I use a sealable compost bag as my shady balcony does have plenty of insects, especially gnats.
I dried my used soil, then mixed it with my kitchen scraps (after dipped in Enzyme for 2 weeks for faster composting) and pour in some water.
Notes
Harvest 10 pieces of mint leaves
Prepare a tea maker/strainer
+5
Egg shell could be added to soil to give it more calsium, so feed it to the worm bin as grit.
Collect a bunch of egg shell
Heat it up for 10 minutes (to kill germs and bacteria).
Heated egg shell
+2
Will try to sterilize the soil, then use the soil to make compost in order to rejuvenate it.
Mixed used potting soil in a shallow container.
Put under the sun (few days to a week) until the soil dry out.
I have some gnats problem, so I will use some Hydrogen Peroxide.
The sizzling soil after Hydrogen Peroxide poured into it.
Prepare a good quality cardboard roughly the size of fruit boxes. Reinforced the bottom with additional layer of cardboard. Seal off the bottom gap with tape.
I decide to adventure into vermicomposting.
Bought a vermicompost bin from Shopee, but it has gaps where insects could easily get in or the worms could easily escape.
I seal the gap with mosquito net, double sided tap and velcro.
+11
The usual Enzyme takes 3 months to make, but we can make a quick enzyme fertilizer in 1~2 weeks.
Prepare a plastic container (not glass as the air within the container will expand due to fermentation).
Fill 1/3 of it with fruits/vegetables waste, cut into smaller pieces to speed up the process.
Fill water up to 80% of the container. Leaving 20% empty space for gas expansion.
Expose the container to sunlight to speed up the process.
Optionally, you can add in brown sugar / molasses or EM (Effective Microorganism) or Enzyme to speed up the process.
You can harvest the liquid solution (filter away the remaining fruit waste) after 1 to 2 weeks.
Dilute it 5 to 10x before watering the plants with it (do experiment with the required dilution).
The remaining waste can be use to make compost or feed it to the worm bin.
+12
Since I have a small balcony, I can only plant small plants and go vertical.
Mix 2ml of neem oil with one teaspoon of concentrated dish soap (select plant or environmental friendly version) into 500ml of water.
Spray bottle, Neem oil, Dish Liquid and 500ml of water.
2ml of neem oil.
Pour neem oil in water.
+3
0.02g (one scoop of the tiny spoon provided) per litre of water.
Water the plant with this solution to kill the gnats in the soil within 24 hours. The solution is effective for 14 days.
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