IDUKKI: Despite Korangatti being a tribal settlement where wild animal menace has forced many to abandon farming, the green pepper plants at 66-year-old P G John’s farmland look effortlessly upright with robust peppercorns.
The secret to his bountiful yield untouched by wild animals is an innovative method he himself had identified. Instead of relying on the traditional method of using the Indian coral tree -- ‘murikku’ -- as the growing vehicle for pepper, John has used ‘Dracaena Fragrance’, or corn plant, to hold up the pepper vines in his 30-cent plantation located in the Adimaly panchayat of Idukki district.
“A common indoor plant, dracaena grows up to a height of 10ft if left unpruned. They have a very flexible stem which cannot be easily broken or uprooted by wild elephants,” John explained.
He said pepper is traditionally grown as an intercrop in plantations or homesteads, with farmers using areca nut to support the vines.
“In locations where the wild elephant menace is rampant, the method is impractical as areca nuts can easily be damaged by jumbos. Growing pepper on Indian coral trees involves labour cost and space issues. Dracaena is a solution to all of these issues,” he said.
As the plant grows only up to 10ft, the peppercorn can be harvested single-handedly without depending on labourers, John pointed out.
“Earlier, when grown on Indian coral trees, I would harvest 10 vines a day. Now, 50 or more vines can be harvested a day when grown on dracaena trees,” he said.
Since it requires less space, at least nine trees can be planted on one cent, thus enabling 900 vines to be grown on an acre, he pointed out.
“The method is also cost-free when compared to growing pepper on concrete poles,” John said.
Despite these advantages, growing pepper on dracaena has a drawback. But John has found a solution to that too.
“Since the use of organic fertiliser is a key factor in growing pepper, our efforts would go futile when fertiliser is applied around the vine on the dracaena trees as they would absorb all the nutrients. This would weaken the pepper plants,” he said.
But if the saplings are planted in separate pits away from the supporting tree, perhaps at the centre of four adjoining trees, and the vines are allowed to climb to the tree from the pit, fertiliser can be applied in the pit. That will prevent the tree from sucking the nutrients, John said. He also cultivates pepper grafted on Brazilian Thippali (grown as a stock plant to grow pepper), which stands like a bush and can be grown in pots or grow bags.
“For people who don’t have space to grow pepper vines, this is a better solution,” John said.