Indian Vegetable Gardening

[venkatappiah]

Best to start with 50-55 day early maturing seeds.
They are available here from Evergreen seeds and seeds of India.
Raise more plants than you need,
Some seeds will not germinate.
Select the healthy plants.
I assume your last frost date is around May 15th. Start the seeds indoor 2 months before.
Jiffy seed mix starting medium is available at Lowes and wall mart.

Keep them in the warmest part of the house. Or on the top of refrigerator. When they come up take them to a sunny place in the house. Water them lightly.
Harden the plants for a week at the planting time.
If you can contact me through e-mail I can give my phone number.
Regards

[venkatappiah]

Grow s all the vegetables liked by all the members of family.
No point in growing bitter melon if spouse hates it.

Do not plant too much. In my beginning gardening years I planted many bottle gourd plants and I had 500+ fruits. I fed all my friends and their relatives.
Select some vegetables which you can freeze and store for winter months.

Prepare your soil
.select the type of gardening
Containers, raised beds, or traditional row planting?
Dig, purchase humus, compost, and mix with the soil.

Arrange with some friends who will water your plants if you go for vacation, trip to India Etc.
Select sunny areas. / plan for trellis for the vines to climb.
Get a pair of gardening shoes (sneakers will do), and tools with which you feel comfortable.
Inter plant (companion planting) One can plant dwarf French marigolds, tulasi, coriander, Methi etc.
Gardening is not brain surgery. After a couple of seasons. –you will do very well and become an expert, but it is a life long learning process.

[Suja Rajkumar]

Thanks for your reply. Your help is much appreciated.

Suja Rajkumar

[Sanguine Sridhar]

Hi,

In my house(open top) we have 'avarai kodi(kozhi avarai)'. Whether we need to give any special care for it? because it is giving less amount of avarai's(very few) comparing to the rate of growth of the plant.Kindly suggest some good ideas to increase the productivity.

Thanks,
Sridhar

[sundararaj]

Good thread.

[venkatappiah]

Plant growth is of 2 different types.

Anionic growth; the plant grows, elongation of stem and more leaves. This occurs in the early stages. Plants grow well if they have lot of nitrogen (over supply)

Cationic growth. Flowering and fruit formation- Yield.
If one supplies adequate phosphorous they will change from growth stage to fruiting and flowering stage.

This happens with tomatoes, jasmines Etc. The plants look great, happy and healthy. But no fruits or flowers!
Hence the fertilization for leafy vegetables (spinach, methi etc) is different from the plants you grow for flowers or fruits.
Over watering is also one reason. Add some high phosphorous fertilizer (rose to, tomatoes)
I am not very much familiar with the word 'avarai kodi(kozhi avarai)
English name or botanical name will of help

[Suja Rajkumar]

Hi,
Avaraikai is similar to hyacinth beans or pappdi in U.S.

Suja Rajkumar

[venkatappiah]

Square foot gardening (raised beds). Supplies.
These are the ones I tried. They worked for me. But the usual disclaimers apply.

The first year is apparently expensive.But then on-----!Not much.

http://www.bluegrassgardenbeds.com/s...me.php?cat=282
I purchased 4 feet beds and 2 feet from them. They have 12 inches height beds. For me that is an advantage as they have more depth. And Ideal.
They have 20 % discount. When you check out in the discount section enter
” garden club”. That is the code.
If this does not work call them. There are no shipping charges. They are made up of cypress wood. Last long. Do home work before., with the sizes , and what you want to grow in them.

http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandwa...eSearch2-Start
On this page there are products I tried.
Grow bed 39$. 3 feet square and good 10 inches height.

I have one. This is made up of plastic. Made in England. Easy to assemble like the above, cheaper. Since it is made up of plastic some may raise questions about durability. Up to 4 years no problem.

Stackable joints from gardener’s com
They are 15 dollars per pair. For a bed one needs 4 of them.
That is 30 dollars for a 6 inches height bed. One can get the lumbar cheaply at Lowe’s; usually they have half length pieces for 2 dollars.

Copper A frame trellis
http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandwa...s&PageNumber=0

This needs to be anchored with a cheap rebar. Otherwise it will fly away due to wind. This is some what light weight stuff. Good for bitter melon, cokes, tindora etc. but not for doodhi, (bottle guard) and snake gourd.

This does not come with trellis netting. The trellis netting supplied by the square foot gardening is the best. I buy it 30 foot length from some other sources as there is no handling charge.
If this link is too long, just go to gardeners supply and type in the search forum –trellis-

The cheapest way is to buy fence posts from Lowe’s about 3 dollars each and use the trellis net. It works but O.K to look at.
Gardeners supply gives a coupon for 50 dollars and above purchases 20 dollar coupon.
The coupons can be found easily by Google search. Simply type “coupons garden supply”

Lilies. (Rajani Gandha) Tuberose.

Single tuberoses are reliable. Cheaper from this source.About a dollar for each plant.
http://www.eflowergarden.com/SearchR...?CategoryID=51
They have 20 dollars minimum order.

[venkatappiah]

Growing Methi, cilantro(Dhania)

The seeds will germinate faster if soaked in water.
Slightly warm-not cold water from tap) for a day.
In general the seeds from Indian grocery stores produce week, miserable looking cilantro buy from parks or Evergreen seeds. One variety of seeds for kothimeer from parks produces plants which are 24 inches in tall. Cilantro does not need full sun.
This year I tried in the winter at home but no luck after November.
Growing in containers with successive plants is easy for me. I use Dollar general stores large shoe boxes or swimming pool planters from Lowe’s available in swimming pool section from 5 dollars 13 dollars. They are of large size (24 inches) and 7 inches depth. (Good for growing Keera also)
Parks is also a good source to buy Kanakambaram seeds.
The Indian stores chilies germinate well. I buy red chilies (whole) and crush them. The seeds will drop and germinate.

[Sanguine Sridhar]

Thanks Guys!