Potato

Let's grow some potatoes! ....and I am growing them in a container. These are red-skinned potatoes (I am unsure of the variety name). I bought these potatoes from the supermarket and started to chit them. Chitting is a process of exposing potatoes to the sun for weeks to encourage some shoot growth.

Over the coming weeks, shoots and some small leaves will begin to grow. The next step is to bury them in the soil. Soon, these potatoes will put out some roots and the shoot will grow taller and produce potato tubers. Let's see how it goes in the next coming weeks.

After a exposing it to the sun for weeks. Kind of ugly-looking..

Bury these potatoes in the soil. Do you notice the greens shoots?

There are 5 seed-potatoes in this container.

Another tomato plant

This is gonna be my another attempt in growing tomato. Most of my tomato plants were either killed by rain water or something else. This time round, I will make sure that it receives my full attention. Cheers.

Another tomato seedlings..

Shanghai Bok Choy

Another quick update on my balcony garden. I am planting some bok choy. They are F1 hybrid shanghai variety. I planted them from seeds. They should be ready in 30 days time.

I planted these seedlings in the big plastic container that I used to grow chinese spinach a few months back. I reckon the planting space is too close to each other. To make the matter worst, I have 2 onions bulbs growing nicely in the container(not shown in the photo) too! But I have no choice as I have space constraint. Anyway let's see how it goes as they grow.



I have some spacing problems...

Close-up look on one of the seedlings.

Cucumber Plant

I apologise for not updating my blog :) Today's update will be on cucumber. Yes! I am planting cucumber. Like its cucurbitaceae cousins such as the squash, pumpkins, watermelon, bittergourd and the rest , cucumber will grow as a creeping vine. To anticipate this, I have constructed a frame vertically so that it has something to hold on to as it grows.

cucumber seedling


A simple frame made of multiple sticks.

The chillis are ready too

Just an update on my chilli plant. It produced only 2 long chillis. :)


this is what happen if you put too much nitrogen...you get less chilli

I will harvest this later on :)

it will turn fully red by tommorow..

It's growing fast

Hmm..Just a quick update on the eggplant again. They are growing fast after the fruit sets last week. Keep on growing ok...

A week later...

Lime Plant update

Remember the lime plant that I bought 2 months ago? It is very productive and it keeps on producing lime fruits. Oh yeah, its fragant flowers have been attracting butterflies and its larvaes and I had to hand pick them. What a job! :D

I think one of the limes is ready to be picked.

Can you count the number of the fruits?

First Chinese Spinach Harvest

My chinese spinach (Amaranthus Tricolor) is ready to be harvested. I uprooted a total of about four plants from the container bed. They look very good, fresh and appetizing for my lunch :) cheers!


organically-grown chinese spinach

fresh from the container bed

only the young leaves, the rest goes to the compost bin

It taste yummy...hmm only serves for 1 person though.

The eggplant is fruiting...

She fruitssss finally! I am just waiting for the eggplants to get bigger. I just have only one issue now. It's coming to the end of the year and the sun slowly shifts away from my balcony. Normally I would get full direct sun from 9 a.m to 4p.m but now I notice that I receive only 4 hours of morning sun. So I might be moving my eggplant to the back of the house where it will get direct sun once again. Eggplant definately does best in warm and full sun.


2 eggplants guranteed...

she is roughly 2.5 months old...

Chinese Spinach

Remember about the lonely carrot that I planted in the big container? Well, they have companions now. I planted a shallot(to deter carrot flies) and some chinese spinach. I am not sure about its scientific name, but I believe chinese spinach are from the amaranthus family.

They have been growing there for almost 3 weeks now and they grow rather fast. I am not so sure when to harvest them as this is the first time I am growing it. If you happen to grow chinese spinach please do let me know when to harvest them :D

Carrot, shallot and chinese spinach...

close-up pic of chinese spinach.

the eggplant is ready!

Yeah. My eggplant has flowered. I tried to hand-pollinate it by shaking the flower buds, hopefully it works. See you soon!

she likes being-fed with compost definately..

eggplant flower, a typical solanum-flower...

Saving Okra seeds

I am saying bye-bye to the okra plant (its finally resting place is my compost bin :D ). It had produced plenty of okra for the past months. But that's not the end of the story as I left one of the okra on the plant to save its seeds. Looks like the pod has somewhat dried and cracked open revealing the inside of it. Curious what it looks like inside?

hmm somewhat dried..

inside of the okra's pod revealing the seeds.


more seeds..

that's more than enough seeds for the next few years

Lemon Grass

Looks like my lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) needs some professional grooming. They are so messy! I grew them from a single stem last year. They are really fragrant if you rub them using your hand. The smell is citrus-like. They are often used in south-east asian dishes and they taste great in lemon grass tea! Here comes the scissors!

Messy lemon grass...


"hair cutting" in progress..



after hair cut.. neat eh?

...and the cuttings went straight to my compost bin!

Chilli Update

The chilli plant looks very happy and healthy after I foliar-fed it with some seaweed extract. It has been producing plenty of flower buds and soon they will be fruiting.

The problem that I always face when growing chilli plants is that they are very susceptible to leaf diseases such as curling, distortion, crinkling etc. With such diseases, the growth of the plant will be stunted and might even die. In fact my chilli plant did show some of these symptoms while they are young. I suspect that the cause of these disease is due to a certain plant virus that could be carried from infected plants to another plants by plant pests.

...and I might need to repot this plant as the current container is rather small.

Eggplant Update

An update of my eggplant. The plant has been sitting quietly at the corner of the balcony, enjoying the warm weather and the full sun. It has even started to put out a flower bud, but it's too small to be seen in the photo. I will update again on its development.

a happy eggplant...

A lonely carrot seedling

I used to have 7 to 10 carrot seedlings grown from seeds, however only 1 survived. Maybe I've overwatered them (again overwatering kills!). I've just transplanted it into a big storage container box. I've also sowed more carrot seeds and hopefully they will germinate soon to accompany this lonely seedling :)


Carrot seedlings

Snap Bean flowers

What took you so long to flower? Where have you been girl? Anyway that's the snap bean flower. I am expecting more flowers to develop as I've been foliar feeding it with seaweed extract. In no time they will turn into crunchy little beans. I will update again very soon on the development.
pink snap bean flower

Another Tomato Story

Ok my tomato plant died last week. However, I am going to give myself another chance :)
Today I met up with my friend and we went to one of the supermarkets. As I was browsing, something really caught my eyes! I saw a couple of seed packets on the rack. There were various seeds being displayed, from melons to green veges. However, what attracted me were the tomato seeds. They were many varieties and it was quite hard to choose which one to buy. After reading the descriptions at the back of the seed packet, I decided to buy 2 types - small compact tomato(determinate) and yellow-oval tomato(indeterminate). So, wish me luck with these seeds.

To start with, I will be planting the tomato on the left.

According to one of the seeds packet. 20cm-30cm height? Better be true!

R.I.P Tomato

Bad bad and bad news. My tomato plant has just died. A week ago it rained very heavily and I happened to place it on the edge of the balcony where it received the heaviest rain water. The next day, the leaves began to wilt badly. Upon inspection, I noticed that the stem weakened and rotted. I tried to regrow the roots by cutting away the rotted stems. The plant seemed to be healing for the next couple of days, but today it began to wilt again. I give up on the tomato plant and tossed it in the compost bin. Over-watering kills - lesson learnt!

More Onions

I have completely forgotten that I have a packet of onion seeds. How could that be! I bought it as it was a white onion variety and they were supposedly to be sweeter in taste. I planted some of the seeds today together with some spinach seeds, hopefully they would germinate very soon.

They seeds were imported from france.


Onion seeds.

Snap Bean Update

Just an update on my snap bean. It is crawling to the sky like mad! Now I have to figure out how to accomodate it as its vine overshoots the supports. Despite its rapid growth, I haven't seen any flowers forming. Hmm..I guess I have to wait for a couple more weeks for this to happen.

Okra Harvest

The okra plant has been fruiting for the past weeks and I have been regularly harvesting them. They are ready to harvest when they are 10cm long. It is important to harvest okra while they are young and tender or it will be too woody and tough for consumption. If you don't intend to use it, put it in the fridge and they should store well for a couple of days.

Absolutely Organic! No pesticide and chemical fertilizer used.

Chilli Plant

Oops..! I guess I completely missed this one. Did I tell you that I have chilli plant too? It is cayenne, a long-chilli type. Its fruits are less hot than small chillis.

You will be surprised to learn that chillis are from the solanaceae family, therefore they are related to tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants!

Tomato update II

Nothing much, I am just updating on my tomato plant. The flowers have bloomed. If conditions are correct, I am looking forward to tomato fruits next week. Cheers! I'll update again very soon.


The tomato flowers have bloomed

Lime Plant

I bought a lime plant (keylime?) today.I think its scientific name is Citrus aurantifolia. The plant looks very healthy and has some fruits growing already. The fruits are commonly used in many south-east asian dishes like rujak, hot peanut sauces, sambel, soups etc. I guess I will try to repot it as soon as possible as the pot that comes with it is rather small. I am looking forward to more lime fruits!


Isn't she healthy? on the left is my onion plants


the flower is fragrant

close-up photo of the fruit

Simple Home Composting

Dubbed as the "black gold" of soil, compost is a final product of any decomposed organic materials. The process is done with the help of micro-organisms. They break down these materials into simpler substances so that your plants can easily absorb them for use.

Compost are very rich in nutrients . Organic gardeners frequently use them as fertiliser and soil conditioner. Best of all, composting recycles and reduces your home wastes and this helps to create a more sustainable living environment.

I am going to show you the easiest way to create your own home-made compost. You will need basic things like container, unwanted materials, some soil (to jump start the decomposition process) and water.


What to compost?

• Any fruits peels like bananas, oranges, mangoes etc.
• Vegetable scraps like carrot peels, unwanted vegetable leaves, onion and garlic peels etc.
  
• Stale breads, Stale rice etc.
• Rotten vegetables, fruits etc.
  
• Coffee grounds, used tea bags, eggshells.
• Tissue papers, shredded papers, cardboards.
  
• Fallen leaves, wilted flowers, grass cuttings
• Hair, fur, feathers, sawdust
  

Do not compost :-

• Any meats (this will attract unwanted pests)
  
• Faeces (this will spread diseases and parasites and also attract harmful pests)
  
• Plastics materials (they will not decompose)
  
• Milk, butter, margarine, chemicals, medicine
  
• Sauces, oils, soaps
  

The rule is simple for composting. For every green part(materials that break down easily like vegetables, fruits), you must add in 3 parts of brown materials(materials that is dried i.e. papers, sawdust, dried leaves, dried grass etc). In this way the mixture is "balanced". If the compost mixture is not balanced, the compost will smell badly.

Materials needed: Shredded papers(brown materials), leaves and dead plants (green materials)

cutting materials into smaller pieces helps to speed up the decomposition process.

dump in the green materials into a container. You may want to add in some soil to introduce micro-organism. In this example, I am using my existing compost.

dump in the brown materials, in this example I use shredded papers.

Mix the materials thoroughly.

Sprinkle some water into the container. The compost should be damp and not flooded.

A final-product compost ready to be added to plants.

A good compost :-

• Is not smelly
• Smells earthy
• Does not attract pests like cockroach, lizards etc.

Things to take note :-

• Water when the compost is dry. Never overwater or flood it as oxygen will not get through it and this will cause the compost to be smelly. This is one of the main reason why people think composting is smelly!
  
• Turn the compost frequently so that oxygen can get in. It is needed by the micro-organism to break down the materials evenly. Remember they are like us, they need to breathe in oxygen to do their work.
  
• Place the compost bin in a shaded area. Make sure rain water does not get in.
• Compost usually will be ready for use(usually 2-3 months) once they turn black, and original materials cannot be distinguished anymore.
  

...and don't forget to wash your hand. Happy composting folks!