Apr 2023

Chicken manure is a common fertilizer directly applied to soil in local vegetable farms. Its excessively high NPK content without proper balance of carbon and micronutrients makes it an undesirable soil amendment. Excessive use of chicken manure harms soil, making it salty and compacted. This is a nightmare for farmers but a paradise for pests and diseases!

Throughout the first half of the Restore project, our advisor and TAPs have been working hard to assist Cheong Gor to phase out chicken manure, and replace it with compost and a wide variety of materials that provide well-balanced nutrients to both soil microorganisms and crops. It is encouraging to know that Cheong Gor’s recent impressive harvest of yellow zucchini is grown without any chicken manure! This clearly demonstrates that a good harvest and environmental health do not have to be in conflict.

  • Freshly made fish EM ferments. After several months, these ferments would be diluted and sprayed to the soil to provide nutrients and beneficial microbes. Chicken manure is no longer needed.

  • Yellow zucchini grown with compost and fish ferments, without any use of chicken manure. From only a few rows of the plants, 20 catties of zucchini were produced weekly over the harvest period. They grow so fast that they have to be harvested twice a day!

  • Worker putting mulch on a vegetable row. Theoretically, mulch can be applied to any kind of field to protect the soil underneath. In practice, some leafy greens like choy sum have such a short life cycle that by the time they are big enough to mulch, they are almost ready for harvest. It is therefore reasonable for farmers to only mulch for veggies with a longer life cycle like the Chinese kale here.

  • Compost to be applied to the field. Before going to the field, the compost is first mixed with cattle horn shavings, bio-fertilizer granules and a little water. The pile heats up a little and will be left for a week to cool before use.