Addendum to the bean sprout theft post

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A day after two germinating long bean plants were snatched away by birds, another pair of seeds began to break through the soil. This is what probably caught the bird’s eye:

Does that look like a green worm in the earth?

The neck of the sprouting stem does kind of resemble a green worm just at the surface of the soil. I can’t blame the poor, hungry bird that snatched up the two sprouts before. However, I didn’t want to provide them with more free meals, so I got a couple of my bottle-protectors – the top parts of cut-off PET bottles – and placed them over the cups housing the new seedlings. When you remove the screw cap, it allows sufficient air to circulate, and the transparent plastic lets light through for the seedling to grow.

Bean sprout now safely protected from marauding birds

I normally use these bottle-protectors when I plant seeds or seedlings out in the garden. My biggest enemy in those instances are snails and slugs, and I cover the open tops of the bottles with some netting, because snails are adventurous and climb everywhere they can. I sure didn’t expect to have to use the protectors so close to the house! Anyway, they got the job done, and my seeds have sprouted in peace.

What a difference a day makes! A safe sprout ready for the next step in its life.

Just one day later, the sprout is upright and is unfurling its seed leaves. Long beans, here I come!

© 2011 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


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What ate my bean sprouts?

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When I started this blog, I wondered if I’d be able to keep finding new things to write about. Well, thanks to my plants and the many creatures that walk, crawl and fly, the answer is obviously yes!

Take for example my next round of long beans. I had planted one seed each in a recycled plastic cup, and early this morning was gratified to see three curved stems breaking through the soil. I knew by evening, they would have their heads held high, with the seed leaves peeping from between the halves of the bean. That’s what normally happens.

Well, today was not normal. When watering my plants around midday, I found this:

Bottom left is what I expected to see - the emerging bean sprout. Bottom right, and just above that one, are empty holes where the sprouting beans were. What happened?

There were supposed to be three emerging sprouts, as per the cup in the bottom left. Instead, there was only one sprout, with the other two cups in question with only the beans left on the surface of the soil – and empty holes where the sprouts once were!

What the …?

I looked again and found that, oh, there was part of a stem – broken – in one of the holes as well. Some bird poop in an adjacent pot gave me a clue… My guess is that a bird saw the curve of the stems breaking through the soil and thought they were something they could eat – like a worm or some garden grub! It must have happily yanked them out and been sadly disappointed, leaving the seed heads behind in disgust. But then, I couldn’t find the rest of the roots and stems… It’s an interesting hypothesis, anyway!

The possible suspects:

My first choice: the yellow-vented bulbul - there are a couple of families of them in the neighbourhood and they're rather active food seekers.

My second guess: the cheeky mynah. They're always poking around and looking for things to eat.

Well, you can’t say that things are only about plants when you garden, can you? :) My consolation is that beans grow quite easily, so I can replace the two that died an untimely death.

© 2011 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


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Waiting, waiting, waiting…

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You need a lot of patience when you dabble in gardening.

Seeds sprout only when they’re ready. The sunflower and rudbeckia seeds are still playing hide and seek with me – I seek, they don’t germinate. :( I’m still trying, though – somewhere in my lot of seeds, there must be a few that will grow here! Luckily, other seeds have been more accommodating:

Little sprouts of green shiso.

On a whim, I tossed some chilli seeds into a small pot instead of the kitchen bin, and they started sprouting!

There's something oh so satisfying about seeing a bean seed germinate! These are long bean seeds.

Plants flower and fruit only when they’re sufficiently matured:

Flower of the purple brinjal. No fruits yet though!

Okra grows and fruits easily. I like that!

Cuttings take time to grow new roots and stabilize:

A good, healthy root system after planting the roselle cuttings just over 3 weeks ago.

My healthiest vitex trifolia plant grown from cuttings received a month ago.

While waiting, there have been other chores to keep me busy – pruning, fertilizing, planning. I’ve also been trundling – gradually – my ton of compost around the garden. Some has gone to create planting beds while most, so far, has been used in top dressing:

Weeded away the grass then laid on about 3cm of compost up to the edge of the tree line of this mangosteen tree. Hopefully the ring of bricks will keep out the invasive grass for a while.

I also wanted to level out parts of the lawn, but that’s going to take time because every time I spread out the compost, especially over the deeper dips in the lawn, I come back the next day to find doggy paw prints pockmarking my previously level surfaces! As I said, you need a lot of patience in gardening… In this case, I’ll probably have to wait for the grass to grow through and hide the tempting-to-my dogs compost, then sprinkle on a hopefully shallower layer to level things out. Grass grows so rapidly that it should be a only matter of a couple of weeks!

In the meantime, I hope more of my sowed seeds start germinating. The waiting game isn’t fun when there are no results!

© 2011 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


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Caixin flowers

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The cluster of caixin flower buds

One of my caixin plants finally started producing bunches of flower buds! They look like broccoli to me :)

The downside of these clusters of buds is that the dastardly caterpillars have a lot more nooks and crannies to hide in. The day after taking this shot, the buds were partly eaten and covered in the sticky web-like threads that the caterpillars produce. Somehow I don’t think I’m going to have the pleasure of collecting fresh seeds… :(

Another look at the pristine flower buds before the caterpillars got to them

© 2011 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


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