World garden blog carnival. Integrated Watering System.

Time rolled, events happened, and we moved along with the turn of events and time. In November last year, we shifted from Putrajaya to Taman Kota Harmoni , Tanah Merah Kelantan. The house is new, and the compound was completely bare when I came in.  Gardening demands a new approach here. We have to solve the issue of watering when ever we are not around.... sometimes for a week. Hence, integrated watering system has to be considered. And that is the focal point for World garden blog carnival hosted by fer of    mygardeninjapan.com.
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Integrated Watering System

The year 2011 is a switch from manual watering using hose, to a fully automatic system. We asked and looked around and at the end met a full-time farmer, Wan Azuar from Wakaf Bata a few kilometers towards Machang. He was once a computer engineer working with NEC, but life was a little bit globe trotting he said. A week in Japan, a week in Dubai, two weeks in Malaysia and so on. After 10 years he quit to be a full-time farmer, growing chili and rock melons to support his family.We engaged him to help us with the new integrated watering system, which includes drips, weepers, sprays and sprinklers for potted plants, orchid house, vegetable bed and lawn.

100 gallon water tank and 1 horse-power pump

The main distribution pipe, with subsidiary pipes sending water to different sections. Walkway is not complete yet, I dont know how long will this one take at the current working rate of one hour a day...

 a timer,
to control number of waterings and duration of each.

Kakdah's new orchid house.
The orchids will be watered almost like mist with fine sprinklers.

Seven roselle blooming simultaneously.
Tanah Merah had been without rain for almost two weeks now.
They need water badly, so they get sprinkler sharing with lawn and papaya.

 ubi kemili
or popularly  known as ubi keling in Kelantan

 ulam raja

raised bed watering system

hot chili (chili padi) and a row lady's fingers just transplanted. 

red chili with drips, 
still at four leaves.

Gardening ahead.
Year 2011 will be the year for us to get used to  the new watering system. Some adjustment has to be made on where to garden, the vegetables, the schedule, and containers, with the new system. We are still assessing the performance of the system if it needs some adjustments and upgrade. I hope I can handle the new system well and enjoy gardening as much. It costs a little bit but it is a necessity for now.... and I am thinking how to capture rain water as source of water for the garden.

Visit New Year Gardening Resolutions Blog Carnival

at my little garden in japan

bangchik and kakdah

Taman Kota Harmoni, Tanah Merah Kelantan

Fertigation Weekly: Looking for something different.

(Fertigasi Mingguan dari Tanah Merah Kelantan, Malaysia)

We change crops every season. A little bit of change will revitalise enthusiasm, keeping us on toes always . . Going for the same thing, same crop, same schedule, has every tendency to fall into complacency and boredom. Both of us decided on something really new. It is an area, we have not got any experience. So this is going to be another adventure that will take us into the technology behind gardening.... it is called FERTIGATION.  Now it is here in our Tanah Merah garden.

 picture 1
water and fertiliser drips into growing media slowly 

 picture 2
rows of white polybags, 48 of them altogether.

 picture 3
strong steel clips  are used to hold gi pipes together, and

 a view of the structure for fertigation project / projek fertigasi 

from the front door of our house in Tanah Merah.
 picture 4

 a view of the fertigation project / projek fertigasi from the front  road
 picture 5

another view of the fertigation project / projek fertigasi from the front  road
 picture 6

I intend to do weekly posts on fertigation to give updates, 

progress we are making, problems that crop up 

and the new frontier we would be 

breaking into..... 

The limiting factor of space alters the way urban gardeners handle gardening all round the world. Paul did a post on urban farming here Top 50 Urban Farming Blogs and my little vegetable garden blog is included too.  Fertigation is certainly a choice for urban gardeners.

We are interested to see how things go with fertigation, and I am sure many others, the practioners, the gardeners, and the would be gardeners (fertigator?) would love to see the details of fertigation.  It is now within our compound in Tanah Merah, Kelantan.

bangchik and kakdah
 fertigasi di laman rumah

Tanah Merah, Kelantan

References:

PENGGUNAAN TEKNOLOGI FERTIGASI DALAM PENGELUARAN SAYUR-SAYURAN

Garden and Lawn Irrigation Systems 

Drip Irrigation for Home Gardens 

Garden Drip Irrigation 

Make Your Own Pop Bottle Drip Irrigation System 

Fertigation / Fertigasi; getting a feel.

To fertigate is to fertilise and irrigate at the same time, by adding fertilisers to the water supply. ( FERTilise + irrIGATE ~ a way to put some sense to the word). In commercial agriculture, fertigation is in wide use, and the concept began to spread to residential landscaping and hobby gardening in the early 2000s. 

The sight of plants house with clear plastic sheet at the top is becoming very common in Malaysia. Some cover acres, some are small, household version. We made a trip to  Anuar's MCG Fertigation Gelong Gajah, near Wakaf Bata, 5 minutes from home, to see and get the feel....

 rows of white poly bags filled with coco peat

his children and friends were helping to fill bags with coco peat

 a closer view

 they were taking a break, waiting for new supply of coco peat.

 they were busy again filling up bags with coco peat

   his youngest son, very absorbed with what he was doing. 

I think he was trying to open up the poly bag. 

We sometimes face the same problem 

with plastic bag at home.

We arrived around 10am. His children and friends were busy filling up bags with coco peat. He said, the kids enjoyed doing this over weekends. Then the day will end with a trip to Kota Bharu to eat and shop with their well earned extra pocket money. It is good to get children involved and build up their understanding and commitment on business their parents are involved. Then continuity will come in nicely as parents get older.

We talked about fertigation which has been his bread and butter over 5 years. The wife served tea and slices of rock melon. That was the crop they grew recently, just harvested.  Coco peat may last for a year, then it will be replaced with fresh material. Soil is the growing media traditionally, but with fertigation technique, they use coco peat. He used to get supply of coco peat from Sabak Bernam, now he gets it from Bachok. He took us around his place and showed us how the system works.

Kakdah and myself  had discussed weeks ago about having a similar plant house in a section of the garden enough to house 100 bags for a different gardening adventure. It is going to be fun and who knows, something else will develop later... Anuar paid us a visit in the evening. Within a week, we are going to have a new playing ground with vegetable gardening..... just wait.

Bangchik and Kakdah

meninjau sistem fertigasi di Gelong Gajah

Tanah Merah, Kelantan