Rust Disease on Grape Plants

Rust disease infected my grape leaves. It's caused by rust fungus, as it has a powdery appearance on the lower leaves. We are having a lot of rain for these couple of months and this problem is probably triggered by a duration of water sitting on the leaves and soil, as well as the cool temperature.

Some experts suggested to give the plants a spray of sulfur fungicide. But I don't have sulfur at home. So I tried to spread rock ash on the soil. It has been sunny and hot these couple of days, hopefully the problem will go away. 

Determining the Sex of Papaya Tree

Two from 4 of my papaya seedlings I planted from seed have grown to about 2 meters high. They're about a year old or over. And for a couple of months, I have noticed that an elongated-shaped of blooms coming  out between the branches. Unfortunately, they usually fall before the blooms even have the chance to flourish. To my curiosity, I picked up one of it and decided to check it out. As I broke open the petals I discovered an ovary with a stigma. It's confirmed: they are both female!! My dream of harvesting papaya fruit is shattered...

For your information, papaya plants have three types of sex that you can identify from the flowers: female, male or hermaphrodite, which means the flowers contain 2 kinds of sex organs(an ovary and stamen/self-fertile). Other flowers than the hermaphrodite can't be pollinated without the presence of the opposite sex flowers, unless the wind or insects bring along the pollen from other places.

This gives me a headache since it takes about a year or so to be able to identify the plant's sex. I should plant a male tree if I want my tree to be pollinated or else I should bring pollen from other places and pollinate my tree. And that means I have to plant several trees. It's a dilemma for me since I am planting in containers and I have not much space on my rooftop. I don't want too many papaya plants growing in big pots in my rooftop since it will be a heavy burden to the rooftop. Still I have to find a solution to my problem!

Planting Bitter Gourd

My mother is a fan of bitter gourd. We will always have bitter gourd on the menu every week. It is mostly stir-fried with prawns and salted fermented soya. Some may not like the taste. If you don't know the trick of handling bitter gourd before cooking, it will render a very bitter taste and it would surely ruin your appetite.

So, that's how I started to collect the seed from a mature bitter gourd I bought from the wet market and started to germinate them. And voila! 8 of them made it! 

I re-potted them into 4-gallon containers. In a couple of weeks, they started to set flowers and then the fruit. I helped a little with hand pollination, but I think the nature mostly did the work. So far, I found around 5 bitter gourd growing. My mom suggested me to wrap them with plastic bags but I just let them that way. Can't wait to harvest them!

By the way, I have a simple how-to-reduce-its-bitterness trick before cooking. If you're stir-frying it, just sliced it thinly and sprinkle a lot of salt on it and mix well, then squeeze the sliced bitter gourd with your hand. Then, wash the salt out.  And drained the water by squeezing it again. Don't worry you won't turn them into a mush as it's quite firm. Then, boil a small pan of water and after it's seething, pour the sliced bitter gourd into the water and let it boil for a couple of minutes. Then drained the bitter gourd. Now you're ready to cook it! Trust me the bitterness has been reduced many fold!

New Addition to My Rooftop Container Garden 2015

Life has been hectic these couple of months. I am having several translation projects and ministries at church. My mind is crowded that it's hard for me to  just relax and let ideas to flow out, though I have some posts planned but not yet written down. Allow me to just briefly share some new addition to my rooftop container garden...

Chokanan Mango

Last month, I bought a small grafted Chokanan tree, a variety of Thai Mango(also found in Bangladesh, Pakistan & India). Earlier I have already had Nam Dok Mai(some call it 'Lok Mai') mango tree, that is fruiting now the third time this year. This new tree is only $1.20. I have re-potted it but still to a 4 gallon container and I planned to let it grow for a while, before re-potting it to its final container.

This is a green 'Honey' Bell fruit tree

At the same time I also bought this Honey Bell Fruit grafted tree. This one is less than US$ 1. This one is the green variety. It's a local cultivated variety.

Below are orange seedlings I planted by seed. These are of the Australian orange variety I bought from the supermarket. They need to be re-potted soon too, as orange trees usually have a ferocious appetite.

Remember the Nam Dok Mai seedling I planted from seed? Yes, this is how it looks now. And yes, I need to re-pot this one a.s.a.p too! And I also need to weed my plants, they have overgrown! Grrr...