My Elmo is A Hen!

Recently, I have been convinced that Elmo is a hen. I bought her when she was about 2 or 3 months old (as the shopkeeper claimed). He said that Elmo is a male lovebird, but I guessed he didn't really know it as determining the sex of a lovebird is not as easy as determining the sex of parakeets. Unless, we take a DNA test.

There are some tips given by experts like seeing the shape of the tip of their wings or by feeling the gap in their abdomen. But it's tricky and often inaccurate.
The one you can count on except for a DNA test is waiting until they are about a year old. That means until they have reached full maturity.

I bought Elmo around March this year. If she were 2-3 months old by that time, she would be a year old or over now. That means she's now a mature lovebird who is ready for mating. Yep, she is indeed. She has shown the sign of maturity for several months now. Some says that they are mature when they are around 6 months old and will lay their first egg when around 8-12 months old.

With Elmo(Bibi), I noticed that she likes to eat the cuttlefish bone that I put in the budgies' cage and sometimes she has a fight with them because of that (usually either Baby Blue or Goldie will peck her for eating their cuttlefish bone). She is also very fascinated with Goldie's nest. When I first introduced the nest to the budgies, they would struggle the hell out of them  every time I put them inside the nest. But, it's different with Elmo, she volunteered herself to take a peep inside the nest through the window hole, and many times she dared herself to ventured further into the nest and out.

She's also a keeper (I think it's her instinct as a hen), every time Goldie or Baby Blue fell down from their cage or the outer perch(sometimes they can't fly back to their cage because I have trimmed the tip of their flying feathers), Elmo would accompany them. She would often make noises so I knew that something had happened to them!

Then lately, she started to make a lot of clicking noise every time she's around me. She will repeatedly nod her head and make the sign of regurgitating(vomiting to feed her owner, which she considers as her mate) as an expression of love. She will also dance around, and every time I want to pat her she will bent her body, spread her wings and lift her tail! It's an invitation to a male lovebird to ascend her! And I am a male lovebird to her! LOL!

So far Elmo hasn't laid any eggs, because I didn't put a nest in her cage. People says placing a nest inside their cage can stimulate egg-laying even without the presence of a male lovebird. I also haven't wanted to give her a male lovebird as a mate since egg-laying will changed my-already-tamed lovebird into a complete stranger.

Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch

I am so proud of Goldie, she finally laid her first eggs last October 10th! 

She had been busy preparing her nest a couple weeks earlier. She tidied her nest and threw bigger wood shavings out.

I could feel her bulging tummy, when I checked her.

Then one day, I knew she had laid her egg because she spent a lot of time inside her nest and... Baby Blue was inside too! 

I guess he was there to give support to laying Goldie, as Baby Blue is an amiable budgie. I love him so much.

 Then, two days after, she laid another egg, and so on ... in total she laid 4 eggs.

She started to sit on her eggs after she laid her first egg and only came out to dump and stretch her self out. She also drank a lot but ate a little since she spent only a little time outside her nest. Baby Blue had done his tasks as the male budgie very well, he always standby to feed and preen Goldie every time she popped her head out of the window hole. Often he accompanied her female inside the nest... don't know what he was exactly doing inside since I couldn't open the nest's door without disrupting them and their activities. I guess he did it as a form of protection.

Normally it takes 18-21 days for the first egg to hatch. But after about 1 month, I decided to removed the eggs out because none of the eggs hatched. I accidentally dropped one of the eggs and it's obvious to me that the egg was not fertilized. 
It took Goldie a couple days to finally realized it.
Though I was disappointed but I have guessed that, I think.

Oh well, I wish they would really mate and produce some squealers someday... <sighing> 

Red Globe Grape

Remember the Red Globe grape seeds I planted last April?(Click here for the old post)

Here's the updates. From 4 plants, only one survived the caterpillars. It's not without any challenge though, because it was once infested with scale bugs until I found that out and cleaned it by hands. Here is how it looks now...

Some other seeds never grew, then I decided to plant a mulberry cutting I got from a friend in that container. Sadly it didn't grow too, but the silver lining is a new growth has emerged! A new seedling of Red Globe Grape!! Aparently, another seed finally break down and grow! YAY!!! 

Anyway, I know that the journey is still a long way to go since it takes at least 3 years for Grape plants to bear fruit, if cultivated by seed. Still, I am celebrating the new growth and rejoicing in the process.

<Humming all the way while gardening... tra la la la....> 

Third round in this year...

This is the third round of my "Harum Manis" fruit production this year. We've been enjoying the fruit this couple of months and new shoots are now ready to grow.

By this time my "Nam Dok Mai" is flowering for the third round also, and some fruits have been formed. Maybe they can be harvested around late December or early next January. I can't be more grateful! 

Aglaonema Bloom

Fans of Aglaonema are familiar with this beautiful egg-shaped flower of Aglaonema.

Isn't it lovely? 

The Aglaonema can be a very prolific bloomer, the "flower" is really an inflorescence (a group of flowers on a stem), which is often mistaken for a distorted leaf.

The flowers looks very similar to Spathiphyllum but they usually carry a hood and a calcified looking spath coming out of it. 

One thing you should know about Aglaonema's flower is the fact that this flower production requires a lot of energy. Heavy blooming will pull nutrients or energy from the plant. 

And as the result the plant will produce smaller and sometimes distorted and pale leaves. And in some cases, leaving the flowers on the plant will exhaust the plant and cause it to wither. I think it's a bit similar with Coleus, in which producing flowers and seeds means its' tasks are finished and the plant will eventually wither. 

So, to prevent that to happen to your Aglaonema(and Coleus) plant you must remove the flowers as soon as they emerge.

This way, your Aglaonema plant will continue to grow healthily with stunning colors and even glossy leaves!

Happy Gardening!

What's Bloomin' in My Garden

Rascal

After four days of pain and mostly spent snuggling in his blanket, sometimes in my arms, Elmo decided that he's too bored. So, he sneaked into his neighbor's cage and planned on an ambush. LOL

  

It's my  day to day entertainment and chaos... LOL 

Sometimes, I need to intervene in breaking up their fights. Many times it's between Goldie and Elmo since Elmo is very curious and loves to have a peek over Goldie's nest. 

Goldie has been quite territorial lately, since she is sitting on her eggs for over 3 weeks now.

Harvesting Turmeric and Ginger Part 1

Turmeric Rhizomes often used as traditional medicine/herbal drinks

Turmeric and ginger are two common spices in Indonesian cuisine & kitchen and are among the easy-to-plant spices.Just bury them in the ground and oo la la... it's ready to be harvested in several months!

And yes, with only several turmeric and ginger root cuttings with nodes on them, you can harvest a bunch of them! I only planted 2 pieces of turmeric rhizomes and harvested 1,25 kg and with 1-2 cuttings of ginger root I harvested about 350 grams(under 5 months).

Since I used only a little of turmeric in my cooking (mostly curry), my helper made Indonesian herbal drinks made from turmeric, ginger, some tamarind, palm sugar and water.

It's good for boosting health. The Javanese have been having this for centuries. It's among many other herbal drinks passed down for many, many generations.

In two weeks time we have made about 3 batches of these drinks. Each batch is about 3-4 glasses.

And I still have some more turmeric for another batch I guess.

So, happy weekend y'all!