All fully established and growing in earnest.

If you plant lady’s finger and manage to make it die, you definitely have issues.

This plant originated from Africa, you know? How many gold medals they won in the Olympics oredi? So tough, the plant, you only need to remember to water and it will grow properly still. Lady’s finger are also found growing truly wild along the River Nile. Have you ever seen siew pak choy growing in the wild before? Or tomatoes? Or brinjals? No leh. That is a testament to how tough and disease resistant the lady’s finger is.

(UPDATE: I found someone’s garden growing lady’s finger on ordinary soil. Will take a pic of it in a few days and display the stark difference of growing it on WormOrganics.)

So if you have never ever grown any food before, grow lady’s fingers. In a cluster of 15-30, they make a beautiful bush.

A cluster of lady's fingers like this will produce enough pods to feed a family of five.

Note the trumpet shaped, light yellow flowers, and the two small lady's finger pods.

They also produce pretty, light yellow flowers. It takes roughly two months for the plants to begin flowering. The flowers last for two days, max. Then, it drops off and a little lady’s finger pod takes its place. In just two to three days time, the pod will be ready for harvesting. Each plant will give you between one and two pods each time.

Plant into the ground also can. Into a pot also can, but make sure big pot lah. Their roots go deep.

Close-up of a perfectly formed lady's finger pod, less than an inch long.

Very few diseases affect the plants.

Insects love them as much as we do, but most organic insect pesticides and repellents will do the trick.

Even if the pods are affected by aphids, actual destruction is rare.

Not only that, you can grow RED lady’s fingers, which are absolutely marvellous to view. They taste a little sweeter than the green ones, while the green ones are VERY, VERY, SUPER nice to eat RAW when they are less than three inches long.

Health benefits: they reduce cholesterol, prevent colon cancer, help reduce heart attack risk. Some sources claim eating a lot of eat helps with our sex lives too…but don’t be too quick to agree with everything anyone claims.

Note: The beautiful red hue only lasts when it is fresh. When cooked, it reverts to dark green.

Close-up of a lady's finger pod being attacked by little aphid. This photo is magnified 300% to make the aphids visible. The aphids are the size of about a third of a sesame seed. Click on the photo to get a better view.

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