Growing dragonfruit from seed

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Dragonfruit seeds germinating!

Dragonfruit seeds germinating!

I’ll be darned.

I’ve seen videos of people doing this but I didn’t honestly expect to be able to do this myself.

We were eating dragonfruit over the weekend and I thought the fruit was rather overripe. The seeds looked rather plump to me, so I kept about six of them and placed them on damp cotton wool and sealed them in a ziploc baggie.

Three days later, it looks like more than half have life in them and are germinating! To think – we eat all the seeds in the fruit!!

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The white-breasted waterhen

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The white-breasted waterhen seems very happy to be wandering through the underbrush!

The white-breasted waterhen seems very happy to be wandering through the underbrush!

There’s a waterhen in our garden! We’re intrigued, because we don’t have any water features in the garden apart from puddles after it rains, and yet this very shy bird has been here – whether visiting or living, we can’t tell yet – for about two weeks now.

It all started when I heard something moving around somewhere behind the lime tree, and when I peeped over there, I had a very quick glimpse of a round, medium to large dark body higher off the ground than a mynah, and a face with white around the eyes, that for some reason I thought were crescent-shaped. It scooted off in a second, and I was left with the impression of a wading bird instead of the pitta, which we were hoping to see but haven’t yet. I started searching online with the fleeting details I could remember but could not find a decent match.

Fast forward more than a week, and my mum finally got a shot of the mysterious bird as it happily wandered around in the underbrush around the mango tree. I identified it positively as the white-breasted waterhen, and our paparazzi stalking commenced.

I have to say that this bird is very alert and quick to conceal itself. The only way we’ve been able to observe it is from a window upstairs, hidden behind the curtain. When it realises it has been seen, it darts under plants to hide! So, getting halfway decent images of it has been challenging.

The white-breasted waterhen has black upper parts, with white running from its face down its belly. It is supposed to have chestnut flanks and under tail, but I can’t say that we’ve seen that yet. We got our information from Ria Tan’s website on Sungei Buloh wetlands reserve. It’s a great resource on the flora and fauna there and around Singapore.

I don’t know why we get such an interesting variety of birds visiting our garden. No, that’s not true. They come here because it’s not a manicured place. Some people admire how natural it is while others call it a “jungle” (it’s not that far gone, really! Those people are just being snarky). Truth be told, a friend who is a senior lecturer of Biological Sciences at NUS once suggested that we leave part of the garden untouched and see what happened. It wasn’t intended to actually do that, but parts that are not tended to often enough have come about, and interestingly, those are the areas that the unique birds like – the magpie robins, two different types of pittas, the one-time visiting vulturine guineafowl, and now this waterhen. These are the ones we’ve noticed; who knows if and how many others there are? There’s an abundance of wonderful birds that live and migrate through our tropical country and we’re very pleased to host some of them!

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Use the right tools to get the job done

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The pruning saws - ordinary one on top, professional one below.

The pruning saws – ordinary one on top, professional one below.

My dad always said that you need to have the right tool to get the job done, and he had a reputation for going all out to buy what we called knick-knacks. I used to put that down as just “boys and their toys”, but you know, I’m beginning to buy into what he said.

Sometime last year, I bought a simple curved pruning saw from the garden centre. It’s the sort that you can either hold in your hand or fix to the end of a pole to cut higher branches. It satisfied me that I had the proper kind of saw for cutting through branches.

Then, I started using the saw to prune down the peacock trees. Friends, let me tell you that the wood of those trees is pretty hard! And since our peacock trees are old and very established, they have some rather thick branches – think thicker than your arm, or maybe a leg! Yes, the saw could cut those branches, but the effort left me huffing and puffing with my arms wanting to drop off.

Look at how thick those branches are! The first saw took about 15 to 20 minutes to saw through one of those branches, and I would usually stop after just one or two branches; the professional saw took just 5 to 10 minutes, and I had energy to do lots more!

Look at how thick those branches are! The first saw took about 15 to 20 minutes to saw through one of those branches, and I would usually stop after just one or two branches; the professional saw took just 5 to 10 minutes, and I had energy to do lots more!

It didn’t help that a family friend looked at the saw and snarkily remarked that he had a professional pruning saw that was sharper. With my dad’s words about having the right tool for the job ringing in my ears, I eventually got a better saw – not super professional grade, but “professional” (if you judge by the prices).

Oh. My… Goodness! What a difference in the performance! It zipped right through thick branches, and cut through finger-wide stems with just two passes of the blade. I found myself roaming around the garden looking for more and more branches to prune down because it was just that easy!

Oh what a difference in those saw blades! Do you see why the professional one (below) is more effective?

Oh what a difference in those saw blades! Do you see why the professional one (below) is more effective?

The difference is of course in the blade. This one is thicker than the first and has what is advertised as a razor tooth saw. I chose it because it was from an established brand that harks back to the early days of the famed orange groves of California. I also chose this model because you can get replacement blades.


Hm, Amazon has used the wrong photo, but the product is correct…

Even the birds are happy - this yellow vented bulbul was among the first birds to perch on the newly created stumps.

Even the birds are happy – this yellow vented bulbul was among the first birds to perch on the newly created stumps.

Dad was right. Good tools really get the job done properly.

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Just a random update

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While I may not always post updates, thank goodness the plants (and critters) just keep doing their own things. So, here are a few random shots of some of the things that have been going on since January…

I am inordinately pleased with this planting of Chinese kale. Seeds were sown in this pot in the first week of January and have grown remarkably well. I believe that it’s fine to harvest the older leaves and let the plant keep growing new leaves (we’re going to). This is our first time getting these plants this big. I may test one plant - cut the stem and see if and how it grows after that.

I am inordinately pleased with this planting of Chinese kale. Seeds were sown in this pot in the first week of January and have grown remarkably well. I believe that it’s fine to harvest the older leaves and let the plant keep growing new leaves (we’re going to). This is our first time getting these plants this big. I may test one plant – cut the stem and see if and how it grows after that.

We are attempting to grow more leafy greens, hence the new lot of Chinese cabbage plants here (and elsewhere). I also like these plants because they’re a nice, bright colour and are almost ornamental in how they look.

We are attempting to grow more leafy greens, hence the new lot of Chinese cabbage plants here (and elsewhere). I also like these plants because they’re a nice, bright colour and are almost ornamental in how they look.

This pot of kangkong was initially “guarded” nearer the house until I realised that it wasn’t growing as well as it could. With trepidation, I moved the pot to a full sun location, and it began to grow much faster. We treat it as a cut and grow again crop. Here, the first flower has bloomed. I am probably going to let it grow to seed, just because I like harvesting fresh seeds.

This pot of kangkong was initially “guarded” nearer the house until I realised that it wasn’t growing as well as it could. With trepidation, I moved the pot to a full sun location, and it began to grow much faster. We treat it as a cut and grow again crop. Here, the first flower has bloomed. I am probably going to let it go to seed, just because I like harvesting fresh seeds. :-)

Beneath the mass of leaves here is a large flower pot where four sweet potato vines originate. I hope that there will be potatoes to be harvested this time! For now, though, because there is such an abundance of leaves, we have been snipping off the vine tips for the cooking pot.

Beneath the mass of leaves here is a large flower pot where four sweet potato vines originate. I hope that there will be potatoes to be harvested this time! For now, though, because there is such an abundance of leaves, we have been snipping off the vine tips for the cooking pot. Oh yes, and to the left are a few corn plants from where I was testing the viability of the seeds.

Just a few of the various plants that are being hardened off before I risk putting them out in the garden. These are angled loofah, winged bean and bush bean plants. I want them to have tougher stems before the snails get at them. No, I am not being pessimistic, just realistic.

Just a few of the various plants that are being hardened off before I risk putting them out in the garden. These are angled loofah, winged bean and bush bean plants. I want them to have tougher stems before the snails get at them. No, I am not being pessimistic, just realistic.

And here’s the baby dove I discovered on New Year’s day - not quite a baby any more, but it was briefly taken under our wing, so to speak, because it looked like it had been abandoned and was very weak and hungry. We had quite a moral struggle whether or not to interfere with nature, but we finally decided that it was okay to feed the little thing, and it has survived to today. We also trained the dogs not to attack it, and they seem to have accepted that doves are now untouchable; cheeky mynahs, however, still get chased!

And here’s the baby dove I discovered on New Year’s day – not quite a baby any more, but it was briefly taken under our wing, so to speak, because it looked like it had been abandoned and was very weak and hungry. We had quite a moral struggle whether or not to interfere with nature, but we finally decided that it was okay to feed the little thing, and it has survived to today. We also trained the dogs not to attack it, and they seem to have accepted that doves are now untouchable; cheeky mynahs, however, still get chased!

© 2016 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


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