Old cucumber, thats what we call it here and some think its simply ordinary cucumber we have and left to aged thus called old cucumber. This is best or most famous used locally to boil soup and the plants looks like cucumber plant. This was grown from my compost bin and I sort of let it be for a few weeks and it managed to produce a few cucumber.
This little experiment simply prove, most plants are very hardy and resilient, they simply survive and thrive given the right conditions even inside a small pot. 2018 first big harvest and this little potted winter melon plant started roughly 6 months ago from a tiny seed and I simply recycled some abandoned wood to make a little cage for it to creep on. Only one fruit made it while the rest simply dried up and dropped off the vine. Only fed with home made compost and no artificial fertilizer or pesticides. The leaves is being attacked but the fruit seem to have none insect bite mark compared to other fruits or vegetables I have.
Most of us who tried this bright red drink which taste like berry would not believe it came from this dried hibiscus flower called roselle. Its very easy to grow, just get one of the fruit and dry it to harvest the seed. It takes a few months to grow up to 1 meter or more which the entire plant will be filled with flowers. The fruit will form and you can harvest it and dry it. The dried flower can be kept for years and you can make drinks by boiling it in water which re-hydrate it and edible too.
This is the end result of converting unused fences around the neighbourhood into a simple farm. Passion fruit has been one of the most successful of all, with little to not much care once planted around the fence. This luscious growth from a few passion fruit plant scattered along a 3 meter stretch started creeping up the fence and fruit within 4 to 5 months time. The fruit it ready harvest now, last count, around 50 to 60 fruits so far.
HongKong kailan is basically a tastier and less bitter version compared to the common version, of course has higher value in the market too because its crunchy and tasty to eat. I got a pack of seeds and started this experiment, leaving some to grow until it flower and plan to harvest its seeds.
It takes a few weeks to mature and eventually grow taller and being able to stand on its own, heavy rain always damage these delicate vegetables, best place them under some roof with partial sunlight.
This vegetable will mature and form flowers which will eventually turn into seeds.
We always buy shallot in a bag and some of if might be growing in the bag or sometimes we left it in the drawer too long and it started growing. Don’t toss them out yet, just plant these shallot in a pot or on the ground, let them grow for a month and you get fresh new ones, a lot more actually.
Found old potatoes in my drawer and decided to plant them than throwing them away. Surprisingly, its pretty easy and i just stick it 3/4 into the soil.
Found this little lime plant growing from my heap of compost and i am going to save it.
Most likely will have more updates in months to come, fingers crossed for some juicy lime to make drinks.
The ginger plant is another easy to grow crop, by sticking any young or old ginger to the ground and cover it with a thin layer of soil. You will see many little shoots start growing from it and as the plant grow taller, add more soil to get more ginger. Soon enough, all healthy ginger plant will grow little buds and they will bloom beautiful little red and white flower.
This batch takes about 4 to 6 months to harvest and i only feed them compost no artificial fertilizer. Do not water the plant too many times a day or don’t water at all during rainy season, ginger tend to rot if the ground is constantly wet or soaked with water.
Within 2 to 3 months, plenty of young ginger to be harvested. Pluck out those growing new shoots and put them back into the ground, till the next harvest.
Galanggal thrive in coarse or sandy growing medium which does not stagnate water and should be planted not too deep into the ground. Constantly adding compost and earth over it each month and they will keep growing depending on what texture of galanggal you wish to harvest. Young ones takes about 5 months while older ones past 6 to 7 months. You can always dig one small patch to check if its ready or else just put it back and cover it up with soil.
Galanggal from planting to harvesting takes about 6 months and this plant are easy to care, little maintenance and grow in abundance. Image above shows galanggal grown for 6 months.
Within months it will take over a large area and you should start cutting older leaves some which started to dry up. This will reduce competition from each other and you get more harvest later on.
This is the galanggal flower origin from Thailand. Flowering means the plant is starting to mature and galanggal are ready to be harvested in the next few weeks.
This is what you get after 6 months, young and tender galanggal, the plant will continue to grow and the galanggal will be too ripe and very hard.
How galanggal grows in the ground, carefully removed and washed clean.
mybigSfarm 