New Leaves!

I put the pothos and baby rubber plant I'm propagating by my bedside. I check them when I wake up and before I go to sleep since i wasn't really sure if they'd survive. They were pretty stressed from trip and probably had to acclimate. I cut them from our plants that were indoors and they were used to the aircon and all-day air filter. They  got traumatized when I brought them here. 

I knew they were stressed because the leaves started browning. I changed the honey I mixed with the water to the honey from Bohol. Left them mostly alone and just made sure the water was refilled when needed. I noticed the pothos started rooting rapidly when I changed the honey. I was still concerned though for the second stalk because the leaves looked sad. The leaves from the baby rubber plant wasn't really propagating. 

A lot of progress happened the past few days. The leaves of the pothos are growing bigger and they've been producing new leaves too. The baby rubber plant has also started to produce roots! I'll probably keep the pothos in water, but have to research if I should move the baby rubber plant leaves to a pot with soil. 

You're probably wondering why I brought plant cuttings with me when I could just get them easily here. My Mom also has a huge garden and she'll give me whatever I need. I went through all the trouble of bringing them (a friend told me as long as it doesn't have soil it should be okay). The pothos cuttings are from the plant our landlord gave us 5 years ago and Tappy's pothos which I took care of for a year. The baby rubber plant I bought on a whim last year. It's grown a lot and I wasn't ready to part with it.

They are remnants of my life in Singapore and gardening made me happy. Our Westies neighbors are now taking care of the plants we left. I wanted a souvenir to remind  me of the happy memories I had gardening in Singapore. We haven't resumed blogging on The Balcony Farmer since our circumstances have changed. For now I'll just focus my time on propagating my two plants and will see where it goes. 

I'm just happy that my plants have started to flourish. The new leaves and new roots give me a lot of hope :)

#Home17 #NewG227 #Xmas35 #StayHome #BeKind  

All My Plants Died, Time for Season 2 of Planting!

I started planting during the circuit breaker (lockdown) last year. I enjoyed experimenting and learning my way through it. There were wins and losses. Did well with mustard greens (mustasa), tomatoes, dill (Sweetie) and spring onions. Growing bell peppers and cucumbers was tough. It didn't work out. 

Unfortunately when I started getting sick late in October, the pests beat me to my plants. By January they were all dead. It's okay, I learned a lot from our first season of planting. One important lesson I learned is that you need to treat the soil first before using it. My mustasa and tomatoes grew very well because I got the soil from a reputable company. The soil I used for the bell peppers and cucumbers was a cheaper variety. That was the time I started having pests. 

To prepare for the new season I researched on how to treat the soil. I need to make sure the larvae are dead before I plant anything. The progress has been very slow though. I have been having a lot of bad days. Sweetie has been helping. We hope we could start planting again soon.

How about you? How's your garden?

More about our gardening exploits on http://thebalconyfarmer.blogspot.com/.

CB///332 #StuckAtHomeDay/362 #StayHome #BeKind 

Second Tomato Harvest and Other Garden Updates

Thank God for bees! They have been visiting our balcony garden more often now. Sometimes they get too excited and even follow us inside! We have been able to usher them back outside. The bees have been taking care of pollinating the tomato flowers. The last time I hand pollinated them was late in August. 

The tomatoes aren't growing to full size, probably because the pots are too small. I'm not sure if that's the case or it lacks nutrients/water. They turn red while they're still small. We don't mind since they are sweet like cherry tomatoes. 

We harvested 13 ripe tomatoes yesterday and we're happy we have something to add to our salad -- fresh, organic, homegrown tomatoes! Yaaaas! 

It's a lot of hard work taking care of our tiny garden. We've had to battle leaf miners. They've already killed off my cucumber and have eaten half of my bell peppers (huhu). I use neem oil every few weeks to ward off the evil insects. My neighbor also suggested I try using Thieves household cleaner mixed with water to spray the leaves to get to the larvae of the leafminers. That has so far worked. I also read spraying the soil with baking powder mixed with water discourages insects from attacking a plant. It's so far worked and the tomatoes have been producing more fruit. 

My first mustasa plant is doing well. It started bolting a few weeks back. It's flowers attracted more bees to come visit our balcony and I think that's a good thing. The pods are starting to turn brown so that means I'm going to have free seeds soon! I have 2 more mustasa plants that are giving us fresh leaves for cooking. 

The bell peppers are struggling. No thanks to those evil insects! Boo! But it looks like some may survive. I'm still hoping I'd be successful in at least 2 plants. If not I'll probably start a new batch. 

What about you? How's your garden going? 

CB//186 #StuckAtHomeDay/216 #StayHome #BeKind

Plantdemic Update: There are Good Days and Bad Days

I haven't been able to tend to my garden for a few weeks now because I got sick at the end of August and it took awhile for me to recover. The doctor said not to do anything strenuous. Gardening to me is equivalent to a workout. So the last few weeks I've just been watching my plants through the glass door. I ended up getting a cute, new indoor plant because I missed my plants.

The good news is the tomato plants have been producing more fruits. The first few fruits were quite tiny so I added a bit of compost for it to get more nutrients. Our cleaner told us she picked one to taste the tomato. She said it was so sweet and would go well with a salad. We beamed with pride haha. I'm so lucky because Sweetie gets up early everyday just to water the plants. I take care of planting, adding nutrients, re-potting and making sure pests stay away from the plants.

The bad news is pesky insects invaded the cucumber plant. I think its leaf miners. I had 2 plants and I already pulled out one since it didn't look I could save it anymore. There's one more that's still fighting. I realized though that it would probably be better for me to just start from scratch because it hasn't produced anything in the last six months. The pests also jumped onto the tomato plants and I've had to actively prune it. The bell peppers were affected too and some have died.

Bad insects :'(

A few weeks ago there was a really bad infestation. One of my neighbors suggested to spray them with a mix of Thieves Household Cleaner with a few drops of Citrus Fresh in water. I did just that and sprayed the soil with baking powder mix. I think it helped and it also encouraged the tomato plants to bear more fruit. Unfortunately some of the tomato fruits shriveled up possibly because of the insects. The newer fruits though are looking good and growing big. 

I was supposed to re-pot last week, but I slipped in the bathroom. So I had to recover from that. Today I finally got to tend to my balcony garden. Pruned the tomato plants and re-potted some bell pepper plants. I discovered that one of the bell pepper plants is starting to bear fruit! I'm so glad my plants have stood the test of time and patiently waited for me to recover. Maybe Sweetie talked to them for me hehe.

How's your garden? 

CB//179 #StuckAtHomeDay/209 #StayHome #BeKind