SHL Journal - The Corn and The Tapioca, The Beginning

Once upon a time, there was a land section of 30ft by 20ft, that was covered by healthy weeds.  Seeing as it was such a rich and fertile soil, it seemed a waste to have weeds enjoying its life.  Thus began the back-breaking job of removing the weeds manually, without weed-killers, and turning over the soil as well as adding more compost material to it.  After 3 days of sweat, and 1 day of heavy rain, the ground was ready to welcome the tapioca (Cassava) stem cuttings.  Rows of 6-inch-depth holes, two feet apart were dug, preparing the new home for the tapioca stems.
It is important to know which way to lay the stems or else it will not grow properly as to my knowledge, the tapioca tubers can only grow in soil and not come out like fruits.  Each stem is place, right side up with its "eyes" facing upward, and at an angle and lightly covered with soil and left to begin its new life.

Tapioca shoots

For good quality tapioca, rich soil with good drainage and sufficient water is a necessity,  As the soil factor was covered, this meant that a sprinkler system needed to be implemented to supplement the natural, rain watering.  The source of water for this system is from the upstream source thus it is non-polluted water.  A few days later, lovely green shoots appear on the stems indicating that it has begun its new life cycle.  So now, these new babies are ready to be "more covered" with soil.  The roots have now started to grow but its hold in the soil is still week thus tilling the soil around it and topping the stem with more soil needs to be done carefully so as not to dislodge the roots.

Tapioca trees, 3 weeks after planting

About two weeks later, it has grown to about 1 ft tall and the weeds have started to make an appearance.  Once again, it is "cangkul" action time, turn over the soil, adding some organic fertilizer as well as compost to it.  Rows of tapioca trees were created and it appeared to me that this tapioca patch would be able to support some rows of corn.
It takes about 4-5 months before the tapioca roots can be harvested, making selecting corn to be planted in between it, as the best choice.  The corn should be ready for harvest within 3-4 months.  Just nice timing.  First harvest the corn, which would not disrupt the soil.  Then harvest the tapioca a month later, which will result in major soil disruption, but since the corn has been harvested, it doesn't matter.

Corn shoots

The ground was prepared for planting, once again being turned over, to remove the weeds.  Corn kernels, from my previous harvest, was sowed in about 1 inch of soil, between the rows of tapioca.  With lovely rain watering them on a daily basis, and the rich soil, 3 days later, they sprouted with the shoots appearing in verticl rolls above the ground.  Now the experiment of the Corn and the Tapioca is in full swing.  The next time that the soil will be worked on will be when the corn is about 6 inches tall. The soil water content will also need to be monitored to ensure that both varieties get the water is needs.