Planting a few stands of Alligator pepper|| My action to restore my father's lost alligator pepper farm

Alligator pepper is known in botanical terms as Aframomum melegueta, it originates from the Zingiberaceae. This plant is widely grown in the south eastern part of Nigeria. It is an all-time season plant that does well where there is enough humidity and warm weather conditions.

When planted in the required soil and climate, it spreads more just like the way that ginger does. As the rhizomes grow out the ground to about 3 to 4 cm in height. By nature, the rhizomes would start to bring forth new ones. It continues until the entire space is covered by the plant.

The seeds of the alligator plant could be in their fresh or dry form. The one I'm holding in this picture is the dry seed and the plant itself.

I'm wondering something about how this plant is cultivated. Alligator plant has seeds that it bore, why then is the rhizome plant used when planting than using the seeds to plant? I'm still thinking about this and see if my fellow farmers would help find the reasons for it.

I got the alligator plant from a farmer friend in my area. I bought it from him though. He has alligator farm in his place. This is why I reached out to him to give me some of the plants. He promised to bring the plants to me at an agreed price. He doesn't bring all of them at the same because the farmland where they are planted are not together. So he would engage sorting out some of the best among them.

From the few I have gotten so far, I have planted them. But planting this alligator is is not without any instruction. I was instructed by him to do some certain things before and after they are planted.

The alligator pepper plants are uprooted together with the soil where they are planted. That is, as they are being uprooted, ensure that the soil where they are planted are together with the plant.

Some of the instructions I followed while planting the alligator pepper includes:

• Planting it together with that soil it came with
• This soil should be humous and dark in color to reflect the rich nutrients required for it to do well
• Use only domestic or organic wastes to support the soil nutrients.
• Ensuring that weeds do not grow around the area it been planted
  These are some of the instructions I was given to plant the the alligator pepper. I carefully followed all the instructions I was given to plant it.

Although there are some surrounding plants where I planted the alligator pepper, the soil there is quite rich to support its growth. I also constantly ensure that weeds do not grow around there. Some domestic wastes that I used to throw away before, has now become more useful. I now gather the wastes and pour them for the plants use.

My expectations from the alligator pepper plants

There are some factors that I'm being told which affects alligator plants. Some of the major factors are the Soil fertility, rainfall, weather conditions, and how well the plants farm is being managed. Some the factors like the rainfall and weather conditions can not be controlled. Since we are now in the rainy season season, I expect that when I supply the plants with the required manures, they will do well.

Secondly, unlike other plants that matures within one year, I'm informed that alligator pepper plants do not mature and start to bear fruits in one year. Planting it using their rhizomes may take about a year and six months to two years to start bearing fruits.. while planting using its seeds may take about two to three years to start bearing fruits. So with this in my mind, I I'm not expecting the plants to start yielding as soon as possible.

I'm expecting more batches of the alligator plants as I ordered. I'm planting them based on the number supplied to me.

My father had an alligator pepper farm far back many years ago. Due to poor management, unauthorized persons going into the farm, and using some part of the farmland to cultivate other crops, the plants could not survive.

By this move I'm making, I want to gradually restore the lost alligator pepper farm.