It’s raining again…

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I think too much rain killed this young winter melon plant :(

Oh no, it’s raining again! And it looks like we’re in for a rainy spell. On the one hand, it’s nice to have the cooler, breezy weather, and not to have to worry about watering the plants. On the other hand, some plants don’t like too much rain.

Take my ill-fated first round of winter melon plants. I managed to grow 3 plants from the seeds from Novice Gardener. One of them became a meal for a pair of hairy caterpillars (darn things came out at night and I didn’t see them until it was too late :( ). The other pair grew quite well in little pots and I planted them out at a spanking-new trellis with compost-amended soil, expecting them to thrive. I had even scattered a decent amount of snail bait around to protect them. However, I didn’t count on the weather. The day after I planted them out, the rainy spell began. It rained every single day – sometimes at night, other times during the day. The bigger of the plants didn’t like it, and the base of its stem started turning brown and shrivelling slowly, and it literally keeled over and died. I have my fingers crossed that the other plant will be able to weather it out (pun intended) and keep growing.

Too much rain also raises the likelihood that my okra plants are going to suffer from powdery mildew. After growing the plants in such close proximity last year and having them afflicted by the mildew, I took pains this year to spread them out to increase the air circulation. However, the combination of wet weather and our high humidity means the mildew is more or less inevitable.

Roselle seedlings sprouting from the seeds left in the plant calyces and thanks to the wet weather

I hope my other edible plants won’t be badly affected by the rain. The other veggies currently in “production” are the angled loofah, cucumber, bittergourd, long bean and brinjal plants. And of course I’m concerned for my Red Lady papaya trees that are in full swing now, because papaya trees don’t like having “wet feet”.

On the bright side, maybe my winged bean plants will prove whether or not the rain really has any bearing on their bean production. And, I can start growing plants that like wet, cooler weather. I’ve been holding on to seeds for broccoli, snow peas, beans and salad leaves that I didn’t expect to thrive in our warmer, drier (but still humid) months. It would be fantastic to see them grow to their full potential! Perhaps they will be a silver lining during these damp, dark days.

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Where are my winged beans?

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Winged beans aren't easy to spot. Can you see the two in this picture?

I’ve been frustratedly waiting for the winged bean vines to produce more beans for weeks now. It buds and flowers fairly regularly, and we harvested the first three beans last month.

There was another bean that was high up and out of reach that we missed, and it grew big and tough. I managed to pluck it two weeks ago and broke it apart to see what fresh beans looked like – they’re a very light, pale green. I thought they were too green to plant, but because I am who I am, I stuck them into the edge of one of my potted plants and waited. They germinated in less than a week! So I will try to grow the vine elsewhere in the garden and see what happens.

This brings me back to my original question – where the heck are the beans if my current plants are flowering??

The forming four-angled bean after the flower petals have dropped. Doesn't it look like some kind of worm or caterpillar?

Looking at the beans as they develop, I noticed that the bottom half looks like a little white tail. Could birds mistake that “tail” for a worm or something edible?

In fact, the entire mini-winged bean looks like a caterpillar.

Could the birds be responsible for the missing beans? I suspect they are. The trellis that the vines grow on is a favourite perch for all kinds of birds. In fact, that entire area of the garden is a bird haven, for those birds that eat insects. The shade and humidity provided by the trellis, sweet potato patch and two mango trees encourages insects to meander out in the heat of the day, and hunting birds like the brown shrike and tailorbird are common visitors. Maybe – just maybe – they’re the ones “attacking” my winged beans. There have been a couple of beans that I was watching grow that mysteriously disappeared.

Huge but inedible, the old winged bean is hard and can possibly be used as a weapon...

Of course, having a too-high trellis is also part of my problem. After the days of rain that we’ve just had, I finally went to that overgrown, damp part of the garden and finally found a few more beans growing. Three of them are still young – and hopefully will not be mistaken as caterpillars – while two are huge and way too old to be harvested for eating.

Curious Mama wants to keep the old beans to get seeds. We’ll probably pluck one so I can show her the younger seeds while we let the other bean age more on the vine. And maybe even more beans will form in the meantime. I’m wondering if there’s a correspondence between the formation of the beans and the rainy weather, because if memory serves me correctly, the first three beans were also harvested after a rainy period.

I shall have to observe and take notes, since apparently my memory isn’t that great…

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Ladybug nymph watching

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I’m so excited to have found ladybug nymphs in the garden that I’ve been going to watch them ever since I found them…

Ladybug nymph when I first discovered them. It's probably half-grown by this stage.

Two days later, the nymphs were bigger, broader and showing more colour in the form of pale orange spots. They were still running like hyperactive things, searching for food. Oh, there were considerably fewer yellow aphids on the plant by now, too. Heh heh heh.

We had a couple of rainy days and I didn’t see the nymphs when I went to look for them. Then, three days later…

Looks like it's time to pupate! You can see the ridged back of the nymph, which was still moving a little as I observed.

I guess they’ll be in their cocoons by tomorrow – and in a few days, will hatch into little ladybugs! I hope I’ll be able to catch them at the right time, and that it doesn’t keep raining and make me miss the moment. All told, I spotted three of these forming cocoons. I wonder where the other nymphs went?

© 2011 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


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The verdict on growing kangkong in water

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Water spinach plant growing just above the outdoor fish tank

I recently decided to experiment with growing kangkong in our outdoor fish tank. It was an interesting idea, but apparently not a good one.

The stem that I tossed directly into the tank didn’t grow at all. It’s just floating around on the water’s surface.

The other plants growing atop the netting are growing on good, strong stems, but the leaves are very pale green. Since there’s quite a bit of sunlight, I’m ruling out light deprivation. That probably means that the plants don’t get enough nutrients to photosynthesize. Since they’re growing in a fish tank, I can’t add fertilizers to the water. What a pity. I think the fish were enjoying the new distraction of the growing roots. I may just leave the plants there for the amusement of the fish as I have several other, healthier plants growing in soil. This was just a little sidetrack to satisfy my curiosity.

© 2011 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


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