Sunday, September 20, 2009

Weekend of weed control

Well, I mowed between the rows on Saturday until the rain chased me out and then I went back out today to do some chemical weed control to get ready for planting. I have about 180 plants that will need to be planted over the next month or so and I have decided to go with a stale planting approach. The weeds have come up and now I will kill them. I also am trying to control the undergrowth around the bananas that are already 4+' tall. I could not finish today's task because I ran out of water and there was a storm approaching. Maybe, just maybe I'll finish this week.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

First Post

NK Lago Farms, LLC is a small farm in Canal Point, Florida that currently grows bananas on about 5 Acres of land. The business is owned by my wife, Kiley Harper-Larsen and operated by me ,Nicholas Larsen and began growing in January, 2009. The genesis of the enterprise started in our backyard. I am a hobby gardener and an agronomist by trade. I was amazed at how easy it was to produce large quantities of bananas with very little input in our backyard. I did the math and realized that a profit was possible if done on a commercial scale. I started doing background research to try to learn what the best varieties were and what was needed as far as equipment and fertilizer. I told a farmer friend about my plan and he agreed to let me farm 5 acres of his for percent of the returns. I started hunting down tissue culture bananas to start my farm with and 9 months into the venture I have about some variety on my farm. Most of the farm is planted to Dwarf Namwah. I also have some Gran Nain, some Misi Luki, and a cooking banana Kandrian. It's been a lot of work digging all the holes and planting all the plants, unlike most agriculture in the Everglades, bananas are only minimally mechanized.