Establishing a charming vegetable garden in one’s small home amidst the urban landscape is a dream for many city dwellers. Responding to this genuine need, the urban clean vegetable cultivation program by GINO Co., Ltd (Ho Chi Minh City) has opened avenues for city residents to utilize small spaces within their homes to grow their own green, clean, and safe vegetables at an affordable price for daily meals.
The advantage of this technology is that traditional soil for growing vegetables (real soil) is replaced with a mixture known as “Multi Planting Soil,” which offers long-lasting organic nutrients, is environmentally friendly, and free from toxins and harmful microorganisms, without the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
The primary components of Multi Planting Soil include organic substrates made from coconut husk, earthworm castings, seaweed, beneficial microorganisms, and fermented oil cake. This nutrient-rich mixture helps plants grow and develop well. Currently, GINO provides a diverse range of planting soils, such as Multi Soil for leafy vegetables, fruit-bearing vegetables, flowers, ornamental plants, grasses, and Ginut substrate specifically for sprouting vegetables, priced at only 3,000 VND/kg. Depending on their needs, growers can choose to cultivate one of 40 types of vegetables and fruits from various seeds including lettuce, green mustard, sweet mustard, white mustard, rapeseed, amaranth (red, green, purple), water spinach, or sprout vegetables from different leafy vegetable seeds such as mustard greens, sweet mustard, leafy mustard, lettuce, water spinach, scallions, and more.
According to Dr. Nguyen Thi Dao (Director of GINO Co., Ltd), households should consider cultivating the “Herb” group, which includes Thai basil, Vietnamese basil, fish mint, cilantro, mint, green and red chili, dill, and lime. Or the “Soup Vegetables” group, which includes edible amaranth, water spinach, peppermint, malabar spinach, gourds, and tomatoes.
Investment costs for home vegetable cultivation currently range from 15,000 VND to 60,000 VND. Specifically, for every two foam trays measuring 30 x 50 x 7 cm (costing 7,000 VND/tray), 30 grams of sprout seeds (priced at 4,000 VND), and 2 kg of Ginut substrate (costing 5,000 VND) are needed. After planting for about 5 to 7 days, one can harvest 400 to 450 grams of clean vegetables (roots removed), with a nutritional value equivalent to 1.5 kg of normal vegetables. After harvesting, the remaining soil can be reused for new sprouts or supplemented with organic fertilizer to grow other types of plants. Testing by scientific agencies has shown that vegetables grown using this technology meet 100% of the standards. The levels of metals such as lead, arsenic, copper, and mercury are mostly below 10% of the permissible limits.
Thus, with the supplies, seeds, substrates, and necessary tools for growing vegetables available on the market, one only needs to skillfully utilize vacant spaces (with sunlight) in their home, such as rooftops, balconies, skylights, and front and back yards, to create lovely green gardens. In addition to contributing to delicious and nutritious meals, growing vegetables at home is also a form of light labor and an enjoyable method of relaxation that effectively reduces stress.
Trong Ha
