9 o'clock plant

Finally after almost 1 year of growing it blooms.
It seems to bloom the best during the raining season.
This makes me wonder if I have underwater them.
I watered them once a day. :P

Pomegranate - Plant Pest

Actually I am quite fedup with my Pomegranate plant. Since I grew it last year, it have been dropping leaves and now also botak.

Each time there are new growth, I would see alot of small green/grey colour creatures crawling/sticking to the young leaves. Tried hard to get rid of them, but failed. I am so tired of it that I thought of just dumping it outside my house and let nature takes it's course. However, I can't bear to as I spend so much $$ on it :P

Well well, so here I am trying to figure out what the pest is and how to prevent it from growing/controlling it:

Greenfly
Plants affected: Pretty much everything!

Symptoms: Infestations of green, pink, cream or brown insects around the softest parts of the plant, usually the tips of shoots and the undersides of young leaves.
Prevention/Control: Wipe greenfly off plants with your fingers or spray plants with soft soap or a pesticide containing pirimicarb.

Afternote:
Guess I would just trim off all the affected plant and then after that concentrate of cleaning up the new growth.

Mulberry - Plant Pest

Oh no..today read on the forum, my mulberry plant might have scales attached to its stems. Guess I better work on it faster else my plant would not be healthy!

Guess this mulberry plant is very poor thing - got snails, yellow leaves and now scales. :(

Yesterday alone I already removed 7 snails from the pot.

Search the web to see how to prevent it:
Snails
Plants affected: Almost any soft, lush plant. Hostas are a particular favourite. Hairy or furry plants are usually fairly safe.

Symptoms: Snails climb, so look for slime trails and nibbled leaves, even on plants in pots and containers. Snails devour the soft green bits between the leaf ribs, leaving a ‘skeleton’ behind.
Prevention/Control: Collect by hand and dispose of them. To protect plants, surround them with piles of prickly leaves or really sharp grit. If using slug pellets, apply sparingly. A ring of petroleum jelly around the top of pots can be an effective prevention method, particularly with hostas.

Scale insects
Plants affected: Greenhouse and conservatory plants, especially those with thick, waxy or evergreen leaves. Citrus plants are a special favourite.

Symptoms: Tiny limpets clinging to stems or under leaves.
Prevention/Control: Wipe off the insects with a cotton bud and meths, then wash the leaves with tepid water to remove the sooty mould that’s often associated with scale insect infestations.


Afternote: Need to shop for the alchol or meths to clean up my plant!

Update 1 Jul 08: Last night used summer oil to clean up all the stems of the tree. Hope it will help to reduce the scales on the plant.

Some info on Summer Oil - This lightweight oil (sold under different brand names) provides good control of aphids, mealybugs, mites, scales, and a host of other insects by smothering them. Unlike dormant oil, it can be used year-round (even in warm temperatures), and its not toxic to mammals. Mix according to label directions and spray it on foliage, including the undersides of leaves.

Morus Alba update

Just a quick update on my Morus Alba plant brought from World Farm.
these few days, I notice that the leaves recently grow are getting lighter in colour and now Yellowish!!!!!!!!!!!!
Glad that there is a grop of experts there telling me to cut down on my watering.
I shall tried it out tommorrow onwards to see if it helps in improving the leaves quality as well as enabling the plant to bear fruits :P

Longing for the flower to appear then the fruit.

Roselle Plant

Yesterday got a fresh fruit of the roselle plant. So this morning, i removed the seeds from the pod and air-dry it. In the evening just transported the seeds into the growing media to gerimate. Hope all goes well.

Withering Morus Rubra

Sob sob, I think I have killed my little cutting with my "SMART" idea.
People have use pertile to root the cutting. Since I am unable to locate the pertile, I used the moss instead as it also holds water. After 1 day, the leaves on the plant withered and the cutting looks dehydrated. Now I place it back into water.
Praying hard it will grow well again.

Morus Rubra

I would like to track my Morus Rubra cutting growth since I got it from a forumer on 4 Jun 2008, transported into the water bottle after growing 2 days in the soil :P

Brassavola Little Stars

Finally got time to take a look to find out more about my orchids.
To begin with is the Brassavola Little Stars.

I got this plants from my neighbours a few years back. And after a year of growing then it starts to bloom. Since 1.5 years back I have repotted them into those rectangle pots and guess what? Until now it still have no blooms. :(

Only today then I realise what went wrong from the expert tips.
In order for it to bloom, 1st it must filled up the pot. My dear, guess it would take quite sometime to fill up mine.

Here is some of the tips to successful growing of the Brassavola Little Stars:
1. Give it as much light as you can - 5-7 hours of sunlight a day is fine.

2. Water it frequently when the new shoots are growing.

3. Add some rooting hormone or seaweed extract into your regular fert when you see the new shoots rooting. Use this for several applications

4. Do not let it bloom - pinch spikes when you see them emerging. Your goal is to get the plant large - the larger the plant the more vigorous it will become.

5. Turn the plant often so that the growths are oriented nicely.


Guess I would need to workhard on it to ensure continuous blooms that will filled my balcony with nice sweet smell. :) Mine now looks like this.


Here a picture of what it looks like.

Plants Seeds

Gotta a few packs of plants' seeds from hubby as a gift.

They are:
1. Cleome spinosa L.
For more info click here
2. Godetia whitney
For more info click here
3. Hssopus officinalis
For more info click here & here
4. Mirabilis jalapa
For more info click here
5. Dahlia pinnata
For more info click here

Mulberries Benefits

Mulberry Tea:
1. It prevents diabetes,
2. It reduces cholesterol in blood vessels,
3. It reduces high blood pressure,
4. It helps on loses weight,
5. It reduces asthmatic conditions,
6. It rejuvenates your strength,
7. It prevents brittleness of the bones due to it's high calcium content,
8. It contains vitamin A to improve your eye sights,
9. It contains vitamin B1 & B2,
10. It has all the needed 18 amino acids,
11. It has very low caffeine content, only 0.01%,
12. It helps prevent cancer.

Recipe (tried by online friend):
100 mulberry plant leaves to boil with 4 litres of water.
So if you have less leaves, less water so as to have the taste.


Mulberries
Mulberry fruit is classified in the modern Chinese Materia Medica as a blood tonic, and is listed along with herbs having similar traditional uses such as ho-shou-wu (Polygonum multiflorum, root), cooked rehmannia (Rehmannia glutinosa, root), ligustrum (Ligustrum lucidum, fruit) and lycium (Lycium chinensis, fruit). Traditionally, mulberry fruit has been used as a medicinal agent to nourish the yin and blood, benefit the kidneys, and treat weakness, fatigue, anemia, and premature graying of hair. It is also used utilized to treat urinary incontinence, tinnitus, dizziness, and constipation in the elderly and the anemic.

Irrigation System

Finally setup my DIY irrigation system, despite of poking a few wrong holes on the piping and hence wasted 4 stoppers.

Now it is connected to a dual analog timer (battery operated).
When turn ON, it would not only sprinkle my orchids and plants on the latch, it would also water the few bigger plants in their pots.
I have placed the a water device into the respective pots via the small tubes.

Now in the morning, all i need to do it to turn on the tap and let it run for 1-2 mins, the system works by itself without me going to water the plants individually. Save time and effort. Also I no need to worry about going oversea without watering my plants.

Cattalya Plant Bloomed

What a nice and sweet thing that happen on Father's Day!
This plant blooms yesterday!

Mulberry Plant - Morus Alba

Read about alot of the mulberries fruit benefits 2 weeks back.
It begins with a craze going on in one of the gardening forum on this plant. Then the "flu" has passed on to me that I got a cutting from HL.

After that got my darling brought me a mulberry plant on 8 Jun 08 from Worldfarm at $12 per pot as I can't wait to see the bloom.

And this is how it looks now, no bloom yet still waiting patiently: