Onions

The onion plants have been growing nicely for the past weeks. I think I am going to let it go to seeds. I have seen onion flowers and they are nice! As for the green parts, I am going to use it for soups and garnish. My past experience has taught me a lesson that's never overwater your onions plants. Their neck bulb and roots rot easily. If you need to water them, avoid watering the neck of the bulb.

Onions are popular amongst home gardeners.

Tomato - Roma

I was organising my seed catalogs and I found an unopened roma tomato seed packet. It was given to me by my friend "G". According to the seed packet it is rot-resistant and crack-free. I haven't tried growing this variety type.

It's been quite a while since the last time I grew tomato without satisfactory result. Perhaps I am one of those growers who complain about tomato fussy growing requirements (8 hours of full sun, temperature, watering requirement, fertiliser etc). I am challenging myself and I decided to grow it again.

I started the tomato plant more than a month ago, and not long ago I transplanted it into a full size pot. I mixed in plenty of compost into soil to give the plant a healthy starting boost. Let see how it goes as time goes by.

transplanted young tomato seedlings.





17 days later....

Snap Bean

I am taking advantage of the direct sun on my balcony and I am growing some snap beans . They are also called french beans, green bean and runner bean. Many names eh? Confusing indeed! Anyway snap beans are from the legumes family (fabaceae). According to the botanist experts, bean plants have the ability to abosorb nitrogen with the help of some micro-organism living in the soil as they form symbiotic relationship.

I started the plants from seeds about 3 weeks ago. I planted 6 seeds in total, but only 3 germinated. I guess the rest didn't make it due to overwatering and eventually they rot. I am unsure if these beans is of bush-type or runner-type as the seed packet never mention about it. I am hoping they are of compact bush-type. Nevertheless, I've fixed a small support made of small wooden bamboo should they want to climb. They should start flowering in the next couple of weeks.

Okra - Heat loving fruit vegetable!

The okra's flower blossomed again today! The flower is beautiful. Its petal is yellow and purplish at the centre. The flower is short-lived and usually closes within half a day. The okra's pod starts to form the moment the flower drops.

The plant loves heat and thrives under full sun. The okra seed pod grows vigorously, often reaching 7cm in 3 days. To prevent the seed pod from getting woody, normally I would harvest them when it reaches 8cm to 10cm in length. In fact, I have been frequently harvesting them for the past weeks. They taste great in any curry dishes.

Okra's immature seed pod and the flower.

First Post - Egg plant transplant

I have just transplanted an eggplant, or better known as aubergine/brinjal in some part of the world. It's an asian long-type variety of eggplant. I started it from seed about 3 weeks ago. Prior to transplanting, I mixed the soil with plenty of compost and also added some organic chicken poop fertiliser. Let's see how it grows in the next couple of weeks.