Growing Water Spinach (Kangkong) and Chinese Kale (Kailan)  from seeds use pretty much the same method as growing tomatoes. I actually planted my kangkong and kailan the same time I planted my okra seeds, eggplants seeds, pepper seeds and tomato seeds.

Refer to this post to know what you should do to prepare your mini vegetable garden:  How to Make a Mini Vegetable Garden

By the way, I’m actually on the 26th day of my very own self-imposed 30-day blog post challenge which also propelled me to restart doing other things I love and one of them is planting vegetables (obviously!)

First of all, let me tell you that unlike how I grew tomato, eggplant,  okra, and pepper seeds, I didn’t study at all how to plant water spinach (kangkong) and Chinese kale (kailan) seeds. I bought several different seeds and one day I just thought to plant two more kinds and see if they will grow.  After almost a month, I can say that my water spinanch and Chinese kale vegetable seeds have grown so much since then. I’ve even re-potted them which I will discuss on a separate post. For now, let me tell you how I managed to grow Kangkong and Kailan vegetables from seeds.

 

Materials

• Pots – It’s good to use recycled a popcorn container or an ice cream bin. Include the cover of these bins. It is important to use recycled materials at first especially if this is your first time to venture into vegetable gadrdening. We still didn’t know if you can grow these seeds and buying new pots up front could be wasteful especially if after all this effort, you won’t be able to grow the seeds. That was my thinking when I started all this, hence the recycled pots. You can always re-pot them later on once they’ve grown.
• Holes – Make sure the pots have holes at the bottom so water can pass through. You can use a screw driver for punching holes.
• Soil – Use a soilless potting mix by Red Earth which can be bought from Ace Hardware. A sack costs about Php80.00 each.
• Water – just enough to make the soil moist and wet.
• Seeds – you can buy seeds at National Bookstore or Ace Hardware. They’re only Php50 per pack.
• Procedure:

 

PROCEDURE

• Once you have all the materials, it’s time to put some soil into the recycled pots. Fill the pot at least 3/4 full.
• Then put the seeds. You can put as many as you want. It’s okay to crowd them or you can space them a centimeter or two apart.
• Then cover the seeds with another layer of soil until the pot is almost full.
• Water it.
• Get the cover of the bins and place one under each recycled pot. This will catch the water that goes through the holes so the soil is kept moist.
• Place the pot in an area where there’s sunlight during the day. I keep mine at the balcony since the sun shines there in the morning.
• Water your pots everyday.

After 1-2 days, your water spinach and Chinese kale seeds should start sprouting like this:

After almost a week, your water spinach and Chinese kale seedlings should look like this:

In two to three weeks, your seedlings should already look like this:

Just keep on watering them every day. Since you’ve already proven you can grow water spinach and Chinese kale seeds, the next time you plant them, you can already use real pots just like what I did on the next four batches of Kangkong seeds I planted:

Happy planting! (^_^)