Cherry Tomato

Cherry Tomato is the smaller variety of tomatoes, it is determinate type of tomato where they grow, flower and fruiting at same time or within same period of time. This tomato pruning is not required and their average life span about 4 months.

Above cherry tomato planted traditional way, mature plant bearing fruit. 

Seeds collected from this plant are sun dried and use for planting.

Seeds sown directly onto growbed, if sowing tray available then its can be use. Germination occur after about 5 days.

Another 2 weeks they should be ready to be transplanted or rearrange within the growbed. On the average I waited for the seedling to be around six inches before transplant.

Too small, they are fragile and can be damaged easily, too big they may not survive the transplant or may require longer period to recover.

Cherry Tomato do well in Aquaponics, they are more resistance to white flies. Having said that, however they are not totally immune to it, just that white flies will takes a longer time to attack these cherry tomatoes.

They will start to flower after about 45 days from sowing, this depends on how fast they recover after the transplant. On average its 45 days.

Staking are required since they are soft stem, and 3 or 4 poles require for each plant. In the fields they use string as support, however in my growbed I use plastic pipe.

Flowers below.

After pollinated they form fruits and it will be another month to month and a half for it to ripen

Once they started to flower and producing fruits there will be plenty, and they all ripen within a month.

Plenty of Tomatoes for the family.

Daun Pandan - Pandanus amaryllifolius

Daun Pandan - Pandanus amaryllifolius is a plant belong to the Pandan family. It is use widely in Southeast Asia cuisine as flavouring.

Growing it in Aquaponics do not require any special care due its naturally from the swamp anyway.

Young plants taken from clusters from nearby patch planted into Aquaponics growbed.

In no time these Pandan start to colonize the growbed, they have to be trimmed to a manageable size.

On an average household one single plant is enough and can be grown in a growbed.

Ulam Raja - Salad for the King

Ulam Raja (cosmos caudatus) is a popular herbal salad among the Malay. This is an annual plant that flower then die off. It has good medicinal properties, suppose to be anti ageing probably due to its anti oxidant properties.


These plant the young leaves are eaten raw with sambal and its help in reducing bad breadth and body odour.

Flower below pink in colour about 40mm in size 

After flower pollinated they produce these seeds below, approximately 20mm long each. 

Seeds dried on the stalk and fall to the ground germinated into seedlings below.

Below after about 1 week its leaves start to appear.

Planted few of these ulam raja on my Aquaponics set,

and it does grow without problem.

Below young leaves that we normally pluck from the plant to be eaten raw. Ulam Raja has a pleasant and refreshing smell.

After young leaves plucked, new shoots will start to grow just below the cutting giving more young leaves for the taking.

Older leaves not suitable to be consumed raw, they have a stronger taste slightly bitter.

Below some of Ulam Raja plant in my Aquaponics set.

Fresh young leaves below picked from my patch with Mengkudu leaves underneath it.