Second batch Harvest

Second batch plantation with more varieties  like purple and green eggplant, and also certain plants in first batch started giving yield in second harvest. Tomato plants were grown in second batch plantation, but did not start giving fruit, but those planted in the first batch is still giving tomato.

Plant	Output
Okra (Ladies Finger / Bhindi ) 6 in Nos.	40 - 50 Okra in 3 months.
Tomato- 6 Plants ( Planted 6 months before). Second batch of tomato plant added another 6 more plants.	Average in a day fetching 3 tomatoes since 4 months.
Pumpkin - 4 Plants ( Planted 5 months before)	oops.....No yields, just one fruit 50days before
Green chilly - 10 Plants ( Planted 3 months before)	4-5 chillies only , infected by pests , taking control measure while applying garlic paste spray and Neem leaf spray.
Snake guard 3 Plants ( Planted 15 days before)	Not started yielding

Green egg plant, Planted 4 Nos.(2 Months before)	Green egg Plant yield started, 4-5 fruits.
Cucumber 2 Plants ( Planted 15 days before)	Plant in in growth phase
Indian Spinach (Green) 40 Plants ( Planted 20 Days Before)	Every plant was matured enough to use for making curries. We had a good Dal curry while using spinach as an ingredient.

Brinjal (Egg Plant) 12 Plant (Planted 2 months before)	6 Brinjal

This image shows different varieties of vegetables.

I could manage to get almost every vegetable that is used in preparing SAMBAR.

My kid enjoying real life.............

Pests and Insects on Organic vegetable terrace garden

I could never find any of these pests before, but it is quite evident as they have started a habitat in my garden. One way looks good as these living things are satisfying there needs from my garden. But I have to take certain control measures to eliminate those which spoil the plant or the fruit.

This was found on the leaves of Green egg plant.

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

This bug is seen only on bitter guard plant and was more in number. This bug spoils the leaves of the plant.

No idea on this spotted dark green stuff, looks like the remains of some insect waste, when ever this is visible on a leaf the next day the entire leaf gets spoiled.

Let me call this as an Alien, look at it's antennae







Very interesting specimen, no idea what it is, but if you  look closely this resembles a Human skull.
this is almost sticked to green chilly leaves. the size of this creature would be that of a black pepper.

There was no movement when I took this snap, assume that this could be a dead larvae of some insect.








This is another kind of a pest that is visible only in purple egg plants.

Spider like insect resting on purple egg plant.

Worm, brown in color found in rose plant. This one is usually found after sunset.

Related Links
Organic natural pest control 

Farm Productivity Measurement

Year 2010 was a good start with Organic Roof . However considering the number of plants and varieties, productivity was moderately good. End of the year (November -December) Retail price on vegetables sky rocketed. I could save my pocket as I did not buy few of common vegetables that is used in preparing dishes.

Below is the Price list of vegetables in one among the prime markets in Trivandrum City - Chalai. In the Price list corresponding to each vegetable I have added yields that I could fetch from my Roof  garden.

Price list as on : January 03, 2011 Unit of Measure in Kg.

* WP - Wholesale Price
* RP - Retail Price
* Rs - Indian Rupee (Rs 44.74 = One Dollar)

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

Also Refer : 
Green Eggplant
Bhindi (Okra)
Tomato
Cucumber

Other varieties of plantations

Surrounding of my courtyard there is little space where I tried bigger plants those may not support the roof. In this Post I will share few other plantations that I did, also 'Vaalari Payar' (kind of a Pea). I will be updating this post when ever I try something new.

Banana plant, planted behind my house, but not on roof.

Drumstick Plant, planted behind my house, but not on roof.

Planted On Roof :

Big Pea (Vaalari Payar)

Seedling was grown in container it self and

appeared with long leaves.

This is a Pea plant called 'Vaalari Payar' in Malayalam.

Not aware on English name of it.

Big pea plant did not grow in size, it does not have

any vines and after 30 days of planting, it started

producing buds.

Another variety of beans known as Broad beans




Ready to prepare a dish with beans and grated coconut.
In Malayalam Language it is called -'Payar thoran'

This dish was prepared with broad beans, potato and onions.

Experiment on growing mushroom

I was attracted from few videos on growing Mushroom, but I was not sure how and from where I could get the seeds. Recently when visited one of the exhibition on HortiCorp conducted in Trivandrum town, I purchased a pack of Mushroom seeds. The institute is also providing training and guidance on mushroom plantation. Since I didn't find much time on attending the training session, I tried experimenting with it.

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

Measures to be taken:
1. Mushroom shall be grown in dark room.
2. Should be grown in a container that should have pores so that there will be ample space for mushroom to sprout.
3. Husk / straw is required for growing mushroom.
4.Husk or straw which is used in container should not get dry, so continuous water treatment is required.

Container was filled with Coconut husk and on top of it Rice straw was spread to keep the the seeds always soaked.











In 13 days white rashes was seen on the interior circumference of the container.

Used a Polythene bag as a container and was stuffed with husk. Seeds were spread along the outer circumference with in the container.

After 20 days mushroom sprouted out through the gaps in the container.

Growing Elephant Yam in grow bag

Experimenting with new types of plants, Elephant Yam is a root plant that can be grown in bigger containers and the yam grows in bigger size. I could collect a small yam and planted it in a sack.




Yam is 1.5 Kg in weight after 7 months. It could have been grown to bigger size but the container was not sufficient enough to accommodate the yam and its roots.

I am trying to grow yam with a small yam(seed).
Planted this baby yam on 20th of December 2010.




Here again I used plastic sack (bigger Container). so that it can grow in bigger size.

This root category plant is taking too long time to grow.
This snap was taken on March 22nd 2011.
From the date of planting it is is now 3 months for the
 plant to take this shape as shown in this image.

Roots penetrating into the soil. This plant require much bigger container.





Leaves growing out of the germinated

Trunk look like the textures of a python skin.


Yam was pulled out of the container after 7 months from plantation. Image shows the roots around the yam.

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 green long Eggplant- Bengan / Vazhuthana

Green Eggplant looks a little different from Purple Eggplant, I was confused earlier as i created a post for Green Eggplant, but once it started growing I realized that it is purple egg plant. Now in my garden there are more almost 13 purple eggplant and just 2 green eggplant.

Seeds looks very tiny like purple eggplant and the germination of seeds was done in a tray and then transplanted to bigger container.



Germinated plant transplanted to sack container.
Image shows the plant with 15 days of growth.











After 45 days from germination, plant started flowering, flowers of green eggplant is different from purple eggplant.

First fruit appeared after 50 days of planting.
In this batch only two Plants. So may not fetch much of green brinjal.











Little fruit appeared with light green color. It may take another a week for few more fruits.











Total in two plants I could find three fruits.
also 3 to 4 buds appeared.














There are lot of pest attacks, so constant check is required.Either the worms can be removed manually or usage of garlic spray will restrict the pest attack to some extent.

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 green chilly on terrace

Dishes without green chilly is impossible. Not much of chilly plants that I grew in my roof, but planted 5 and one hybrid seedling that I bought from a Nursery. In South India this in known as Thondan Mulaku or Baji mulaku

Seed was germinated while sowing it in a tray, once seedlings grew in size, this was transplanted to sack filled with compost soil
Images shows a few chilly.

View Posts on Red chilly and vegetable terrace garden

I tried chopping off the top most part of one of the plants. and could find that lot of branches started coming from the bottom part and end-result is more number of flowers and chilly.












This image shows a different variety of chilly that I bought from a plant nursery. I think usage of fertilizer would be one of the reasons the plant being in small size but with 3 big chilly.