Gardening in hui hin. Seasons

[komfortablynumb]

Hi all.
When i move to Hui Hin i intend to grow some fruit and veg.
I understand british seasons. But i wonder about Thailand.
Can i grow all the time?
Or am i restricted in the rainy season.
My thoughts are that i can crop all the year round not suffering from frosts like the UK.
Sounds perfect, and usually nothing is.
Any advice would be nice.
Thanks.

[Vital Spark]

Mr.K,

Both Parahandy and I have tried our hand a growing a few things. Neither of us have green fingers, and the only success was a great tub of basil!

I'm sure that if you're more of a gardener, then you'll have great success. However, one of the problems here is the intensity of the sun. It can literally toast the plants to a frazzle, so some kind of shade might be needed for some plants. The rainy season helps with the water bills, but you may still need to water on the days when it doesn't rain. Obviously in the dry season it's constant watering.

Goodness knows why I'm giving you advice about gardening, I can normally kill a plant just by looking at it.

VS

[komfortablynumb]

thanks Vital Spark.
I am pretty much an amateur.
I frazzled some tomatoes last time.
My step daughters school is near the kings palace and i noticed that they used plastic to shield the tender plants.
And if it's good enough for his majesty then it is good enough for me.
I have 3000 litre rain tanks which i hope will keep me going through the dry season.
Basil is a start.
As an aside i did grow some radishes. (ok, a monkey could grow them)
But my wife and family declared them too spicy.
Considering my wife can chew on a birds eye chilli without breaking out in a sweat i thought it a bit strong.
I am considering growing good quality vegetables.
Anyone know if it is legal to bring seeds into the LOS?
I am not sure if this will interest if this is interesting to the good folks on this forum.
So if anyone has some knowledge feel free to PM me.
thanks.

[Nereus]

Growing anything in a tropical climate is a much different challenge to a temperate climate. Thailand has a very good Department of Agriculture, and as it appears that you have a Thai wife, she should be able to get all the info that you require, either from the following web site, or the local office.

http://www.doa.go.th/Default.aspx

[Randy Cornhole]

Anyone know if it is legal to bring seeds into the LOS?

I have been known to plant the odd seed or two in my time... and know its actually illegal to transport any type of seeds to most parts of the world. You would though have more of a chance bringing them back into Thailand than trying to smuggle them into the UK...
Customs and excise officers are always looking for prohibited plant materials, that could pose long-term economic or ecological threats to a nation's agriculture industry.
Many of those plant materials conceal insects or diseases that are relatively benign on their home turf but could become troublesome when introduced into new surroundings with no natural defenses.

[PeteC]

There's a net like green mesh that they sell which I think is designed to shade crops. Many people use it to shade orchids. It's not exactly a "plastic sheet" but similar, with small vent slits in it. You'll see it everywhere, even shading some parking lots.

If HH is like over here in Rayong and you're within a few Km of the sea, you really need to check your soil before you do anything else. What we have here is sand mixed with clay which turns almost to concrete about a foot down. If you're in a new development you'll also have all scrap, crap and concrete pieces they were too lazy to haul away, buried in your yard as well.

What I would recommend if you have these problem is to get rid of the top 1-2 foot and buy a load of black/brown top soil and mix it in with the native dirt before you plant. Pete

[Vital Spark]

We always come back from the UK with loads of packets of seeds - just in the hope that one day we may be able to grow something...

I think that if you bring in packets of commercial seeds it's OK, because they're sanitised (sorry not the right word, but I can't for the life of me think what the words is) - you know what I mean. You can buy seeds here, which are probably modified (not genetically of course ) to suit the climate.

As Randy quite rightly said, don't try and bring in roots or anything with dirt on it.

VS (bad gardener, but always trying)

[PeteC]

Forgot to mention Mr. K. Unless you are a very learned organic farmer and know how to mix those homemade concoctions that repell insects, you'll have no choice than to dust your veggies, flowers, EVERYTHING, with poison spray about once every two weeks, every week in rainy season.

At 1800 hours one day after a hard day's work you'll be admiring your crop. At 0600 the next morning you'll awake to find most of it gone...LOL. Not rabbits or mice, but bugs and larve of every description attack, eat and flee in a few hours. Good luck. Pete

[komfortablynumb]

Thanks all for your tips.
I had an inkling that the bugs would be bigger, bitier, and more abundant in LOS.
I am not averse to using chemicals to fight them, however, they are expensive.
So my cunning plan is to tell my wife and family that i am only growing succulant veg to attract very tasty bugs that they can have for breakfast, deep fried of course with some home grown chillis.
thus saving my veg. feeding my family and getting to watch tv with a beer whilst they are outside with torches.
That as an idea has far less legs than a centipede.
the seed issue is interesting.
I am learning to grow everything from seed as i am aware that importing plants really upsets customs, and probaly rightly so.
I have been fighting a Japanese knot weed in my garden in the UK for 8 years.
No known predators apart from me and my little spray gun.
Imported in Victorian time i believe, when we were pillaging the world.
I was concerned about the rainy season. It would appear that maybe the equivalant of our winter. However in the UK at least in winter the bugs have the decency to die or sleep, not multiply.
My house is just outside Praknampran. In a rural area. Surrounded by a thousand cockerals. (Ok maybe only 999 but my counting isn't so good at 4 am).
Last time i was there and it rained overnight we ended up with 2 live catfish in the garden. Not sure where they came from. But if they eat bugs ther'e welcome. And they tasted nice.
Obviously still bugger all on telly.
Thanks for your help.

[richard]

Hope the MIB don't pounce and accuse you of doing a job only a Thai is allowed to do

Sounds silly but isn't everything now in the LOS?

[margaretcarnes]

Hi Komfortablynumb - you have discovered that little known fact of life in LOS - and one the folks at home will never believe. Fish fall from the sky!
Gardening wise - it beat me despite efforts to grow a few tomatoes on the patio. Seeds - as VS says - seem no problem for folks to fetch in. Or get people to post them to you. If they are mixed with a starchy paste (which won't harm the seed) and pasted to a sheet of thin brown card such as a loo roll middle, they should post fine, and be ok to stick straight in the soil.
The paste and card will degrade, and that way you could acquire a few seeds of several varieties to try.
One thing which beat me was not being able to find a proper growbag. Had to make do with a bag of regular compost. The plants shot up very quickly, but even in the shade they just expired at a very leggy 3 inches, despite regular watering.
But I've known a Brit guy grow toms very successfully near HH, and just in his regular garden soil.
Also noticed that the Tessabahn staff go out watering the municipal flowers in the midday sun, whereas in the UK they usually do it much later. So how does that work then? Must be a reason

[higgy]

A friend from England brought me some Ailsa Craig tomatoe seeds last year and I planted 5 seeds and got 5 plants but shielded them under the car port.I put them in large pots with a mixture of cow muck,elephant muck and good quality black soil and fed them every 2 weeks with fertiliser pellets,hey presto within 3 months I tasted my toms.....beautiful.One thing I did find out was that you had to pick them when they were green or you get sunburst which makes them crack.
Much to the amusement of the locals I stop my pick up when I see some s**t and shovel it into a plastic bin and put it on my compost heap.
I also got some Webb lettuce seeds but gave up when they reached a height of 1 mtr.
You can grow veg over here but you tend to not have many friends for some reason!
Some pests like white fly can be removed by spraying every day with a solution of washing up liquid and water.

[margaretcarnes]

Well done Higgy - s..t seems to be the answer then!

[MrPlum]

g/f says in Thailand they plant a strong-smelling herb called 'Sadow'? Keeps bugs away. Haven't tried planting yet but will do. Another additive to consider for your soil is Bentonite. If you do a search for 'thailand bentonite agriculture' there are some useful articles. Here's one...
http://www.tve.org/earthreport/archive/doc.cfm?aid=1731

Miracle Clay

In Surin Province, northern Thailand, farmers are discovering they can boost their soil's productivity with mineral-infused clay called Bentonite. The clay comes from weathered volcanic ash used for centuries as a traditional medicine.

Poorly managed sugar cane and cassava crops grown for export have exhausted the land of its precious minerals. Meanwhile over the past thirty years, 80% of the region's primary forest vital to protect the soil from the sun and feed it with nutrients has been destroyed.

Andrew Noble, International Management Institute: "What we've got here is soil and the forest, and you can see in the top ten to fifteen centimetres it's dark and black. The reason for that is because it's got high amounts of organic carbon. Well here you've got land that's been under production for the past forty years and you can see that top ten/fifteen centimetres. There's no dark colouring, it's bleached white and low nutrient holding capacity, low physical or structural stability, low water holding capacity and that's due to the loss of organic matter."

Over the past two years field trials have used bentonite clay as a fertiliser on a variety of crops in a project supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, CGIAR. The eighty-seven participants share their results with farmers' networks across Thailand.

ANDREW NOBLE: "Bentonite is a locally available product here and is sourced down on the central plains. The approach that the farmers have taken is mixing them with the soil with composted rice husk and chicken manure and Bentonite on a one to one to one basis, producing a product like this which has all the attributes that you want as a growing media for crops and plants."

Bentonite absorbs and retains water

Sungwian Pradermdee: "I heard about bentonite at a local farmers' network meeting and I introduced the technology to our farmers here. We've tested it and found that we have a very good production but I hope that the soil will be better now. Poor soil is everywhere in the world, and if farmers use this technology they'd find improvement without using toxic materials." Bentonite remains active in the ground for many years

This farmer has a holistic approach to farming. He uses water from his pond for irrigation, raises fish, produces his own biological fertiliser and grows everything from spring onions to organic rice. He's been trying out bentonite and the results are clear.

Piratn Chunsir: "Nearly every crop has improved through the application of bentonite. It's easy to forget things so I always try to record the results I observe, the changes that have taken place before and afterwards. We want to share this knowledge through our networks because that way you can help the poor families in Thailand."

Traditionally farmers looking for soil enhancers used material dredged up from excavations or from termite mounds. It's effective but scarce and needs large quantities.

Andrew Noble: "This farmer here has taken lately sourced termite mound materials and built these terraces to form a vegetable garden."

One hectare of soil requires up to 5000 tonnes of termite soil One hectare of land requires only 10-20 tonnes of bentonite Bentonite is available globally

Here you can see that the growth is pretty good but in fact within two or three years it would diminish. If she had used bentonite, the responses would be just as good and if not, the persistence much longer.

Local students are training as organic farmers. They have been taking part in controlled trials in this paddy field using different fertilisers. They have been harvesting one quadrant a metre square from each plot.

Andrew Noble: "As you can see that the middle one here, number two, this is veg material and you can see quite clearly that the yield here is much much lower than that of termite mound material and on my right here on bentonite."

Farmer: "We think we'll start using this bentonite because as we see, it has good results and has a better capacity to supply nutrients to the plants."

Andrew Noble: "What we have done here is prove the concept of using clay materials as a means to rejuvenate these degraded soils and we do know that it is cost-effective from both the cost of material and the yield or production increases. It's really up to farmers now to take, take it and run with it as well as the commercial sector who would do the marketing and providing of the materials."

If anyone follows up and can find a Bentonite supplier please post it to the board. Also those who have health issues may be interested in searching for 'Bentonite healing'. I use it whenever I get food poisoning. Problem solved in 24 hours.