1.4 Field Management Practices

• The meaning and importance of field management practices
• Pruning of vegetable crops
• Pruning of perennial crops: single-stem and multiple-stem
• Top dressing and its methods
• Other field management practices

• describe the management practices of selected vegetable and perennial crops
• carry out selected management practices in crop production
• appreciate the importance of selected management practices in crop production

“How do field management practices influence crop production?”

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1. Field management and pruning
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   The care given to a crop while it grows, and pruning in particular - removing unwanted parts of vegetable and perennial crops for better yield and quality.
2. Top dressing and other field management practices
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Feeding a growing crop with top-dressing fertiliser and the methods of applying it, and the other practices that keep a crop healthy through to harvest.
3. Weeding a growing Kenyan crop
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   How weeds steal water, nutrients, light and space, the critical first weeks, and how to hoe, pull, smother or combine methods on a Kenyan shamba.
4. Thinning, gap filling and mulching
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Leaving the strongest seedlings at the right spacing, replanting empty hills while they can still catch up, and covering the soil with residue to hold moisture and suppress weeds.
5. Pruning tomatoes on Kenyan farms
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Finding and pinching tomato side shoots, single-stem training for staked plants, hygiene on a dry morning, and how this is done in Kirinyaga, Kajiado and the school garden.
6. Pruning capsicum and related vegetables
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Lighter pruning of capsicum: first flower off, lower leaves off, two to four stems kept, as practised in Mwea, Naivasha and school gardens, with a note on chilli, brinjal and beans.
7. Single-stem and multiple-stem pruning of coffee and tea
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   How Kenyan coffee is trained to two or three heads or to one capped trunk, how tea is shaped to a plucking table, and the shared rules of clean cuts after harvest.
8. Cutting back perennial crops
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Shortening old unproductive wood on coffee, mango, citrus and banana stools so new fruitful growth replaces a tired thicket, cycling the work so the farm still has income.
9. Top dressing maize and vegetables in practice
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Choosing CAN or urea, placing a side band or a ring on moist soil away from the stem, timing maize at knee height, and using a correct rate on a Kenyan plot.
10. Staking, training and earthing up
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Lifting tomatoes and climbers off the soil with stakes and ties, drawing soil to maize and potato bases, and fitting these support jobs into a season of field management on a Kenyan farm.