On 7th May 2012, the Oh's Farm welcomed a group of teachers-to-be from our friendly neighbourhood, Malaysia. This group of guests came from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai Johor. 
With a cohort of 97 prospective teachers , the group embarked on a learning journey on soilless culture.
With a cohort of 97 prospective teachers , the group embarked on a learning journey on soilless culture.
The group was introduced to 3 types of hydroponic systems namely the NFT system, the Drip Irrigation and also the DRF system.
The NFT system (The Nutrient Film Technique Hydroponic system) was used to grow some Japanese cucumbers, roselle, cherry tomatoes, lavender and a few species of mint.
The system that the Farm adopts for the production of leafy vegetables is the DRF system - The Dynamic Root Floating Hydroponic System. These curious pre-service teachers all took a look at the hot and humid germination room - the seeds in the sponges were left there 2 to 3 days for germination.
The newly germinated seeds are transferred to the nurseries where they will continue to grow in a special nursery for another 7 to 10 days. Some sunlight and light nutrient solution are needed for the young seedlings to develop roots and true leaves.
Once the seedlings are ready for transplanting, it will be sent to the Production Greenhouses.
Only healthy seedlings will be selected and transplanted into the culture panels.
The transplanting process is clean and hassle free.
After transplanting, the white netting is lowered to keep the pest out. This way, the vegetables are produced without using pesticide.
A group photo for remembrance!
To sum up the tour, a sharing session on how to use recycling materials to set up your own hydroponics is introduced.
Tony, our in-house guide, ends the session with a quick quiz on the tour where some tokens were given for attentive visitors.It was a pleasant experience to have a foreign tertiary institution visiting the farm as the Farm hardly receives visitors from the local universities. Besides learning in classrooms, experiential learning derived from visiting industries or farms should add value to any students' education journey!
