What's This Plant?

Rescued one of Mom's plants, but I have no idea what it is. Before I removes the plant from it's pot I saw it was planted in an ugly pot with a bit of soil and rocks! I don't know how it survived.

Anyway, I just assumed it's an orchid. I only watered it once a week because I realized a lot of Mom's plants don't need to be watered often. 

I carefully removed the soil around the stem. It was a bit hard and I was surprised the root had a bulb. It reminded me of zz plants which has rhizomes.

I tried using a plant app and Google Lens to identify the plant. I used different photos and angles, but it always gives different results. Oh well, I hope I did the right thing just putting it in a pot with coco cubes. 

If you know what this plants is, please let me know!

#BeKind #StaySafe

My Papaya Trees a Year After

It's been more than a year since I sowed the seeds from grocery bought solo papaya. A couple of them grew and I transferred them to appropriate pots twice. 

A few weeks ago I noticed the leaves were yellowing and with some help from the plant app, I realized it needed fertilizer. It wasn't enough to feed them rice water every other week, I needed to add compost so they would be healthy. 

If grown properly, my papaya trees should be producing fruit by now. The plants are in different stages since I failed to give them appropriate nutrition and they are not getting the right amount of sunlight. Argh! Oh well, I have to get some bigger pots to give them more space to grow. I'm asking advise from a friend on what kind of fertilizer I should give it and how often. 

All part of the learning process, I hope by upping my game we'll be able to harvest some papaya in a few months!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Caterpillars have been Eating My Calamansi Plants

I've been trying to grow veggies the past few years. All the greens I tried to grow are gone. My Calamansi project started in September 2023. It took time for the seeds to sprout and now I have several of them growing in bigger pots. I placed them in two areas of our home to ensure they grow. 

I have so far managed to keep them from dying. I spray Neem oil weekly and feed them fertilizer every other week. Biggest pest for my calamansi are caterpillars. Some grow so big they finish all the leaves! Luckily, the bigger plants survive, but some smaller plants don't, huhu. 

I researched companion plants for citrus fruits. They supposedly help ward off pests. You can plant marigold, basil, lavender, peas, tomatoes, chives, garlic, and fennel. I got marigold seeds, but haven't had the chance to plant them. My basil, lavender, tomatoes, chives and garlic all died. One thing that is left standing are my fennel plants (was sold to me as dill!). 

Plant on the right had fennel in the same pot.
Left plant didn't, so all the leaves are gone!

Anyway, since it's been so easy to grow fennel, I just cut off some and planted it beside my calamansi plants. After a few weeks I noticed that the leaves of the calamansi plants  started growing bigger. Those that didn't have fennel were continued to be pestered by caterpillars. 

Leaves slowly growing back after I added fennel to the pot.

I have since added fennel to the rest of my calamansi in the pocket garden and they are slowly growing new leaves to replace those eaten by caterpillars. Yes! Now I can focus on making sure they are fed well and hope they'll finally produce fruit by next year!

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

Eugenia Berries and Free Starbucks Coffee Grinds

While watering the plants I noticed that our Eugenia tree has a lot of berries growing. I was so surprised since the last time it produced berries was in 2022.

I have been feeding it with sundried coffee grinds, rice water, and fish water. I just use one of the three once a week. I was doing this to make the Eugenia plants produce red leaves. They look really nice when they're red. (Make sure to water down fish water if you're using it from an aquarium).

I also noticed yesterday that Starbucks used coffee grinds is available again. I saw two packs yesterday and got one. I have also laid it out under the sun to prepare it for use. 

If your nearby SB doesn't display used coffee grinds, you can always ask if they have any available. Sometimes they'll ask you to bring your own bag.

Happy gardening!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Buddha Belly, Desert Rose and Caladium Bicolor

I'm on a roll After realizing that the plants from Mom's garden were essentially succulents, I decided to immediately re-pot them today. I had been watering them like crazy and realized they might die without proper care.

I was pleasantly surprised with what I got. One of the plants is commonly known as Buddha Belly (Jatropha podagrica). I'm not sure if it's a common succulent, but I was happy to see it had flowers when I saw it in my Mom's garden. It's a beautiful plant and I hope it will bounce back after I've given it some TLC.

Another plant that caught my eye is a caladium or more known as the Heart of Jesus. It wasn't in peril, but I liked the color. It will also remind me of my Mom whenever I see it. 

Last plant I got were two pots of desert rose or commonly known as kalachuchi. I remember Mom didn't like it before because of the smell of the flowers. I'm not sure why there were two in her garden. They both badly needed TLC, so I re-potted them in big pots. Hopefully they recover.

I never thought I'd enjoy gardening this much. It's a lot of work, but it's also a great way to know my Mom more with the plants she kept. She always told me she didn't like cacti and succulents, but most of those I re-potted the past two days are succulents. She probably had a change of heart since they are flowering plants. I'm also enjoy figuring out what the plants are and researching how best to care for them. 

I hope I'll be able to save the plants. There's a gazillion more!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Avocado Update: Leaves, Finally!

Sweetie excitedly told me the other day that the avocado seeds I've been propagating for two months now have started to grow leaves! Finally!

In the past two weeks I increased the amount of honey and moved two of the seedlings with stems to a bigger jar. Sweetie also changed the kitchen curtains. The curtain was shorter and allowed more sunlight to come in. I think that encouraged the seedlings to progress faster.

I've been hesitant to move the jars to another spot with better sunlight because I might forget to top up the water (out of sight, out of mind!). I'm debating whether I should move the seedlings to soil already, but videos said they need to have leaves already. So I'll wait.

I hope to eventually harvest some fruits!

#BeKind #StaySafe 

Mustasa Coming Soon

I made the mistake of planting mustasa seeds the week two typhoons hit. After that the habagat sent a lot of rain. They grew very slowly.

The sun finally came out this week. I took the opportunity to re-pot them since they became a bit leggy (looking for sun). I moved them also to another spot where I hope they'll get more sun. It promptly rained hard after, but the bamboo protected them from being washed off. Whew!

They're growing steadily now and I've been feeding them rice water. That's how I grew healthy mustasa plants in Singapore. My plants got morning sun there though, so we'll see if this one grows well here.

#BeKind #StaySafe