 Good evening everyone and welcome to the second part of our any one can grow series I'd like to thank has geek for making all of this possible. I don't think we would have done this without their help Not only are we doing this on zoom and I'm sure a lot of you people are joining from there we also live streaming this to YouTube and Also on Facebook or at least we're trying Facebook today Um This particular session is a continuation of the previous session we did I don't know how many of you actually were in that session too But I think that you will find that this session continues pretty much from where we left off so this session talks about preparing pots for growing soil improvement and Direct sowing of seeds right all things that are Answering several questions that I'm sure you have in your mind about how to grow food So just to begin with a brief introduction for those who are new to this session Green essentials we're based in Goa Yogitha started green essentials about 11 years ago and Kind of wrote me into helper too we started growing at home in 2006 several years before that and We run green essentials is actually a kitchen garden store. That's in Goa Place called Sukur a village called Sukur Just outside the town We've been doing workshops on growing organic food for people for the last 10 years And in that time we have done different scales of growing ourselves We've grown fruits herbs and vegetables in kitchen gardens for ourselves Of course, but also in small organic farms up to a one and a half eight hectares So we have had several kind of years of experience in growing food organically You know at different scales and I guess that's what we really want to talk about and those experiences are the ones that we want to share with you today What we look at as our Primary role is to basically to try and coach new kitchen gardeners on how to grow food A lot of people are intimidated by it or don't have the knowledge They feel they need before they can get started and that's the gap We are trying to bridge right now, right? So I hope you find the session enjoyable and informative and We'll start with it now So this is the kind of kitchen garden that we grow in the kitchen garden at our store Which we used to demonstrate to people what can be done to grow fruit as you'll see a great variety of vegetables already growing over here and We tend to run this right through the year Things change according to the seasons, but the garden remains productive through the whole year For those who did not join the first session or actually for those even who may have I just like to recap what we covered in that particular session We talked about how it is that we could get a kitchen garden started Even though most of us are locked down and don't have access to basic input seeds and things like that, right? So the first thing that we said was that you really need to get your nurses started immediately I'm hoping many people did manage to do that last week and if not certainly should do it this week We talked about how you could find usable seeds in your kitchen things like tomato methi pumpkin chili mustard mint and more And we talked about how to use any available containers you have to set up your nurseries, right? It could be Takeaway containers it could be small pots anything that you have that can really hold a little bit of soil and can be used to start your seeds And I'm hoping that you know You will be on the way to good seedlings like the kind that you can see on the screen very soon Now when we spoke last time we kind of made this Summary of the different stages of growing that we will go through and we started at the first one which was seeds and nurseries In this one we are going to talk a lot about soil preparation and in subsequent subsequent sessions We plan to do a total of five sessions You know every week pretty much on a Thursday So next time we'll talk about transplanting or sowing then we'll cover growing and caring harvesting and then Planning your next growing cycle for the change in seasons, right? So we'll try and go through each of these so that you have a good sense of how you need to proceed from stage to stage Okay, so here's what we're going to talk about specifically in this session Which is session number two of anyone can grow How do you select appropriate growing containers for growing by this I mean not containers for Nurseries which we already spoke about but for when your saplings will be ready for transplant And you will have to move them to a growing space itself. So these growing containers. How do you select the right ones? Then once you selected the containers, how do you prepare them for sowing? How do you make good organic soil put it in the containers? Which vegetables can you will you be? Sowing seeds directly instead of raising little seedlings and why why are these sown directly and not put into the nurseries and Lastly troubleshooting questions that you may have in case you started your seedlings and are facing problems So that will be the last section and we will get to it at the end, right? so Just wanted to point out that if you have questions, please, you know send them in as we go through the session You will notice that there is a Q&A section at the bottom of your zoom interface When you put your mouse down to the bottom of your zoom interface and the panel pops up You'll be able to see a Q&A section So please put your questions in there and our team will be able to take note of them and bring them up for answering at The end when we reach the EMA section of the session, right? So just to reiterate We believe very deeply that almost any person can learn how to grow food It is something which may take years to become a master of but to Get a grips of the basics can take just a few weeks, right or a few months at most If you are really interested in doing this if you are a person who is persistent You know in your work in the garden, we believe that you can get pretty good at it We believe also that small growing spaces can be very surprisingly productive We look at a small balcony and think that you know, maybe you can't grow much here But we believe that Substantial amount of produce from the perspective of a kitchen can come out from over there And you can always grow some things if not all things for yourself We feel that your health comes first and that is one of the major reasons why you should even bother to take the effort You will have much more nutritious food as the result of growing your food without chemicals and other fertilizers And we believe that the produce that you will harvest will have an unbeatable mix of freshness, nutrition and flavor Which is what really makes it all worth it, right? So these are things that Are aimed at kind of explaining to you the benefits of growing at home Something that we've experienced and a lot of people you know across India now experience as they've got more interested in doing this Okay, so growing in containers as I said can be productive. You can see here This is a you know terrace garden in Bombay and you can see a wide variety of things growing in it There's tomatoes their cabbages. There's mint You know some mustard greens and so on that you can see within the frame and many more things also growing in other parts of the same terrace I'll pass on now to yoghita and She will talk to you about different types of containers and how they can be prepared over to you yoghita Okay, hi so There's I mean when I started growing it was confusing that what kind of containers should be typically used and traditionally growing up we've always seen the typical terracotta or the mittica containers that we find and Those are the ones that I would graduate to here in found that they are not really of a very strong quality in the sense that after maybe a season or so being out in the rain They usually tend to sort of disintegrate or breaks apart So we were not really happy with those and over the years We've tried a number of containers and you can see up on the screen there that we put out a bunch of them and really anyone of these books it depends what is easily accessible to you what is affordable and It depends on your situation as well. For example, I would prefer plastic containers If I stayed up on the fifth or sixth floor because imagine carrying heavy cement coughs up and down that can be a bit of a problem I mean you develop muscle and all other benefits, but it'll be a tiresome thing So plastic containers are good they come in a variety of sizes From the smallest one that you can see here to pretty large two feet big and deep one So that is something that is also very easily available if you go out to buy them Cement containers are good if you don't plan to move them around The one of the problems sometimes one has is that they heat up a little too much But we do find that they seem to work just as well As long as you don't plan to move them around because it's the soil and the plant and it becomes quite a heavy thing to Work with grow bags are also a very common or rather popular thing now Very light easy to move around They are flexible you can roll them down if you need less soil you can roll it up to a full size if you need more soil They're very affordable, so that also works if you want to have a really Place with lots of pots in it, then you may want to go with go bags. They don't last very long But they are very easy to use easy to move around Then you could use a sediment container a sediment containers look gorgeous. They have one sitting right here It's a small one though, but they can be pretty expensive So if you want to have several pots it becomes a little expensive to have many of these you can use maybe the odd nice You can add it to your collection of containers. Then of course, there's the terracotta That is the most common one. You can also use metal container You know you have those galvanized buckets that are available at most hardware stores or sometimes you may have an old container like You know the old Biscuit tins or the oil tins that you had if you're able to get the top off That's a solid amount of soil and that can you know You can go quite a bit of stuff in it The only problem is that in our climate these can tend to rust and disintegrate soon so you will need to replace these and Other than this you can sort of use your imagination and you can really use all kinds of recycle containers You have a funny image there or someone using a commode, but I have something here You know these days you go buy a five kilo bag. You get a really sturdy plastic bag This sort of is a substitute for a Grow bag you can have you can collect several of these you can go to your Kirana shop and ask him to keep them for you They even have handles so they're easy to move on My mother is quite Creative person she takes these containers and she paints them around so you can you know make them pretty and You can sort of use these as well Moving on Here's you know some of the containers I have sort of gone around the house and put together some a takeaway Some are old different boxes and so on Now the next question which is an important question is that what should what is the appropriate size of container for different plants? There are different kinds of plants we grow not all of them Typically Great if you use an eight inch depth eight to ten inch depth most leafy vegetables and herbs They don't have very deep roots fruiting vegetables like brinjals tomatoes indies fingers or What have you been or if you're growing cucumber all these would be fine in pot say about 12 to 14 inch So usually a pot is more or less as deep as it is right So you have like a 12 to 14 inch pot would be about as big and you can grow One plant per pot for these really comfortably you can also grow fruiting trees and we have a lot of them growing in our garden We've grown lemon custard apples figs Guava mango, I mean it's quite an endless list of the number of something please that you can grow For these you need really large containers. You can use barrels Large barrels you can chop the top off you can use two foot the minimum depth you require is about 10 inches as the plant starts growing and you may need to move it up along as you go So here is a picture of my balcony and We have different sizes and there's a you know quite a collection of pots here You can have quite a range of things that grow in this