Cradle of love

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Hanging by the last, weary tendril...

We were looking at the growing winter melon fruit – affectionately known as the little monster because of the way it’s growing so rapidly – when we noticed how much the vine had drooped from the weight of the fruit. I checked more closely and saw that the last tendril holding that part of the vine up was starting to dry up. That caused a surge of panic, because the fruit is over 1.5 metres up, and if the vine gave way and the fruit dropped, it could go Humpty Dumpty’s way.

A quick search for some netting to hold up the fruit came up empty. Since it was the extra long Chinese New Year weekend here in Singapore, my options of buying something to help were severely limited. It’s a good thing I wasn’t inclined to go and buy when I couldn’t recycle. Nope, I dusted off my DIY brain cells and decided that I would make my own netting…

It’s a good thing I recently got a new ball of string for my climbing plants. This string has been my latest material of choice for providing climbing areas for my tendril-endowed plants. It’s stronger than twine but looks like it, so I still get the rustic look that I like.

My "rustic" net - it doesn't look pretty, but it gets the job done!

I had to guesstimate the size of the net, and started out with one set of vertical strings that I envisioned would be the length of my net. After that, it was a matter of tying horizontal strings. It wasn’t a perfectly proportioned grid, but it would do.

Then, it came to the question of how to put the net, winter melon and trellis together. I know I should have considered that from the beginning, but I like improvising as I go along – an organic approach, if you would…

The winter melon has been developing at the apex of one end of the A-frame trellis. Seeing the two crossed bars gave me the idea to make the net into a hammock. It was a simple matter of knotting the loose ends together, then hooking the ends over the two bars. Now that I had the nice loop of netting, I had to maneuver the winter melon into a new horizontal position. That took some doing because the melon is quite hefty and covered in short, stiff fuzz. It looks cute but some of those bristles could still be felt embedded in the skin for a couple of hours after handling the fruit!

Rock-a-bye wintermelonbaby, no longer at risk of falling down.

So, the First Fruit is now hanging placidly in its cradle, and the vine isn’t stressed to breaking point any more. As long as the trellis doesn’t keel over, everything should be just fine…

© 2012 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


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Growing dill

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My little dill plants grown from seed.

I have such a poor track record growing herbs, but it doesn’t stop me from trying anyway. Recently, I was lured into buying a packet of dill seeds, because I wanted to know if it could grow here. Well, it can, and the seeds germinated fairly easily.

Oddly enough, around that same time, a family friend brought some cuttings of dill from her garden, where it apparently grows profusely. They were nice, thick-stemmed cuttings, and I rooted them in water first, as the weather at that time was rather hot and dry. They were so healthy looking that I didn’t want to risk their dying. The roots grew nicely within a week, and I potted the plants and was satisfied to see them grow steadily.

Fluffy-looking clusters of tiny flowers on the dill plant.

In the meantime, the plants grown from seed were growing quite well. In fact, they grew quite well for about two months before they died off. Like I’ve said, I’m herb-challenged. :|

Luckily enough, the dill cuttings kept growing well. The over-30cm cutting I had planted in a pot quickly grew and became root-bound, and just a couple of weeks ago, I was surprised to notice little off-white flowers blooming. They’re very sweet, fluffy clusters along the top 15cm or so of the plant. I’m letting them finish blooming just to try and get seeds. Yes, I know it’s probably child’s play to do this, but we’re talking about herbs and me – not a great combination… :P

I shall have to decide where to place the biggest plant, since dill is a perennial and a beneficial insect attractor. An added bonus is that dill can also add to the visual aesthetics of the garden, with its feathery fronds. What remains to be seen is how the insects react to it and whether it will become a pest magnet, as has happened in the past. Just staying realistic…

© 2012 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


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Wow, the winter melon fruit grows fast!

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Was it only last week that I shared the photo of the first winter melon fruit growing? I’m in awe, because even though Novice Gardener said to expect exponential growth, it’s pretty incredible to actually see how fast the fruit has grown.

Two weeks ago we had the “little gherkin”…

The winter melon fruit at 4 days old.

And this week, we have the “little monster”…

More than a handful, and it looks like it's going to keep growing more!

It feels very hefty, but I’ll have to wait for harvest to get its actual weight. As of today, the fruit measured 18cm long and 9.5cm across at the widest part.

In the meantime, the vine appears to be conserving its energy for developing the First Fruit. All the other flower buds that appeared have aborted. However, I’m not complaining. I’d rather have a single good fruit than several almost-fruits. Besides that, the vine has started branching out a little. It had reached the top and end of the trellis and seems to want to start over from a lower level.

For now, we’ll keep watching in awe as this monster fruit keeps growing. I wonder what size it will be when it’s ready for harvest?

© 2012 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


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The Papaya War

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One of the several casualties :(

When things go too smoothly in the edible garden, you should brace yourself for that speed bump. Our Red Lady papaya fruits had been left unmolested on the trees and I was lulled into false security and left the fruits to ripen as much as possible on the trees.

Then came the day when a curious bird started eating an almost-fully-ripe fruit, and I realized my folly. Unfortunately, that one incident tuned the bird or birds in to the tree, and in a couple of days, the next ripening fruit had a few scratches on it. The shape and positioning of the scratches indicated that a bird had tried to land and grab a foothold on the fruit. I thought I could salvage it by wrapping it in newspaper and leaving it on the tree for another day or two, but when we harvested it, there were icky white wormy things inside. Bleah.

Did the papaya tree remain unmolested after that? No way! The next fruit in line had only newly emerging orange stripes on it, just starting to ripen, and guess what – an idiotic bird took a single peck in the orange part, then left the fruit alone. Of course insects invaded after that, and it was yet another fruit lost to us.

It's rather too large, but this cage kept the birds well away from the papaya.

No thanks to the rainy weather in December, the next fruit was yet another casualty – and it wasn’t the last. I blame myself for not braving the dripping plants and checking sooner. I guess I can’t blame the birds for doing what they’re supposed to, but goshdarnit, these are special fruits to me!

Something had to be done to regain control of the papaya tree, and it had to be a little drastic. I got the idea from a YouTube video and adapted it according to the materials I had available. What I ended up with was essentially a papaya cage! I created a cylindrical cage with strong wire that went around the tree trunk. When lifted to the level of the fruit, I made sure it had sufficient distance so that a bird couldn’t reach the fruit while perched on the outside. I tied the top of that fence to the tree trunk – hung it, rather – then spread pieces of chicken wire to block access from the top and the bottom. Did it work against the birds? Just keep reading…

I'm hoping these bee-like insects aren't doing anything dastardly like laying eggs in the papayas

My next concern is these bee-like insects that seem to like walking and pausing on the ripening fruits. I hope they’re not doing anything despicable like laying eggs under the fruit skin!

As if that’s not enough, mealy bugs have invaded all 3 of our trees, focusing on the niches at the juncture of the leaves and those hard-to-reach areas at the cluster of flower, fruit and leaf stems. I initially tried using white oil spray, but it kept getting washed off by the rain. On one occasion, I was so mad that I literally hosed down the infested areas! However, they’re still around and they’re also introducing black mould. I’ve continued with some white oil, but only a little, because I’ve noticed a couple of ladybugs and spiders taking up residence. As in the case of my aubergine plant that was infested with aphids, I did nothing and the ladybugs started breeding there and decimated the aphids. So I’m trying to control my instincts and let the beneficial insects come in and help me out. It’s tough, though.

So back to the question about my papaya cage’s effectiveness – did it keep the birds out? It sure did. It’s just too bad that birds weren’t the only pests I should have been worried about…

I never would have suspected a beetle of being the first to invade a fruit, but life's just full of new lessons, isn't it?

We were maybe 2-3 days away from getting a perfect, tree-ripe fruit when I noticed a dark spot on the papaya from a distance. Closer inspection revealed a beetle not only on the fruit, but it had already pierced the skin and was eating the fruit. I chased it off and immediately harvested the fruit. There didn’t seem any point in leaving it on the tree where other insects could invade the fruit further. We’ll give it a couple of days more to ripen, and hope there won’t be any wrigglies inside when we cut it open. In the meantime, the Papaya War rages on…

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