February 27, 2008 at 8:19 am (gardening)
A month before the Okra (Ladies finger) plants were like this as shown in the picture below.
And now the plants are very tall and producing one or two ladies fingers a day. I am so surprised how fast these plants grow and considering the fact they are in pots I must say they are doing a very good job.
I have 4 okra plants and Here is the produce for the day!.
It definitely is a great feeling when you get to eat veggies from your own terrace garden.
more later..
February 21, 2008 at 8:51 am (gardening)
I thought I will share some of the pictures from the my garden. All I have now is a Nokia 6600 camera phone. Till I get a decent camera you all have to bear with me on this.
Here is a picture of a miniature rose thats been beautifying my garden. This plant never gets tired. Keeps flowering like crazy… I will let the picture speak.
Below is a picture of another lush rose plant taken just after a rain. Look at how fresh and healthy the foliage is. Those small pots you see behind are my Brinjal(Eggplant) seedlings that kinda seem to like the shade provided by the rose pots.
The one below is a Hybrid Tea. The 3-Roses you see are the first bloom for this plant and they were the centre of attraction for my garden.
This white rose you see below, never flowered this big before. Regular spray of Panchagavya is the secret to all these roses.
More pics later 
February 19, 2008 at 7:12 am (gardening, organic, panchagavya)
Tags: chennai, fungicide, growthpromoter, insecticide, lalitharamakrishnan, panchagavya, panchakavya, pesticide, vermiwash
A week without Panchagavya and many of my plants have become dinner to a mysterious rodent/pest that eats the whole leaf, cuts stem and just leaves the stump. For seedlings nothing remains. I was hurt badly looking at the destruction caused by that creature. I still dont know what it is and seems to only come in the night.
The small bottle of panchagavya I had , got over and While I was on the lookout for Panchagavya source, I found this website. www.green-lands.com . I spoke to the person who runs this website Mrs Lalitha Ramakrishnan. I became her fan. She has a Goshala ( A place for cows) that shelters about 100+ cows which otherwise would have ended up in Slaughter houses. I must say there cannot be a holier thing on earth to do than saving a cow. With such a high number of cows, managing the whole thing is a herculian task.
She is very passionate about animals and loves what she does. Being an animal lover myself, I was very happy for having known such a person. Next month I am going to visit her Goshala and spend some time there. Also, she promised me that she will teach me how to make vermiwash and panchagavya. Though I will learn how to make them, I will still buy from them.
Why am I so interested in panchagavya? Here is why!
Panchagavya makes lots of difference to your plants. Typically the inorganic way of cultivation goes like this..
1. Buy seeds/cuttings
2. Sow them/root them.
3. When they start, spray weak solution of fertilizer, oh! and dont forget 1% fungicide.
4. When the grow, feed them with X-Y-Z NPK and more fungicide and insecticide.
5. When the flower, more NPK, more insecticide and by that we kill the good insects also.
With panchagavya, its as simple as this.
1. Just spray 3% panchagavya weekly. Thats all. Its fungicide, insecticide, pesticide, growth promoter, root promoter.
My chrysanthemum bush was haunted and ruled by aphids so much that we thought of destroying the whole plant. Initially I sprayed with dishsoap+oil spray and it got rid of the aphids for couple of days and my plant leaves became so dry and unnatural. Then after a couple of more days, aphids ruled. I almost gave up until I saw panchagavya.
I sprayed it twice a week and no aphids till this moment and the leaves look so green that looking at them feels good.
Panchagavya for life.!!
February 8, 2008 at 6:46 am (gardening, organic)
Tags: chrysanthemum, coleus, keradix, quicroot, tomato
With the plants paying off for all the hardwork i had put, its really time to enjoy the results. Yes, all the plants in my container garden are doing really well. With regular spray of panchagavya supplemented with vermicompost, they couldn’t be happier.
Sometime back I bought a Coleus variety called “Crimson velvette” which is now a bushy plant from which i have already taken 15 cuttings and I am excited to say that I have 100% success in rooting all of them. They are still in their mini greenhouse. Once they are ready to face the real world after hardening they will pose for a pic.
Tomatoes, Eggplants are all doing great. Here is a pic of 25 day old tomato seedling
The tiny plants you see behind are cockscomb and couple of spinach seedlings that got into the cockscomb seed packet somehow .
Out of 6 chrysanthemum cuttings I made, just 2 were lucky. but then I rooted them using “Keradix” which is 2.2% humic acid and not really a rooting hormone. I also have IBA solution called “Quicroot” but they didnt mention the concentration of it.
Will make some more cuttings of the mums and post the results.
February 5, 2008 at 5:53 am (gardening, organic)
Tags: organic panchagavya panchakavya cow dung tea kunapa
Lots of updates from my garden. Here is what i have been doing
Been to Lalbagh Flower show on Republic day( Actually went there twice The flower show was great. Got to see lots of varieties of Coleus, Baby Zinnia and its mouthful. Got myself lots of seeds to start and really really refreshing. One thing that I would like to mention in my post is that I stopped in a stall called “Vital Plant Products” that sold ayurvedic extracts for plants. At first it didn’t interest me. But I was interested in their potting mix that they were selling in 25Kg bags so I bought one of it.
Then I wanted to do a test drive on some ayurvedic extract called N.L. Keeping my fingers crossed I just got a tiny bottle that cost Rs 50. The next day I was really surprised.. to see that it smelled like Cow’s Urine. ( Should I say I was pissed off ). Then I looked at the ingredients and here is ..
“Panchagavya + Herbal plant extracts”.
What on earth is Panchagavya ?.
Panchagavya is a thick mixture you get when you blend 5(pancha) products from the Cow(gavya). Cow dung, Cow’s urine (i told ya), Milk, Curd and Ghee are mixed together at proper ratio and fermented for about 20 days and at the end you get a miracle liquid that really works wonders in your garden. Believe me!. I am a kind of person who wanted to see results before I blog. I am glad I bought that tiny bottle.
I mix that bottle’s cap full of Panchagavya in 0.5 litre of water and apply as a foliar spray. I am doing this weekly twice. My plants used to look weak before with not many shoots coming up and aphids ruling the whole garden. After applying the liquid for two weeks, I see a lush green garden and to my surprise no aphids at all. I mean it.
Every day I see lots of improvement in the plants. My tomato seedlings look bigger, stronger and greener. Rooting is profound in cuttings..
I am happy and I am going to use it forever.
Another article that fueled my quest for organic farming is
http://www.agri-history.org/pdf/Organic_tea.pdf
By Respected Valmiki Sreenivasa Ayangarya
Perhaps Its time we Indians should start using the old techniques of organic farming mentioned in our vedic literatures otherwise the researchers abroad will follow it and tell us about it. 
