Organic micro farm and vegetable terrace garden

Organic vegetable Garden on Terrace

Gardening on roof protect the roof from sunlight,

which controls the heat with in the rooms beneath.

On my terrace I grew, Beans, Eggplant, Tomato, Okra and other

How to grow tomato
How to grow brinjal/ Eggplant

Planted okra (Lady finger) in grow bags, for each plant one grow bag is used with compost soil.

10 plants can produce okra for 70-90 days. each plant will produce 5 to 10 okra, depending on the soil quality and sunlight and other basic needs of the plant to grow.

How to grow Okra, please view

Planted long beans in grow bags, for each plant one grow bag is used with compost soil.

This plant needs support for climbing, so installed trellis to climb up.

10 plants can produce more than 2 kilograms of beans.

How to grow Long beans, please view

Planted bitter gourd in grow bags, for each plant one grow bag is used with compost soil.

This plant needs support for climbing, so installed trellis or net to climb up.

10 plants can produce more than 2-3 kilograms of bitter gourd.

How to grow Bitter gourd, please view

Planted Beetroot in grow bags, for each plant one grow bag is used with compost soil.

Each bag planted with three beetroot seedlings, though the plant could not fetch good result, enjoyed the result when uprooted.

Planted one Pineapple in grow bag.
View a post on growing Pineapple on terrace

Planted Green chilly in grow bag.

View Post on growing green chilly

Planted Cucumber in grow bag.

Planted Curry leaves in grow bag.

Planted Pumpkin in grow bag.
View a related post on pumpkin on terrace

Indian spinach (Cheera) very much rich in nutrients.
Cheera plant takes a month time ready for preparing curry.

In Kerala as a favorite dish, 'cheera thoran' is served at special occasions.

Terrace Gardening

Garden in courtyard has its own limitation of space if staying in town or any urban place. Optimum utilization of roof or terrace would be a better way to embed your interest on little pots. Yes garden on roof, I selected very few plants, as I am more interested in vegetables.

Bring blossoms in your life..............

Ashoka Tetti / Ixora

Red Rose

Organic vegetable Garden on Terrace

Jasmine Flower

White Rose

Yellow Rose

An uninvited guest, but awesome !!!!!looks,
and was never bothered while I was taking the Snap.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Bottle Gourd

Bottle Gourd is another type of gourd which can be used in vegetable curry, this is mostly preferred for North Indian dishes.

Note: There is a correction in the previous post on this section, initially I was in an impression that this plant was Snake gourd , but once the fruit started growing I understand that this is a BOTTLE gourd but not SNAKE gourd

Seeds can be germinated directly in a bigger container or sack.
germination takes 7-15 days depending on the hardness of seed coating and the level of moisture.

Here in this image you can see 3 plants in one container,ideally the container of this size cannot support more than 2 plants. Lets wait and see......

Vines of gourd needs to be supported for climbing, here I have built a net like structure as a roofing for the vines to climb.

After 45 days the plant starts climbing and soon it started giving flowers.

In this image you can see the bud at one node of the leaf. I am not sure if this flower gets converted to a fruit. I heard that pumpkin, gourd , cucumber are the category in which the plan produces male and female flowers and only female flowers will fetch a fruit.

This image shows one of the flowers, it is been 3 months

Vines spread across the net and started giving flowers.

This image shows a female flower with an ovary.

This is a bottle gourd , in fact I was creating a post for snake gourd .The plant and its leaves almost looks the same for most of the gourd category plants.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Growing Pumpkin on terrace and land

Pumpkin is the most delicate kind of plantation , the seed it self needs some preparation to germinate.

Seed cover is too hard so suggested to rub teh tip of the seed on a sand stone till next layer is seen.
Then dip the seed in water for 1-2 days.
Now the seed is ready to to sown on a soil bed from where after germinating can be transfered to bigger containers.

Constant check , rather a daily check is preferable.
Need to check when vines start coming those needs to be directed as pre the space available.

If your growing it on a roof make sure that you spread a jute or other kind of mat so that the vines may not be affected because of continuous heat

Hey!!!! after 60 days i could see the buds at every nodes. I was really exited to see this.

Lets wait for the first fruit ................

After 3 Weeks

My excitement went down a bit, as the flowers didnt fetch any fruit.
I understand that the flowers are of male and female category,
female flower has to pollinate to give fruit. Hope a female flower will appear soon.

WOW!!!.....at last I could find the first female ovary ..."The Pumpkin"

Once the female flower appears with an ovary beneath, this flower needs to get pollinated.

Image on Left shows the female flower, I hope the inner projected structure is Stigma which needs to get sticked with pollen grains from Male flower.

Pumpkin female flower

Pumpkin male flower

Image on right shows the female flower with the Stigma and pollen grains.

Image on left shows the female flower with the Stamen.

This video shows how I tried helping the pollination while using a brush. Since it was a rainy day when the female flower appeared, so I didn't find any bees or fly so while using a painting brush I managed to collect pollen grains from male flower (anther) and sticked it to the female stigma.

After one week
Fruit grew in size and I have covered it with a
cup on it. But I feel it is already infected by
some pest.

Lets wait and see.

With the help of a knife I removed the worms in it and chopped off the infected part, it is still growing in size.

Organic vegetable Garden on Terrace