Time for tomatoes

Posted on by

I like how the tomato flowers point downwards - it's so easy to imagine a nice, round tomato hanging in place!

As mentioned in a previous post, I have a couple of tomato plants growing. Like the pepper paprikas, I got these seeds from Thailand, so I don’t know if they’re any special kind of tomato. I’m just going to think of them as regular tomatoes and be done with that.

These weren’t easy to get started. I tried three times before I had a successful batch that actually grew. Since I had been anticipating a low or no germination rate, I’d tossed in quite a number of seeds. So, I ended up with quite a number of little sprouts growing. Me being me, I decided to experiment with the transplants at pricking out time.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with gardening terminology, pricking out is the process of transferring seedlings that have matured to true leaf stage (normally the second pair of leaves) to a bigger, individualized location where they have more space to grow. Seeds are sometimes germinated too close to each other and, if left alone, will choke each other when they grow into bigger plants.

Anyway, I decided to experiment by growing some plants in normal pots and media, and others in self-watering containers (SWCs). To my surprise, the ones in SWCs did much, much better than their pot-bound peers. They all had as much sunshine as the other, but the ones in SWCs had no worries about the scorching sun dehydrating them. I tossed out the ones in regular pots and focused on those in the SWCs since they were so much stronger.

When the first SWC plant got too root-bound, I transplanted it to a regular pot and put it out in the garden in a semi-shaded spot to adjust …and I promptly forgot about it until it had already sent roots through the drainage holes in the pot, and into the garden earth. Since it had set up home there, I left it alone and gave it a 1.2 metre high bamboo support stake to grow against. Of course, it’s not a twining plant, so I’ve had to periodically tie it loosely against the support.

It was on one such occasion last week that I noticed a small cluster of flower buds beginning to form at the growing tip. It took several days for the flowers to take shape and colour, but finally, there they were – little pale yellow flowers pointing downwards. I hope they don’t have trouble with pollination, because I can’t wait to see a bunch of tomatoes hanging in their place!

With luck, I’ll hopefully have another tomato update – of the fruity kind – in a couple of weeks…

© 2010 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


Share

Busy as a bee

Posted on by

Last weekend was a long one for us in Singapore as we celebrated National Day on Monday. Like many other gardeners, I suspect, I took advantage of the extra time to get things done in the garden.

First, there was the addition of the roselle cuttings. They seem to have settled down into their new home and are putting out new leaves. The growing tip that had some buds showing, however, seems to have aborted. Oh well, there will be more buds in the future, and I’d prefer that the cuttings put their energy into developing their root systems instead … for now, anyway.

Leafy veggie sprouts (clockwise from top left): caixin, white pakchoi, green pakchoi, and water spinach

The next thing I did was to get out the bulk of the seeds that I wanted to plant. A whole new generation of leafy veggies has been planted – green and white pakchoi, as well as caixin and kangkong (water spinach). Herbs have been added, too – chives, Roman Chamomile and a new lot of coriander; and fruit vegetables like brinjal (long green and short purple varieties), cherry tomatoes and chillies. For ornamentals, I’ve planted a new lot of Dalhberg Daisies (because the first attempt wasn’t that successful), yellow Cosmos and white Zinnias. The leafy veggies sprouted within a couple of days, and I’ve been avidly watching their progress.

What tired me the most was planting the Red Lady papayas. I read that they need to be planted directly as they’re sensitive to transplanting, so I took the time to weed and prepare four locations for planting. I could have done a single bed, but that would have been even more area to clear – and more worms to upset and displace! So those babies have been planted, finally, and I hope they grow well. Now all I have to do is work on my bigger trellises so I can plant beans again. Hmm, when’s the next long weekend? :P

© 2010 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


Share

We have peppers!

Posted on by

So, four weeks after the flowers began blooming, and two weeks after I hoped fruit were growing, we can proudly announce that we do indeed have pepper paprikas growing in our garden.

Three fruit in a row... what a beautiful sight!

There are currently several fruit developing on the plant, at different stages of growth. Like the flowers, they, too, abort for whatever reason so we could have had more fruits growing than we do now. The largest one is about 7cm long and I’m wondering whether to harvest it or not.

Why am I unsure? Because these seeds were bought for me in Thailand and the instructions on the packet, except for the name, are written in Thai! I’ve never seen or eaten this particular pepper before and don’t know how it will turn out, but I’m simply happy to grow it.

Anyway, the plant still attracts pests, as evidenced by the eaten leaves and marks on the fruits. It looks like a chilli plant and smells like a chilli plant when you crush the leaves, and so it makes sense that it also attracts pests that like the chilli plant.

I’m just happy to have grown it to fruit stage. :)

© 2010 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


Share

Welcome Roselle

Posted on by

Growing tip of the roselle plant.

You can plan all you want, but you can’t predict when you’ll receive unexpected plant babies.

A plant swap over the National Day weekend with a generous fellow gardener left me with the very pleasant surprise of rooted Roselle cuttings in addition to our agreed exchange.

Roselle is another plant that I had on my to-get list, but further down the line. However, opportunity knocked and I answered. :)

So I’ve now got two cuttings with some new roots. To reduce transplant shock, I pruned off several of the bigger leaves, especially at nodes where new leaves were beginning to emerge. I’m looking forward to watching these plants grow!

© 2010 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


Share