How to Grow Your Organic Lettuce

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Soil Prep. Prepare the soil first. Lettuce needs a lot of nitrogen, so make sure the soil is well fertilized, with pH balance at least 6 to 6.8. But you don't have to fuss about that. Simply spray the soil with our Rapha Humus organic liquid fertilizer as you cultivate it and turn it inside out. Spray liberally to make sure of the soil's nutrition content and alkalinity. Most soils are acidic. This fertilizer has nitrogen and microorganism that "catch" nitrogen in the air.

Plus, your compost adds a bit more nitrogen and other nutrients. And till and cultivate the soil to make it soft and well drained (or to make water easily seep into it).


Seed Planting in Garden Plot. Then plant the lettuce seeds about an inch or so into the soil. Lettuce plants have short roots so you don't need to plant them deeper into the soil. Then cover the seeds with about 1.3 cm soil. Then cover that with your organic compost, about 3 or 4 inches high. Composts keep soil moist and stop weeds from growing. Just make sure the compost is organic. Don't mix anything cooked when composting because anything cooked and rots becomes acidic.

Thin Out. Then, when the tiny plants have appeared, the plants should be from 5 to 8 or even 12 inches apart. So, thin out the small plants. This means removing some of them and replanting them so that they have enough spaces between them, not clustered. This is especially so if you use organic Rapha Humus fertilizer which tends to increase the size of the leaves and the plant itself.

Spraying. Spray the organic foliar fertilizer on the leaves. Do this regularly, ideally three times a day. Rapha Humus organic fertilizer has zero photoxicity or photoirritation---a condition where the plants, and especially the leaves, become "burnt" due to the reaction of the fertilizer to sunlight especially during noon. Rapha Humus does nto have this problem. So, you can spray at different times of the day, especially if you want harvests with abnormally big sizes. No overdose.

Per spray bottle, use 2 tablespoons of Rapha Humus for both soil application and foliar (spray).

Watering. But watering should be done early in the morning and late in the afternoon. Never water at noon or during hot times of the day. And water gently, being careful not to flood the soil. Make sure the plants are watered enough, though.

With Rapha Humus, green leafy vegetables often take only 3 weeks to reach their full potential and for harvest, with big impressive leaves and delightful taste.

Pesticide. How about pests? Well, it has been observed that pests hate the smell of organic fertilizers, especially our Rapha Humus. So, when sprayed on the plants, it also act as organic insect repellent.

In Containers. If you plant lettuce in containers, make sure the soil is replenished well (about every week) with compost and sprayed regularly with organic liquid fertilizer.

This same procedure is good for pechay and mustard and other similar plants.

Get a Kit to Start Your Home Organic Vegetable Garden Now

That's my kit above. Now you can start your own
organic vegetable garden at home with this kit.

If you want to start an organic vegetable garden at home but are wondering how and where to start, this kit will help you. It is designed to help city folks start doing the hobby easily. You'd find everything you need to start a basic home vegetable garden in it.

What's Included

It has 3 plastic container pots (see picture above), about 20 kilos of organic soil compost, a bottle of Rapha Humus liquid organic fertilizer, container spray, vegetable seeds, and a plastic seedling box or tray. It also has basic instruction on how to use the kit to start your organic home vegetable garden and how to plant. Plus brochures to share the information and opportunity to your friends and some packs of seeds.

One seed pack may contain smaller packs with seeds of sweet pepper, pechay, eggplant, native chili (siling haba), okra and tomatoes.

So, all you have to do is really just do it!


Why Share about It to Friends

This blog, Start Your Home Organic Vegetable Garden (SYHOVG), aims to promote and spread organic home vegetable gardening in Metro Manila, and later in Luzon. The idea is to make fresh, healthy, organic vegetables more readily available to each home in the metropolis so people would become healthy. I and my friends also want each community in Metro Manila healthier by making organic vegetables abundant.

Most vegetables out there in the market are contaminated with chemical pesticides and grown bombarded with chemical fertilizers or grown in acidic soil. The sad story is that most agrochemicals (chemicals used in gardening and agriculture) stick to the crops and don't get eliminated by washing. Imagine your kids eating vegetables with residues of deadly chemicals. Imagine what happens when that accumulates in their bodies.

And where can you buy vegetables without chemicals? In certified organic farms. But where are they in Metro Manila?

Read more about it here.

So, what's the solution? Start your own home organic vegetable garden, obviously!

Not Just a Hobby

Later, the hobby of gardening can turn into a small business. When your organic vegetables start outgrowing your family consumption, you can sell the excess to your neighbors and friends. Organic vegetables are more costly than ordinary vegetables.

For instance, if a whole cluster of pechay costs P15 in the market, you can sell your organic pechay for P20 per cluster. If your home organic vegetable garden produces 20 heads of pechay, you make P400. What if you have other vegetables which also has excesses you can sell? It can become a lucrative small home business.

Therapeutic

Moreover, gardening is a therapeutic hobby that promotes good health for everyone. If you are suffering from work stress (or whatever stress you're dealing with), start a gardening hobby. This is also a reason why this blog wants you to share home organic vegetable gardening to relatives, neighbors and friends. Let's start living stress free.

Why a Home Organic Vegetable Garden is Now a MUST

Image from hometalk.sulekha

It used to be when "healthy" simply meant eating more vegetables and fruits. Not anymore. With the onslaught of chemicalized farming on plants, bombarding them with chemical pesticides and fertilizers, eating vegetables may even be harmful today.

And being vegetarian may not be as healthy anymore as you think. Imagine getting all those chemical doses in your body and getting them accumulated there. These chemicals stick to the vegetables and fruits and don't get eliminated even with thorough washing or cooking.

The National Pesticide Information Center in the US confirmed that washing vegetables and fruits does not eliminate the chemical pesticides used on them. The site HealthChild.Org had this to say in one of its articles:

According to the National Pesticide Information Center, washing produce reduces pesticide levels but doesn’t completely remove them. Some fruits and vegetables, for example, may have their residues sealed under a coating of shelf-life-extending wax. Others have soft or waxy skins that help chemicals stick to their surfaces.

The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station confirms the above. Washing does not get rid of all the chemical pesticides used on crops.

The site SustainableBabySteps reported about the dangers of contaminated food on babies and kids. It said researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that chemical fertilizers plus chemical pesticides in food could result to worse health cases. A baby's endocrine, neurological and immune systems may be harmed by contaminated crops, and even experiments done in mice resulted to altered conditions of the same. 

The site added that the above side effects may lead to problems in kids' learning abilities and alarming patterns of aggression.

But not only that. Here's the worse picture.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the US (Office of Pesticide Programs), claimed that 12 of the foremost pesticides used in America contain carcinogenic elements or ingredients said to trigger cancer. 

If you think these things are really bad, wait till you hear about "systemic pesticides." These pesticides are designed to seep into the plants and crops (into their internal systems) to poison pests and bugs that eat them. Thus, the chemical poison goes into the produce itself and no amount of washing or cooking will get rid of it. 

In fact, tests by the Pesticide Action Network showed that vegetables given these chemical pesticides had big amounts of internal residues left in them. Vegetables tested were broccoli, lettuce, potatoes, sweet peppers, strawberries, and collard greens. 

In the Philippines, bad scenarios almost catch up with those in the US. Agrochemical expenses make up some 65% for fertilizers and 18.2% for pesticides. In short, our agriculture is still heavily chemicalized, according to data from GreenPeace. A big percent of vegetables you buy in wet markets or grocery stores are contaminated.

GreenPeace said in one of its articles: 

"According to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), 37% of the total water pollution originates from agricultural practices, which include animal waste and fertilizer and pesticide runoff. Water pollution from nitrates derived from fertilizer runoff is more widespread in the Philippines than previously thought."

GreenPeace further said that nitrate poisoning (caused by agrochemicals) in water leads to methemoglobinemia or the blue-baby syndrome in infants below 4 months. The organization added that drinking contaminated water can lead to long-term nitrate side effects like certain cancers.

So, what's the solution?

Buy organic vegetables? It's the obvious remedy, but where can you find organic vegetables in the city? A lot of sellers can simply claim their vegetables are "organic." But how can you be sure, unless you buy from a certified vegetable organic farm?

In fact, not even vegetables grown in the provinces can be organic unless they were really grown with zero chemicals. 

There's only one way to make sure you have nothing but organic food (and protect your family from chemicalized food)---grow them yourself right in your own backyard. 

Or, right in your home!

Everyone should take this seriously, especially if you live in the city. It's no longer just an option or hobby. Home vegetable gardening---100% organic---is a must. And you can do it easily right now. If you want to know where to buy organic compost and fertilizers in Metro Manila, just use the Contact Form on the sidebar. 

Or simply comment below.

New Blog but the Same Purpose: So It's Not Really Good Bye to PhilAsian Herbs

Image from Around the Cabin

Those of you who have been following PhilAsian Herbs for so many years will probably be surprised to find it no longer exists. It was a hard decision to replace that blog with this blog. I have learned to love PhilAsian Herbs on plants and herbs in the Philippines and Asia, but lately I and my wife revived our interest on organic home vegetable gardens.

So, this new blog is no longer about Asian and Philippine plants and herbs but on how to start an organic vegetable garden right in one;s home, no matter if there is limited space only. That's what's really in our hearts.

What I had in mind with PhilAsian Herbs was to promote Philippine plants and herbs, with some coming from Asia. Second, I also wanted to promote gardening and eating more vegetables among Filipinos.

But I want all this to be hinged on organic gardening. It's useless to eat vegetables which are not organic. Inorganic vegetables are often riddled with chemical pesticides and fertilizers. That negates all the health benefits you can attribute to eating vegetables. if it isn't organic, then it promotes acidity which is unhealthy, no matter what you do.

I hope all PhilAsian Herbs followers will discover this blog and continue following our posts. And one more thing---I and my wife are seriously doing a business out of organic gardening at home. I'd like to keep a blog about it for future generations to see.

We hope to grow a healthy organic vegetable garden right in our home and what small spaces we have left, and then sell the excess and make money. We also plan to sell the organic liquid fertilizer we are using and the compost. Our target are people in the city who realize that urgent need to plant vegetables in their homes, no matter how small their home is.

Even vegetables from provinces are inorganic. And organic vegetable farms are far from Metro Manila. So, it's high time to start your own organic vegetable now.

I think PhilAsian Herbs just got promoted to a better calling.

Now we have two specific goals in mind---go start your own vegetable garden at home, and go all-out organic with your vegetable garden!

The battle cry---"Nothing but organic!"

How to Do Aquaponics

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Ever heard of aquaponics? It's probably the best when caring for plants and herbs in the Philippines and Asia. It's the latest revolutionary gardening and agricultural development since hydroponics. I have a neighbor, Rolly, who is into aquaponics and manages to grow organic herbs and vegetables and fish.

He has lettuce and tomato plants in this box he made where water continuously flows. The water comes from his aquarium nearby and even in the box where his plants are "planted on water" small fish roam around. First, the roaming fish was to prevent mosquitoes from breeding there, he said. Now, the water just goes through a cycle, in and out, so it's really water saving. You just have to add water from time to time to replace water lost due to evaporation.

The vegetables are fed organic fertilizer coming from the aquarium and mostly fish-produce like ammonia, nitrates and minerals. These are all-natural and keep plants in tiptop shape. Vegetables result to bigger sizes, more delicious taste, and even having more nutrition. It' been tested even in big farms in the US. You can do aquaponics in small gardens in your rooftop, terrace, or backyard as the system is also doable in big farms.

There is a proper technology for all this an you can get that technology though Aquaponics 4 You. This e-book gives you details on how to make your own aquaponics system even in the small space you have at home, or in your farm. You can raise both your fish and vegetables and link them in a synergistic relationship--each benefiting and empowering the other.

To further understand this system, there are more info details found on the product page of Aquaponics 4 You. Start producing your own organic vegetables right in your backyard or even in your garden terrace. That's zero chemical and zero pesticides for the vegetables you put on your family diner table!

Organic Lifestyle: Never Burn Dried Leaves

Never, never burn dried leaves or branches. Never throw them away for the garbage trucks to collect. The principle in organic gardening is, everything derived from the soil must return to the soil. The moment you get rid of dried leaves or cut off branches by burning or throwing them, you subtract something from the soil. That's less soil nutrient. Nature needs to recycle itself for sustenance. You need to give back to nature what you took out of it.

The best way to get rid of dried leaves is to compost it and reuse it as soil--put the compost back to the earth. How about large branches of trees? Well, you may have other uses for them. But  the leaves and stems and small branches should go back to the soil. Anyway, composting is easy--just gather all the leaves, fruits, small branches together in a hole in the ground and let them all rot there for 1 or 2 months. Then they turn into a powerful organic fertilizer. Better if they produce earthworms.

Talking of earthworms, I remember one time seeing some pineapple farmers in Tagaytay killing off earthworms, believing with all their hearts that the worms destroyed their pineapple. We explained to them the importance of earthworms in maintaining soil health, and how virus and bacteria were what really destroyed their pineapples. They looked at us as though we were talking Martian language.

Anyway, earthworms only get into root crops when bacteria or virus start boring holes into them, producing crevices in root crops where earthworms sometimes sneak in. Then, they get blamed for it. If you see earthworms, make a culture of them and use their feces as organic fertilizer. That's what grew the vegetables you see in the pictures here.

Notice the ampalaya (bitter melon) on the upper right. No insect damage and no need to wrap the fruit up to protect from pests. Organic gardening does that--shoo insects and pests away with zero-chemical pesticides. And look at the leaves and stems--all healthy with a natural green hue. I can't wait for the leaves and stems to be cooked in a sauteed mongo recipe!

Start Your Rooftop Organic Vegetable Garden

Junior's organic tomato on his
rooftop garden.

My bible disciple, Junior, started his rooftop organic vegetable garden about two years ago. Living in a densely populated part of the Bicutan suburbs, he dreamed of having his own vegetable garden someday, even an entire farm. Then he attended our company's organic farming seminar (when I was still connected with the company) and heard some tips from me on home organic vegetable gardening.

Healthy looking white squash
or upo grown from his rooftop.

He started his organic garden and today he regularly harvests home grown organic vegetables. It produces so much that he sells and sometimes even gives them away. How did he start? Having no vacant area in his property to get soil from, he gathered vegetable peels and rejects and made a compost of them in a container. Soon, it rot and turned into something like soil. He placed it in containers and planted vegetables in them.

He also grew worms from the rotting vegetables and raised them. Their feces or stools became powerful fertilizers which he used to grow the vegetables. Everything was healthy organic. And the beauty of it all was that everything was easy to do. Just produce the "veggie soil," containers, and veggie seeds. Plant and then water them daily, plus the "veggie worm" fertilizer. Presto! You have a productive home rooftop organic vegetable garden!

Reddish organic Okra grown from
his rooftop.

If you don't have a rooftop, then place it in your garage or a small corner in your yard where there is enough sunlight. Construct stair-shelves where you can place the containers on and save space. If you use your garage, make sure enough sunlight reaches there. If not, then start a morning and afternoon ritual--put the plants (in containers) where there is sunlight and then return them to the garage after--early mornings (6 or 7 am) and late afternoons (4 or 5 pm).

Just look at the reddish organic okra on the right. My guess is that it's probably rich in the antioxidant anthocyanin, which produces the bright colors in plants. Scientists say brightly colored fruits and veggies have anthocyanin.

Junior noticed something interesting--no pests to harm the plants, leaves or fruit. A farming expert I know once said that organic plants released plant chemicals that insects hated. So, let's all go back to organic farming.

Simple Organic Fertilizer You Can Easily Make

One of my bible disciples is a home garden buff. He has no backyard or front yard to do this but he has a rooftop. He placed lots of sawed off plastic bottles there and discarded pails and planted vegetables on them--onions, carrots, radish, eggplants, tomatoes, okra, alugbati, and amplaya, to name a few.

However, because they live in a part of Bicutan where soil is not readily available, he made use of discarded vegetables as his "soil." He said he learned the composting procedure from me, and this was how he did it.

He collected all parts of vegetables that were discarded during cooking--peels, stems, dried leaves, soft seeds, and even leftover cooked vegetables. He put them in a container and let them rot for weeks until they were easy to crush. He pulverized them as much as possible and then that became "soil." He placed them in the sawed off plastic bottles and discarded pails and planted vegetables on them.

They grew well and bore good fruit, and because they were grown with nothing but rotten vegetables and water, they were organic. He gave me some onion springs, ampalaya, eggplants, and okra and my wife cooked "bulanlang" with them and they tasted sweet.

You don't need a back or front yard for gardening. You can do it in a portion of your garage or a rooftop if you have one. If you don't have soil available, it also isn't a problem. Just do what my bible disciple did. You can now grow your own organic vegetables the easiest way and start eating organic veggies grown straight from your own garden.

And we all know how much higher organic vegetables cost compared to those grown with chemical fertilizers.

So now you know how easy it is to grow organic plants and herbs in the Philippines!

Powerful Liquid Organic Fertilizer

All you gardening aficionados out there, here's a chance to fertilize your soil and improve your harvest like never before!...How about that for a hype? But this is not just hype. This liquid organic fertilizer is powerful. Its got everything you need for an impressive quality harvest. And you can make money on it, too!

Glacier Humus by Fertile Land Asia Manufacturing Corp. (FELAMCO) is a unique liquid organic fertilizer for foliar application (spray over plants) and soil fertilization. The key is its powerful blend of micro nutrients, minerals, vitamins, amino acid, and microorganism. And it's all-natural, fermented through quality procedures and manufactured in Davao City, Philippines.

Aside from its quality, it's so affordable. Ordinary farmers can well afford it at Php 300 per liter bottle! And you just need 2 liters per hectare!

Apply it for vegetables, fruit trees like banana and others, and of course, palay (rice). It is also for your home vegetable garden, orchids, ornamental plants, and lawn grass. Other similar fertilizers emit foul odors but Glacier Humus by FELAMCO does not.

Philippine soil is acidic. Well, at least for most parts of the country, it is. The key here is the application of microorganism and then minerals and amino acid for soil rejuvenation and better plant growth, respectively. No matter what fertilizer you put on your soil, and how much, the nutrients will remain idle in the soil without the essential action of microorganism. Microorganism breaks down these nutrients into much simpler forms so plants can absorb them. Without this process, your fertilizers will be useless. 

But worry no longer. Your soil will start getting better and your crop or green leafy harvest impressive in quality with Glacier Humus liquid organic fertilizer made by FELAMCO, Philippines.

This was tested first in Luzon and has been tested now in Mindanao, and the results have been amazing. It is great for vegetables and rice and fruit trees, and all types of plants. It is not harmful to the user (unlike chemical fertilizers), to the soil, and to the crops. It is ideal for your farm or home garden, especially for herbs. Definitely good for herbs and plants in the Philippines and Asia. 

Go all-organic with your gardens and enjoy healthy, chemical-free vegetables. Glacier Humus is available in the Philippines and business dealership is now open. For more details, please see the FELAMCO website.

Try Composting

The best way of fertilizing the soil is through compost fertilizers. They can be purely organic, if you know how to make them. Just make sure they're free from any chemical contamination. You can eliminate more waste materials in a practical way and add more life to your herb garden. So try composting. It's the best for your herbs.

Basic Composting

The idea is to dig a hole in the ground deep enough to contain all your garden plant debris. Chop the debris for quicker decomposing and put them all into the hole. Cover with soil and let it sit there for 1 month or two. And then it's ready to use. It's fertilized soil and at the same time organic fertilizer. Use the soil for your herbs or plant something in the hole where the composting was done.

You may also add animal manure to your compost, like chicken dung. Or, add some of your biodegradable kitchen trash, like peels of fruits and discarded veggies or meat--like the innards of fish and fowl and the like. To prevent the trash from emitting an odor, make the hole deep enough so you can cover it with enough soil. It's easy, so try composting now and give your herbs and plants a treat. Organic fertilizer is a plant's ice cream treat, as it were.

Quicker Composting

A quicker way is to apply micro organism. Buy a bottle of organic micro organism, mix it with water, and spray over the trash heap in the hole. You may or may not cover it with soil, as the micro organism will prevent any foul order coming out from it. The micro organism will "eat" everything and multiply and quickly consume the whole thing within more or less a week. Then, your compost organic fertilizer is ready to use. This type is super powerful for plants and herbs, especially herbs and plants in the Philippines and Asia.

PhilAsian Herbs urges you to try composting. Be an organic gardener and help increase the organic food supply of your community. Fight synthetic processed food or the use of  chemicals in food and farming. Let's start with ourselves. And it's good to know that you feed your family with only the best food--organic food grown right in your backyard.

Try composting now. It's worth your time.

Organic Amino Fertilizer: BIONIX

It's very new in the Philippines. Most organic fertilizers here are minerals, with some of them mixed with micro organisms. But this organic amino fertilizer--BIONIX--is quite different. It's powerful in that it has 18 types of L-Amino Acids, 14 types of minerals, and 3 types of micro organisms.

L-Amino Acid

Plants get nutrients from the soil and produces its own food through the help of sunlight, air, and water. We learned about this in grade school--the process of photosynthesis by which plants make their food. That food is called L-amino acid. L-amino acid is a building food for plants to make them healthy, grow well and big, and produce awesome crops. Now, BIONIX is L-amino acid.

Once it is sprayed on plants or trees, they eat immediately. No need to wait for photosynthesis. This is quite helpful when there is a storm or during rainy season when there's less sunlight. Each of the 18 types of L-Amino Acid in BIONIX has a special work in plants and crops to make them phenomenally exceptional in size, taste, and quantity.

14 Minerals

Most chemical fertilizers only have 3 types of minerals: Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium (NPK). BIONIX has 14. Plants don't just need NPK; they need more micro nutrients to grow well and perform better during cropping. Imagine what kind of super crops you would be growing with 14 different types of minerals.

3 Micro Organisms

No matter how many NPK fertilizers you put in your soil, if it has not enough micro organisms, your soil will not be any good for your plants. Micro organisms are the reason why plants are able to absorb soil nutrients and use them to make their food. Chemical fertilizer byproducts, like muriatic acid, kill micro organisms in the soil, so that your plants get less and less soil nutrition even if you put in sacks of chemical fertilizers.

Thus, soil and plant fertilization should be a combination of L-amino acids, minerals, and micro organisms. Amino fertilizer in foliar application is not enough though, Your soil should get enough organic supplements, like organic solid fertilizers. You can spray BIONIX Max 1 on your solid organic fertilizer or compost before planting. Let it sit for 14 days, and then you're assured of a fertile, rich, and chemical-free soil.

Organic amino fertilizers are good for rice plants, vegetables, other plants and fruit bearing trees. They're perfect for corn, sugarcane, palm oil, mangoes, and others. Of course, they're excellent for your herbs, even wild ones, and other herbal plants. Plants grown organically last longer after harvest. For more on BIONIX...