Our Little Farm

Our extended water holding pool.

One month had passed. We had settled down and are working at full steam. All of us are in very high spirit. Just had a meeting and was happy to announced that we had manage to trim down our monthly expenses and had a slight increase in gross income. Still working to achieve our short term plan of arresting negative cash flow, end of February.
Our daily operation is running smoothly. We normally start off at 7.00 am with watering, follow by harvesting and transplanting. Later part of the day are mostly for maintenance, fertilizing, preparation and etc. Ending the day at about 5.00 pm with another round of watering.
Had already finished off transplanting all the green vegetables. It has freed us from working on a too tight daily schedule and kept us from planting off the full four acres. We should see more progress this month.

Uneven germination of F1 sweet corn.

We had lots of issues in October, after the changes. We had water supply problem, due to the dry weather. We had insects / predator attacks. Soil and plant disease,  some we had solve, some still pending. Our trial plot of brunching onions failed miserably. Only a few managed to germinate and all failed to grow. Our new planting of F1 Sweet corn 45 & 55 days), half failed to germinated. We had planted ground nuts to replaced those that failed to germinate. We had also replaced those died off brinjals (Phytopthora) with pumpkins. It was so hectic like fighting fire, here & there. At least now we can have a breather.
This month we are trying to plant bitter gourd, Ash gourd (F1 early mature new seeds from supplier) and some Bentong Ginger (courtesy of Joseph).

Pumpkins on raised bed and replacement for die-off eggplants.

Our first batch of ginger was harvested and we managed only 35 kilos of harvest. We made a lot of mistakes on this first batch. Biggest mistake was using too 'hot' a fertilizer and it almost killed off the whole batch. We are grateful that we still managed 35 kilos. We also harvested late as we have to wait for those almost died off plant to rejuvenate and the good ones are already too matured. After harvesting we had free up some land. Half had been germinated with Lady's Finger (okra). We had planted some left over shoots and the Bentong ginger on raised bed, within watering range this time. Shall see how it perform.

 Some of the Sayur Manis (Sue Jia Choy) have started to grow. We hope to grow more of these as there are low maintenance and provide regular harvest, even if it's on a lower price.

Did a trial run of Carbonized Rice Husk. It was 'simply' built with whatever that was available from scraps. Managed 2 batches, then the rain started. Shall stop until the rainy days are over.
Rice hulls are composed of 20% inorganic materials and 80% organic materials. The organic fraction of the rice hull includes cellulose and hemicellulose (50%), lignin (26%) and other compounds such as oil and proteins (4%) (de Souza et al., 2002). The high concentration of lignin in rice hulls impedes decomposition processes (more than 4 months) and reduces the bioavailability of the remaining organic components of the rice hull. Biological lignin decomposition is primarily an aerobic process carried out by fungi. The production of carbonized rice hull has been identified as an appropriate method for circumventing this problem. Carbonized rice hull is a crucial ingredient of bokashi organic fertilizer and can also be used in composting toilets and animal bedding. Carbonized rice hull results from the incomplete combustion of rice hulls under high heat and low oxygen conditions (pyrolysis). Pyrolysis causes the decomposition of organic materials such as lignin and cellulose, leaving a residue of carbon and mineral nutrients. Breaking down the lignin accelerates decomposition of the rice hulls and the subsequent release of nutrients. When Carbonized rice hull is incorporated in bokashi organic fertilizer it provides a carbon source for microorganisms to balance the high nitrogen content of the manure. Carbonization conserves the physical structure of the rice hull which provides a colonization site for beneficial microorganisms, contributes to soil permeability and water retention, and improves aeration of the soil. Carbonized rice hulls also contain nutrients such as potassium, phosphorous, calcium, magnesium and other micro-elements.
Stay tune for more news on the second half of the month.