Harvested on the First Day of March

Happy new month everyone! While doing my usual plant watering, Sweetie mentioned we should harvest the ginger. 

We watched videos where they just pulled the ginger out. It was so big we couldn't just pull it out. I didn't want to use a shovel because we might hit the ginger. With gloves on we wet the soil a bit and then dug through the pot to loosen the roots.

Eventually we were able to pull the leaves and ginger, but it still clung to the soil. Sweetie then washed off the soil with a hose. We were surprised with how much ginger grew out of the pot. It started with a few small ones I propagated in water.

Since there was a lot Sweetie gave some to our neighbor. He mentioned it's likely native ginger. It's more potent than regular commercial ones. Now we have to think what dishes to make, haha.

Great start for the month of March!

#BeKind

Garden Notes: Cactus and Succulent Soil, Calamansi Soil, Avocado Soil

I have different kinds of plants and I can't find the notebook where I used to write down notes for my plants. I realized I should have just noted it here in my blog. That's what I do anyway when I need to refresh my memory. It's also why I make cooking videos at "Recipes for My Son". 

It's been hard to keep track of the needs of my plants. There's soil needs, fertilizer, pesticide, watering etc. So I thought I should write down what I use. It's easier to find it here than my (currently) missing notebook. Miggy can also put it to good use one day when he becomes a plantito (haha). 

Okay, so here's what I generally use for different kinds of plants -

Cactus and Succulents - loam soil, perlite, tiny pebbles, a little compost (learned this from Manong at the nursery)

Calamansi Soil - loam soil, compost/manure, rice husk, coco peat

Papaya Soil - loam soil, compost, rice husk, Coco peat

Avocado Soil - loam soil, compost, perlite, Coco peat, rice husk (use when you transfer from water)

Soil to Propagate Gumamela - loam soil, coco peat, perlite, rice husk

Gumamela Soil - loam soil, rice husk, vermicast

Bell Pepper Soil - loam soil, compost, rice husk

Desert Rose/Kalachuchi Soil - use succulent mix

Belly Buddha - use succulent mix

Ginger - loam soil, compost, rice husk

Dill Soil - loam soil, compost, sun drenched coffee grinds, rice husk

Rosemary Soil - loam soil, compost, sun drenched coffee grinds, rice husk, can also add some pebbles

Will update for other plants :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Grew Ginger By Accident

Last year, I experimented on growing ginger from the stock a friend sent me (there was a lot!). I let them root first in water and waited until a stem sprouted. Then I planted them in soil. Research showed that it takes 10 months before you can harvest ginger, so I left them alone. 

They died during when we did some renovations since we moved out for almost a month. I set aside the pots and was surprised to see the ginger re-grow. The pots got wet from the rain and I guess it woke up the roots. I moved them back under the bamboo and they've been growing steadily.

Nature finds a way to survive.

Noticed that there were a lot of leaves in one pot. I guess the previous occupant multiplied. Decided to re-pot them so they can grow bigger. The roots smelled so good when I pulled them out of the pot. I saw many grape sized ginger forming and realized I picked a good time to move them to a bigger pot. There were more grape sized ginger with roots at the bottom of the pot. 

I mixed loam soil with compost and put some egg shells at the bottom. I hope that would encourage the ginger to grow bigger. I put the huge pot in a shaded area first and will move it next week once it adjusts. It was fun to re-pot it since it smelled so good! It smelled like sweetened salabat. Ohhh, I hope we are able to harvest in a few months! I have others growing and will also re-pot them soon. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Plantita Saturdays: Kitchen Scraps Experiment Results

The past few months I've been trying to grow veggies from kitchen scraps. Some were successful, some did not work out. I've been experimenting so I could learn and hopefully have my own produce. I'll probably continue to experiment until I get things right. Here's a list of what I've tried to grow from kitchen scraps:

Tomatoes

I tried this experiment in Singapore. I cut up one tomato and planted it directly on soil (apparently you're supposed to just get the seeds hehe). I soon enough had a lot of seedlings. Several survived when I transplanted them and I was able to harvest some. They were tiny though and I now know what went wrong (it lacked calcium and phosphate). You can read up more about the experiment here.

Bell Peppers

Best to dry the seeds before you plant them. They are quite prolific, but it takes a bit of time for it to grow. I was able to harvest some, but they were not perfect. Also realized that I should have given it fertilizer so it would grow well. More about the experiment here.

Lemongrass/Tanglad

After cutting off the leaves, I propagated the bottom part of the lemongrass in water for a few days. Then I planted it in soil. It's one of the easier veggies to grow. I just chop off some every so often and it grows back immediately. 

Onions

Made several attempts to grow onions. I tried propagating the roots in water, then planted it. Tried directly growing on soil. I must have overwatered it because they died after a few weeks. Maybe I'll try planting from seed. 

Garlic

It's so easy to propagate roots in water. After planting them in soil they would grow stalks for a few weeks. I'm not sure what went wrong, but they all died too. Gaaaah. I'll probably try again when the weather is hotter. 

Ginger

Ahhh, one of the easier ones to propagate. Just make sure to propagate the roots when the ginger is still fresh. Plant in soil once the roots grow out. The ones I propagated and planted in early August. Should be ready for harvest by summer! More about ginger here.

Tumeric

Got a bunch of tumeric from a friend. Propagated them the same time I tried growing ginger. They have grown nicely and should be ready to harvest by June next year (yeah, longer than ginger!). More about tumeric here.

I've suspended planting anything for now since there's work being done at home. Sawdust hasn't been good for my plants. I think the weather hasn't been good also since my seedlings have been dying from the lack of sun (the angle has noticeably changed). I'll probably focus on maintenance for now and just start planting again early next year. 

#BeKind #StaySafe