The Curious Gardener | Gardening discoveries in Singapore

Redemption of the watermelon

Posted on January 1, 2014 by CuriousG

Watermelon II, with possibly Watermelon III in the background.

How nice it is to start New Year’s day by finding a new watermelon growing!

It’s just cherry tomato size at the moment, but it’s definitely growing bigger. In fact, there’s a second fruit flower on another vine just next to it that I’m not sure about yet.

Since the fall of the first watermelon, I’ve been doing some reading about looking after watermelon plants, and have learned that they don’t like too much water. So this is what possibly killed off the first fruit – not only was the weather very wet when it was growing, but the fruit was also sitting directly on wet grass most of the time.

I also found this informative article online about growing watermelon plants on trellises, which helped me decide to keep the developing fruits off the ground if possible. For now, I’ve just used a couple of bamboo sticks to raise the part of the vine where the fruit is growing. A couple more ideas are brewing in my head for what I could do for the rest of the vine. You’ll find out what I finally decide on soon enough.

For now though, I’ll just wish everyone the best in 2014 and hope that your plants and your plans come to full fruition in the coming months. Cheers!

Rise and fall of the first watermelon

Posted on December 29, 2013 by CuriousG

The first aborted fruit at 1 week old. We were amazed at the rate of daily growth.

Well, the plant may have triumphed but the fruit did not. I’m sad to report that our first watermelon fruit failed to make it to maturity after all. It may have been the rain – I read that the plants don’t like too much water; or maybe the stem had been disturbed and the plant didn’t appreciate it.

It doesn’t help that the vine was snaking its way through grass that I was reluctant to trim because I was afraid of cutting the stem like our gardeners used to do.

All I know is, we had watched the fruit grow to the size of a tennis ball within a week before the stem leading up to the fruit suddenly sported dying leaves.

I had to see what the fruit looked like on the inside, so I cut it open. I can’t believe it had so many seeds already, at just a week old.

I admit that I had cut the grass near the plant, but an inspection of the stem didn’t show any cuts or breaks anywhere, so I can just surmise that the plant is just sensitive, just like pumpkin vines. I’ve noticed that the latter tend to abort fruit flowers if you shift the stems. Sigh.

Well, the rainy season should end in a month or so. I wonder how the watermelon plant will react then.

It’s mulberry season again

Posted on December 21, 2013 by CuriousG

Look at all those mulberries forming!

Our mulberry plant from Novice Gardener has started a new season of fruiting – and there are even more fruits than before!

The fruits are getting bigger as the plant matures!

They are also getting bigger than they were before, which is what I’d heard the plants do as they mature. This proves to me that this variety from Novice Gardener is definitely different from the one I’d initially grown, because the first one is still putting out tiny fruits.

At the last harvest, I thought that the smaller variety had sweeter fruits. However, I just had one of the almost black, ripe fruits from Novice Gardener’s plant, and it was definitely sweet as well. You just have to give the fruits time to ripen and turn from red to dark purple.

The only problem is that the birds in the garden have been sampling the fruits as well – some have been pecked at while others have been plucked and abandoned – I found one on the ground just a few metres away from the plant. And then there are the other people (besides me!) who know about the plant and have been enjoying the fruits as well…

Well, I’m not going to allocate a plant for the birds, like Novice Gardener has done. After all, we have just the one plant, which I am planning on propagating from. So, that means I have to take measures to hoard what fruits I can.

Last fruiting season, when the plant was smaller, I tried this to keep the birds out:

This was a little tedious to set up – a fence of wire around the plant (which kept trying to close in on the plant) with a grid to close up the open top.

It worked but was cumbersome. Now that the plant is bigger and bearing fruits higher up, I’ve tried this:

Staking our claim from the birds with bits of netting wrapped loosely around the bunches of fruits.

It works, and even catches the ripe fruits when they fall, if you close up the bottom.

Look at these gorgeous, big mulberries! Thank you, Novice Gardener, for passing along cuttings from your plant!

I’m glad I did. Yum! And yes, I shared!

Bountiful beans

Posted on December 17, 2013 by CuriousG

Loads of thin long beans growing at the moment!

Every once in a while, the long bean plants decide to bear lots of beans at a time. I don’t know if it has something to do with weather or whatever, but we’ve been treated to the delightful sight of lots of beans decorating the trellis, like the long bean version of a Christmas tree.

We’re not complaining!

Today’s harvest – a handful of over ten thin long beans – was lightly fried and consumed within the day. The beans were tender and oh so sweet – not something you’d get from store-bought veggies.

Beans harvested and enjoyed, thank you very much!

We’ll probably get a similar harvest tomorrow or the following day, depending on how young we decide to pick the beans. I prefer to pick them before they lose their smooth slimness, because once they get bumpy, it means the seeds inside are better formed, and the beans are less tender. This variety growing now is a thin one, and is pretty tasty!

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