More ketolas ahoy!

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The two new angled loofah fruits.

The two new angled loofah fruits.

It looks like the angled loofah plants have rested enough and are ready to grow more fruits. They always seem to sneak under my radar until the fruits have set – and usually where I hadn’t noticed fruit flowers, too.

Closer peek at the higher ketola...

Closer peek at the higher ketola…

I know I didn’t mention harvesting the first fruits, but that was because I thought I had harvested them too late and wouldn’t have anything worth blogging about. Well, I was wrong. Even though their ridges were rather hard, the cooked fruits were nice and tender, without a trace of fibrousness yet. They weren’t huge fruits, though.

The lower fruit looks like it may be more sturdy...

The lower fruit looks like it may be more sturdy…

So while the plants were in what I call the rest-and-recover stage after the first harvest, I decided to add some banana peels and a compost mix to the soil at the base of the vines. I hope the nutrients from the banana peels will give the plants the boost they need to fruit well. If the vines start popping fruits out like crazy, then we’ll know that they really respond well to the organic fertilizers.

Once again, we are giving thanks to The Weeds for giving the seeds that these plants grew from. :)

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The Keng Hwa chronicles: Critter visitors

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We’ve noticed that in the day or two prior to blooming, the burgeoning Keng Hwa flower buds tend to exude something that attracts ants to them. The ants, in turn, attract something else…

This gecko was disturbed from whatever it was doing by the camera flash.

This gecko was disturbed from whatever it was doing by the camera flash. Photo credit to Curious Mama – she watches almost every flower open.

I’m not sure which gecko family this fellow hails from, but we’ve noticed that those with the stronger patterns tend to be garden/outdoors geckos. They only appear at night, and run from light, so catching them with the camera is a tricky thing…

Just look, the gecko was already lying in wait even before the flower bud opened!

Just look, the gecko was already lying in wait even before the flower bud opened!

These geckos are wily and lay in wait along the Keng Hwa plant, awaiting the ants that are attracted to the fragrant flowers. I did read somewhere that some geckos also feed on flower nectar, but since I’ve not seen this happen here, I can only add this as a possibility.

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Of idioms and amphibians…

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There’s a Malay idiom that goes, “seperti katak di bawah tempurong” – translated, “like a frog under a coconut shell”. It refers to people who live in a sheltered, enclosed environment, their world being life under that proverbial coconut shell.

Well, we’ve got something like that in our garden – except it’s not a frog…

I'm not sure what kind of toad this is, specifically. It looks like a really old, faded Asian toad to me.

I’m not sure what kind of toad this is, specifically. It looks like a really old, faded Asian toad to me.

…and it’s not a coconut shell.

This tilted box at the edge of the garden often has interesting surprises beneath when I bother to look...

This tilted box at the edge of the garden often has interesting surprises beneath when I bother to look…

I discovered this toad in the same spot that we recently found the young common Wolf snake hiding – under a styrofoam box I use for growing young plants. The toad doesn’t shelter here every day (I’ve checked) but does return fairly frequently.

It’s a very dark grey colour, and I’m not sure of the actual species. However, if I had to guess, I’d say it was a very old Asian toad because of the lighter markings. It lacks the colours I’ve seen on the other Asian toads here, and the left eye looks white and possibly blinded – unless it has an eyelid that closes when it’s sleeping.

I would guess that, like other garden toads, this fellow is nocturnal and goes hunting at night, then finds a nice, dark place to hide during the daytime. I’ve already started referring to it as our toad under a styrofoam box…

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Quick trellis addition

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Phase 1 of the loofah trellis - a vertical frame with string netting for the vine to climb on.

Phase 1 of the loofah trellis – a vertical frame with string netting for the vine to climb on.

Our angled loofah plants reached the top of their Phase 1 home – the vertical trellis – and looked like they wanted to spread out some more. Since I had anticipated this, I had started the plants off near a palm tree clump. My plan was to extend the trellis horizontally, towards the palm tree.

The first step was to link the top of the vertical trellis to the palm tree. Three pieces of thin nylon rope were used, secured on either end and the middle of the top bar, with the other end of each tied to a different stem of the palm tree. This gave me three parallel ropes that I tried to keep at the same level.

Next, I tied on shorter strings to intersect the three parallel ropes, creating a series of grids. A neat trick was to loosely knot the new string around the middle rope first, then tie off the end to the outside rope. This allowed me to then adjust the tension before tightening the knot on the middle and securing the other end.

It was a fairly straightforward task that took only about 15 minutes to do. All I had to do after that was train the dangling vines onto the new, horizontal surface, and my job was done. It will take a few days more to make the plant aware that Phase 2 is now ready, but that’s expected.

Phase 2 of the loofah trellis - more string grids for a horizontal surface.

Phase 2 of the loofah trellis – more string grids for a horizontal surface.

You may question why I chose to train the vine towards a taller plant – am I worried the vine will climb up and away? Well, I tried that before, and found that palm tree stems aren’t very conducive for vines with tendrils to climb up – they’re too smooth and wide for tendrils to attach themselves to. Twining plants would be able to wind around the stems, though. However, the angled loofah will probably reach around but not be able to grab hold with the tendrils. I’ll let you know if they do, though.

View from below of the new addition. It looks like part of an pbstacle course, doesn't it?

View from below of the new addition. It looks like part of an obstacle course, doesn’t it?

Another reason is that you can’t directly plant at the base of a clump of palm trees because of the dense rootball that all palm trees in my experience have. Any plant that grows beneath palm trees either has shallow roots or doesn’t grow into a strong plant. That’s why I planted the loofah plants away from the palm tree and have directed the vines to grow towards the tree. It’s the first time I’m trying this and I hope it works. Besides, this saved me the trouble of having to put up a second end of a trellis, which is not one of my favourite things to do.

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