Harvested some veg- hydroponic vs soil

Grown a few rounds of vegetable on hydroponic, and am able to finally draw some conclusions on hydroponic vs soil media. I mean, these are nothing new, many laboratory experiences had been conducted to give experimental results... i just want to see for myself ;)

XiaoBaiCai on left is grown in hydroponic solution, on the left in soil media. At harvest time, the XBC on the left looks obviously 'fatter' & juicier = larger in size, thicker petiole. Kimmi-the-kitten sure knows her food too, she chose the hydroponic XBC. I can even hear the crunchcrunch as she chews on her salad! Good thing it is pesticide-free on our little balcony garden:)

I'd posted previously on the colorful silverbeet. How its impossible in soil media but grew wonderfully in hydroponic nutrients. Here they are, harvested.

Colors (2)

Silverbeet Brightlights. Pink and yellow petioles;)


In the 06Mar2009 blog entry, i wrote about them. Now they have already grown up to be big-kids, upgraded to their own pots.

Colors (1)

These fair ladies are cheerful additions at the door. They seem to enjoy the bright location (=no direct sun) very much, throwing out flowers continously since they came few weeks ago.

Orange & yellow dwarf Crossandras.

Balcony update

Our green-pets on the balcony are enjoying their lifes, generally.

Those perched on the low balcony wall get good wind and nice views of the communal garden downstairs.

The siverbeets especially, are enjoying their spa-bath while taking in the views out there.

Missy Picotees (the morning glories) climbed to get an even more advantages viewpoint.

Bay-sir grows himself up and out of the gap between the wall and railing.


All's good. The Hydroponic box of PakChoy (KY-early fr Known-You) was harvested a few rounds before being 'taken down'. Purple french beans are harvested too, and they continue to throw up flowers and new pods. New vegetable seeds are sown. Sweet basils grew up to 40cm tall, and upgraded to their own container. Ditto dills who stand in their own tub, perched on the low wall, looking out of the balcony.

... Except an unlucky chap, Bonsai-Shuimei, who's infected with black spots on the leaves. Skyfiery came visiting yesterday, smelled rat, and got diagnosis from Sixhunter that its probably black spot disease. Tat is a messy problem.

Poor handsome Shuimei got trimmed down brutally (ALL leaves n secondary branches gone), soil changed plus a root trim to downsize the root ball. He probably will take a long time to recover from tis brutal trim down. IF he survives :p

Today will be an April Fool's gardening day -making concoctions to spray down the plants from fungus-growth (in case of spread), and continue fixing the spider mites problem in the mint box.