Hello

Happy Sunday to all of you! Hope y'all are doing well. 

Today, the weather is great. A great compensation to a-couple-of-gloomy-rainy days. The Sun is shining brightly, as bright as my heart and soul! :-) I just gathered with some friends after church today and found out that they are having the same passion with me in sustainable gardening and living! And we have made plans to get together again soon! We might visit the Green School, a non-profit organization committed to share the awareness for organic and sustainable gardening in my city, to get more insights and knowledge. And we might swap seeds also because they are cultivating many plants, including those on the verge of extinction. And talked about the possibility of attending an international sustainable farming/gardening event next March! 

Another thing that brings smile to my lips is what I stumbled upon in my garden just now, a ladybug couple, matting on my eggplant plant. It's a rare scenery. I was just being at the right place and on the right timing! And I hope I wasn't distracting them or being impolite. Oh,...have mercy! :-)

Here's my second harvest of eggplants yesterday. 

And blooms that are fruiting soon...

Crown Galls on Rose Plants

Do you know that cancer can also attack plants? Yes, seriously! When I bought this rose plant from a nursery, again I didn't really pay attention to the lump at the tree base. I wouldn't have thought that it was actually a kind of cancer that had attacked the plant! I bet you wouldn't have guessed that too when you gazed it for the first time, am I right?

Well, if it hadn't been for the gardening program I watched on TV, I wouldn't have known this. And I would still think that it's just part of the dirt.

So, what is it actually and what causes it? This is one of the diseases commonly found in rose plants. It's called Crown Galls. According to the experts, it is caused by excessive fertilizing. Many Rose Farmers over-fertilize their rose plants to boost the growth, so that they can harvest faster. This is not uncommon case in rose nurseries. From my research recently I found that this disease is caused by a soil-inhabiting bacterium called agrobacterium tumefaciens that infects many ornamental plants in the home garden.

The symptons are galls, or swelling at the base of the stem. The galls are light green and nearly white when young, and will darken and become woody as they age. It is said that the galls will disrupt the flow of water and nutrients from the roots up to the stem and thus, weakening and stunting the growth of the top of the plant.

For prevention and treatment, we have to be careful when buying rose plants, make sure to choose a crown-gall-free rose plants because once it's infected than there's no remedy. Also be careful not to cause any injury to the roots or crown during planting or cultivating because bateria can infect through the fresh wound. Discard the soil from an infected plant and disinfect the pruning tools and pots.

Happy gardening!

Other fellas

Aglaonema Red Peacock

Aglaonema Chinese Evergreen

Pineapple

Aloe Vera

Excoecaria Cochinchinensis (Chinese Croton)

Purple Heart (Selcreasea Pallida)

Papaya

Moringa Oleifera

Mother in Law Tongue (Sansaveria)

Red Betel

Needle Flower

Rosenka/Orange Bougenvillea

Ice Plant

Colleous Crystata

Colleous Mayana

Colleus Chocolate Mint?

Colleous Crystata

Colleous Violet Three Color

Nam Dok Mai Manggo Tree

Mango is one of my favorite fruit. The privilege of living in a tropical country like Indonesia means that I can enjoy mango in season every twice a year! We have many varieties, with various shape, fragrance, texture and taste. 

Recently I have become very obsessed with planting mango trees besides citrus! Ever since I started gardening, mango tree has been in my top planting list. Last year I bought a local variety called Harum Manis (literally translated into Sweet & Fragrant) from a local nursery. It was still a small plant but they told me it was grafted. Garden enthusiasts usually like to buy grafted fruit trees in pots because it is much more practical and success guaranteed. 

After my first success with Harum Manis, this year I added a Thai variety into my collection: Please meet Nam Dok Mai! 

Nam Dok Mai is famous for its characteristics of thick flesh and small seed. When it's ripen it will be sweet smelling and the peels golden yellow.

There's one thing I should warn you when buying mango trees in pots from any nursery, you should be careful to inspect the tree prior to purchase because plants in the nursery are prone to pests and diseases. Just like my experience with this tree. When I bought it I had spotted some brown spots or bumps on the leaves. I thought, by cutting the contracted leaves off would solve the problem, but it didn't. Every other day, I find new leaves with these spots/bumps, mostly on younger leaves. These spots/bumps are actually caused by the mango leaf gall midge (Procontarinia Matteiana), also called mango leaf curl midge. It can cause yield loss up to 70% and low quality fruit. Mango leaf curl midge lay eggs into the leaf tissue that softens and blisters. The spots become red and galls form shortly in 7 days. The galls grow up to a size of 3-4 mm. When matures, the adult galls emerge from the lower side of the leaves. 

To control this pest, we can prune the highly infested leaves and burn them and clean the tree floor off the infested leaves to avoid the insects move into the soil and pupate. Ploughing the orchard to expose the pupae to sun so it will die. As for botanical control we can mix 30 ml neem oil with 1 ltr of soapy water, shake well and spray. 

You may notice that the leaves have holes in it as the result of my piercing the spots/ galls before the spots/galls turn into insect. But I don't suggest this to you since it will reduce the leaf photosintetic area and affect the tree growth.

What A Beautiful Life

Hello  Everyone, I hope you had a good weekend! As for me, I just finished a moderate-size translation project last week, and that means I can post some pictures from my garden I've been wanting to for sometime. And I hope that they'll brighten your day! :-)