We started this month with weeding of all our plots and we have been watering everyday due to the type of soil that we have which dries up too quick. Watering with our current system with this type of soil has been taking up too much time and limiting our productivity.
We have come up with a solution to harvest mulching material which is a long shot but with more benefits. We are pruning small trees and shrubs in the forest which is working not only as mulching material but also putting carbon and more biomass back into the soil, rather than waiting for our biomass plants for cutting and dropping them to grow and mature in our system.
We have also encountered quite a list of challenges, one with peas. We had very poor germination rate and it seems the soil will need more work till we can grow it. One of the main challenges we have just noticed and realised is, that this year, we will have drought and if the research that has been published is correct, we will be having more of these rainy seasons in Zimbabwe that will last for about three years. This year it’s expected that it will be dry until March, of which our normal rainy season in Zimbabwe starts mid to end of October and ends beginning of April.
We will have to normalise prioritising mulching before planting and also getting more education and experience on how to save our water resources.
With other challenges like pest control we are doing our best to plant the necessary plants like chillies, ginger, garlic, marigold, etc., although, all these challenges are hindering our progress, we are busy planning and putting structures in place and a lot of work still needs to be done.
We currently have maize, sunflower, beans, water melons, butternuts, peanuts, cassava, sun-hemp, marigold and cowpea which replaced peas that failed to germinate on the 92 by 22 meters plot which will soon be a grape and apple plot once resources are available. We have also nurseries in place with shrubs such as glaricidia, moringa and Lucerne which we have recently started putting in pot plants which we will later add to our systems.
On the soon to be mandarin and peach plot which is 122 by 22,5 meters, we only have cassava and pumpkins planted together, with pumpkins already on flowering stage. There’s also one line of water melons which is ripening right now.
We have started transplanting lemons, glaricidia and moringa into plant pots:
We are harvesting paprika and chilli for replication from the few plants that we have around the farm:
Thank you for your ongoing support!
The MOCT Team
Mangwende Orphan Care Trust 
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