Intercropping Under Trellis with Amaranthus

Intercropping Under Trellis with Amaranthus by Pritham 'MetalFarmer' D'Souza

here i would like to discuss how one can successfully grow amaranthus leafy vegetable under a trellis (dompa) . Here the main crop is coccinia (Manoli , Tendli) which requires a large trellis to grow on. and since the crop requires a lot of vine trimming and pruning to facilitate more vine growth, the space under the trellis is exposed to a lot of sunlight and if not properly maintained encourages the growth of unwanted weeds.

From Intercropping Under Trellis with Amaranthus

From Intercropping Under Trellis with Amaranthus

• the above pic shows a typical un maintained piece of plot where coccinia is grown on a trellis

From Intercropping Under Trellis with Amaranthus

From Intercropping Under Trellis with Amaranthus

From Intercropping Under Trellis with Amaranthus

• the weeds have to be removed manually using the necessary agri tools and the soil turned and loosened as shown above
• circular pits or platforms are made as shown above and this is ideal for sowing seeds of amaranthus

From Intercropping Under Trellis with Amaranthus

• Amaranthus is a very short crop and can be harvested in just 21 days from first day of sowing
• notice the photos below, the land once wasted with unwanted weeds is now growing a commercially viable crop

From Intercropping Under Trellis with Amaranthus

From Intercropping Under Trellis with Amaranthus

From Intercropping Under Trellis with Amaranthus

From Intercropping Under Trellis with Amaranthus

SOME IMPORTANT PRECAUTIONS

From Intercropping Under Trellis with Amaranthus

• since most of the area now recovered is used for growing amaranthus, care must be taken to see the crop is not damaged due to negligence
• heavy irrigation using a hose pipe will do more harm than good as it will displace the seeds
  
• care should be taken to see the pipe is not dragged on the crop itself as shown in the photo
• this method is used when the main crop, coccinia is trimmed as amaranthus needs a lot of sunlight
• this method is not that successful when the coccinia vines are fully grown and provide a lot of shade, so the best time to reap benefits will be for at least 45 days
• weeds will also grow with the amaranthus crop and it must be ignored as amaranthus is harvested in 21 days. after that while preparing the land for re sowing, the weeds can be taken care of.

all images and data by Pritham D'Souza aka MetalFarmer