The Curious Gardener | Gardening discoveries in Singapore

Cycle of life

Posted on August 8, 2013 by CuriousG

There was a recent death in the family, and I was away from the garden for several days. While I had been focused on the family situation, the plants had kept on growing, and despite a few cases of neglect, I was happy to see the signs of continued life:

The watermelon plant growing nicely – no fruits yet, though.

The long bean plants on the new trellis are finally starting to bear fruit…

Novice Gardener’s mulberry plant – just look at the size of this fruit! A giant compared to the little ones from my other plants.

The new burgundy okra – a different strain from seeds from another friend.

And, the mystery marrow finally set a fruit that is growing like it’s on steroids!

The first fruit from our unknown gourd/marrow plant just two days ago…

…and the same fruit today. It sure grows fast!

I guess this goes to show that no matter what we may think is important in life, and how we get distracted, nature just keeps doing what it’s supposed to – continuing the cycle of life.

Watermelon flowers

Posted on July 31, 2013 by CuriousG

A pair of flowers on the watermelon vine – female on the left and male on the right!

When our watermelon plants began growing, I had them in small growing pots to keep them safe from “predators” such as snails. However, they began to grow rather fast, and before I realized it, flower buds began to form. I quickly prepared a big pot for them, and transplanted two of them on a nice, cool evening.

Yes, we’re down to two plants because one couldn’t recover from not being watered for a day. It was a hot day and I’d forgotten to water the plants before leaving.

Both flowers had inquisitive ants checking out their offerings, so I decided to wait and see if nature would take care of things…

So the two watermelon plants have been growing happily in a pot about a metre across, and I’ve been encouraging them to just keep growing within the pot. As per the usual cucurbit behaviour, male flowers began to bloom first, and the first female buds aborted. I thought the second one would follow suit, but to my surprise this morning, I found the next female fruit flower in bloom – and it was just about 6cm away from the nearest (and only) male flower on the vine!

A closer look at the flowers showed me that there were a few ants exploring the flowers, and since they were so close to each other, I didn’t interfere by hand-pollinating, because the plants are still young, and I figure if it’s going to set fruit, I’d let it do so when it’s good and ready. The ants usually help me with pollination of several other plants – so why not this one, too?

The star of this post – the female watermelon fruit flower!

So we’re going to wait and see if a watermelon will start growing. I guess we’ll know in a day or two…

Seasonal insects

Posted on July 25, 2013 by CuriousG

It’s that time when you suddenly notice an abundance of certain insects, and one of the numerous insects I’ve noticed recently is the Tiger Moth.

Ahem…..

I never used to pay them attention until they caught my eye one day, with their black and orange striped bodies and sort of spotted wings. It was only after I looked them up online that I discovered they were moths. They are so small that I’ve never looked closely at them, being more accustomed to moths as having bigger, hairy/powdery bodies.

Anyway, there are numerous Tiger Moths around now, not just in the garden, but also inside the house – which is why I noticed them in the first place.

One of the several broods of freshly-hatched caterpillars found here lately.

Some other not-so-welcome visitors are the hairy caterpillars. I’ve found four groups of freshly hatched caterpillars on our angled loofah vines. It appears that a whole bunch of eggs are laid at a time on different leaves at different parts of the plant (sneaky fellas, these moths!), then the caterpillars hatch at around the same time, strip all the lovely chlorophyll from the leaves, before spreading out to other leaves. If you don’t catch them in time, you could lose your entire plant, because you know what voracious appetites caterpillars have…

So, it’s good to catch them when they’ve just hatched because they’re all still on the same leaf. It’s time to be more vigilant!

Trellis add-ons

Posted on July 21, 2013 by CuriousG

Humble beginnings – the newly transplanted plant with a couple of bamboo sticks for climbing.

I certainly didn’t expect the unknown marrow vine to grow quite so profusely. When I first transplanted it to the veggie bed, it contemplated the new setting for a couple of weeks before it decided it liked it and really started growing.

Support Phase 2: a 3-ringed tomato stand.

At first, I gave it a couple of short bamboo sticks to grab onto, then a simple ringed tomato trellis. That helped for less than a week, and then the vine started reaching out for something new to climb on. I took a pair of over-2 metre poles and attached wire grids between them. They made a narrow but tall vertical climbing surface that the vine took a week to top. My mum and I contemplated the vine as it seemed to be trying to reach out to the other plants nearby – fruitlessly.

Support Phase 3: a narrow but tall fence-like structure to climb up on. It was more than 2 metres high.

So another add-on was needed.

Support Phase 4: the T-stand – and yes, it was inspired by laundry stands… I needed it to not take up too much space at the base because of the other plants in the veggie bed.

I figured the vine needed to travel, so I constructed a T-stand on the other end of the veggie bed and linked both ends with a “rope ladder” made of thin nylon rope. The vine had to be coaxed onto it, and took several days to get the idea. Once it did, it began growing with gusto again. It even grew a few more stems, as a matter of fact.

The entire structure as it stands today. I’m nervous about whether it can do what it’s supposed to because this is the first time I’ve made this design, and it’s also the first time I’m growing this plant, so I’m unfamiliar with its habits and needs. It’s very vigorous, though…

The main stem will probably reach the end of the extension in a couple of days, and I think I may pinch off the tip and hope it gets the message to just spread out where it’s growing. And that my trellis will be strong enough to support this vigorous vine…

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