by Sam Galope
Growing Kangkong in the heart of Metro Manila!
11:05 am in Getting Started, Outside Farms, Plants, posts with pitcures!, Starting Seeds by Sam Galope
Metro Manila, Philippines: Like any major city in south east Asia, Metro Manila is concrete laden, very hot and not really conducive to growing anything. A year ago, I built a traditional NFT hydroponic system. It worked for a while but a lot of things went wrong. Aside from the cost and the effort put into the construction, the PVC pipe I used to distribute the nutrients deformed due to the heat. Eventually rats took it as their new home then their new fridge! It was a major frustration.
Not this time. After watching the TED talk, I immediately constructed my first window-farm inspired hydroponic system. And IT WORKED! I’m now growing Kangkong in my six level vertical farm! I’m so happy. And I spent only $3.62 (PHP155.00) on the whole thing!
Bill of materials
- 12 x 1.5L Coke bottles (Free)
- 2 x used ballpoint pens (Free) — I used the main tube as well as the ink tube as the “T” joint.
- Old aquarium pump lying around. (Free)
- 10m Defective UTP cable (Free) — Insulation was used as the air intake tube. The 6 solid cables were used as the lashings to connect the 1.5L Coke bottles.
- 10m 0.75cm tube (PHP7.00/m = PHP70.00) for the air lift tube.
- 1 x Spray paint (PHP85.00)
- 12 x used styrofoam cups found in the trash
they look very strong and healthy. Very nice. Keep us updated (also with pics).
joha
Thanks much Joha! I’m posting more pics as soon as my plants grow bigger.
Well done. I looked up Kangong and it seems it’s used in fish recipes, notably in the preparation of Cuttlefish. I personally couldn’t eat such a amazingly intelligent animal but wonder what other fish it would go with. Here in the Midwest of US we are slave to our industrial food industry witch limits us to what ever the majority of the people make profitable for them. I would love to get different types of plants than what’s available here to grow, I would be interested to know what other types of vegetables you grow from there. I wonder if their would be a problem with customs getting a foreign vegetable to grow here.
Hi John,
Thanks for the comment. Anyway, kangkong is a very delicious and nutritional vegetable. Here in the Philippines and much of South East Asia we use it for salads, side dish, even main course. I particularly love it stir fried with garlic and oystershire sauce. Yum! As for you food slavery, it’s also happening here, food is bought from malls and you’ll just have to eat what they have. Though we have wet markets around, people don’t really patronize them anymore.
I think asia-native seeds can be purchased there. My uncle lives in San Diego and he said he can buy Kangkon, Pechay (Bok Choi) and mustard seeds from their garden store.
Anyway, let’s keep in touch.
Thanks again.
wow. It’s good..
I’d like to see more images
Thank you
cool, it’s encouraging to know that seeds are available, I would think that if they are they would be available at one of the Asian markets I see here. I’m in Chicago so their is a good variety of people and their associated foods but I haven’t ventured into the Asian only food markets yet, I should because I can’t find good rice in any of the big box stores. Is a “wet market” like one of those open air markets where all the local people have a stand and put their stuff on a table to sell? You know it’s one thing to be able to grow your own vegis but another to know how to prepared a good meal from them, wouldn’t it be cool to see some category showcasing prepared meals or recipes here? I try to get my girls to try other foods, but they are reluctant because they have been brought up solely on American food by my X wife, but I think if I could grow something with them and prepare something with them, they would be eager to try it more than just going into a restaurant.