on 5/3/2012 (Figure 3) and the second picture was taken on 5/12/2012 (Figure 4):

Figure 3

Figure 4

If you compare the two, it is quite easy to see that the full matchbox of ammonia sulfate has a far more substantial impact than the half matchbox. This experiment was necessary, though, because ammonia sulfate can kill saplings if it is not given in the correct amounts. From here on out, its matchboxes all the way down!