Sapodilla fruit or Cheeku in India.

Sapodilla or sapota (Chikoo) is a popular delicious fruit. Its calorie-rich soft, easily digestible pulp composes of simple sugars like fructose and sucrose that when eaten replenishes energy and revitalizes the body instantly. It is a vital source of vitamins, minerals and health benefiting anti-oxidant.

Sapota is a tropical evergreen fruit-bearing tree belongs to the family of Sapotaceae in the genus: Manilkara. Scientific name: Manilkara zapota.

Planted one and the sapling is ready to get transplanted. Since this will grow in size I plan to plant this on ground instead of in Sack.

Transplanted the plant to land since it grows in size. This sapling is now one year old.














Not sure if required water every day , since four months I am watering once in a week and still it is green. The land is 30 kms. away from where I stay. Whenever I visit the plot on weekend, I water the plant.

 Source: Image with the fruits are from different articles.

Growing Pineapple on Terrace

Pineapple known as a King of fruits. and is a good source of Vitamin A and B. Planted one top end (Crown/shoot apex) of the pineapple fruit into the soiled filled sack. I did not use any compost or fertilizer. 
May be the soil I used was fertile enough that it could fetch me a good size fruit.

Organic vegetable Garden on Terrace

Fertile soil preparation

Homemade Compost

Pest Control

Experiment with Drip irrigation on terrace

Plantation on raised Bed

Honey Bee/ Beekeeping

Mushroom on closed rooms

Fruit Benefits

1. Eating pineapple benefits in strengthening tooth gums
2. Beta- carotene present in it is good for eye sight

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Growing Cucumber on terrace

A Cucumber with its diverse variety is one among those healthy vegetables. In my blog there are articles on cucumber plantation and images. Since I never expected a very healthy and moderately large size cucumber can be grown on roof top I am sharing this in this post.
Cucumbers are scientifically known as Cucumis sativus and belong to the same botanical family as melons (including watermelon and cantaloupe) and squashes (including summer squash, winter squash, zucchini and pumpkin). Commercial production of cucumbers is usually divided into two types.

I was surprised how this could grow in bigger size as compared to my experiments did before.

I could find that the floor of the roof had some mud and algae, hope which supported the plants' root at each node and probably that might have helped the cucumber to grow in bigger size.


Generally in a cucumber plant, at each node, there is a leaf, a flower, a fruit, a tendril and root.

Organic vegetable Garden on Terrace

Fertile soil preparation

Homemade Compost

Pest Control

Experiment with Drip irrigation on terrace

Plantation on raised Bed

Honey Bee/ Beekeeping

Mushroom on closed rooms

Spinach or Palak Plantation

Spinach is one of the most vitamin-rich plants. Spinach does best when growing in moist, nitrogen-rich soil. Brought to India by Arab traders.

Harvest

Thanks to Monsoon in Kerala. Fresh Indian Spinach was harvested from 25 pots.

Plant was transplanted from another pot. Plant grew in size to harvest in a months time. This plant require moderate sunlight and the soil should be moisturized in stipulated time periods. 

Seed

Spinach plants form a deep taproot; for best growth, loosen the soil at least 1 foot deep before planting.

Seedlings

Seeds were sown in a clay pot and then after 14 days this was transplanted to smaller pots and bags.

Organic vegetable Garden on Terrace

Fertile soil preparation

Homemade Compost

Pest Control

Experiment with Drip irrigation on terrace

Plantation on raised Bed

Honey Bee/ Beekeeping

Mushroom on closed rooms

Nutritious Value of Indian Spinach 

• Spinach is a rich source of vitamin A and reduces the risk of eye diseases.
• Consuming this in a regular diet brings the blood pressure down to normal levels.
• Can be used to prevent and treat many cardiovascular diseases like hyperlipidemia, heart failure, hypertension and coronary heart diseases as it strengthens the heart muscles, allowing the blood to be pumped to all parts of the body.
• Spinach is rich in minerals like manganese, copper, magnesium, zinc and phosphorus which help in building strong bones and lowering the chances of osteoporosis.
• Studies show that spinach lowers the cancer risk by 34%.
• It is advisable for pregnant women to include spinach in their regular diet as folate found in it is needed by the growing fetus for development of a new nervous system.
•  Helps in loosing weight.
• Improves the quality of the sperm.
• Can help cure constipation.

Organic Terrace Vegetable gardening

Planted four tomato saplings, this one being a different category/breed, that grew in heights, so had to provide some support to hold the Plant with its fruit.

Organic vegetable Garden on Terrace

Fertile soil preparation

Homemade Compost

Pest Control

Experiment with Drip irrigation on terrace

Plantation on raised Bed

Honey Bee/ Beekeeping

Mushroom on closed rooms

Brinjal or an egg plant with seven fruits at a time in a single Plant.

Long beans plant could produce 20 beans in a single plant in a span of 30 days

 Planted Long green eggplant, however the fruit that showed up was a cross-breed of a long and a round eggplant. Believe it might be the result of a cross-pollination, since there was a violet round eggplant very next to this one.

Snake Gourd Plantation

This was my second attempt in planting snake gourd. First time when I planted, it was attacked by worms and other pests, this time I took more care from the stage of sapling itself.

Ideally the gourd grows to one meter long, this one in the image is hardly half a meter in length. Planted four plants and got a harvest of ten gourds.  Among that two got infected by small flies.

The pattern of the gourd looks like the snakes skin.

First baby gourd appeared in 15 days. it grows from the plants node. 

Climbers needs support of net or any structure so that plant can grow in height.

Tied with a small stone at the bottom of the gourd to gain more length.

Every day needs to check the gourd and other parts of plant to ensure that it is not affected by any pests. Small flies or mosquito may sting the gourd and then later you may not notice, but will find worms inside the gourd when you cut open it.

Wonderful vegetable, the gourd pattern and shape looks exactly like a snake.

Nutrients:

Snake gourd consist of humidity and little protein, fiber, fat and carbohydrate .Its mineral and vitamins contents are calcium, iron, phosphorus, substantial amount of carotene, little thiamine, riboflavin and niacin.

Healthy Benefits:

• Has a cooling effect on the body
• Low in calories, fat-free, and great to restrain in weight-loss menus.
• A lot of fibers which can help maintain your digestive region healthy.
• The fiber is also helpful for those with diabetes.
• A good resource of minerals like magnesium, calcium, and phosphorus.
• Helps inspire the production of body fluids, relieving dryness.
• The juice of the fresh leaves of snake gourd is useful in the disorders of the heart like palpitation and pain in the heart on physical effort.
• Snake gourd roots, on the other hand, provide as tonic and purgative. While its juice works as a strong purgative, a dried fruit combination would be a milder purgative that helps indigestion.
• Has been found effective in treating dandruff. The juice should be massaged into the scalp. This is an easy home remedy for dandruff.
• Snake gourd leaves have been found useful in jaundice (hepatitis). 
• Snake gourd leaves are helpful as a purgative and emetic in constipated children, while its fresh juice works on poorly children through early mornings.
• The juice of snake gourd leaves is helpful in treating alopecia, as well, a scalp sickness that results in partial or total baldness.
• Bad about Snake gourd, its seeds and ripe fruit are laxatives, though, so they might source indigestion if eaten as food.

Guar Plant (Beans, Amarekka)

Planted four saplings and that grew in heights, approximately seven foot tall. This is the first time I tried to grow this plant. Once happened to see a few articles on Guar Seeds as generating good revenues which is being used as raw-materials in different industries  Please check below site;
Guar Plantation in North west part of India.





Beans plant looks sombre (may be just to me), but I like the taste of it when you fry it with minimum ingredients like garlic, ginger and a pinch of pepper.

From Article: Guar Gum is an important ingredient in producing food emulsifier, food additive, food thickener and other guargum products. India is the largest producer of guar gum products. Its guar gum exporters, guar gum manufacturers, guar gum products suppliers, food emulsifier exporter have reached to many countries and today there is a lot of demand for Indian guar gum products, food additives, food thickener and other allied guar gum products.

Guar gum is often crosslinked with boron or chromium ions to make it more stable and heat-resistant. The crosslinking of guar with metal ions results in a linear gel that does not block the formation and helps efficiently in formation cleaning process. The borate–guar reaction is reversible, and depends on the pH (hydrogen ion concentration) of the solution. Crosslinking of guar with borate occurs at high pH (approximately 9–10) of the solution. Guar gum has also proven a useful substitute for locust bean gum (made from carob seeds).

Reaching Out to Heights

Never expected the plant to grow in heights, so reaching out to pluck out beans.

Organic vegetable Garden on Terrace

Fertile soil preparation

Homemade Compost

Pest Control

Experiment with Drip irrigation on terrace

Plantation on raised Bed

Honey Bee/ Beekeeping

Mushroom on closed rooms

Growing Banana

India has multiple varieties of cultivation grown throughout the country. Dwarf Cavendish and Robusta are well-adopted commercial bananas owing to high yield, ability to withstand wind, short duration and high economic returns/unit area. Rasakathali is significant in commercial production, especially for excellent quality fruits. Nendran is an important banana in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. 

Organic vegetable Garden on Terrace

Fertile soil preparation

Homemade Compost

Pest Control

Experiment with Drip irrigation on terrace

Plantation on raised Bed

Honey Bee/ Beekeeping

Mushroom on closed rooms

Within the courtyard if you can grow a banana plant/tree it will not give you much shade or much fruits.

One plant takes six to ten months to fetch you with fruit.

In Malyalam language raw friut is called 'Vazhakka'
it is called 'Vazha Pazham' went it is ripe.

Banana fruit with the flower, every part of it is used for varied dishes.

In between the petals of the flower it also has sweet (honey).

Plantation in Northern part of India

Being excited to see and experience vegetations in Northern part of India, visited the state of Rajasthan and Punjab, could not travel extensively, however could visit few places and so sharing few images.

The fertile plains of Punjab boast of producing about two-third of the food grains produced annually in India. This state is blessed with climatic differences which results in a variety of soil and henceforth into a wide range of crops and vegetation

South-western Punjab is mainly dominated by calcareous soil which includes desert soil and sierozem soil. The pH value in this zone ranges from 7.8 to 8.5 and also have grey and red desert soil, calsisol soil, regosol soil and alluvial soil. The soil of central Punjab ranges from sandy loam to clayey with pH value from 7.8 to 8.5 making alkalinity and salinity problematic for this place. The alluvial soil of this zone can be widely described as arid and brown soil or tropical arid brown soil. The soil in Eastern Punjab is loamy to clayey.

Organic vegetable Garden on Terrace

Fertile soil preparation

Homemade Compost

Pest Control

Experiment with Drip irrigation on terrace

Plantation on raised Bed

Honey Bee/ Beekeeping

Mushroom on closed rooms

Punjab is rightly called India's bread-basket for its huge production of wheat. The other main vegetables and fruits grown in abundance in the state of Punjab are potatoes, chilies, oranges, pomegranates, apples, peaches, figs, mulberries, apricots, almonds, plums, mangoes, grapes, pears, litchis and lemons. Sugarcane, maize and cotton are grown in abundance in Punjab as well as barley, millet, oil-seeds, carrots, peas, beans, onions, turnips, cucumbers, and melons. Scorching heat during the summer months sometimes destroy the vegetation but with the downpour by south-west monsoon the entire land returns to its lush green color. 

Growing Cabbage on terrace

Cabbage is one of the most popular winter vegetables grown in India. Cabbage is used as salad,  and dehydrated vegetable as well as in cooked curries. Cabbage is rich in minerals and vitamins A, B1, B2 and C.

Keep the soil uniformly moist and Keep the soil moist by watering every other day. Place the containers in a spot that gets as much sun as possible.

Fertilizing and watering cabbage plants is important just like cauliflower.  

Plant uses water to absorb the nutrients from the soil. Additionally, cabbage has a high water content, so without enough water, the heads will dry out, crack and become bitter.

Growing cauliflower on terrace

Cauliflower plantation

Cauliflower is considered to be a cool season crop, and it grows best in a comparatively cool temperature with a moist atmosphere.On my roof top it was little challenging to place it since it needs sunlight and has to be kept cool as well.

I bought two different variety of  Cauliflower saplings. This is second time I am trying to grow Cauliflower.

Tips: Make sure that the soil should not be allowed to get dried and Hard. Also excess water would decay the roots too.

If you notice the leaves of these two plant looks different. Hope could make out the difference once the cauliflower button head is visible.

Drumstick Plantation

Drumstick Tree

A multi-purpose, small legume tree, appealing wherever it is planted. 

A remedy for stomach complaints, catarrh, cancer, gastric ulcers, skin diseases, lowering blood sugar, increasing bone density, nervous conditions, diabetes, fatigue, increase lactation, hay fever, impotence, edema, cramps, hemorrhoids, headaches, sore gums; to strengthen the eyes and the brain, liver, gall, digestive, respiratory and immune system, and as a blood cleanser and blood builder.  

Amazing and natural textures, still looks like a sober fruit.

Drumstick and Flowers

Baby drumstick 

Drumstick flowers

National Horticorp Mission

Thankful to National and State Horticorp Mission in Implementing urban plantation in households in Trivandrum City( Kerala). 25 sacks with plant saplings were distributed among households in a batch. 

 Received sacks with Green Chilly, Okra ( Bhindi, Venda ), Eggplant ( Kathrikka) and few others.




Soil mixture is fertile and mixed with Coconut fibre, this will protect the soil from getting dried-out. Fibres help in retaining the moisture content within the sack.

Once Again Thanks to Trivandrum Corporation in Going Green !!