By Antynet Ford

A chilli farmer in Murang’a county has propagated over 20,000 seedlings in her own nursery after losing Sh197,000 to mixed chilli seedlings that delivered a collapsed harvest.

Beatrice Mwende leased four acres of land to farm chillies. “I had ordered Demon F1, but later I realised that it was a mixture of varieties, with Red Thunder and Bird’s Eye, F1, F2, and F5,” she said.

“It is during the spray that I came to realise that the seedlings were not F1, which are resistant to diseases and pests.”

F1 seeds come from strong parent plants and grow evenly with good pest resistance. F2 seed is saved from F1 plants and is weaker, while F5 seed is saved and replanted several more times and is often poor.

Beatrice’s bigger problem, however, was the mix of seedlings. 

“The challenge is you cannot tell which seed variety you are having until production. That’s always when you’ve already spent a lot of money,” she said.

Seedlings of different chillies look almost the same for the first first three to five weeks. But they need very different growing conditions. 

The hybrid Demon needs wider spacing, heavier feeding, and more water than Bird’s Eye.

Planted separately, Bird’s Eye produces about one to three tonnes per acre, while Red Thunder yields six to 10 tonnes per acre, and Demon F1 around six to seven tonnes. But if they are mixed together, the bigger plants overshadow the Bird’s Eye, which drops flowers, and is overwatered by the heavier watering needed for the Demon and Red Thunder hybrids.

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“From the time of planting and harvest, I had spent Sh197,000. I was getting 48 kilograms from a whole acre of chillies. The highest I got was 68 kilograms. I started to realise that everything was not well even before harvest because even the pest symptoms and diseases were very high,” said Beatrice.

“The problem narrows down to what propagators supply to farmers. Farmers should verify their sources. It’s very devastating for a farmer to be supplied with what they didn’t order.”

But she is not risking buying from the propagator again.

“After uprooting the whole acre, I decided to have my own nursery where I have propagated the seedlings. I just picked my seeds from a merchant and after verification, I made a nursery with over 20,000 seedlings. I am in the process of preparing the land and next week, I will be transplanting them,” she said.

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