Terrace Gardening: My Experiences

Carrots in a container

2013-09-07T00:13:00.000-07:00

My first attempt to grow carrots in a container failed miserably. The seeds never germinated. Then couple of months ago, got Super Kuroda.

Sowed the seeds in a 6"deep container on the 16th of July, 2013 and the seeds germinated in less than 10 days. The potting mix a combination of 2 parts of coco-peat and 1 part of organic fertilizer from a local nursery. Carrots prefer smooth soil, and having pebbles, stones in the potting mix can restrict the growth or the carrot would look monstrous.
The below pic of a similar container and seeds were sowed, roughly about a week back.

This needs to be thinned, I sowed 3 to 4 seeds together with a gap of 2". The carrots need atleast 2 months to mature. But it also depends on the variety, climate and potting mix. The season I chose was rainy and there was plenty of rainfall in India this time. But Bangalore moderate climate should allow you to grow carrots all round the year. But it needs to be well fed with water. Adding woodash (a good source of potassium), would result in sweeter carrots.
My container looked pretty beautiful at the end of two months:

You can harvest the carrots once you can see the crown popping out.

Harvested 8 carrots so far and almost about 14 more carrots are left in the container to be harvested later.

Happy Gardening!!!

Updates on my Garden

2012-12-23T02:28:00.002-08:00

After a long hiatus, I am back with updates on my Garden.
Was able to manage a descent harvest, much to the envy of my relatives, who joked on the concept of Terrace Gardening.
So far, devoured White long radish, Cauliflower, lots cherry tomatoes & birds eye chilly.
Pictures taken today:

Have planted 2 plants of Green bell pepper, 1 Yellow bell pepper, Broccoli, another variety of chilly.

December has been a fruit full month, Strawberry has finally flowered.

A major disappointment in the last few months was a band of monkeys frequenting the terrace. A beautiful cauliflower was eaten. I didn't remove the plant but just let it grow and surprisingly many more saplings grew over and around the plant. Harvested them twice already.

Pests in my Garden :(

2012-08-10T19:32:00.001-07:00

My garden is under attack!!!

Aphids on Chili Plant

I had not taken a notice this, and resulted in severe Aphid infestation. Luckily, Neem Magic (picked up from VMSRF, BTM Layout, Bangalore) came to my rescue.
There are many cures for Aphid removal:
1. Spray with soap/detergent water
2. Use combination of Garlic, Chili, Ginger paste and sprinkle
3. Place an aluminium foil underneath the plant, Aphids don't like the Sun much
4. Neem solution/magic, easily available in the market. Spray everyday till you don't see the Aphids
5. Banana peel. place one near the stem. I haven't tried this, but read it works

Mosaic Virus on Tomato Plant

I had received this plant as a gift from VMSRF. Was very happy the way it was growing. Looks like I have to get rid of the plant now. :(
It is affected by the Mosaic Virus. There is no cure for this.
And the only solution is to uproot the plant and burn it. The virus seems to survive for 50years even after the plant is dead.
For now, I have cut the branches of the plant. Hoping that it'll survive, but the chances are less.
If it doesn't then, burn the plant and sterile the soil by drying it under the Sun.

Leaf Miner on Tomato Plant

My Tomato plant has become a permanent home for all different pests/viruses.
Leaf Miner is the larvae of insects, which survives in-between a leaf, eats the leaf tissues :(
There is no insecticide, neither chemical nor organic, available for this.
However, people say the following methods work:
1. Sticky yellow strips. They attract the insects to leave the larvae on the yellow strip.
2. Trap crops. Plant Marigold among your pots/plants.
3. Sprinkle Neem solution should contain the infestation.
4. Cut the infected leaves.

Growing Coriander & Fenugreek (Methi) in container

2012-08-05T01:31:00.002-07:00

There are few seeds which are readily available in any Indian household.
Coriander & Methi fall in that category.

Coriander seed is a dicot. It has to be split into two before sowing for early results. Sowing it as a whole just slows the process and makes no difference in quality. The seeds look like this:

Forgot to take a close up pick. Maybe you'll find a close up picture in my earlier posts or try Google images.

For splitting the seeds, you could cover the seeds in a cloth, put them in a bag and rub the seeds with a slipper. Don't apply too much pressure, you might damage the seeds.

Fenugreek (Methi) is a monocot. And the seeds like:

Following my past experience with containers, I picked up a tub which is 6" deep and filled it with a mix of cocopeat and compost. I have used 30% of compost and rest of it is cocopeat.

Draw lines with index finger or with a stick to make markings where you want to sow the seeds. I decided to go with 3 lines of Coriander & 3 lines of Methi.

And this how it looks after sowing the seeds.

I sprinkled a thin layer of cocopeat on top of the sown seeds. Now waiting to see the results.

Note: Fenugreek (Methi) needs less of Nitrogen and enriches the soil with Nitrogen.

Updates:
Was amazed to see the seeds sprout in 3 days. Really happy with the progress :)
Presenting pics over last one week and the one in the middle was taken today

Today's pic: 18/08

26/08:

Growing tomatoes in Containers

2012-08-04T05:04:00.001-07:00

I picked most of my seeds from Lalbagh. Got tomatoes too.

Paid Rs.30 for the packet. Its one of the hybrid variety of tomato.
Read from the web, that its been derived from Marvel & Globe varieties of tomatoes. And is father to many other recent hybrid varieties.

I tried to germinate the seeds using the tissue paper. It was disaster.
Decided to directly seed them into a plastic bag:

The seeds germinated in 5 days. This photo was taken when it was 15days old. Had put in 4 seeds and all of them sprouted. Transplanted 3 saplings to seeding tray. Will have to find some new containers and transplant them.

The status of the tomato plant today (04/Aug/2012) is :

I was gifted a 20-day old tomato sapling at the VMSRF workshop, don't know about the variety.

It looks like this now, its 27-days old now:

I have planted few spinach saplings. Supposed to grow well with tomato, but I have to ensure I keep providing them enough nutrients.

Status of tomato I planted on 18/Aug

26/08:

Pic on the left is the one I planted and the one on right is the one I received from VMSRF

Sowing Dil in Containers

2012-08-04T04:39:00.001-07:00

Picked up Dil in a promotion event for Organic farming. Paid Rs.10 for them:

The person at the stall said its Organic. But was worth the money spent.

Please sow Dil in a pot which is at least 9"or 12"deep. I tried with 4"containers and sprinkled the seeds on the container.

Dil is ready for harvest almost in a months time. But in my case, even after a month, there were no signs of the plant growing. They tend to grow up to a height of 12". This was the status of my plants after a month:

The leaves started to split but didn't gain height. I decided to investigate the cause and found this:

The entire container was consumed with roots and there was no space for them to spread. Hence, I recommend using a deep container, if you are not sowing them in the ground.
Instead of sprinkling the seeds. Draw lines on the ground/container with your index finger or a stick. Sow the seeds in those lines. Leave space of 3" between the rows.
To save my plants, I moved them to a deeper container:

Will wait for another week and then harvest the leaves.

Please note: Plants need space and room to grow else you'll have dwarf varieties.

Choice of Containers

2012-08-03T22:16:00.002-07:00

You learn from the choices you make. I learnt mine today.

Had planted Dil seeds in a 4"container and this is what I found today:

The entire container was full of roots and no space for the leaves to grow. Dil leaves can be harvested in a months time. I had sowed quite a lot earlier and didn't see much of growth and hence decided to investigate and found this.

Make sure you choose the right container. My rough estimate is a 6"deep container should be good to grow leafy vegetables like Cilantro, Spinach etc... whereas I recommend a 9"to 12"container for Dil.

I have picked up a 6" tub for growing Cilantro & Spinach.

For rest of the plants, tomatos, chilly, cauliflower, cabbage etc... a 12"container should be ideal. You could use the 20lts plastic buckets too.

For growing roots like potatoes, carrots, radish etc... you need containers at least two feet deep for a better harvest.

Having said the above, you are free to experiment with any container of your choice.

You learn only after trying it :)

Growing spinach in Containers

2012-07-28T21:57:00.001-07:00

Spinach is the easiest of all the leafy vegetables. It will be ready to harvest in a month. It recommended vegetable any first time gardener. Zero maintenance vegetable.

Picked up the seeds from Lalbagh Botanical Garden. Paid Rs. 30 for the below packet.

Google for the pic of seeds, plenty available. I had read of germinating seeds on tissue paper.

Thought of doing the same for spinach. Bad Idea. The seeds should be sown directly into the soil and not transplanted.

I had put in five seeds, all of them germinated. Transplanted them into the bottle of coke. But only one survived :(. This seeds were placed in the tissue paper on 1st July. They took 5 days to germinate. This pic was taken on 8th July.

The plant in the middle, is the only one standing from the germinated seeds. I sowed couple of more seeds next to it. The below pic was taken on 12th July.

And this is the one taken today, 29th Jul.

The spinach should be ready to harvest in a week.

Spinach in the bottle wasn't enough for one meal. But it made its way into the Salad :)
I picked a tub this time to grow my Spinach:

Medium used is Coco Peat and compost. 70% of peat & 30 %.
Made 35 holes with a stick and sowed the seeds on 11/Aug.

The pic below was taken today morning (18/Aug)

26/08:

New pots, bag and plants :)

2012-07-28T21:04:00.000-07:00

I was given 5 saplings at VMSRF, and luckily for my mother's friend was discarding clay pots.
Grabbed the opportunity and this is how they look now:

Have applied panchgavya today. Eager to see the results.

Put in lot of efforts to dig through the coco peat. The brick was 1 feet long and I soaked it in a cement bag.

Got enough to fill the below plastic bags and this is how they look now.

The first two contain carrots and last one has brinjal seeds. The seeds usually take upto 5 days to germinate.

Eagerly waiting for the next weekend to see the results of my new experiment.

Using coco peat for gardening

2012-07-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

Lesson Learnt!!!

I have been reading about this method for quite sometime. There are many alternates to soil.

Water, Coco peat, Peat moss etc... Cultivation on water (Hydroponics) is clean. There is no wastage of resource and it can always be re-utilized. This doesn't work for me as I don't have enough space and not keen on spending money on this setup.

Coco peat & Peat moss can be used in pots. Coco peat works good for me. Light in weight and perfect for keeping on the terrace/balconies.

I picked up two bricks of Coco peat from Garden Guru Store last week. This is how it looks:

You have to add water and the brick expands, giving you the medium for sowing. I a feet long.

The lesson I learnt was never to buy a brick unless you have a big bucket or a drum. I found it hard to cut into half and didn't have a big bucket/drum, so dropped it into a gunny bag and I am literally digging to get the coco peat. The material is loosely available. Recommend to use it.

About 500gms of coco peat brick would need 3lts for water. You do the math, if you buy a brick. Don't have to source water if bought loosely.

Most Important, coco peat doesn't have any nutrient value in it. You have to add nutrients. You have bags (similar to tea bags) available, that you place in the pot and every time you water the planet, the nutrients flows into the pots.

I am using Panchagavya(PG). An organic Indian mix, prepared from products derived from the Cow.

Check the wikipage for more details. However, it looks like this:

Usage: put 5% of PG in a liter of water and apply to the base of the plants. Many people are using it and the results are amazing.

An update on my Garden

2012-07-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

2012-07-21T08:08:00.002-07:00

Coriander has started flowering :) waiting for the seeds now

Spinach looks good too. Have another set of Spinach growing along.

Dil too looks beautiful. The germinating of Dil seed was amazing.

Proud to have this Mint. Story goes, bought at the store, cleaned, sorted and left is the refrigerator for more than a week. I realized mint doesn't need a seed to grow but only a stem. Picked up 4 from the refrigerator, only one survived. So, this one holds a special place.

Just back from Terrace Gardening Workshop

2012-07-21T08:01:00.002-07:00

Attended workshop held at Vittal Mallya Scientific Research Foundation. Met Dr. Viswanath, a pioneer in the field of Organic gardening in Bangalore. Started promoting Organic Gardening since 1995 and has been successful in enlightening more and more people in this field.
There were 30 people who attended the course. Few pics from the VMSRF terrace

Choice of containers is up to you. Your imagination is the only limitation. Cauliflower, Tomato grown in 12" clay pots. Capsicum & a new variety of Chilly in paint containers.

Dr. Hegde explaining seeds varieties, soil mixing, seeding, tools, pest control/management

At the end of the day we were gifted with a copy of Dr. Viswanath's popular book "A handbook of Organic Terrace Gardening"and the below five saplings. Two chilly, two cauliflower and a tomato. I picked up a Strawberry sapling :)

Will be planting the saplings tomorrow morning. will update tomorrow on how it goes and also on the technology I picked up at VMSRF.

My first harvest

2012-07-13T21:55:00.002-07:00

The leaves underneath started turning yellow, hence decided to harvest the cilantro.

Feels good, to eat what you've grown. Without any fear of chemicals, fertilizers.. just pure vegetable...

However, I am a little unhappy about the spinach I transplanted last week. Out of 5, only 1 survived. Will post pics of it later.

I picked up few tools last week, paid about Rs.220 for them.

Wonder when and how I am going to use them :)

Germinating seeds

2012-07-07T23:40:00.002-07:00

Having been following a group named Organic Terrace Gardening on Facebook. Read a post where in Seeds were germinated before sowing. Hence, as per the instructions:
1. Soaked spinach, tomato seeds overnight in a bowl of warm water.
2. Placed the seeds in tissue paper, and sealed them in zip lock plastic bag. Remember to keep the tissue paper moist and not wet as the seeds rot. Lot a bunch of spinach to this :(
3. After five days the spinach looks like this:

Carefully cut the piece of paper and placed them in the bottle of coke and it looks like this now:

High hopes on this experiment :) btw, coriander looks like this now:

Using as pots with everything that is being thrown away. Bought a toy for my Son, used the box for planting coriander again.

Have planted tomato seeds today. Will share the pics as soon as the seeds sprout.

Status update

2012-07-01T01:06:00.001-07:00

Its been 3 weeks, since I sowed the coriander seeds and it looks like this now:

The growth rate seems to be slow but happy with progress :)
Toying on the idea of reusing cola bottles, i emptied a bottle and cut it across.

Planning to grow Spinach in it...

New chapter in life: From Geek to Gardener

2012-06-30T08:32:00.001-07:00

It was a long time ago, when I helped mom setup a kitchen garden@Dwd. But vaguely remember we ever put a serious effort to sustain our needs. Happy with the one-time success, the idea withered down.

I am now bitten by the gardening bug but don't have the space we had at Dwd. I have to stick to containers:(

Well, the thought came to me when I heard coriander costs Rs.45 in Bangalore. This was in the month of May 2012. I quickly searched on Google for blogs on growing coriander. Learnt most of the thing from the Geek Gardeners blog. Headed to Lalbagh, picked up the seeds, compost and red soil.

On way to office, picked a pot (Rs.120) my biggest expense so far.
Very next day, loosened the soil, mixed the compost and sowed the seeds. After a wait of 15days, there was sense of achievement, on seeing the seedlings :)

Marriage Certificate

2011-01-29T07:12:00.000-08:00

Hello All,

I thought i'll write a post on how to get your Marriage Certificate from Dharwad, Karnataka. The rules and regulations might change for other states. But, my best guess is, its the same all over Karnataka.
First of all, you need to get the following things in place:
1. Two couple photographs (a wedding or reception snap with bride and the groom) of size 4x6 size.
2. Three B2 size photographs. The photograph should the same snap as used above.
3. A wedding invitation card.
4. Voters id acts as the best id proof and they usually ask for it. Else your Passport, Ration Card etc...

You can get the registration form from sub-registrars office. In Dharwad, you get the forms at the Xerox shop next to the sub-registrars office.
On the form you need to fill in Bride's and Groom's details and Signature with date. Then you need three witnesses who attended your wedding and get their details and signature on the forms.

Submit the form to the Sub registrar, who on verifying will sign the form. Once the form is signed, a lady enters the details on to a computer and gives you a rough document for verification. Please make sure there are no mistakes on the rough document as the details in the rough document will be used to make originals.
You have to sign on the B2 photographs and done. You get two copies of your marriage registration.

Hope this info is helpful.

GoodLuck,
Jayant

Nokia 5800 XM apps

2010-04-19T07:40:00.000-07:00

With smart phones making way into the market, there are loads of applications coming along. I see most of the people owning a touch screen smart phone. Mostly iphone, blackberry, N97 and the E series are most popular. But for people like me who are a little budget conscious are settling for 5800 XM, samsung series and those who can't afford the big names are going in for karbon, maxmobile etc...

This has given rise to pllleeeeeeeeeentty of mobile applications. Almost everyday i have been hooking on to the Ovi store and downloading apps. Its simply superb that a mobile can perform most of the operations performed on a computer. Its amazing.

MyPhone is another amazing app, it gives your phone a look and feel of an iPhone. Completely built on flash, it consumes a bit of the memory but its worth the experience. And after experiencing that i don't need an iPhone ;).

Opera Mini comes in handy. Its pretty fast too. Then there are the communities where i can configure Social Networking Plugins.

Then touch guitar & touch piano allow me to make my own music on the go. How cool is that???
Still exploring the apps, gotto install openoffice and so many other stuff..
Will update soon ;)

Nokia Express Music 5800

2010-03-08T22:05:00.000-08:00

Even after more than 3 years of service, my N70 failed to impress me after i saw the Nokia 5800. Yes, i finally bought a new cell phone for myself and its AWESOME!!!
Its touch screen with Wi-Fi and GPS. One motion sensor game too. I am not sure if i am going to make full use of the phone but i am on it 24x7. Well, for now i am using the internet using the Wi-Fi. Its great, i enter my home or office and i am hooked to the internet. I guess i'll start writing my blog from my new phone ;) from now.