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Suria Helang Lui

Year: 2015

Suria Helang LuiArticles2015
11 Mar 2015
0 Comments By admin Armchair journal, Edible Landscape, Healthy Options, Vegetables, Well-being Landscape

The Cabbage Saga

I first wrote about planting cabbages 2 years ago and have since learnt more about it.  It still remains in my top 10 favourite vegetable, not only for the taste but also for the versatility and nutrition.  I still depend on commercial cabbage seeds as I haven’t figured out how to get my own seeds but this time around I am keeping one plant and letting it grow to see what happens as an experiment.  Cabbages are notoriously slow growers especially in comparison to other leafy vegetable like the choy sum or pak choy. It takes about 4 months before they produce a good head of cabbage.

I found that space area for a growing cabbage is important in the resulting size of the cabbage.  I experimented growing the cabbages at different length of separation of the stem and also in various sizes of polybags.  I get best results when the planting space between plants is at least 2 feet or 60 cm.  If there is a lack of water, you can see the leaves wilting but if you water it as soon as possible, you can see them perk up after about 1 hour.  So, this is a good gauge for me to see that the plants have enough water.  As with many other plants, it doesn’t like soggy soil so I make sure that the soil mix I use has good drainage but yet remain moist and I achieve it by using sufficient organicc matter in the soil mix.

By going organic and not using any growth hormones, my cabbages are not big but its leaves are tightly packed and the cabbage head weighs anywhere from 400-600 gm each.  I fertilise it with organic fertilisers (Vermicompost)  and also use an EM spray (home-made).  As the cabbage grows, I will periodically remove the old leaves at the bottom and top up the soil with some organic matter mixed with vermicompost.  I know it is time to top up with some soil when I see fine white roots at the soil surface.

I find that the biggest pest to the cabbage is the ulat bulu and the caterpillars.  They can really much their way through the leaves.  I have yet to find a fool-proof organic pesticide or pest-deterrent so I check the plants often and pick off those crawlers.  However, handle them carefully and I find that touching them bare hands causes an allergic reaction to me –  the skin gets irritated and itchy.  I find that spraying them at least once a week with the beneficial bacteria mixed with serai wangi also helps control the leaf-eating pests.  Remaining organic is important for me as I love eat these vegetable raw and since the leaves are what is consumed, using any chemical pesticide will remain on the leaves, even if it is minute amounts.

The cabbage can be harvested when the lower leaves have turned into a dark green colour whilst the cabbage head remains a lighter green.  You can also notice leaves starting to sprout from the stem below the main cabbage growth.  The baby cabbage leaves are also edible so don’t throw them away.

Once the cabbage head is harvested, the stem with the roots can be replanted and you will get baby cabbages growing off the side.  Whilst you may not get a cabbage head again, these baby cabbage leaves can be harvested and turned into a vegetable dish.

There are so many ways to eat cabbages: raw cabbages can be made into sales, coleslaw and as ulam; cooked cabbages as a vegetable dish, stir-fried, in a soup or sayer lemak, to name a few.

There are purported to be many health benefits to eating cabbages:

  • It is high in vitamin K and anthocyanins that help with mental function and concentration by preventing nerve damage and improving your brain’s defines against Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
  • Low in fat and high in fibre which will help in your digestive system.
  • The high content in vitamin C and sulphur helps the body to remove toxins such as free radicals and uric acid.
  • Purported to have cancer preventive compounds which inhibits cancer timor growth.
  • Has antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties.

Hence it is a good vegetable to add to my vegetable menu selection.
27 Feb 2015
0 Comments By admin Events

Round purple beauties: Aubergines

Another versatile vegetable fruit is the round purple aubergine.  This plant is a perennia and can be propagated from seeds.  I use dried seeds as this allows me to select the seeds that I feel will germinate and produce strong plants.  What is my criteria? Simple, they have to feel hard and have a nice yellow colour to them.  If the seeds feels “crispy”, then they will probably not germinate or produce strong plants.  I seed them in small polybags filled with organic soil mixture.  From my experience, it germinates between 7-10 days.  During this period before you see any leaves, it needs to be kept moist but not soggy wet.
Once it germinates, I will wait until 4 leaves have appeared before transplanting them to either a big poly bag – at least 12″ in diameter or into the ground.  Planting in polybags requires more care and attention to water and soil content than in the ground.  The leaves feel velvety and have very tiny hairs which can cause you to have an allergic reaction if you inhale it – to me sometimes I experience a sinus reaction to it so I prefer to plant them in outdoor open areas so I have less chances of inhaling them.

It takes about 2 months before they start to flower, producing lovely small purple flowers. At this point, the plant is about 18″ or 0.5m tall, so it is a nice small shrub-like plant.  By keeping it pruned, you can have a nice bushy shrub.  So, if you want to have an edible garden but yet want a flower garden, this plant may be an option.  Allow a diameter of 2′ or around 0.5-0.7m at the base of the plant clear of other vegetation. If you want to plant a row of them, space them about 1m or 3′ apart as this will allow the plant to bush out.
At the farm, we use a liquid mixture of fermented cow dung, organic matter and vermicompost to fertilise them and they seem to love it, producing lots of flowers.  We started fertilising them fortnightly starting from 1 week after transplanting.  It is important to have strong, sturdy plants as the fruits can be quite heavy, weighing 300-500gm.  As with many fruiting vegetables, pollination is important hence be sure to remove old, yellowed leaves to allow easy access for the pollinating insects.
I like to keep a clear ground area of about 2 feet or 20cm diameter clear around the base of the plant.  I will build a little circle dam around this,  By doing this, it allow me to do a few things: less area to keep weed free, allows for the plant to be the main consumer of the fertiliser and allows the water to be trapped in this circle giving time for the water to seep through the ground to the roots.  We water it once a day unless it rains, and depending on the rainfall, we may not water it for a couple of days.  This is a hardy plant and can be a prennial, lasting over a year with the right care and attention.

It is easy to know when it is time to harvest, it is when the fruit is a nice purple colour.   The fruit is prones to attacks by insects which lay eggs and the larvae then feeds on the aubergine, making holes in them.  I use an EM+ spray as an organic pesticide.   If it is heavy with fruit, you will need to provide support to the plant as the fruits can get to be heavy – 250-400 gm each – straining the branches.
 Now that you have the fruit, what can you do with it.  So many options: grilled with olive oil, salt and pepper, turned into a dip, cooked a curry with it, do an eggplant parmagiana (slices coated in breadcrums) and lots of other dishes.  I have never seen it eaten in sweet dishes though who knows, someone may one day create a sweet dish out of it.  Happy trying to plant this gorgeous plant 🙂

20 Feb 2015
2 Comments By admin Eating Well, Edible Landscape, Trellis Plants

SHL Trellis Adventure Part 2 – Pumpkins

I have tried planting pumpkins with and without trellis and find that the fruits are better when they grow on a trellis.  So December 2014, I seeded various types of pumpkin seeds.  Previously, I had
bought commercial seeds and they didn’t have a good sprouting rate, about 50%.  This time around, I bought 4 different varieties of organic pumpkin  – I prefer speckled pumpkins – and then selected the good-sized, fat seeds and placed them in a colander to dry.  The skinny seeds do not sprout since they do not have enough “meat” to start a plant.  I had tried drying them on newspaper and it ended with them getting stuck on the newspaper.  I store the excess dried seeds wrapped in a newspaper in a dry, cool area.

I sow the seeds in small polybags, about 9 cm across, filled with a soil mixture containing soil,
organic matter and fertilizer and place them in a sunny location.  I water them everyday, taking care not to have the soil too wet and never letting them dry out.  The seeds sprout in 5-7 days.  Two “baby leaves” will appear first before the normal shaped leaves will appear which looks very different from the baby leaves.  After the third normal leaf has appeared, I will transplant them into the ground.  After 1 week, I will fertilise it with about 1 teaspoon of organic fertiliser.  I find that the “trailers” will start to appear after about 2 weeks and the plant will start to climb up the trellis.  By having them grow on a trellis also helps me control the spread of the plant and enables me to easily spot the pumpkins as well as keeping it away from the ground pest and keeping it clean.

This time around, I changed the design of the trellis from the x-shape to a platform-style trellis.  This design helps to support the fruit, which can weigh over 1 kg.  It also provides for a wider area for the plant to creep along and provides me easier access when I need to do plant maintenance.  The plants love full sunlight and the leaves tend to slightly wilt during the peak hot afternoon but will perk-up as the heat eases off.

I will remove any old or yellowed leaves
whenever I spot it as well as any leave that covers-up a flower.  The aim is to provide easy access for the insects to pollinate.  Removing these leaves also encourages growth.  Fruits will also result from pollinated flowers hence it is important to increase the chances of pollination for the flowers.  All 4 types of pumpkin produce a beautiful, bright yellow flower.  Any flower that does not produce a flower will drop off, still in good shape.  I will collect these flowers and cook them – they are edible.

The fruit are ready for harvest when the white area of the speckled skin has turned into an off-white colour with a slight brown tinge.  These pumpkins can be cooked in many ways either as a sweet or savoury dish.  A simple way to prepare pumpkin is to slice them to about 0.5cm thickness, and coat it with olive oil, salt and pepper and grill or bake them.  Simply delicious.  You can do more complex dishes like masak lemak labu dengan udang, pengat labu and even pumpkin pie.  The young pumpkin leaves and shoots can also be used to cook in savoury dishes.  I like to eat the pumpkin for its many benefits including the high content of anti-oxidants, vitamins such as A, C and E, whilst containing no saturated fats or cholesterol.  It is also rich in the vitamin Bs.  All in all, something good to eat 🙂

20 Jan 2015
0 Comments By admin Eating Well, Edible Landscape, Vegetables, Well-being Landscape

Tomatoes, oh Tomatoes

One of my favourite fruity vegetables is the tomatoes, organically grown and vine-ripened since I
love them raw with its natural sweetness.  I have planted them many times over the years and with each time, I learn more and more.  This time around, it looks like the yield will be more and the plants are the healthiest.

Tomatoes, whether ripe or not, are a favourite of many animals from worms and caterpillars to birds including chickens.  I have experimented planting them outdoors and in the greenhouse.  Due to the nature of my farm, where birds are free, the outdoor experiment resulted in me just feeding them.  So, now I only plant them in the greenhouse.

I plant them from seeds – it germinates in a few days – in the ground.  The quality of the seed is important for a good quality tree.  From my experiments, I find that unless you obtain vine-ripened tomatoes, the quality of the seed is not good even though it germinates.  If it is not vine-ripened, even if the tomato is left to ripen, the seed doesn’t seem to further mature enough to produce good quality plants.  Most store-bought tomatoes are picked before it fully ripens, probably due to transportation and distribution time delays.  After it has produced 3 or more leaves (after the initial baby leaves which is normally 2 of them), I will transplant most of them into 20 cm diameter polybags, starting them at half full.  Through its life cycle, the roots will appear at the top so by starting half-full, it allows for me to cover the roots with more soil without the need to transplant them.  I do plant some in the ground but this limits the utilisation of the land and I can plant more tomato plants in polybags and have a more controlled setting.

Time to top-up the soil

The soil mixture I use is rich, organic soil – I tend to mix various things and then run my fingers through them to see if it feels right to me.  So, please do not ask what the ratios of soil, organic matter,sand, etc are.  It has to be able to run through my fingers and not lumpy.  I will water immediately upon transplanting, irrespective the time of day.  When I see the roots at the soil surface, I will top up with more soil, covering them.

I fertilise weekly, in small amounts, and also spray with home-made organic fertiliser/pest control spray.  I experimented over the years and find that this spray works best so for now, my experimenting on the tomato spray is done.  It prevents ants, white flies and also other assorted pests. It also seems to improve the health of the plant.  I use vermicompost as the “solid” fertiliser which I use about 1 teaspoon weekly per plant.  Tomatoes require lots of water for nice luscious fruits but not soggy, muddy soil so it is important that the soil contains enough organic matter to hold water and not suffocated the roots with mud-like sludge.  I water them twice a day on hot days, once early morning before 9am and once again in the late afternoon and on cool, rainy days, once in the morning.

The white flies are the most notorious to me followed by the
caterpillar.  The white flies lay eggs at the bottom of the leave and these babies then seem to suck the life out of the leaves, causing them to yellow and wither.  The spray I use addresses this problem and I have to be diligent about spraying it once a week.  In between sprays, I also water spray them off should I notice them.  Since this spray is non-toxic and provides lots of benefits, I have now started spraying them twice a week so I have to continuously prepare more concentrate.  The EM concentrate is made by mixing vegetarian kitchen wastes such as papaya skins and other fruit skins and pulp, tomato skins, vegetable stems, with molasses and fermenting them for 3 months in an air-tight container.  Weekly, I will open the lid of the container to release the gases produced by the fermentation process.  To create the spray, I mix approximately 100ml of the concentrate to 1 litre of water with a flat-teaspoon of Epsom salts.  I also sometime mix in some serai wangi juice to add additional pest deterrent properties.

Caterpillar and what is left of the fruit

The caterpillars can munch their way through lots of leaves and also the fruit, leaving just the skin of the fruit.  It is quite amazing to see them munching their way through.  Whilst butterflies may be beautiful, they are a great pest to this plants and their babies, the caterpillars are monster leave and fruit eaters.  Then we have the ants, which creates like a white cocoon to place their eggs where the babies will then such the sap out of the stem, effectively slowly killing the plant.  I also periodically remove any leaves that have signs of pests or “illness” to prevent it from spreading to the rest of the plant and I also remove old or yellowing leaves.

From my experience, tomato plants require support as it fruits or you will end up with broken stems as it cannot support the weight. I will wind “talk raffia” around the stems to support the stems.  This time around, this is something that I diligently need to do as the plants are producing substantial fruits. Just placing a stake to support the main stem is insufficient, I need to support the fruiting branches also. When planted in a pot and if you would like for it to be free-standing and easy to move around for your landscaping, I find using a T-shaped stake is best as it allows to the main stem to be supported as well as allow you to attaches strings and fine ropes from the top T to the fruiting branches.  From seeding to this point in fruiting, it took about 2 months.

I love watching the fruit turn from green to yellow to orange before finally vine-ripening to a red colour.  Once the fruit turns yellow, it takes a few days before becoming red and then it is at its prime in taste.  Each bunch can contain several tomatoes and they do not all ripen at the same time.  You can use these seeds to start a new generation of plants.  I dry them first and this allow me the option to sow the seeds when I want to.  When picked at its prime, you can store in the refrigerator for at least two weeks without significant degradation of taste and juiciness.

Updates: March 15, 2015