: Pune Woman Grows Fruits, Veggies Sugarcane in Terrace Garden, Without Any Soil #IndiaNEWS #organic farming Neela Renavikar Panchpor is a Pune-based cost accountant, a professional marathon runner,

Pune Woman Grows Fruits, Veggies Sugarcane in Terrace Garden, Without Any Soil #IndiaNEWS #organic farming
Neela Renavikar Panchpor is a Pune-based cost accountant, a professional marathon runner, and a home gardener who grows several varieties of flowering plants, vegetables, fruits, and different varieties of herbs in a 450 square feet terrace garden.
What’s interesting is that she does not use soil or any kind of potting mix to grow her plants. Instead, she uses the compost that she prepares at home, which is a mix of dry leaves, kitchen waste and cow dung.
“A soilless potting mix with dry leaves has higher water retention and better air circulation. Adding kitchen waste and cow dung manure provides nutrition to the growing plant and promotes the growth of earthworms,??? says Neela, adding that there are no special techniques involved with soilless farming. All one needs is patience and dedication.
A view of Neelas terrace garden.
Growing Plants Using Kitchen Waste
Neela’s journey to soilless gardening began 10 years ago.
“I’d always thought of myself as an environmentally conscious person, but there was one problem area — my kitchen. There was so much waste generated there, and I didn’t know what to do about it. So, I approached friends in my apartment society who were practising composting. From them, I learnt how to segregate household waste and I started to prepare compost,??? says Neela.
She adds that her friends are the reason why she decided to explore soilless gardening. “They are experienced home-gardeners who have been growing organic fruits and vegetables for many years using this method. ???
According to Neela, soilless gardening has three major benefits. It helps eliminate the chances of plants getting affected by soil-borne diseases such as plant fungi and root rot, and prevents the growth of weeds which is widely prevalent in soil. This in turn reduces the need for pesticides and fertilisers. In traditional soil-based farming, a plant spends most of its energy expanding the root system in search of water and nutrition. But, in soilless farming all these are directly available at the roots.
“Each time I successfully grew one plant, it motivated me to experiment more. ???
Neela learnt the basics of soilless gardening from the internet. She watched several videos to understand how to create a plant bed, how to water soilless plants, and what sort of fertilizers to use.
Then, she moved on to preparing the compost. For this, she collected dry leaves and put them in a compost bin. She procured fresh cow dung from a local farm in Pune, and it became the starter that she added to the dry leaves.
“For the next few weeks, my family dumped food waste into the compost bin, and the compost was ready in a month.

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