Blanca Zelaya and Salvador Cerrato : 90% of seed germinatand and it has been 12 and 15 days (varies by crop) since being transplanted. Crops planted include broccoli, celery, yerba buena and scallion. She has had no problems with pests and diseases and both cultivation and the greenhouse are in good condition.  

           Recommendations: • Follow up communities to check if things are working all right. • That Namlo considers that exchanges of experience between producers and communities . • To encourage producers who are working well , to create workbuild this initiative in other producers. • That Namlo consider creating a nursery of trees as a measure to conserve soil . • That Namlo consider providing plastic to place them on the greenhouses in San Juan del Río Coco , to prevent excessive rains that harms crops.  

 Damasio Machado Rizo : 85 % of seed germinated and it has been 34 days since being sown and planted. Crops include carrot and beets in large quantity and well developed. He has had no problems with the attack of pests and diseases and both cultivation and the greenhouse are in good condition.  

        Antonio Pineda Lazo : 90 % of seed germinated and it has been 35 days since being sown and planted. Crops include carrot, beet, onion and radish. All are developing well and he has had no problems with the attack by pests or diseases. Crop and greenhouse are both in good condition.  

        A workshop with producers preparing biofertilizer to improve the structure of plants , providing nutrients for good development was also performed.  

           Community  La  Almaciguera  (San  Nicolas)    

                  Mario Machado Rizo : 90 % of seed germinated and it has been 36 days since planting. Crops include onions, beets, carrots and lettuce , all proceeding well and in substantial quantity. She has had no problems with attack by pests or diseases , and both cultivation and the greenhouse are in good condition.

            Eligio Machado Torres: 90% of seed germinated and it has been 35 days since being planted. Crops include carrots, onions, beets and lettuce. All developed well and in large quantities. He has had no problems with the attack of pests or diseases and both crops and the greenhouse are in very good condition.

           Pedro Machado Rizo : 90 % of seed germinated and it has been 35 days since being sown and planted. Crops include carrots, beets , onion and radish. The radish is ready to harvest. He has not had problems with pest or disease attack and both cultivation and the greenhouse are in very good condition.

       

                         Doña Deysi Blandon is now beginning to harvest and all product is of good size, well-developed and in abundant quantities after only two months. The crop still has about 4 weeks before it reaches its full size. So far she has not had problems with the attack by pests or diseases and both cultivation and the greenhouse are in very good condition.

          Don Fernando Benavides is now beginning to harvest his crop. It is of good size and quantity. Similarly his crop is only two months after being sown, and has had some problems with worms eating the leaves (but not the fruit) of the plants so it is recommended to apply “murupo” at night to control it. The greenhouse is in good condition.

           Community  of  Potrerillo  (San  Nicolas)     Santos Philemon Machado : 95 % of his seed germinated and it has been 36 days since planting. Crops planted include onion, tomato, beets , carrots and radish. These farmers tend to plant crops radish because it is faster and harvest it in less time. He has not had problems with pests or diseases attacks. Both greenhouse and plants are in good condition.

                                 

  Don Bayardo Navarro : Bayardo harvested all plants that were in the greenhouse and is turning the soil to put a tomato seedbed within it. The greenhouse is in very good condition. Don Ricardo Navarro : Ricardo is starting to harvest the entire product after only two months. The fruits have developed well and he is already reaping the benefits of his plant. However, the plants still have some time before the reach their full potential so he expects it to be a sizeable harvest. He has not had any problems with the attack by pests or diseases and both cultivation and the greenhouse are in good shape.  

                                                                              Doña Deylin Ruiz : Deylin already harvested an entire crop of carrots, beets and bell pepper. The peppers are starting to produce fruit again, and despite being the second crop it is still a well developed fruit. She also harvested onion, of which the majority was sold in the local market and the remainder was kept for family consumption. She did not have any problems with the attack by pests or diseases, and both culture and plants are in good condition.  

  Doña Nimiam Melgara : The same job for soil improvement was performed at Nimia’s , since she had stopped working the greenhouse while one of her family members was ill. The soil was very poor in organic matter and was lacking a fertile layer, so we incorporated darker soil to improve the nutrient content and wait for the soil to regenerate itself. The greenhouse is in good condition.  

                             Comunidad  La  Labranza  (Miraflor).    Doña Deyanira Alanis : Deyanira harvested all of the crop from one of her beds and is letting it rejuvenate before planting a new crop. Her bell pepper crop bloomed but harvest was limited due to some problems with insects , the crops harvested were consumed by the family. Lettuce has been planted in one of the beds and is 30 days old. In another bed, cucumber is already beginning to bloom. She has had no problems with the attack of pests or diseases with lettuce and cucumber. Both the greenhouse and the plants are in very good condition.

            Mrs. Patricia Castillo: Patricia has harvested all her crops and has new crops in the greenhouse. Carrots and Lettuce already have 22 days after being sown and Onion and Cilantro with 15 days. She said that since he started using the greenhouse she has had no problems with the attack of pests and diseases because every five days she applies foliar preventively and both the greenhouse and the plants show very good condition.

Doña Elsa Alvarez Our goal at Elsa’s on this trip was to repair portions of Elsa’s greenhouse that were damaged. More fertile soil was applied to improve conditions inside the greenhouse. The previous soil lacked proper nutrients and needed fertile land to produce again and allow for better plant development.

        A small meeting with some of the producers was also held to raise awareness on working organically. In light of some of the problems that producers have experience we explained that it is a slow process that requires patience and work and that they should not be discouraged.

Comunidad Los Pinares (Telpaneca) Don Jose Polanco: Having performed the double digging Biointensive method to improve the soil, we added more fertile soil on two of the beds while the other is being used for growing carrots. The other two beds are allowed to stand for one month in order for the soil and fertilizer to better integrate in order to produce a better growing environment. The greenhouse is in good condition.

                                       

Don José Agenor Gonzales : José Agenor finished harvesting and removed all the remnant plants in order to let the soil stand before replanting other crops. He has had no problems with pests and diseases and both crop and greenhouse have very good conditions.

Don Flavio Cardoza : Don Flavio has ended finsihed harvesting his crop. All of the tomato planted was attacked by a plague called chamusco that could not be controlled with any insecticide. The decision was made to remove the entire crop to let the soil stand and replace them with new crops. The greenhouse is in very good conditions.

Don Reinaldo Guitierrez After being moved to another site which has more favorable conditons Reinaldo planted tomato crop which are now 35 days old. Both the crop and the greenhouse are in good condition.

   

Monthly  Report  for  January,  2016    This month visits to 6 different communities: San Juan de Rio Coco ( Barrio Nuevo Community),Telpaneca ( Community: Los Pinares ) , Miraflor ( Community: La Labranza) , Estelí ( Community: Las Calabazas), San Nicolas ( Community: Potrerillo and Almaciguera ) were made to verify the conditions of both crops and greenhouses. Workshops on two types of organic fertilizer were also held and soil remediation was conducted with three partners who were having difficulties with soil conditions within their greenhouses.    Community  of  Barrio  Nuevo  (San  Juan  de  Rio  Coco)     Don Luis Herrera: The seedbed that was sown for tomato seedlings was attacked and destroyed completely by a plague called chamusco. The seed used was purchased (by the user not Namlo staff) from an unreliable source and was not of good quality. As a result, the plants did not adapt well to the climate. Luis is going to replace the area with carrots, onions and beets, hoping to get better results with these seeds. Gerardo Izaguirre: The seed culture is already well developed; the cabbage is 30 days old. He is harvesting bell peppers from the second cycle already (bell peppers can have as many as 6 separate harvests. He has had no problems with the pests and diseases by constantly being applying organic foliar that prevent pest attack. Both the greenhouse and the plants show very good condition.  

             Roger Danilo Izaguirre : The seed that had germinated was attacked by ants and destroyed 100% of it. It is recommended to apply chile garlic to disinfect the ground, and to control the problem, first to remove the ants before replanting. The greenhouse is in good condition.