Cauliflower in the lowlands

Another plant that many have always said can only be grown in cooler areas such as Cameron Highlands is the cauliflower.  I started these from seeds, germinating 1 tiny seed per seeding polybag of about 6cm in width and 10cm in height.  I use a potting mix comprising of soil, mulch, and  vermicompost.  I lightly spread my soil mix over the seed, just enough to cover it and sprinkle water to moisten it.  I sprinkle water on it daily and after about 7 - 10 days, it germinates with 2 heart-shaped leaves.  It seems like the cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower all have similar first 2 leaves so if you germinating them at the same time, you might want to label it in some manner.  The seeds do not germinate at the same time so do not get anxious if you see 1 or 2 sprout in the beginning.  It is essential to obtain good seeds for good germination rate.

After the seedling have begun to produce 4 leaves, which takes about 10-15 days, I will then transplant them either to the ground or large polybags.  The third and following leaves do not look like the initial 2 leaves.  The soil composition is similar to what I use in the potting mix.  By seeding in a small polybag, it allow me to reduce disruption to the roots so that it does;t go into shock when I
transplant it.

It takes about 3 months before the flowers will start to appear so be patient.  Small patches of florets will appear.  The thicker the stem is the healthier the plant is.  It is important not to let the plant grow too long in the small polybag before transplanting to a bigger space or it will effect the growth and ultimately the size of the cauliflower produced.  Keep the soil moist and fertilize fortnightly - small amounts - ensuring a steady supply of nutrients for growth.

As we do not use any hormones or other artificial additives, the growth rate of the florets takes about 1 month before you will get a good sized cauliflower.  What I have learnt is the good fertilisation and water control as well as area size for growth of the plant makes a big difference to the health and growth of the plant and flower.  By ensuring these factors are taken care of, there is no need to use chemical plant inducers.  Applying a layer of mulch on the soil surface also helps to retain the water whilst keeping the soil moist not soggy which is detrimental to the plant as it will cause the stem to rot from over supply of water.

For pest control, we use our homemade effective microorganism with citronella spray.  This serves as pest control as well as additional nutrients to the plant.  Keeping it organic and free of chemicals gives me the freedom of enjoying the florets raw without having to use other chemical cleansers before consumption.

My conclusion: you can grow cauliflower in the lowlands and with the proper care, you will get to enjoy these delicious vegetable.

Shredder, My New Love

I am involved in a new love affair - yes, you read it right.  My new love's name is Hawk Shredder which is made in China.  It is simply wonderful, it helps me out and does things that fills my heart with joy and it didn't put in in the red, in fact, in shaa Allah, within 1 year will help me save money.  What more could a woman want?
Am I gushing over a shredder/chipper?  Yes, I am.  I have been looking for a shredder for over two years but I didn't want to over-invest.  After all, one of the principles of the farm is to be sustainable economically so any investment should be able to pay for itself.  Otherwise it would not be practical. This item is important to the farm, not a toy.

Being an organic farm that is more focussed on maximising nature's bounty (which is our tag line), an inherent principle is to go for natural farming where possible and using what we have to the maximum potential.  For us, it is important to keep the soil alive and to continuously feed it so it will be healthy, enabling us to grow edibles using more natural methods.

Top soil is important as well as the soil composition.  An important element in our farming methodology is the use of organic mulch, free of pesticides and chemical fertilisers.  In our initial stages, we used bought organic matter but over the years, we have begun to recycle our organic waste such as banana pseudostems, ginger torch leaves and stems, grass and various other plant-based matter.  In this manner, we can feel confident of mulch matter being free from chemical pesticide, herbicide and fertiliser.

As in all love affairs, it is not perfect.  There are ups and downs.  The downs are the shredder cannot handle recyclable wastes that have high water content nor with lots of stringy fiber so it doesn't handle the banana pseudostem.  It will cause the shredder to clog up and overheat.  The up is there are many options at the farm - the tebrau, bunga kantan stems and leaves and all sorts of other vegetation.

You also need to get attune to how it functions - don't stuff the input chutes or you will have problems with it clogging up.  Just take it easy.  Every once in a while, you will need to clear the output chute.  As the shredded material will be moist, it may clump up so it doesn't drop off easily.  Get a feel on when you need to speed up the engine and when you can just have it at a steady pace.

As with any relationship, you have to maintain it.  Be sure to use good quality 4-stroke engine oil - no need to go overboard on this as the prices of the oil for 1 litter range from between RM 10 - 50.  Periodically clean it so that it doesn't dry up on the insides and create blockages.

All in all, I am happy with it as we have been running the shredder about 3 times a week, 2-3 hours each time.  I now use a lot of mulch all over the farm, around my fruiting trees, my vegetables, and also as an organic additive to the soil.  At the rate that I am creating and using mulch, the machine along with the lubricants and petrol would have paid for itself in 6 months.

The Cabbage Saga

I first wrote about planting cabbages 2 years ago and have since learnt more about it.  It still remains in my top 10 favourite vegetable, not only for the taste but also for the versatility and nutrition.  I still depend on commercial cabbage seeds as I haven't figured out how to get my own seeds but this time around I am keeping one plant and letting it grow to see what happens as an experiment.  Cabbages are notoriously slow growers especially in comparison to other leafy vegetable like the choy sum or pak choy. It takes about 4 months before they produce a good head of cabbage.

I found that space area for a growing cabbage is important in the resulting size of the cabbage.  I experimented growing the cabbages at different length of separation of the stem and also in various sizes of polybags.  I get best results when the planting space between plants is at least 2 feet or 60 cm.  If there is a lack of water, you can see the leaves wilting but if you water it as soon as possible, you can see them perk up after about 1 hour.  So, this is a good gauge for me to see that the plants have enough water.  As with many other plants, it doesn't like soggy soil so I make sure that the soil mix I use has good drainage but yet remain moist and I achieve it by using sufficient organicc matter in the soil mix.

By going organic and not using any growth hormones, my cabbages are not big but its leaves are tightly packed and the cabbage head weighs anywhere from 400-600 gm each.  I fertilise it with organic fertilisers (Vermicompost)  and also use an EM spray (home-made).  As the cabbage grows, I will periodically remove the old leaves at the bottom and top up the soil with some organic matter mixed with vermicompost.  I know it is time to top up with some soil when I see fine white roots at the soil surface.

I find that the biggest pest to the cabbage is the ulat bulu and the caterpillars.  They can really much their way through the leaves.  I have yet to find a fool-proof organic pesticide or pest-deterrent so I check the plants often and pick off those crawlers.  However, handle them carefully and I find that touching them bare hands causes an allergic reaction to me -  the skin gets irritated and itchy.  I find that spraying them at least once a week with the beneficial bacteria mixed with serai wangi also helps control the leaf-eating pests.  Remaining organic is important for me as I love eat these vegetable raw and since the leaves are what is consumed, using any chemical pesticide will remain on the leaves, even if it is minute amounts.

The cabbage can be harvested when the lower leaves have turned into a dark green colour whilst the cabbage head remains a lighter green.  You can also notice leaves starting to sprout from the stem below the main cabbage growth.  The baby cabbage leaves are also edible so don't throw them away.

Once the cabbage head is harvested, the stem with the roots can be replanted and you will get baby cabbages growing off the side.  Whilst you may not get a cabbage head again, these baby cabbage leaves can be harvested and turned into a vegetable dish.

There are so many ways to eat cabbages: raw cabbages can be made into sales, coleslaw and as ulam; cooked cabbages as a vegetable dish, stir-fried, in a soup or sayer lemak, to name a few.

There are purported to be many health benefits to eating cabbages:

• It is high in vitamin K and anthocyanins that help with mental function and concentration by preventing nerve damage and improving your brain's defines against Alzheimer's disease and dementia.
• Low in fat and high in fibre which will help in your digestive system.
• The high content in vitamin C and sulphur helps the body to remove toxins such as free radicals and uric acid.
• Purported to have cancer preventive compounds which inhibits cancer timor growth.
• Has antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties.

Hence it is a good vegetable to add to my vegetable menu selection.

Tomatoes, oh Tomatoes

One of my favourite fruity vegetables is the tomatoes, organically grown and vine-ripened since I
love them raw with its natural sweetness.  I have planted them many times over the years and with each time, I learn more and more.  This time around, it looks like the yield will be more and the plants are the healthiest.

Tomatoes, whether ripe or not, are a favourite of many animals from worms and caterpillars to birds including chickens.  I have experimented planting them outdoors and in the greenhouse.  Due to the nature of my farm, where birds are free, the outdoor experiment resulted in me just feeding them.  So, now I only plant them in the greenhouse.

I plant them from seeds - it germinates in a few days - in the ground.  The quality of the seed is important for a good quality tree.  From my experiments, I find that unless you obtain vine-ripened tomatoes, the quality of the seed is not good even though it germinates.  If it is not vine-ripened, even if the tomato is left to ripen, the seed doesn't seem to further mature enough to produce good quality plants.  Most store-bought tomatoes are picked before it fully ripens, probably due to transportation and distribution time delays.  After it has produced 3 or more leaves (after the initial baby leaves which is normally 2 of them), I will transplant most of them into 20 cm diameter polybags, starting them at half full.  Through its life cycle, the roots will appear at the top so by starting half-full, it allows for me to cover the roots with more soil without the need to transplant them.  I do plant some in the ground but this limits the utilisation of the land and I can plant more tomato plants in polybags and have a more controlled setting.

Time to top-up the soil

The soil mixture I use is rich, organic soil - I tend to mix various things and then run my fingers through them to see if it feels right to me.  So, please do not ask what the ratios of soil, organic matter,sand, etc are.  It has to be able to run through my fingers and not lumpy.  I will water immediately upon transplanting, irrespective the time of day.  When I see the roots at the soil surface, I will top up with more soil, covering them.

I fertilise weekly, in small amounts, and also spray with home-made organic fertiliser/pest control spray.  I experimented over the years and find that this spray works best so for now, my experimenting on the tomato spray is done.  It prevents ants, white flies and also other assorted pests. It also seems to improve the health of the plant.  I use vermicompost as the "solid" fertiliser which I use about 1 teaspoon weekly per plant.  Tomatoes require lots of water for nice luscious fruits but not soggy, muddy soil so it is important that the soil contains enough organic matter to hold water and not suffocated the roots with mud-like sludge.  I water them twice a day on hot days, once early morning before 9am and once again in the late afternoon and on cool, rainy days, once in the morning.

The white flies are the most notorious to me followed by the
caterpillar.  The white flies lay eggs at the bottom of the leave and these babies then seem to suck the life out of the leaves, causing them to yellow and wither.  The spray I use addresses this problem and I have to be diligent about spraying it once a week.  In between sprays, I also water spray them off should I notice them.  Since this spray is non-toxic and provides lots of benefits, I have now started spraying them twice a week so I have to continuously prepare more concentrate.  The EM concentrate is made by mixing vegetarian kitchen wastes such as papaya skins and other fruit skins and pulp, tomato skins, vegetable stems, with molasses and fermenting them for 3 months in an air-tight container.  Weekly, I will open the lid of the container to release the gases produced by the fermentation process.  To create the spray, I mix approximately 100ml of the concentrate to 1 litre of water with a flat-teaspoon of Epsom salts.  I also sometime mix in some serai wangi juice to add additional pest deterrent properties.

Caterpillar and what is left of the fruit

The caterpillars can munch their way through lots of leaves and also the fruit, leaving just the skin of the fruit.  It is quite amazing to see them munching their way through.  Whilst butterflies may be beautiful, they are a great pest to this plants and their babies, the caterpillars are monster leave and fruit eaters.  Then we have the ants, which creates like a white cocoon to place their eggs where the babies will then such the sap out of the stem, effectively slowly killing the plant.  I also periodically remove any leaves that have signs of pests or "illness" to prevent it from spreading to the rest of the plant and I also remove old or yellowing leaves.

From my experience, tomato plants require support as it fruits or you will end up with broken stems as it cannot support the weight. I will wind "talk raffia" around the stems to support the stems.  This time around, this is something that I diligently need to do as the plants are producing substantial fruits. Just placing a stake to support the main stem is insufficient, I need to support the fruiting branches also. When planted in a pot and if you would like for it to be free-standing and easy to move around for your landscaping, I find using a T-shaped stake is best as it allows to the main stem to be supported as well as allow you to attaches strings and fine ropes from the top T to the fruiting branches.  From seeding to this point in fruiting, it took about 2 months.

I love watching the fruit turn from green to yellow to orange before finally vine-ripening to a red colour.  Once the fruit turns yellow, it takes a few days before becoming red and then it is at its prime in taste.  Each bunch can contain several tomatoes and they do not all ripen at the same time.  You can use these seeds to start a new generation of plants.  I dry them first and this allow me the option to sow the seeds when I want to.  When picked at its prime, you can store in the refrigerator for at least two weeks without significant degradation of taste and juiciness.

Updates: March 15, 2015

Growing vegetables: It's all in the soil

I continually strive to improve the quality of the vegetables produced at the farm.  The basic principle is "going organic".  What this means to me is that no chemical pesticides or fertilizers are used and the water source is free from "introduced chemicals".  From my experiments, it all starts with good quality seeds and importantly, good quality soil.

I experimented with different types of organic matter mixed with the soil.  As long as it is organic, I am game to try with some exceptions.  I have used goat manure, cow manure, decomposed vegetation as well as commercially produced organic soil mixture.  To me, it is important what you add to the soil in order to have a good produce in the end.

The current round of vegetables that I am planting have at least 50% organic matter in the soil and I find that it works very well.  It keeps the soil moist and  not soggy and allows for good aeration as well as drainage.  For leafy vegetables, I plant them in polybags and keep them in my greenhouse to help reduce attacks by pests.  I will continue to add more organic matter and organic fertilizer as the plants grow with the frequency dependent on the type of vegetable.  I also seed other types of vegetables like baby cucumber, French beans, long green beans, tomatoes and various others with this highly organic soil mixture.  This helps produce healthy "baby plants" before they are transplanted outside with the exception of tomatoes which I keep in the greenhouse.  The main reason why the tomatoes remain in the greenhouse is because the chickens love the ripe tomatoes and would fly up to the fruits and peck at them!

By electing to go organic, I spray my vegetables with serai wangi juice which serves as a deterrent but I do have to do some manual tasks like manually removing the slugs and caterpillars as well as spraying them with water to reduce the "white flies".

I like to eat most of my vegetables raw so keeping it free from chemical pesticides removes the worry of ingesting harmful chemicals.  To me, washing the vegetables may remove most of these chemicals but some will still remain within the vegetable itself as well as on the surface.  The weirdest advise I have ever received was, in order to remove the chemical pesticides, to clean the vegetables with a mixture of water and Clorox!

After I harvest the vegetables, I will "process" the soil by mixing it with more organic matter before re-using it to plant more vegetables.  I love it when I encounter earthworms as these are among soil's natural best friends.

Project long green beans

I enjoy eating long green beans, whether raw or cooked.  I prefer them when they are mature and green, still crispy.  Previously, I had done smaller experiments in planting them, looking at soil content, support structure and water quantity as well as sunlight.  This time around, we decided to plant a lot more than previously, about 100 plants.
I started with seeding them in small polybags and once they were about 10cm with several leaves, they were transplanted.  The planting beds were also prepare carefully, removing the weeds and then mixing the soil with "seasoned" pure goat manure and then covered with black plastic.  The beds was covered to serve two main purposes: to reduce the weed and grass growth as well as to help retain moisture in the soil.
Since we do not use any chemical herbicides, it was essential to remove the weeds and grass prior to planting and to control any new growth.  It would be a waste for all the nutrients from the goat manure to be used by grass and weeds.  Covering the beds also meant that we would reduce the time taken to maintain the beds - a big savings in time as we would have to manually remove the weeds and grass.  I was hoping that it would also mean that we would not have to water them but rely on the rain to supply the necessary water to the plants and that has come to fruition.

Five weeks after transplanting, it began flowering  and about at six weeks, the first beans began to appear.  The intial harvest was around 6kg and now it is producing about 15 kg per week.  I am happy with the results in terms of the yield but I learnt that we need to improve how we support the plants.  On a weekly basis, I remove the mature leaves and try not to let any dry out on the plant.  By removing the old leaves, it encourages the plant to produce new shoots and more flowers.  Without old leaves drying out on the plant which turns mushy when it rains, it helps prevent mold from forming on the plant which can kill the plant.  As the leaves are maintained, I also manually remove the black aphids which literally suck the life out of the plant.  All the time and effort is worth it when I see the quality of green beans that we produce.  SubhanAllah.

Eggplants - So many varieties

Before I became a farmer, I was vaguely aware of the a couple varieties of the eggplant.  Now, I find that there are so many varieties and called a few names - eggplant, brinjals, aubergine and guinea squash - and is from the plant family Solanaceae.  As with the varied names, there are also many sizes, shapes and colors.  This plant is a perennial but is often cultivated as an annual in locations which have a climate other than tropical.

This plant is propagated from seeds.The plant can grow quite tall but can be controlled by selective pruning to help shape it.  It produces small purple or white flowers with a yellow stamen.  A healthy plant can produce lots of flowers, beautiful to look at so you might want to consider this for your home garden, both as a landscape feature and food source.  At the farm, it is watered regularly and fornightly organic fertilizing and this seems to result in good quality and quantity of flowers and fruit.  I also water them at least once a week with water from the fish pond so that it can receive the various minerals and nutrients available from this water.  Be careful with terung pipit though as it does have sharp thorns on its branches and stems.

It is difficult to spot the difference between the leaves so I wait until the plant produces the fruit although I can distinguish a couple of the varieties.  The fruits produce can weigh the plant stems down so it is important to stake them to prevent the plant from toppling or the fruits from laying on the gound which can damage it.  At the farm, I use a 1" pvc pipe of at least 1m long and then I thread "rafia" string along the branches to provide support.  I find that by threading the string, it prevents damage being done to the branches and provides balanced support.

Some varieties taste better than others eaten raw.  Other ways for preparing it include using it in curries, baked either with olive oil or with a cheese topping, dipped in batter and fried, sauteed with a seasoning of your choice, stuffed with cheese, seafood, breadcrumb mixture or whatever you fancy - the options are limited to your culinary imagination.  A special quality of terung pipit is it is often used locally is as a condiment to reduce the bitterness of papaya shoots.

There are probably more varieties so I look forward to more discoveries....

Tasty Green Beans (French Beans)

 

I find this vegetable plant makes for a lovely plant to grow on a trellis, with its delicate looking small lilac flowers and I can just hear some of friends say that this is the reason I planted it :). Its botanical name is Phaseolus Vulgaris.  They are rich in Vitamin A and C as well as Calcium and Iron.

Actually, it is one of my favourite bean vegetable.  The green beans, known as kacang buncis in Malay, takes approximately 45 days before it will start producing flowers resulting in tasty green beans in about 1 week. However in my latest experiment, it was ready to harvest in 40 days with the modifications I made from the previous experience.  The difference is:

1. Higher organic content in the soil - 30% of soil mixture is organic matter
2. Fertilizer used is vermicompost
3. Pest control and additional fertilisation with the use of E.M.++ spray.

I planted the plants from store-bought seeds which I sowed in organic-rich soil.  After about 3 days, it began to sprout.  In my previous plantings, I transplanted them in big polybags and placed them outdoors by a trellis when it began to produce its trailers.  This time around, I sowed it directly into the trellis bed.  For my experiment, I planted them in my greenhouse, mainly to prevent my chickens from scratching around the plant and so that I can work with it rain or shine.  The greenhouse roof is clear plastic sheets so it allows the sun in as long as the sun is out.  I find it best to water twice a day and it does well in lots of sunlight, which we a graced with here in Malaysia.  During its inital growth stage, I fertilize it once a week and once it starts to flower, I fertilize it fortnightly.  Once a week, I spray it with an organic pest repellent to keep the insects away,  which in this case is my E.M. spray with citronella (serai wangi).  To encourage growth of new shoots and flowering, I remove the old leaves periodically as well as ensure no leaves rot on the vine which may encourage fungus thus infecting the plants.

The soil mixture that is used is a mix of sand, lots of organic matter and soil.  This allows for good drainage and yet able to have a moist and not soggy soil for the plant to thrive in.  At the farm, the trellis is 2m high.  For your home landscape, you can plant it in a planter box or large pot and place it at a balcony or along a fence and you can have a nice plant to look at whilst at the same time able to harvest a good vegetable for lunch or dinner.  You can get that great satisfaction of harvesting and cooking a self-grown, tasty, healthy vegetable.  For future plantings, I am allowing some beans to mature and dry out on the plant so I can harvest the seeds which is almost black in colour with the skin of the bean being light brown in colour.  Now that I have a better methodology, I have sowed more seeds in our trellis beds in the outdoor vegetable section of the farm.

Some of the ways of preparing this is lightly sauteed in olive oil and garlic, often you can find it fried as a tempura, and added into various vegetable dishes.  It's subtle tastes makes it great to be cooked into savoury dishes so go ahead and use your imagination when preparing it and getting all the nutritious benefits from it.

Updated: March 18, 2015

Long green beans

Like many vegetables, the long green beans ( Malay name: kacang panjang, Botanical name: Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis ) can be eaten raw and are deliciously crisp when fresh.  Personally, I like them when they are a darker shade of green with slight visibility of the pods for eating them raw.  They are a good source of protein, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, iron, phosphorus, and potassium, and a very good source for vitamin C, folate, magnesium, and manganeseAs the fruit matures, it turns to a yellowish green to yellow to brown.


I seed them in small polybags (about 10cm diameter) using store-bought seeds. It takes approximately 3 days for the seeds to sprout and once it has sprouted, with the right soil mixture, it grows rather rapidly.  As with most of my vegetables, the soil mixture contains organic matter as well as some sand within the mixture to allow for good drainage as well as moisture control.  After about 7-10 ten days, they are ready to be transplanted.

At the farm, it is transplanted in polybags before placing them along a trellis to allow better utilization of area, effective fertilization, protection from the farm animals and ease of relocating as well as weeding.
The long beans is a climber and is easily trained.  If you plan to plant it at your house, you can plant it along the fence or by an arbor.  It takes approximately 30 days before beginning to flower which then transforms into the long beans.  During this period, the water content in the soil is very important - do not let it dry out as I find that this will reduce the quality and quantity of the beans produced thereafter.  Conversely, do not let it be in a soggy, wet soil as this will encourage rot which can kill the plant.  I let some of the beans to mature to create a new batch of planting seeds.  I fertilize them fortnightly with organic fertilizer.  The mature leaves are also removed periodically to encourage new growth and flowering as well to prevent leaves from rotting on the vine which can encourage fungus which in turn will affect the plant.

The beans are susceptible to black "aphids", which will eat the beans and my best friend in this is the kerangga, the natural predator to these pests resulting in me not having to worry about getting rid of these pest.

The young leaf shoots can also be eaten like many other leafy vegetables - cooking it within a stir-fry dish.As with many vegetables, they are so many ways to prepare it and for me, it is a must in pecal and lontong.  Sometime, I chopped it up along with other ulam and mix it with rice for my version of nasi kerabu.  So, have fun experimenting.

Growing Cabbage

I love cabbage - raw or cooked. I find that this vegetable is very versatile. Cabbages are rich in vitamin A and C. and Calcium. It is also a good source of Thiamin, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus and Potassium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Folate and Manganese
Thus I began to experiment planting it from store-bought seeds. I sowed the seeds into 6" polybags in a rich, organic soil mixture. It took about 3 days for it to begin to sprout. According to the seed package label, it should be transplanted in 3 weeks. I did transplant into bigger polybags in about 3 weeks but it was based on the growth of the seedlings - I transplanted them when the width of the plant was the same as the diameter of the polybag.A moist soil is important for its growth with a regular watering, never letting the soil dry out.  I fertilized it every 10 days with organic fertilizer to ensure continuous supply of nutrients.  To keep pests away, I use organic pest deterrents such as serai wangi mix and I check the leaves often to remove any "creepy crawlies".  I find the cabbage plant to be beautiful, like a big, green flower. 

For people with limited space, you can plant them in big planters where it can serve a dual purpose - providing a lovely plant to grace your landscape and at the same time, producing a vegetable for your consumption.  Normally, cabbages are planted in rows of soil beds but at the farm, I plant it in polybags to enable me to better care for them and also to prevent the farm animals from damaging them.  It is imperative to ensure that it receives sufficient water so I water it twice a day once it has been transplanted.

To enable a relatively constant supply of this vegetable, I have sown seeds about 1 month apart so I have plants at various stages.  After transplanting, it takes almost 3 months before they are ready for harvest.  Once the head begins to form, I stop fertilizing and just ensure that the plant receives sufficient supply of water.  I place the plants in my greenhouse to help reduce pests attacks.  The plants does well with lots of sunshine so if you are planting it on a balcony, be sure to allow it to receive around 6 hours of sunlight so a east facing balcony is best - allowing maximum sunglight with less heat.
From my experience, it takes almost 4 months for the cabbage to be ready for harvest so I have to exercise patience but I feel that it is well worth the effort.  Being pesticide-free, I enjoy eating the cabbage raw - as an ulam or salad.  You can also make coleslaw, stir-fry it as a vegetable dish, cooked as with spices and/or chili, pickle it, use it as a wrap for baked dishes, an item in sayur lontong - the options are endless.  So try growing it in a pot and enjoy the fruits of your labor :).
Notes - Lessons learnt:

1. Soil mixture should be "light" and contain high organic content to ensure a moist growing medium and ease for root growth.
2. Pest repellent are essential to produce beautiful cabbages.
3. Fertilization during growth stage before formation of the cabbage head is important to ensure a good size cabbage.
4. Lots of sunshine.
5. Never let the soil to dry out - water is critical to good growth.  Insufficient water will result in smaller size cabbage heads.

Kacang Bendi (Okra)

Okra which is also known as lady's fingers or kacang bendi with its botanical name of Abelmoschus esculentus is a vegetable that can be cooked in many ways and is a popular addition in curries locally.

There are two varieties that I plant at the farm: the green okra and the red okra.  The skin of the red okra turns to light green when it is cooked so you wouldn't know that it had red skin.  I planted this plant from seeds and it takes about 3-5 days to germinate.  From seedlings to maturity when it starts to flower takes about 60 days.

A healthy plant grows to look like a shrub with beautiful yellow flowers with a purple center.  The leaves are also a beautiful shape.  At the farm, I have planted this both in the outside ground as well as in a container.  As with many plants, it requires a soil mixture that moistens well as well as provide for good drainage.  I find that a soil mixture which also contains some sand as well as organic matter and low level of clay matter works well. 

Since it can be planted in containers, for home gardeners, you can plant this in large pots and will be a beautiful addition to your home landscape.  Do not let the soil to dry out as it does not do well when the soil is left to dry to days so check the moisture of the soil to water.  I find that it needs at least 8 hours of sun so if you plan to plant it at home, either a landed property or apartment, as long as it gets this amount of sunshine, it can do well,  It also can be planted in direct sunlight - in fact it does best in full sunshine during the day.  The plant can grow up to 2m tall but the height growth can be controlled by pinching off the tip of the plant to encourage it to "bush-out".

Once the flower blooms, it takes about 2-3 days before the "fruit" begins to form.  From then, the bean matures within 3-4 days.  The bean is best eaten when the tip of the fruit is firm and easy to break off.  If the tip just bends or is difficult to break off, this means that the bean will be hard and results in a stringy bean when cooked.  That is why, often, you will see people testing the tip of the bean when they are selecting the bean for purchase.

Okra is a popular health food due to its high fiber, citamin C, and folate  content. Okra is also known for being high in antioxidants. Okra is also a good source of calcium and potassium.

In Malaysia, the beans are cooked in several ways: it can be blanched and eaten with sambal belacan, deep fried with a tempura batter, it can be sliced and cooked with either chillies or soy sauce, stuffed with fish "cake" and cooked in hot water, or in curry or dalca dishes.

The Challenge of Growing Tomatoes

When I was living in U.S,, during the summer months I was often able to buy fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes and there were infinitely much better tasting than the regular store-bought ones. I have always found growing tomatoes to be a real challenge, not only from the weather aspects but also insects and bugs seem to love them.  I have tried planting them a few times and from each time, there were lessons learnt.  Due to the weather, I bought some tomato seeds that were labelled to be "tropical-friendly".  I used a high organic soil mixture with some sand content to seed the tomatoes.  Since I wanted to be able to move around my seedlings, I seeded them in polybags.  This also enabled me to keep it weed-free much easier. 

After about 3 days, they began sprouting.  I find that to ensure good root growth and healthy seedlings, it was important to ensure moist and not soggy soil condition.  A key item to remember, good root growth is essential as it is the point of entry for the nutrients that the plant needs.  So, if your plant has poor root growth, this will limit its ability to absorb the nutrients from you fertilizers.  When it was about 6"tall or approximately 10 cm, I transplanted into large polybags.  As the plant grew, more roots grew from the bottom level of the stem so I periodically added additional soil mixture to cover it which is 50% soil and 50% organic compost.  In order to accomodate this, when I transplanted them into larger polybags, I did not plant the seedling high but at about mid-level, allowing me the room to add additional soil in the future.

The tomato plants require support or else the plant will fall over as it does have a "soft" plant stem.  My plan is to retain these plants in a polybag throughout its cycle so whatever mechanism that I use had to continue to enable me to weed easily as well as move it when necessary.  I settled for creating "tube" fences from 2"x2" metal fence material.  These tube fences can be re-used when this set of plants die so I felt it was a good investment - both of time and money.

As my cats love to keep me company as I work in my greenhouse, this also help to keep the plants  from being sat-on or knocked-over.  As the plants grow, I would help the plant along by assisting the branches to ease their way through the slots, keeping it balanced.  After about 2 months, I had to add a stake to provide additional support as well as weave string along the stems as the weight of the tomatoes weighed the stem causing it to "fold" down, reducing the nutrients necessary to the growth on the stem.

To keep the pests away, I use a serai wangi mixture to act as a pest repellent, spraying one a week on the whole plant.  The plants are watered daily, in the morning mainly to prevent the formation of moss on the soil and also to ensure that it has sufficient water to prevent the plant from wilting.  After approximately 8 weeks, the plants began to flower at the upper part of the plant, producing several yellow flowers per stem.

Within 1 week, the flower had fully bloomed and dried out followed by the formation of the "baby" fruits.  The average height where the fruits began to form was 1m so I was glad that my tubes were high enough to be able to provide the necessary support for the fruits.  You can see the changes on the growth of the fruits daily and every morning that I am at the farm, this is the first plant that I check.  I fertilize the plants about every week, using organic fertilizer, which will further decompose within the soil providing the necessary nutrients to the plant.  I find the timing of the application of organic fertilizer is different from chemical fertilizers which dissolves in water immediately.  I check the root exposure level of the plant regularly and top up the soil as necessary.  It is important to keep the soil moist but not soggy or the stem of the plant will rot at the base, killing the plant.

I decided to experiment - I have some plants in the greenhouse and some outside.  I find that they grow as well outside as inside and that as long as I kept the pests aways, it was fine.  I placed the outside plants with a east facing so that it received lots of sunshine in the morning but shaded from the late afternoon side.  As I had planted it in polybags, it was essential to watch the moisture content of the soil - if it dries out, the quality of the fruit will drop.  I continue to spray it with an organic pest repellent weekly and it is now on a fortnightly fertilization schedule.  The pest will attack the plant stem, leaves as well as the fruit so it is important to watch out for them.  At the farm, the main pests are aphids, ants and caterpillars.

It took about 2 weeks for the tomato to ripen to a nice red-vermillion color from when it formed.  The average time from seeding to actually being able to taste the first fruit was 10 weeks. 
Nutritionally, it is a great source of vitamin A, C and K as well as Manganese and Potassium.  It is also very low on Sodium.  It is a good source for Vitamin E and Bs.  Being chemical pesticide free, I just needed to rinse of any dust and dive into it.  One thing I can say, it definitely tastes infinitely better being fresh off the vine :).  Personally, I prefer to have this raw: in a tossed salad, chopped up and mix with cilantro, olive oil and salt or blended as a cold "soup" - either of these ways preserves the nutritional value of the tomatoes best.
Now that this batch is producing fruits, it is time to start seeding the next batch.  The work continues......

Being A Small Farmer Part 5 - Growing Vegetables

In line with having an integrated farm, one of the key items is vegetables.  I selected the vegetables based on what I like.  Inherently, if you select what you like, then you would tend to pay more attention and I do believe this is true.  I have taken the route of planting most of my vegetables in polybags for two main reasons: (1) ease of weeds control and (2) to ensure that the vegetables get the fertilizer and not washed away or consumed by weeds.  The starting place is my greenhouse, where all the seeds get sown which is then transplanted and placed either within the greenhouse or outside.  What did I select?

To start with, I selected long green beans.  This is a versatile vegetable - you can eat it raw or cooked.  So naturally, going natural removes the worry of those pesky chemicals.  I started with sowing the seeds, in the greenhouse, which sprouted in about 3 days.  After allowing it to grow to about 10cm, I transplanted them into a polybag and placed them outside under its trellis.  The lesson I learnt from the first time that I planted this was that the chickens love to scratch around the plant, often uprooting it hence I didn't get much yield from it.  This time around, there are in polybags with the "tube" fence to prevent them from getting to the plant on sitting on it.  This plant is a climber so having a trellis structure is key to its growth.  The soil mixture that I use has a high organic content to it.  I sprinkle organic fertilizer fortnightly in circle with a radius of  about 6cm from the base of the plant.  I am fortunate that the farm is located in an area where there is good rainfall and since it was placed outside, I haven't had to water it, leaving the rain to provide the water.

 

It took about 40 days before it started to flower.  The flower and shoots are susceptible to a pesky black insect similar to aphids which will cause it to be destroyed.  My ally in this is the kerengga, those biting red insects.  Normally, I would try to get rid of them as they tend to bite you but in this instance, I allow them to roam freely thereby keeping the pests at bay.  The only problem is they like to make their "houses" with the larger leaves and to discourage them, I remove the leaves that they use to make their houses.  This serves a dual purpose - it enables me to control the population of the kerengga as well as well as encouraging new shoots.  I often snack on the green beans as I am doing maintenance the plants - picking them and munching on it without worrying about washing it.  The yield this time is also much better than my first attempt and we did manage to have some for sale at the Sunday morning market and it was gone very fast.

Another favorite vegetable of mine is the cabbage and it too can be eaten raw or cooked.  With the cabbage, one must be patient as it does take a lot longer compared to other vegetables before harvest.  However, I think it is well worth the wait.  It took about 5 days before it started to sprout and took about 3 weeks to grow to about 6 cm.  At this size, with at least four leaves, I transplanted them into polybags.  As with all my vegetables, the soil mixture has a high organic content to it.

I monitor the soil moisture and water it once or twice a day depending on the weather with pure uncontaminated river water.  I am still waiting for my cabbage to mature and be ready for harvest.  According to the seed label, it takes 75-80 days from transplanting, which means it will take about 96 - 101 days before harvest.  As the plant grows wide, It seems to be growing well and it is now about 40 days from transplant.  I do enjoy looking at the plant as it looks like a beatuiful big green flower.  This vegetable will remain in the greenhouse until it is ready to enable me to manage its pest control.  Those insects and caterpillars love munching on them and I find that with weekly serai wangi and water mixture spray, it keeps those pests away.  I am looking forward to eating it and I am not sure if any will make it to the Sunday morning market.  I guess I will have to plant lots more :).