Oh' Farms and Butterfly Lodge: Oh Farms

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

VIPs' Visit to Oh Farms

The weather was finally sunny after a few days of daily showers - a perfect weather to welcome some VIPs including Mr Lee Yi Shyan, Minister of State for Trade and Industry and National Development to the farm.

Their first stop was to view our unique Dynamic Root Floating (DRF) System greenhouses. There are about 200 such greenhouses producing 6 types of leafy vegetables and 10 types of culinary herbs.

Kang Kong (空心菜, Ipomoea aquatica) and chinese spinach (苋菜, Amaranthus dubius) are just 2 of the common types of local vegetables the Farm produce daily. When introduced, our guests were gamed enough to eat both the vegetables raw - fresh from the greenhouse as the Farm does not use any pesticide in the process of growing the vegetables.

Another system that we introduced to the guests was the NFT - The Nutrient Film Technique system. In this system, the Farm grew some cucumbers, roselle, cherry tomatoes, lavender and a few species of mint.

Some of the guests tried the freshly pick cucumbers from the vine.

The fruit plants and aromatic herbs are just some plants to showcase how versatile hydroponics can be. Not only leafy vegetables can be grown without soil, big plants like roselle can also be grown using hydroponics.

Lastly, hydroponics aggregate culture - the drip irrigation method was also introduced. The Farm used this method to cultivate spearmint (留兰香, Mentha spicata).

The last part of the tour, a good sharing of how you can grow your own vegetables and culinary herbs at home using hydroponic method. Besides vegetables, ornamental plants can be grown hydroponically. One of the advantages is that, should you need to go for a short overseas trip, you need not find a nanny for your plants. Simply add enough water to last till you come back.