Creativity + Moving Forward

Today I harvested 2 radishes and 2 lady fingers from my garden. Ha ha...to seasoned vegetable grower, this is a pathetic harvest! But to me....whoa, they are fruits of my tender, loving, care!!

My radishes were really small in size. Compare them with the sizes of radishes grown by these children who are members of Earth Club in Japan who grew the Sakurajima Daikon. Their radishes weighed at least 900 grammes! Ha! Ha! I still have a long way to go to reach that size!!

I have not decided what to cook with the radishes. The lady fingers were added into my Assam Fish for tonite's dinner. With the little harvest that I get, it needs a lot of creativity to use the vegie to produce a dish that is substantial for our dinner. Ha ha...my creativity is now getting challenges on a daily basis. Why do I say so? Because yesterday, I had harvested a solo lady finger! Yup, just 1 single lady finger.

Yesterday's harvest of 1 lady finger was used in my Yong Tou Foo. I stuffed the lady finger with some minced meat and pan-fried them. As 1 lady finger is not sufficient to create a dish, I had added some other vegies, such as brinjal, bittergourd and another lady finger to add bulk to the dish. My sister said this is a delicious dish!

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How's the radish seeds doing? All the seeds that I sowed in a plastic container 3 days ago have germinated into seedlings with 4 tiny leaves. Today I transferred them into pots.

Not satisfied with the sizes of radishes that I harvested, I did some internet search to find out how I can improve on its growth.

I found out that loose crumbly soil works best for white radish. So I have added some sands and also worm compost to the soil that I previously bought at the United Malaysian Orchid Nursery. My earlier crop of radish was grown in burnt paddy husks (sekam) mixed with cocopeat (habuk kelapa).

That was a crumbly composition that drains very well. But I have run our of them. Probably it's time to visit Sg. Buluh?? My dilemma is where shall I keep a gunny of burnt paddy husks and a gunny of cocopeat??

I also found out that the secret to good radishes is plenty of even moisture. Supply sufficient water to plants without creating waterlogged soil. If allowed to dry out, radishes will taste hot.

What fertilizer is suitable for radish? Organic or NPK chemical fertilizer?

I have used organic fertilizer to grow my first batch of radish. According to the internet, many organic fertilizers have a higher concentration of nitrogen. Nitrogen increases leafy growth and root size during the initial growth stage of a radish. It also increases the rate of growth, allowing radishes to be harvested earlier. However, an excessive amount of nitrogen may cause leaf growth at the expense of root size. That explains why I have bushy radish leaves and stringy tubers.

Phosphorus stimulates root development and growth, which leads to a fleshier radish root. A lack of phosphorus in radish plants leads to stunted growth and poor yields.

Whereas, Potassium reduces water loss by the plant and reduces stress due to droughts. This is important for radishes, because excessive water loss and drought can cause the root to crack, resulting in stunted and poorly formed roots. Potassium also increases root growth, which results in larger radishes.

That means I will need Nitrogen (N) nutrient at the beginning stage of growing radish. That will follow by the increase of Phosphorus (P) and Potassium(K) when the plants are growing. How do I get more P & K nutrients if I would like to continue to use organic fertilizer??? (Mind boggling!)

Seen here are the seedlings that I have transplanted on soil in several pots. I also need to get them into deeper pots if I want to have radishes with bigger tuber.

Some info on white radish, also known as Daikon:

The word Daikon actually comes from two Japanese words: dai (meaning large) and kon (meaning root). Daikon is is root vegetable said to have originated in the Mediterranean and brought to China for cultivation around 500 B.C. Roots are large, often 2 to 4 inches in diameter and 6 to 20 inches long. There are three distinct shapes - spherical, oblong and cylindrical.

Germinating Radish Seeds

After my first success in growing radish, I decided to grow it again. I used the same method of germinating radish that I did previously as the success rate was high. Compared to sowing seeds in soil, this method is simple and easy for me to follow the progress of the seeds.

Day 1 - Placed radish seeds in a container of water overnight.

Day 2 - Some seeds had germinated after soaking overnight (as seen in the photo below). Amzingly fast, huh?

Day 2 - Transfer all the seeds to a piece of moist paper kitchen towel. Place the kitchen towel in a container and keep it covered. Ensure the towel is constantly moist. Sprinkle or spray some water on the kitchen towel if you find it dried up.

Day 3 - some seeds have sprouted. All seeds germinated. Shells from the seeds remained.
All it took was 3 days!!! Isn't this fast? And 100% germination.
Saw some mouldy, cottony stuff on some seeds. Suspect they are fungus.
I washed them off with water and continue to keep them in the container.
After 4 leaves appear, I will then transplant them into soil.

Will update all of you further when I transplant the radish seedlings onto soil.

My 1st Radish Harvest

My sister said if I were to grow vegetable for my own sustainance, I would be dying of hunger!! Why?

The yield that I get from my garden is sooooooooo miserable! Ha ha!!! But I don't think it's the yield that matters. The whole process of germinating seeds, watering & fertilizing the plants, watching with delight as they grow bigger and taller, eventually bearing fruits are filled with fun! It would need a fellow gardening enthusiast, like you and me, to understand what the feeling is right!

See the stages that I went through to grow radish till I was able to enjoy the fruit of my labour!

Out of the many radish plants that I have, only one radish tuber of sufficient size was harvested yesterday. I pulled up some of the plants as they don't show much sign of tuber growing from it. See the lush leaves of the radish in the pot above. One would expect to see lotsa radishes growing beneath the soil. Alas, that wasn't the case! Did I overcrowded this fellas till they don't have enough space to grow?

Although the radish tuber is still small, I decided to harvest it after reading on the internet that radish tuber needs to grow fast and have sufficient water. Otherwise, you will end up with a fibrous radish that may be inedible. So, I would rather opt for a small tuber than an inedible one.

I was so proud of my little harvest here!! It took a lot of tender, loving, care for the seeds to reach this stage!!


A plant with no tuber growing. What happened???

I decided to make my favourite radish & carrot pickle that evening. Fresh radish for dinner!

Although it's just a tiny radish, I am not giving up! I will start to germinate the remaining radish seeds again.

Happy gardening my fellow friends out there!

Updates from My Garden

What have been growing in my garden?

My first chilli hanging on the plant.


My chilli plant is suffering from 'leaf-loss' and yellowing leaves. This is the balding part of my chilli plant. I wonder if any hairloss shampoo will help?? Or is this due to attack of mealybugs? I have been spraying some of my chilli plants with a concoction of garlic, bird's eye chilli & dish detergent.

From my visit to CETDEM's Organik Day event, I am able to solve this puzzle on why I have 'Ulam Raja' and Japanese Ginseng plants growing in my garden. The seeds of these plants were accidentally included in the pack of Marigold seeds that I bought. Ha ha...isn't that good news! Buy 1 free 2. Seen here is my one and only Ulam Raja, growing healthily. During my recent trip to Kerteh, I have eaten a lot of this herb with rice during lunch time.

I think this is a Balsam plant. I suspect the seed for this plant was included in the pack of Marigold seeds that I bought from CETDEM in April. Would anyone be able to confirm for me if this is a Balsam plant?

For the benefit of fellow gardener, Ting, from Growing Vegetables with Ms. Green Fingers, who asked how a garlic plant looks like. Here is the garlic bulb that I placed into the ground and left to grow. I was away for several days and some of the leaves had browned and wilted. The plant looks like spring onion, don't you agree?

A Yen Kee pineapple that I bought came with a slip at the bottom of the plant. The fruit seller told me that I can grow the pineapple from this slip. Yen Kee pineapple are widely grown in Klang and this pinepple produces sweet fruit that is less fibrous than our local type of pineapple. Root has sprouted from this slip. However the growth seems to be very slow.

My radish plants are flourishing well. You can see a radish bulb peeping out from the soil. I read on the internet that radish must be grown quickly to ensure that the bulb will be plump and tender. If it is lacked of water, it will grow to be hard and dry. Radish also need several hours of direct sunlight to grow well.

I think I have overcrowded my radishes. The bulbs may not grow to be big. Never mind. This is my first experience of growing radish. I shall learn from this mistake.

Our new neighbour, Uncle Tong, offered me 2 bulbs of Calathea Makoyana when he re-potted his plant. I have seen admiring the foliage of this sold at Giant Hypermarket and had been admiring Uncle Tong's plant from afar. He made my day when he offered those bulbs to me!

Calathea makoyana is also called Peacock Plant because of the decorative color patterns of the upper leave surface. The leaves are being hold on long thin stems and do have a remarkable capability to adjust their position to the angle of light. Growing up to 2' ( 60 cm ) and preferring filtered sunlight.

The Radish Adventure

My interest in growing radish was triggered after seeing the radishes grown by my close buddy, Roxanne last year. It took me awhile before I got this interest turned into a reality.


I bought a pack of radish seeds at CETDEM's Organic Fair for only RM1 per pack.

Using the same method used to germinate Adenium seeds that I read in the GCS Forum, I germinated my radish seeds with great success. Unfortunately I didn't take the photos for Step 1 & 2 below. I thought I would take the photo the following day but before I did so the seeds had already germinated! Amazing, how fast that happened!

1) I placed 7 seeds in a cup of water and leave them there till they sunk to the bottom of the cup. It can take a few hours or even overnight for it to happen.

2) Remove the seeds that had sunk to the bottom. I placed them on a damp kitchen paper and kept them in a covered tupperware. The kitchen paper MUST be kept damp. The tupperware was kept COVERED to ensure that the moisture was retained. Spray the kitchen towel with water whenever it was drying up.

Within 2 days of placing the seeds in the tupperware, all of them germinated!!

I tried the same steps for my Marigold & chilly seeds. Unfortunately, it didn't work on them. But the Radish seedlings continue to show progress. Within 3 days, the shoots have grown longer and tiny green leaves had appeared.

When there are 4 leaves on each of the seedling above, I transplanted them to a pot filled with soil. According to Rox, the soil must be loose to ease the growth of the radish. If the soil is hard and clayish, the radish may find it hard to grow and the result will be skinny radish that protrudes from the soil to the surface.

I placed the seedlings in a pot of soil medium that comprise of burnt soil, earthworm compost and some red soil. Within 10 days, these were what I got.

Here are my straggly-looking radishes. There are signs of leaf miner attacks on the leaves (see the white patterns). I hope they will grow well. I am checking on them daily with trepidation.

It reminded me that I am just like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall of the River Cottage series shown on Asian Food Channel. I love watching the programme where he holds on to his ethos of self-sufficiency by cooking self-produced vegetables, self-hunted meats, self-catch fishes, self-grown fruits, self-produced liquor in his little cottage called River Cottage, with the help of his friends. As a smallholding farmer, Hugh would wait with trepidation everytime his livestock i.e. cow, pig, sheep or chicken were producing a calf or laying eggs. It's interesting to watch how his small River Cottage farm grows beyond and develop into the 42-acre huge farm (named River Cottage HQ) in his latest programme, "Beyond River Cottage". Catch the interesting River Cottage series if you can on Asian Food Channel. I bet you will find it as interesting as I do.

The radishes have grown taller, as seen in this shot taken today.