Xiao Bai Cai (Bak Choy)

I started a seed tray of 小白菜 Bak Choy on 12 Sep 2015. These are little growing machines! By the next day, little shoots have started to appear.

This is how they have grown on the 3rd day! I have 1 seed in each cubby hole of the ice tray. We are looking at more than 80% success rate. 

Seedlings have grown to about 1.5cm. Now let's pray they keep up the good work!

Update 17 Sep 2015:

On the 5th day, I transferred the seedlings into individual cups. These are mini cupcake cups, around 3.5cm wide. Seedlings are about 2-2.5cm

Update 19 Sep 15:

It's been 1 week since we sowed the Bak Choy seeds. 

Potted the seedlings in a 40cm (l) X 15cm (w) X 15cm (h) trough. Seedlings are about 2.5-3.5cm. I have 2 troughs and about 32 seedlings in total. 

Update 26 Sep 2015: 

It's been 2 weeks since we sowed the seeds and the bak choy has grown.

These babies just sprout so quickly after potting in soil. I use chicken poo to fertilise weekly. Hope this works!

Okra

I got a pot of okra from the nursery, thinking it's too much of a hassle to grow from seed. 

But with 3 plants in a tiny pot, I was advised by fellow gardeners that they are too crowded, yet too matured to repot. Leaves start falling off and the new leaves were barely bigger than 5cm. Fruits were also smaller and not tender. 

By fluke, I left the fruits on the plant and let it turn brown because I wanted to observe how long it will take for that to happen. I kept the dried pods and seeds because they were too pretty to throw. Turns out that is the right thing to do to save okra seeds!

The okra seeds in the pods were black and all dried up. 

Unwilling to pay for more okra plants, I decided to try my luck at germinating the seeds. Bearing in mind that I am not too lucky with germinating seeds, I am tip-toeing in this experiment.

I started 9 seeds in an ice tray filled with substrates (Welgro), because I had some lying around.  

We suffered a few nights of torrential rain and the ice tray was literally flooded and overflowing, as the rain managed to splash in. Each time I emptied the excess water, I am certain I lost some seeds, as it's hard to tell them apart from the peat.

On Day 3, 3 seedlings miraculously sprouted. Interestingly they turned up in assorted stages. The tiniest little sprout in the right most cubby can barely be seen.

So I potted the 2 more advanced seedlings in the substrate. 

It's the 5th day since we started growing the seeds. The cotyledons are peeking out from under the shell of the germinated seeds. We are still holding our breath and fingers crossed... 

Will keep this post updated. 

Update 12 August 2015:

1 week after planting the seeds, the seedlings have grown beyond 10cm and the cotyledons are looking healthy. I repotted them in more of the Welgro substrates and increased direct sun to 1-2 hours.

Update 28 August 15: 

3 weeks after planting the seeds, these saplings are more than 20cm and furry leaves have started to develop. 

Update 9 Sep 2015:

I came across a facebook post where a fellow gardener mentioned that he was given an okra plant grown from a sucker. He has no idea how it works and I could not find information online on how to propagate from okra suckers. So it's time to experiment!

On 4 Sep 15, I cut out a sucker that was about 20cm, from our existing okra plants and put it in a cup of water to hopefully root the cutting. Within 3 days, small white dots appeared on the stem. 

An okra sucker is the shoot that grows out from the side of the main stem, usually above the stalk of one of the leaves. I cut the sucker closely where it joins the main stem. 

4-5 bigger leaves were attached to this sucker. They were droopy by the 3rd day, so I snipped them off. 

On the 5th day, roots formed clearly at the base of the stem! Hoorah! I will leave it for a few more days till a healthier root system is established before putting it in soil.

Update 26 Sep 2015:

These are the okras grown from seeds. It's been 7 weeks since sowing the seeds and we are seeing our first flower buds!

Waiting patiently...!

Kangkong

We picked up a bunch of organic baby kangkong (with roots) from the local wet market about 10 days ago. Stir-fried half the lot and kept the other half in water by the window sill - northeast facing, bright but barely any direct sunlight. 

The happy campers are thriving and have grown about 2 inches on the average, with new roots and leaves - which I take as a good sign. 

Some of the lower leaves turn yellow, so I have been picking those off. In a couple of days, I will be potting some stalks in soil, to test if they can be cultivated as a more steady source of vegetable. I hope to find a more permanent way to keep them, as I doubt they are getting enough nutrients in drinking glasses.

In the meanwhile, they just look so fresh and cheerful at the window sill.

Update 27 Jun 2015:

It has been about 10 weeks since I started experimenting with the Kangkong.

I tried planting a batch in soil and the rest in glass vases. The ones planted in soil started developing yellow spots on the leaves and eventually died out. The ones in the glass vases thrived.

I read that there are 2 different varieties of Kangkongs available here - land vs water based. The small organic saplings, about 10cm height, that I managed to get had roots that were not soiled. So I figured they should be the water-based variety that was grown via hydroponics. So I will continue keep them in the glass vases.

So far I have not been using fertilisers.

Some lessons learnt:

1. Vessel

I started the saplings in drinking glasses and when they were tall enough, I transferred some into larger glasses vases from IKEA. The ones that were grown the larger vases did better. I keep about 10 stalks in each vase.

2. Stalk

Generally, the saplings with thicker stalk and healthier root systems did better. When I got a second batch of saplings, I was more selective with the stalks and roots. Almost all of the saplings survived.

3. Sunlight

I tried out the original batch of Kangkongs saplings at two different locations. One was at a brightly lit window sill, with barely any direct sunlight and the other at a sill that gets a few hours of morning sun. Strangely the ones without direct sunlight did better. So I transferred them there. 

However, after a couple of rounds of harvesting, I noticed that the stalks got thinner and more strangling. The leaves got few and far between and smaller too. Classic signs of seeking for sunlight.

So I transferred the whole lot to a sill with a few hours of morning sun and the improvement is so apparent after a week. More shoots are growing, they grow straight up, with bigger leaves.

4. Roots

I top up the water whenever the water level drops. Once in about 10 days, I will rinse out the roots and glass and change the water. If left unchecked, the roots turn brown and cloud the water. 

To rinse out the roots, I just run it under the tap and gently rub out the rotten (brown) roots, careful to leave the healthy roots intact. I try to avoid taking out the main root but if it is partially rotten, I will rub out the portion that is brown and leave the stump. I also rub out any algae that might be forming. 

5. Harvesting

So far, because I have only established a few vases, harvesting is limited. Currently, 5 vases can only yield small portions for 2 pax once a week.

For cuttings, I have a few rules of thumb. Each time I will not take more than 1/3 of each stalk. I try to cut above where shoots are forming. If there are no shoots, I cut just above a node, leaving the leaf.

So far I have been leaving the Kangkong indoor by the window. I will work on bringing them outdoor and eventually try again to grow them in soil. Will keep this post updated!

Update 28 August 15:

The yield from growing the kangkong in water vessels without fertilisers is inefficient.

So it became inevitable that I had to pot them in soil. 

I have been experimenting with different containers to pot the kangkong shoots. Best results were yielded from the deeper pots. This pot is about 20cm deep.  

 

To plant the shoots, I generally select the stronger ones and plant them as deeply as I can in the soil. Here I have 3 shoots in a 30cm diameter pot. I top the soil up to at least 20cm.

When harvesting, I generally snip off entire shoots that are about 10-15cm. 

The idea is to let clustering shoots develop at the soil line. Once that is established, new shoots will sprout from that point, so harvesting can be more regular.

Kangkong when grown in soil needs full sun and regular watering. I use chicken poo occasionally to keep the soil fertile.

From time to time, spider mites may visit. I just cut off the infected leaves and wait for new shoots to grow. 

Hoping to establish 3 pots of this to supply a weekly dish of our favourite sambal kangkong. 

Update 19 Feb 2016:

We now have 5 pots of matured kangkongs in the yard. 

They are very abused. We return from trips and they would have flopped down and lost most of their leaves. At the end of a scorching day, the leaves turned yellow and fell off. They have endured multiple rounds of whiteflies, red mites, grasshopper attacks. 

After each calamity I brutally chop and trim back the stems, often leaving practically no leaves. After each trim, they bounce right back with edible young shoots. 

Another joy of keeping the matured stems are the flowers. Kangkong belongs to the morning glory family. They bear the most fragile white trumpet flowers at the break of dawn. 

Here is a matured stem bearing a spray of more than 6 flower buds. Too pretty. Let's hope I can catch these in bloom.

Update 20 Feb 2016:

Morning bloom on a rainy morning... Xo