Do you love to grow vegetables and to share your knowledge?

norm, thank you for the invitation, I'd love to see your setup. What is "EM" in "fish emulsion and EM" ? As for my first time garden, I will need some immediate gratification, or put another way, vegetables that grow like weeds! I know myself. On that success, I will change things up and try more sophisticated techniques.

 

Strawberries…robgie? I struggle to grow them in Perth…had to imagine in coastal Negros….get a few here but not enough to make it worthwhile - so I don't bother anymore….do much better with blueberries…but you really need to keep them out of the sun, just incidental reflection from our paving is enough, and constantly watered.

I grow pretty much of what you do in my backyard and love doing it.….only three varieties of lettuce though…If and when we move to northern end of Negros (near Talisay) I am looking forward to getting straight into veggie gardening, aquaponics, and continuing my hobbies there…in a different environment…Aquaponics in particular has me all ears….I have heard that growing what we call Barramundi (I forget the Filipino term) is fairly easy and considering I think it is the best tasting fish on the planet - I'm very keen to try it there….
Anyway, keep at this thread…very helpful…..I'm always experimenting down here to see what grows best under the conditions (and they have been getting tougher (global warming?)…anyway…from Spring Onions to Goji Berries…doing it all with what I have …..

 

View attachment 9840 View attachment 9841 View attachment 9842 View attachment 9843
Yes I have strawberry and they too are grown in bags, we eat them daily . I have grown them for years here.
The pics are self describing to the plastic way on the ground. The lettuce can be grown in small bags and can even let them seed out .the romains get about 3 foot tall when seeding they need support obviously for that height. requires a bit bigger bag for head types.

 

View attachment 9844 The peppers and tomatoes need a bigger bag than in this pic, needs water 2 times a day. the reason I have old pics is because was when first started using these methods to save time and money. wanted to document the work, testing, wasted nutrients in the soil etc. stays in the bags better than in the feild. Also no till, no weeding. the strip plastic I use in between the rows, move it once a week to kill the weeds in the next row. NO hoe ing.

 

Thanks robgie for your info! Just curious….are you in Duamaguete or Valencia..or higher. I don't anticipate much issues for most veggies…been at this for many years…but strawberries at sea level or near to it are very hard to imagine. What variety are you using? Brussel sprouts are a challenge here…I only grow them in winter, for the sprouts, although I plant a few in the spring to feed the chickens the leaves which they really love! They won't fruit in the heat though….or at best very small ones….Any luck with grapes where you are? I do well here, but the climate is very different…hot and dry in summer…

Do you keep chickens? I find them worth their weight in gold….eggs for sure…and their ability to turn food into near compost….a few weeks in the bin and the product is wonderful…

Anyway, won't bore you too much but curious if you or someone you know is into aquaponics….and barramundi…

Thanks for the info you posted….some great revelations there!

 

I am at lower Valencia, below township height. Also at Bacong I have a larger area that I grow stuff too. There is a guy who used to do Aquaponics on this forum. Maybe search the words find out who it was. Grapes, what a pain in the arse they been. Yeah I finally got them to grow. Headache for sure. Its why I told of anything is possible with the can do attitude, the sprouts. I only did it one time in the rainy season and yep the balls were small to average, I pulled it up and put the root ball in a bag and cooled it for a few days on the ref . Yuck, still dont like em. hahah

 

I use a black fishnet for some plants, some including strawberry I only use the green net to filter the sun. They lie when saying needs 6 hours sun to produce. I proved it by putting a few bags in the car port for a couple months and they still produce nice berries.
had to edit, yes have a couple chicks, and geese. Used to have more than a hundred laying hens, gave em away when they got a little older 1.5 years. didnt replace them.

 

Thanks for the info Rob! Strawberries there are probably a little beyond my ability to make them thrive….guess I'll have to buy them if I want them bad enough (but with papayas in the morning - that may never happen)….but I do have enough experience with grapes to give that a serious go. Re chickens…I don't know about you, but certainly here the 'new' genetically manufactured laying breeds, such as Hyline Browns are great for a year or two…but after that - game over….few if any eggs….I'm switching to Australorps here very soon, when the wife isn't looking and their necks get adjusted, and will look at bringing some Australorps with me should we make the move….got the nice large block near talisay…just need a house on it…Nothing special…We live pretty simple and enjoy life….Australorps will lay for 5-8 years…and good docile hens..

If you had a hundred…we're you selling the eggs…and was it worth bothering with? Thanks again for your input….this is a subject I have been fascinated with for many years….

 

john...
i'd like to know more about the duma ag group. the govt has an agricultural facility here but they weren't very helpful when we were looking for compost worms and i haven't been back there tho i'm wondering if they have a nursery and neem trees.

EM is short for effective microorganism, here's a wiki page on it; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_microorganism

fish emulsion is a liquid fertilizer made out of fish wastes. (smelly stuff)

send me a PM sometime with your eddress so we can connect when you get here.

 

robgie...
we're living on a shaded postage stamp lot and can't dig up the landscaping so we we're just about to get into bag gardening when we were offered a sunny garden space just outside the gate so we went for it but bag gardening looks real appealing.

> Now, just a few , but the list is far to long to type al night for what I have grown. Now is beefsteak, strawberries, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, hot patio peppers,

your plant list is impressive and inspiring.

>Sweet potatoes (* ORANGE ) just in case any of you that want a start ( cutting) just ask!

wow... real sweet potatoes? i'd love a start of those.

>And the asparagus too.

asparagus in a bag? that i gotta try.

> I grew some brussel sprouts

i have sprouting broccoli going but haven't seen any broccoli yet. i stayed at a place in hawaii that had 4 year old collards with 3'' dia trunks but the cole family never really develops top flavor til they see some freezing weather

> try using the mulching plastic,

where are you finding plastic mulch?

we're doing plant waste mulch but we can't get enuf mulching material. i tried acacia sawdust and the plants didn't like that. rice hulls are too sharp. the neighbors burn their yard debris almost everyday to deter the mosquitoes so they don't want to give us their burn materials, so the little woman is getting a couple of sacks of peanut shells to try.

>To slow the white fly try silver up, seems to slow em down but wont stop them.

what's silver up? we had a white fly invasion on some young pepper plants and i tried several pepper sprays which didn't work, then... i made a dish soap/veggie oil spray which killed them.

i notice your tomatoes are ''nakid'', we're having to bag tomatoes, peppers and cukes against the medfly type insects.

norm : ))~