Cole Tells Life

It's a delight to see my corn growing

My pet Jema had nibbled on its leaves already while I was looking away

Looking beautiful!

This girl is the culprit for the damaged leaves

My kind of home gardening means a balcony garden.

You see, I live in a 14th-floor apartment somewhere in the United Arab Emirates and we have a deserty kind of climate.

However, being me who’s been brought up in a far-away countryside in the Philippines,  I never backed out in growing plants especially vegies. It is a kind of therapeutic in the sense that it calms me from either tending to it or just appreciating this piece of nature every morning after waking up.

This journey brought me searching for beneficial fungi and bacteria to liven up my soil, and I am just excited to share what I have found after searching for weeks. I found this product from desertcart.ae (an online marketplace based in UAE).

Mikrobs 226 grams packet

This product has 3 species of beneficial fungi Trichoderma, 4 species of Endomycorrhizae, and 4 species of Rhizobacteria. I bought this 226 grams packet for AED 131.00

As for application, I use a dilution ratio of 1/4 tsp Mikrobs in 1-liter water for drenching into each 5-gallon bucket planter, once a week during the vegetative stage of my bitter gourd plant… and once every 2 weeks during the fruiting stage.

bitter gourd male flowers

Mikrobs is OMRI-listed (Organic Materials Review Institute) of Oregon, United States of America so it is suitable for organic gardening/farming.

Sta. Isabelle variety bitter gourd

I am growing the Sta. Isabelle variety of bitter gourd, it is a Chinese strain and is a common type of bitter gourd grown in the Philippines. I attribute its success because of Mikrobs application that it was able to endure the non-forgiving heat in the Middle East, especially from my balcony not having heat protection from shade net.