Patrick Kilonzo ventured into fruit and seedling growing a decade ago.
His one-acre farm in Muthaiga, Nairobi, now has over 150,000 different varieties of seedlings, a business that earns him a tidy sum.
He plants seedlings of various crops including grafted tree tomatoes, Fuerte avocados, grafted passion fruits, Mayer lemons, South African guavas, pomegranates, soursops and blueberries.
“I make compost manure from banana stems and leaves and mix it with animal manure.
“I also use rabbit urine to spray plants on the farm," he says, displaying a 20-litre container with rabbit urine, that he uses at the farm.
He has three workers who assist him in grafting the seedlings and watering them. “The rabbit urine helps kill the pests. There are no pests in the orchard.”
He says he usually mixes five litres of rabbit urine with 15 litres of water and uses the mixture to spray the plants.
One of the challenges that he has been grappling with, sometimes, is the theft of banana leaves.
“Those who steal them (banana leaves) use them for various purposes, which include wrapping traditional foods like sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and arrowroots.
“Some come and buy the leaves,” says Mr Kilonzo.
Patrick Kilonzo shows a bunch of bananas on his farm.
Photo credit: File| Peter Changtoek
He uses a nearby seasonal river that passes through the farm to water the plants when there is insufficient rainfall.
Just like many Kenyans, he relies on social media to market his seedlings, which he sells for between Sh150 and Sh3,500, depending on the type.
“We get some online, and some look at what we post on WhatsApp,” he says
His advice to city farmers?
"You don't need a big piece of land to use in farming; use the land you have, no matter how small it might be, to make something out of it," he says.
To those looking to have an orchard at home, he says, one of the best things to do is to plant as many assortments of various fruits as possible.
"This helps one harvest the fruits at various times of the year since different trees produce the fruits at different seasons.
“In addition, it is advisable to grow different fruit plants because, if some varieties fail to thrive, the rest can be beneficial to the orchard owner," he says.
