Friday 11 May 2012

Sowing the Seeds of Love..

Terung pipit in full bloom.
Update: all my cucumber plants did not survive, neither did my French beans :-( The main reason being was that I was travelling too much, so my plants were left to fend for themselves. Out of guilt before a 4-day trip I fertilised my plants with a coffee-smelling fertiliser that I thought was organic. (I thought it is okay to be a bit heavy-handed with organic fertilisers, because they don't harm your plants much). Yeah right. Too much fertiliser + lack of water (I suspect it was very hot while I was away) = dried-up plants. Sigh.

So today, seeing the weather is somewhat cloudy, I will direct sow some seeds into the ground.

  • Roselle - in a pot, 5 seeds
  • French beans - by the fence, 2 seeds, by cat enclosure, 2 seeds
  • Spring onion - in existing spring onion pot
  • Chives - on kailan bed
  • Coriander - in existing coriander pot
  • Loofah - in DIY pot made from soil bag

Didn't take any pictures today as I was a bit rushed for time. But here is a picture taken 2 months ago, when my chillis were still healthy and blooming. I did not eat any of these lovely chillis as I wanted to save them for seed. Then disaster struck: the leaves started to wilt, then the fruit, then the whole tree. The source of the disease is from another chilli plant I foolishly bought, thinking all the while parts of it looked a little bit wilted due to the hot weather.

Juicy purple chillies. Alas, thou art not mine to keep!


Good thing is that I still have a couple of these plants which survived the wilt. I hope this means the survivors have become immune to the disease.

Live long and prosper! Insha Allah.



5 comments:

TukangKebun said...

So sorry to hear what happened to your seedlings.
Hope you can save seeds from your chillies. Your own home-saved seeds will be much better as they have adapt to your environment.

Mama Pongkey said...

Yes great idea :-)
I do have some seeds from the original tree. Next I am going to get some seeds from these little plants, hopefully these are tougher :-)

TukangKebun said...

French bean=bush bean will be great for your coming project (posted about them yesterday). Luffa too is ok in pots when you have time constraint to prepare finding seeds.

TukangKebun said...

Roselle and okra also grow pretty quick in your weather.

Mama Pongkey said...

Thanks for the ideas :-) I am having problems getting my luffa seeds to germinate, I am not sure how much water they need. The only one that did germinate is after the cats overturned a pot and I just left the pile of soil there. It gets damp during our sudden tropical rainstorms so I am never sure how much water it did get. Oh yes the cats did poop in the area too, which added to my frustration. But they are cute, so what to do? LOL.
I ordered some bush snake beans (kacang panjang renek) so it seems I can use these in the project too? Your bush beans are non-climbing French beans, right?