VEGETABLE CULTIVATION PROJECT

INTRODUCTION:

School gardens are a wonderful way to use the schoolyard as a classroom, reconnect students with the natural world and the true source of their food, and teach them valuable gardening and agriculture concepts and skills that integrate with several subjects. This project also involves students and teachers directly in creating a school atmosphere that emphasizes the preservation and conservation of the environment and further increase the level of awareness of school community about the importance of loving the mother nature.

OBJECTIVE:

Encourage school community to carry out environmentally friendly activities
Foster the spirit of responsible and cooperation of all school community
Diversified and beautified the school ground by planting varieties of vegetables

HOW WE START?

In 2017, Ms Khaw Juat Woon, the new principal of the school has begun the concept of vegetable cultivation in the school grounds. This project is assisted by the Nature Lovers Club in the school. Initially, the vegetable cultivation project in the school area was started on a small scale in the pots that up-cycled from the old laboratory sink. Thereafter, the vegetable cultivation area was expanded on the school field, the abandoned site behind block A and block B of the school. Over time, there were urban farming sites that practiced vegetable cultivation in tires and sinks. Next, edible garden set up with up-cycle items such as toilet sinks, old plastic drawers, fertigation and so on. Frugality is our main concept in the implementation of this projects. This project will not succeed without the cooperation of all parties.

Vegetable cultivation by the school field:

Initially, three flower planting sites in the school field were upgraded with vegetable cultivation and it was successful. After that, the vegetable planting site is added to along the field. Vegetables borders are built using bricks and tires.

Urban Farming:

Initially, the growth of the vegetable in this area is not satisfactory due to too many gravel. To overcome this problem, old tires painted in rainbow colors were stacked on the existing site by adding more soil. The old sink from the laboratory is also arranged to the right of the vegetable site and planted with various types of vegetables in turn to maintain soil fertility.

Edible Garden:

Edible garden is grown with a variety of vegetables. The vegetables were planted in pots, pans, sacks, old drawer, toilet sinks and so on are used as innovative ideas. Fertigation cultivation is also carried out in edible garden.

The vegetables that we grew were sawi, pak choy, water spinach, carrots, onions, lettuce, spinach, asin-asin, chili, long beans, brazillian spinach, kacang botol, cucumber, bitter gourd, peppermint, lady fingers, winter melon, corn, sweet potato and so on.

PAK CHOY (Brassica chinensis var)

Pak Choy are grown in partial shade in the school. We plant it in well-worked, well-drained but moisture retentive soil that rich in organic matter. Composting soil were added to the planting beds to keep the soil enriched with nutrients. It is ready to harvest in 30 days from sowing as baby leaf, or between 45-75 days as semi-mature to full-size heads.

According to the Wikipedia, raw pak choy is 95% water, 2% carbohydrates, 1% protein and less than 1% fat. Bok choy contains glucosinolates. These compounds have been reported to prevent cancer in small doses, but, like many substances, can be toxic to humans in large doses, particularly to people who are already seriously ill. In 2009, an elderly diabetic woman who had been consuming 1 to 1.5 kg of raw bok choy per day in an attempt to treat her diabetes developed hypothyoidism for reasons relating to her diabetes, resulting in myxedema coma. According to the case study published by her treating physicians, raw bok choy releases an enzyme which can inhibit the uptake of iodine, when eaten in large amounts over extended periods.

KANGKUNG (Ipomoea aquatica)

Ipomoea aquatica is a semi-aquatic, tropical plant grown as a vegetable for its tender shoots and it is not known where it originated. This plant is known in English as water spinach, river spinach, water morning glory, water convolvulus, or by the more ambiguous names Chinese spinach, Chinese watercress, Chinese convolvulus or swamp cabbage, or kangkong in Southeast Asia and ong choy in Cantonese.

Kangkung grows in water or on moist soil. Its stems are 2–3 metres (7–10 ft) or longer, rooting at the nodes, and they are hollow and can float. The leaves vary from typically sagittate (arrow head-shaped) to lanceolate, 5–15 cm (2–6 in) long and 2–8 cm (0.8–3 in) broad. The flowers are trumpet-shaped, 3–5 cm (1–2 in) in diameter, and usually white in colour with a mauve centre. Propagation is either by planting cuttings of the stem shoots, which will root along nodes, or by planting the seeds from flowers that produce seed pods.

Water spinach is cultivated in a variety of systems such as the dryland method and the wetland method. The kangkung in the school ground are planted in the dryland method. Throughout the year, the kangkung in the school field is grown onto the growing bed, whereas the kangkung at edible garden were grown in the up-cycle drawer. Initially, the seeds were sown directly onto the beds. The distance between the plants is about 12 cm by the time they are 15 cm tall. Regular irrigation is crucial in the dryland system and so is a sufficient fertilization. Water spinach cultivated with the dryland method is ready for harvest 50 to 60 days after sowing. Normally, the harvesting is being done by pulling up the whole plant, but we didn't do it that way. We just cut the stem and leave the root in hoping it will grow up again, and it is proven that the method is work.

IMPACT TO THE STUDENTS

To develop entrepreneurship in students

CPT Green Sales during special occasion aims to sell the vegetation grow in the school ground and at the same time to develop entrepreneurship in students

2. To take care of the students welfare

The harvest was shared among the students and school staff once a month. This is in accordance to the Goal 2 in Sustaiable Development Goals (SDG) which is Zero Hunger.

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