Wednesday, June 15, 2011

rooftop vegetable gardening: chili flowering

Chili plants are flowering,
with the first fruit already out.
and everything is going on well, 
set for the first harvest
next month.

Sea of chili centil

chili centil, with silver shine sheet.

chili centil

cili centil

close up of chili centil

On this section, no silver shine is used.


The first chili centil

They set up a small clinic to handle infested plants. Not many are affected, 3 out of 800 should be considered negligible by normal farming practice.  Two plants were affected by "kutu terip" and had recuperated well after proper medication. Another one was affected by little bugs ~ brownish in colour, when pressed green juice came out from their little bodies.  Nazri will take the sample to the expert soon.

Izmar ( Hydro Garden), the counterpart from Kuantan came last week. He gave a "thumbs up" seeing how the whole rooftop gardening gearing up, after spending two hours checking the plants. 

Today, Tokgawa Adnan and Arief came to view things as a prelude on the scheduled harvesting ceremony to be officiated by the local minister TokPa around third week of July. The crowd for that day is expected to be about 1000.  To spice up the harvesting ceremony, many activities are planned; colouring competition on chili plants for the kindergarden kids, essay competition on "green" for secondary school students in Kelantan, photo competition on "green" for students of higher learning institutions nationwide, 
and not forgetting vegetable and fruits basket arrangements for the ladies.  
A group is looking into media blitz with TV ,
radio and newspaper as a run-up.  

Rooftop gardening requires some kind of  exposure to be accepted in Malaysia.


bangchik and kakdah, Tanah Merah Kelantan.

23 comments:

  1. Tahniah.Selepas ni akan ada komuniti baru petani, petani dari langit, tak dak selut, banyak makan angin!

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  2. Thumbs up for roof-top gardening Bangchik!

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  3. Wow, that is an amazing rooftop garden! Beautiful and productive!

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  4. Nice garden!

    Have a nice June :)

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  5. How do they deal with the bugs? organically or another method?

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  6. That's amazing! Must take quite a bit of watering, but they will love it there! Lots of heat and daylight!

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  7. Great!!!!!!!!!!!... haven't done my part yet... fully occupied lately... sorry...

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  8. Your chillies are looking good. How come they are in white bags instead of the usual black? Is it because you don't want them to absorb too much heat? Congrats!

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  9. ~Izmarhamid
    Lepas ni kita buat rangka bangunan saja 10 tingkat, tanah satu ekar jadi 10 ekar!! Musim sekarang ribut petang.... Ngeri, tak sempat makan angin.

    ~p3chandan
    Thanks, hopefully the whole adventure bear "fruits"

    ~Aerie-el
    quite productive, the expert says, if you invest x dollars, within 4 months you will get 3x dollars.

    ~Marie
    It's nice but not pretty!

    ~Malar
    So far so good, but the current evening storm is scary. Plants bend so low..., but then they somehow spring back the next day.

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  10. ~ZZ's Garden
    They took the plant out of the rows into their little "clinic" and got rid off the bugs... with spray.

    ~Matron
    Watering is flexible, they increase during hot weather, on rainy days, watering is stopped. On hot days, each bag needs a total of 1.5 litre water. Yes, chili plants love the sun and heat but not heavy wind and definitely not the Storm!

    ~faudzi
    Thanks..., they need such encouragement and compliments to keep going against the odds. About the product SOP, it's alright for slight delay...., but the group intends to hit it big during IGEM 2011 KLCC 7-10 September. There is a clear critical path there.

    ~One
    The experts say white bags will create bright environment, and pests don't like such environment. And roots in white bags stay cramped in the middle like a ball, thus effective for watering and fertilising. Not a single root has ventured out of holes around the bag.

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  11. As a science teacher, I especially enjoyed your post!
    Thanks for the visit - yes, different "awsthetic nerve cells" - I love that view!
    Barb

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  12. ~Barbara Rosenzweig
    Thanks for the visit and comments. Aesthetic is very much individual perception...


    ~Kim and Victoria
    Thanks...., They are trying to figure out what's meant by " dare to dream ".

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  13. This is fantastic news! Looks like the chili are growing well, definitely time for more exposure and hopefully more projects like this would be carried out successfully! Congratulations!

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  14. Oh okay. I was just wondering if they got rid of the bugs organically or by some other method.

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  15. kitchen flavours ~ We are expecting some momentum to pick up..... The bottom line is why keep "land" vacant and idle especially in cities.... and yet we cry out land scarcity, soaring price, air pollution and excessive heat.

    ZZ's Garden ~ When gardening is for money, pests has to be handled quick. Pesticide is quite necessary but it will be done in a controlled manner in an enclosed area, like a little clinic.

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  16. Congratulations on hearing this good news!! I am amazed at the rate the chillies are growing and in fact 3 out of 800 are affected by bugs ~ that's so little impact. Based on experience in growing chillies, it's not easy to keep them growing healthily! Kudos to you and team!!!

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  17. WOW! That's a huge scale! :)
    Well done, Bangchik!

    My chilli plants occasionally get some white scaly stuff under the leaves and the leaves wilt after awhile. Anything I can do to prevent that?

    :)

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  18. J.C.
    ~ Chili is not easy to grow. Probably rooftop offers a neutral ground free of pests, pets and other diseases. So far so good.....

    Wandernut
    ~ 800 is small. A friend is doing 10,000 chili plants!!!... Wash the white things into a pail... and drown them with hot water. Or try pesticides... many available in agro shop.

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  19. Bangchik,dono if u still remember me...
    Looking at your roof top project sharing... really interested here.
    I've got a 20' x 9' of idle kitchen concrete roof that I really would like to develop.
    May I know where can I get those white poly bags, "silver liners" & the drip system ?
    Also, is coco peats + burnt padi husks really important? Or I can use those ready made black soil that has been mixed with peats?

    Thanks.

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  20. KL Vegetable Garden
    ~ I dont know where to get those around your place. The team purchased everything around here, Tanah Merah and Kota Bharu.

    20x9 is quite a good size for fertigation project. We have two options here.

    1. We send the team (before puasa month) to your place and work out the rest. I guess they have enough skills and technical knowhow about rooftop gardening.

    2. Visit rooftop gardening booth at IGEM 2011 (International Greentech and Ecoproducts Exhibition) to held at KLCC 7-10 September 2011. The team will there to assist you.

    my email: mylittlevegetablegarden@gmail.com

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