Growing Food: A Guide to Food Production

Diseases: also not normally a big problem, though Alternaria Leaf Spot may cause the leaves to fall off in humid conditions. Oth ...

Linseed Linum usitatissimum Flax, Flaxseed, Oil-flax; Graine de Lin (French); Flachs, Saatlein, Leinsamen (German); Lino—flax, L ...

Seed rate: average figures are 40 kg/ha for oil varieties, 120 kg/ha for fibre varieties. However in order to achieve the optimu ...

YIELD Linseed crops raised for oil are normally harvested when most of the seed capsules are mature. The stalks are very tough a ...

Niger Seed Guizotia abyssinica Inga Seed, Blackseed, Guizotia Oléifere (French); Gingellikraut (German); Alashi (Oriya); Hechell ...

Growth period: 100–150 days. Temperature: very frost tolerant. Semi-dwarf types are adapted to temperate climates. resistant. Pe ...

Sesame Sesamum indicum (Syn. S.orientale) Simsim, Benne, Benné, Benniseed, Til, Gingili, Gingelly (from Hindi jingali) Sésame (F ...

GROWTH CONDITIONS Day length: in general sesame is very sensitive to photoperiod. There are both long- and short-day varieties, ...

YIELD Sesame yields are generally low, although it should be noted that sesame is very often grown under the most marginal condi ...

Sunflower Helianthus annuus Mant (Latin America); Abbad ash-shams (Arabic); Surajmukhi, Suryamukhi (Hindi); Elmer Mekhay (Pashtu ...

Seed spacing: 60–100 cm between rows, 15–30 cm between plants. The normal plant population is about two or three plants per squa ...

UTILISATION 90% of sunflower grain produced is crushed for oil—the nutritive value equals that of olive oil. It is used for mar ...

2D. ROOT CROPS A wide range of species are commonly referred to as “root crops”, their common feature being their fleshy, underg ...

OcaOxalis tuberosa (Oxalidaceae or wood sorrel family). White, yellow or red smooth skinned cylindrical tubers about 10 cm long ...

cyanide producing sugar derivative: Sweet types—HCN (potentially 30–100 mg HCN/kg) is present only in the two outer layers of th ...

GROWTH CONDITIONS Growth period: 6–12 months for short-season sweet types and improved varieties. Long-season types are often le ...

UTILISATION Tubers, after detoxication, can be eaten in many different ways: ground into flour, fermented slightly and dried in ...

Many thousand separate varieties of potatoes are grown, and the description below is only a rather brief synopsis of the vast ar ...

GROWTH CONDITIONS Growth period: 95–150 days, depending on the type/variety, normally classified as being either 1st early, 2nd ...

Virus Diseases—Leaf Roll, Potato Virus X and Y are the most damaging, but not serious unless the tubers are kept for seed. Seed ...