This post mirroring my thinking process starts off with Coriander but covers a larger spectrum of the garden 🙂
From being a herb given free on your veggie purchases, to now it competing with most veggie prices, coriander has come a long way. I had failed growing this numerous times in the past but this year its a different story.
The difference as I see are
1. The seeds- Earlier I had never purchased seeds to grow coriander it always came from the kitchen’s spice box… never realised the kitchen ones may be hybrid and are made not to sprout or grow plants.
2. Quality – I have also used organic good quality kitchen seeds this year and have been reasonably successful.
3. Soaking the seeds before planting helps reduce the time required for seeds to sprout. Coriander seeds need to be crushed with a rolling pin to split them into two. You can also place these seeds on floor and use a katori or steel cup to crush these. Don’t over crush these, the aim is to just split them. Once done soak them in water for 6 to 8 hours or overnight if you split these in the evening. Next day you can sow the seeds after draining the water. ( Don’t throw away the water, it can be watered back into pot after sowing.)
4. Watering – As we grow in our gardening journey we are no more those over enthusiastic ones to over water our plants. Right amount of watering actually helps leafy vegetables per my observation.
5. Soil health – Soil also matures over the years if you have good bio life thriving.Not just the ground even the pots and bags. Introduce few earth worms and see the difference over few months to a year, your plants will be much more resistant to pests.
PS : I don’t use any pesticides even organic ones. Few years ago when I started my balcony gardening, I used to spray neem oils and other organic pest controllers. But off late have been feeding the plants good Desi cow’s Ghana jeevamruta and vermi compost that seems to make the plants healthy and avoid pests. Only thing I have used in this year is rice based fermented solution for white mealy bugs and that too for an ornamental plant and not a veggie one.
6. Sun light – All my veggies still majorly grow in bags and pots as the ground veggie patch doesn’t receive optimum sun light. It shows that we may give a good nutritious soil, right amount of watering, great quality seeds, but if the plants lack optimum sun light they will not do well.
Plan to post at least two versions of Coriander chutneys in the coming weeks. watch out
#pallogarden #vegetablegarden #kitchengarden #gardening #gardeningupdates
Oota ayita 