MMad about the garden

The Carissa Macrocarpa is finally grounded

2010-07-02T23:02:00.000+04:00

I started the air layering experiment on the Natal plum - Carissa Macrocarpa on June 2nd 2010.

Original post here Original post and First update here.

After one month exactly today I inspected the soil & definitely the roots have grown more and as the weather is getting hotter I decided to risk putting it into the ground now rather than waiting another 2 weeks.

Soil bag opened for inspection

Roots visible here the bigger ones are white in colour .

I cut the stem at a 45 deg angle just below the soil bag

The cut stem with plastic still attached. I carefully removed the wire ties & the plastic trying not to disturb the roots. Unfortunately I rushed & lost part of the roots.

The Carisa was potted here & staked for support . I removed some of the lower leaves but may need to remove more (depends on how well the new roots hold). Obviously the young plant needs to be kept in shade & protected from wind till it grows more roots.

Hopefully it will do well & grow . I will keep you posted ofc :)

If it does well & will graft a mature fruiting stem on it.

Who needs a nursery when you have your local store

2010-06-28T23:07:00.000+04:00

Sometimes it's very difficult to obtain seeds or plants to propagate whatever you like as fruits or vegetables. Also some fruits will never grow true from seed.

Having had success with ginger rhizomes (original post here) I started exeprimenting with more plants purchased from my local store.

Some healthy Garlic ( Allium sativum )

bulbs caught my fancy (well suppsoed to gaurd against vampires no :) ? )

I seperated the cloves from the bulb & planted seperately although as an experiment I planted one whole bulb to see how it will do. Garlic usually needs a sunny spot & regular watering, but as with most plants never soak the plant to avoid root rot etc.

Personally I love beet / beetroot (Beta vulgaris )as it has lots of fibre & vitamins . I planted this big one as is (I could have easily cut 1-2 com from top & planted that alone -see second photo ) . Again I am experimenting. Turnips were a big failure as the green leafy part grew then died back . I am still watering it to see if new shoots will grow.

Garlic after 18 days of plating - 28/06/2010

Beetroot on 28/06/2010 ( after 18 days ) seems to be ok so far :)

Quick update on the Natal plum air layering experiment

2010-06-21T21:05:00.000+04:00

I did the air layering on the Carissa Macrocarpa on 2nd Jun 2010. The soil was remoistened on 11 June.

Again I remoistened it the 19th . I examined the plant then guess what , it has actually produced some roots though funnily enough not where I did the cut but below it as it seems the soil slipped down. Oh well it seems to be ok. I will give it a couple of weeks more & then will try to transplant it.

Original post here:

http://megardenlover.blogspot.com/2010/06/air-layering-my-carissa-macrocarpa.html

Just for fun - Do you know what plant this is ?

2010-06-06T03:43:00.000+04:00

Do you know what is this plant ?

Hint (it's edible)

Air layering my Carissa Macrocarpa

2010-06-02T20:00:00.000+04:00

This thorny plant ( Carissa Macrocarpa ) started to grow towards the garden path. Since I will trim it away from the path anyway , I decided to try my hand at air layering technique for propagating plants.

The theory is that if you wound a plant stem it will under the right circumstances try to grow new roots. Once the roots grow , you cut below the root area & transplant somewhere else in the garden,

Tools needed are simple. Sharp knife , plastic bag & some moist compost or clean potting mix. As usual I clean my knife with alcohol to stop spreading bacteria while cutting the plant.

As always be carefull handling any sharp tools. I would recommend wearing gloves when handling any kind of plant as some could be poisonous or causes skin irritation.

Here is the plant is cleared of thorns & leaves where we will cut.

I cut a circular cut around the whole stem then another cut below it approx 3-5 cm below it. Then a vertical straight cut from the top cut to the bottom then started to remove the bark & cambium.

Now I wrapped the plastic bag below the cut area using a wire wrapper. Then started to fill the bag with moist potting mix & shaped it like a ball around the cut area.

I tied the top of the bag with another wrapper & used a stake to support the extra weight.

Hopefully within a few weeks it should start start to root. I will be opening the top of the bag every now & then to examine the progress & remoisting the bag. Some recommend covering the bag with alumunium foil to keep it moist.

Here's a video from You tube if you are interested.

Some amazing lily photography

2010-06-02T03:00:00.001+04:00

Just found this fantastic gardening blog . The lilies photos are simply incredible.

image courtesy http://fairegarden.wordpress.com/

http://fairegarden.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/first-lily-blooms/

Amazing radish seeds

2010-05-30T17:35:00.003+04:00

Planted some Radish seeds yesterday (29th) & they started to grow in less than 24 hours.
( Radish -Raphanus sativus ).

Today they look like this.I used an old shallow tray to plant the seeds. They will be thinned out as usual & planted directly in the ground.

Four days after planting. Maybe I will wait a day or two before moving them to bigger pots.

Once planted have to keep soil moist as summer is approaching fast. Hopefully after a month this is what I should get.

Image courtesy of http://www.umassvegetable.org/

I live in a zone 11 area by the way.

My Radishes after 7 days

I started thinning them & moving them into bigger pots

I gently pull on the plants to get them out of the soil & dig a hole to easily accomodate the roots without forcing them down

I space them at least 5-7 cm apart

Within another 3 weeks they should be ready to eat.

Tip : don't leave them too long in the soil otherwise they become pithy & will start to crack.Don't over water them , just keep soil moist. Plant motre in 10-14 days in order to get a steady supply during the growing season. Enjoy .

Love it when my seeds start to grow

2010-05-29T21:50:00.000+04:00

Just planted some Celosia Argentea flowers which is an annual flower by the way , 3 days back & they started to grow.

I always wash any containers I use as plants can get diseases from dirty pots.

The small plants will be thinned out once they grow a bit & moved to bigger pots. Hopefully they will grow to look like this flower

Image copyright home-and-garden.webshots.com

Carissa macrocarpa or Natal plum

2010-05-27T22:45:00.001+04:00

I finally managed to get a positive identification for a plant that I really like. it's called Carissa macrocarpa.

It's native to South Africa. Likes sun to partial shade. Tolerant to many types of soil . Prefers Sandy soil but main thing is that soil should be well drained. The leaves are nice leathery green colour.

Flower scent is like jasmine. Shrub can be trimmed to make small walls. Had it for two years now & it's grown to 3ft - 1 meter almost. Never had problems with disease on leaves etc.

It produces a small sweet plum edible though some say seeds are poisonous. They use the plum in South Africa to make jam.

Just bought five more plants the minute I saw them at my local vendor.

One thing I don't like about this plant is the prickly thorns but Roses have thorns also .

Growing your own ginger

2010-05-23T23:51:00.006+04:00

Having come across the fact that ginger has Rhizomes I rushed off to my local grocery store to buy some fresh ones to try planting them. Don't forget I am a green newbie gardener :)

Ginger rhizome with 2 fingers

Nice node here

Yes that's my finger here not the ginger finger I was talking about.
Someone is falling asleep I think .

Before cutting any plants or plant parts I intend to grow , graft or bud I always use rubbing alcohol to clean my tools

Also I used a diluted antiseptic to clean the plant.

I cut the rhizome into 3 parts as I intend to try planting into different soil mixes to see which works best.

I put the cut ginger rhizome into a zip lock bag & kept in the refrigerator as I intend to plant them tomorrow. (It was after sunset when I came back from shopping :) )

This rhizome looked a bit dry I left it to soak in water overnight to hopefully speed things up when it's planted.

I will keep you posted about the results offcourse.

If you allow the ginger to grow without disturbing the rhizome this is the flower you will get,

Zingiber officinale Roscoe / ginger is grown for either the roots or the flowers :)

Image courtesy of http://www.ktropicals.com/

This is the new shoot after almost 3 weeks on 14/06/2010.

Species Zingiber officinale Roscoe – garden ginger

Lily Propagation - bulblets, bulbils, scaling

2010-05-22T22:01:00.005+04:00

I love this Oriental Lily cultivar Casablanca,( Genus Lilium )

The flower has a fantastic scent & looks great when it blooms summer time.

My Lily has produced bulblets with their own roots, so I will seperate them & move to another pot.

I mananged to get 3 bulblets so I potted them in a seperate container just below the surface. These bulbs will pull themselves down into the soil to protect themselves till they are ready to grow new shoots etc. Again never overwater the new bulbs to avoid root dampening which will cause them to rot & die .

This one had a shoot already so I kept it above the soil obviuosly :)

Very interesting methods to propagate lilies.

Lily Propagation - bulblets, bulbils, scaling

I hate it when my cat digs up my garden

2010-05-21T20:11:00.002+04:00

I hate it when my cat digs up my garden & spoils my newly planted seeds .

I've tried small stakes etc to no avail.

Now that she's gotten a new litter of 5 kittens the problem will get worse I think.

Someone suggested using black pepper powder & red chillies powder on the soil. Surfing the net I found this home made recipe which I will try & let you know the results.

mix 1 cup vinegar and 2 tablespoons chili paste with garlic (sold in Asian markets)with 1 quart water. Sprinkle the mixture over the area cats frequent
1 Quart = 946.352946 Cubic Centimeter (cc)

Link to the original site

Citrus trees leaves infested by the leafminer

2010-05-17T20:53:00.000+04:00

This is first time I am happy reading about leafminer. According to the link bekow it doesn't kill the Citrus tree & there isn't much we can do about this leafminer :)

Picture copyright The Press-Enterprise

Ask the Master Gardener: citrus trees leaves infested by the leafminer Columns PE.com Southern California News News for Inland Southern California

Lemon tree with very yellow leaves! Help! - UBC Botanical Garden Forums

2010-05-17T14:49:00.004+04:00

Nice ideas about fertilising lemon trees

Lemon tree with very yellow leaves! Help! - UBC Botanical Garden Forums

Mytho-Fleurs,Erables du Japon,arbres,arbustes,fleurs tropicales,vivaces,maggnolias,pommiers,fleurs du Vietnam,hamamelis

2010-05-17T14:27:00.000+04:00

A French site that has lots of plants & flowers pictures with scientific names. Nicely indexed info .

Mytho-Fleurs,Erables du Japon,arbres,arbustes,fleurs tropicales,vivaces,maggnolias,pommiers,fleurs du Vietnam,hamamelis

.

Fleurs du Vietnam or Flowers of Vietnam

2010-05-17T14:13:00.000+04:00

Fleurs du Vietnam

Trifoliate Orange

2010-05-17T13:04:00.001+04:00

According to this site it's not edible & used only as an ornamental shrub & used as a rootstock to produce winter hardy citrus plantss

Q&A - Trifoliate Orange

3 part citrus that I couldn't identify

2010-05-17T00:13:00.002+04:00

I had a citrus rootstock shoot that had leaves with 3 parts which I couldn't identify. It looked like this . I did a Google search & came up with a possible identification

Poncirus Trifoliata (Trifoliate Orange)

or is it 'Troyer' or some other citrange (Poncirus x sweet orange hybrid). ?

is it or not?

citrus tree leaves with three parts - Google Search

Crop nutrient replacement: calculator for fertiliser requirements | NSW Department of Primary Industries

2010-05-16T18:40:00.000+04:00

Crop nutrient replacement: calculator for fertiliser requirements NSW Department of Primary Industries

Tropical fruit | NSW Department of Primary Industries

2010-05-16T15:25:00.000+04:00

Growing tropical fruits

Lemon Growing Manual | NSW Department of Primary Industries

2010-05-16T15:09:00.001+04:00

Lemon Growing Manual NSW Department of Primary Industries

Horticulture | NSW Department of Primary Industries

2010-05-16T14:37:00.001+04:00

Horticulture NSW Department of Primary Industries

Welcome to the Plant Protection Service Homepage

2010-05-16T14:15:00.001+04:00

Welcome to the Plant Protection Service Homepage

Whisk: a food blog: Lemon Balm and Verbena Mojito

2010-05-16T02:14:00.002+04:00

Whisk: a food blog: Lemon Balm and Verbena Mojito

Spice Pages: Lemon (Citrus limon)

2010-05-16T02:11:00.001+04:00

Spice Pages: Lemon (Citrus limon)

Coconut - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2010-05-15T01:00:00.001+04:00

Coconut - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Commodity Profile - ASAMB

2010-05-15T00:59:00.001+04:00

Commodity Profile - ASAMB

Rangpur “Kona” Lime

2010-05-14T23:28:00.000+04:00

Rangpur “Kona” Lime

PlantFiles: Detailed information on Day Jessamine Cestrum diurnum

2010-05-12T22:20:00.001+04:00

PlantFiles: Detailed information on Day Jessamine Cestrum diurnum

Great plant classification site

2010-05-12T22:11:00.002+04:00

Great site for scientific name classification of plants

Kingdom
    Subkingdom
        Superdivision
            Division
               Class
                     Subclass
                          Order
                               Family
                                    Genus
                                         Species

One tip though . Please be carefull when searching by common name. Try searching for Natal plum.
You should get carissa macrocarpa . Unfortunately I got something else, so again be carefull with common names & double check the results if not sure :)

http://plants.usda.gov/java/ClassificationServlet?source=display&classid=Solanaceae

I love this site for gardening info & tips

2010-05-12T22:07:00.001+04:00

Really worth visiting if you are a new gardener like me. It helped me to identify my garden plants but you need to register to access that service. I was amazed how I got an identification in less than an hour or so.

Dave's Garden: Gardening Tips, Seeds, and Design; Flower Gardens, Organic Gardening