Produce your own vegetable in containers

GOOD Morning to all you farmers, growers and gardeners, I hope you all had a good week. God is Good. Have you ever heard of honeycomb givers? There are three kinds, the flint, the sponge and the honeycomb, which kind are you? to get anything from the flint you must hammer it, but all you really get are chips and sparks, the flint gives nothing away if it can help it, and only then with great display. To get anything from the sponge you must squeeze it, then it yields to pressure and the more it is pressed the more it gives, still, you must push, but to get anything from the honeycomb however, you must only take what freely flows from it, it gives it sweetness generously, dripping on all without pressure, without begging or badgering. Note too, there is another difference, the honeycomb is a renewable source. Unlike the flint and sponge, the honeycomb is connected to life, if you are a honeycomb giver, your life will be continually replenished as you give.

Lets pause for a moment: In my desire to be a giver, Lord I want to sense your guiding hand and help me to be a receiver too for what is also what you planned, be as gracious in receiving as you are in giving. Our Topic- in these times of high price, you can cut your food bills by growing your own vegetables right in your home, if you don't have space for your own garden plot, well you can grow your favorite veggies in containers. There are a number of advantages of growing your own vegetables besides saving some market money.

You will always be sure they are fresh and clean, and you can be sure that when you harvest your crop, it has not been spread with insecticide. You can also produce various vegetable year round. And during stormy whether, you can place your containerized plants in a safe corner, there are many vegetables that can be easily grown in containers, here is your guide to productive container gardening, have fun!. There are many types of containers you can use. Some can be cheap recycled materials such as styropor, boxes used for importing fruits, empty paint cans, metal or plastic drums cut in half, old basins and many others, of course there are also clay pots, plastic pot and rubberized containers of various sized. The most important thing is the container must have adequate drainage holes. Make sure the growing medium is porous and rich in organic matter. An example is an equal mixture of soil compost or old manure and rice hull or coconut dust, carbonized rich hull I another material that can take place of rice mill and coco coir dust.

There are ready-mixed potting material available, but these are expensive. The vegetables to grow there are low growing vegetables that are also shallow rooted, these can be grown in relatively shallow containers. Example are lettuce, pechay, mustard upland kangkong, cabbage, celery, kutsay, green union, and culinary herbs. Vegetables that require deeper and bigger containers include eggplant, pepper (both bell and finger) okra, tomato, bush sitao, raddish and carrot. For higher productivity, hybrid seeds are recommended for planting. These are now distributed by many of the agriculture seed companies. The hybrid seeds are of course more expensive than the open pollinated seeds, but they are more productive. Seeds are best germinated in plastic seedlings trays that are also distributed by the seeds companies, the planting medium should be sterilized by spraying fungicide or drenching the medium with boiling water. Best for growing the seedlings are the soilless growing medium also sold by the seed companies, one germinating medium which has bee found to be excellent is pure vermicast.

The seedlings are transplanted to the container when they have a couple of true leaves. The container should be filled with the growing medium up to about one to two inches below the rim. When transplanting be careful not to break the rootball and damage the roots. After transplanting water carefully but toughly. The sun loving plants such as tomato eggplant, pepper, okra and some others should be placed on an area that is well exposed to sunlight. Lettuce pechay and the like may be placed under bright but diffused light. A low-cost greenhouse with transparent plastic roofing and fine mesh net is as siding will keep insect away. During days that are not raining, the vegetables should be watered daily, make sure that there is proper drainage so the containers will not be waterlogged. Water logging can cause rotting of the roots that could result in mortality or stunted growth, which means all your efforts are wasted. For those who want to grow organic vegetables. One good fertilizer is vermicast. I hope this has been of interest to you. Take care see you next week.