During a training day bringing together women from the Popenguine market gardening area with teams from Nebeday and The Ivory Foundation, the focus was on setting up and managing a nursery in the greenhouse.
This practical training session, which was filmed to be shared with other projects supported by the Fund, served as a reminder of several key points:
• Digging 10-15 cm deep furrows to position the seed trays;
• Preparing a mixture of compost and sieved soil to fill the pots;
• Tamping down the soil in the pots before sowing so that it is compact when the seedlings are removed;
• Adjusting the sowing density to each species: 1 seed per pot for tomatoes and cucumbers, 2 for lettuces;
• Respecting sowing depths according to seed size;
• Creating an additional nursery in rows for lettuce and tomatoes in open ground;
• Sowing half of the courgettes in pots and the other half directly in the ground in small holes.
The participants sowed tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and courgettes, either in pots or directly in the ground, depending on the crop.
Particular care was taken with the seedling watering technique to ensure consistent moisture and promote good plant growth, combining surface watering using a bottle with micro holes and watering between the seedling trays to encourage water absorption from the bottom and ensure deep watering of the pots.
