Grow Chili Grow!

So happy that my chilies finally appeared last week! And I never knew they grew so fast! Too bad it only bared 4 chilies at the moment maybe because my chili plant isn't big enough? But who cares! I GOT CHILIES!

So let's talk about some plant updates for this week:

Remember my coriander seeds? Well, 4 seeds (out of 50 seeds -.-) germinated but died soon after that. I'll sow them once more but this time I'll try to use another sowing technique.

The tomato plant is still growing strong and bushier! I believe I have to trim it down a bit as my tomatoes are still not here.

Cosmos little plants are growing strong. This is probably on their 2nd week of life or so.

Cosmos

And here are my Zinnias! Growing taller and taller and I have no idea when they reach their mature age or when they start flowering.. It still looks like a seedling to me! This is on their 91 day ( 3 months) of life :)

Zinnia Lilliput

Plant updates

I love trying out new seeds ( even sometimes they don't germinate)! This time I wanted to try out sowing Coriander since Fair Price Extra had new batches of seeds in!

Having this herb at home is just so essential and "a must have" kinda herb. How many times I found my self buying a handful of them and only ending up using a teaspoon for my recipe? Numerous times! And I hate when my herbs end up spoiling in my fridge because I didn't need them...waste of food and waste of money.

So why not growing them in your garden and take the amount you need without wasting the rest.

I followed some steps from Youtube of how to grow your very own Coriander and all I did was scatter all the seeds into the soil ( no need to cover them) and sprinkle with a good amount of water. I have no idea if It's gonna work but people who followed this method seemed to have good results. So I decided to give it a try! These seeds are predicted to germinate in a couple of weeks so let's wait and see :)

And I got the surprise of the day! My chilies are flowering! 

Beautiful tiny purple flowers started to bloom all over my chili plant and believe me I never noticed!! I remember buying this plant way back months ago when It had some fat yellow chilies on. The chillies fell off very quickly and the plant nearly died because of too much watering (regular watering was recommended by the nursery shop staff!). After doing on some research I started watering my chili plant just once a week.. watering it when the soil is completely dry, not deeply watering until it flows out of the pot but a small amount of water right on the base of the plant and surprisingly It grew more and more ever since...beautiful dark green leaves with no visible dead/yellow leaves on sight!

Chili plants looooove the heat! They love the sun!!! And they tolerate drought very well! These plants are survivals in hot weather so don't water them everyday! And just because the nursery staff told you so, doesn't mean his always right or he's experienced... all you have to do is do some homework, go online and do some research and sometimes going with your instincts also helps.

Macau 2014

I wanted to share with you all some of my pictures taken during my holiday in Macau. I believe you might heard about the majestic hotels and about the crazy casino life but there are more beautiful places than that.

 I grew among these gardens and places way back in my childhood and revisiting them has brought me wonderful memories.

Lou Lim Iok Garden. One of my favorite gardens and peaceful places to go.

Dragon bridge

Entrance of the garden

Garden friends

Temple Kun Iam Tong. Dated way back to the 13th Century. Buddhist temple dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy. 

Wishes at the A-ma Temple

A-ma Temple

St. Paul Ruins

First flower buds...

Horray! My cherry tomato plant has finally produced Its first tiny flower buds!

I'm happy how my tomato plant have come so far despite all the drama with pests and fungi that nearly killed it. 

Sometimes, I envy how florists and other gardeners do to maintain such beautiful flowers and vegetables with no problem. They seem so healthy and strong and sometimes they describe some seeds as "easy plants to grow for beginners" How do you describe "easy"? .... Well, I don't find it easy at all to grow plants, specially flowers. 

Everything is just so confusing with all the internet information and with so much contradictions. Everyone has their own opinion of how to grow seeds, so I guess It's just going with your own instincts, learning from your own failures and successes and keep track of what you do.    

I sowed these seeds yesterday afternoon.

I planted various seeds which previously did not germinate such as Phlox and Dahlia Redskin. I made a new batch of Cosmos and sowed Cactus seeds, Curled Parsley and Sweet Marjoram for the first time. It's a sit and wait game from now on as I'm using a new type of soil that was recommended by staff from the local nursery shop which is a type of a volcanic potting mix with peat and coco peat base that has good drainage.

How true or good it is, I don't know so lets wait what the seeds will say...

Chili and Cherry Tomato plant update

Remember when we last saw my chili and tomato plant?

Chili plant

Cherry Tomato plant

Can't believe how tall it grew! I had little hopes for these plants to survive as they were being attacked by an uncontrollable spread of mealy bugs but I guess my husband did a very good job maintaining their weekly pesticide application. I'm not really sure how old are my chilies but a few flowers have already bloomed but faded very quickly and fell off. It sure grew a lot since the last time I saw it though!

 My tomato plant is about 3 months old by now, about 1.20 m tall and was transplanted to a bigger vase. As per the backside of its seed packet It should have reached It's maturity age. Now, whether I'm correct, I'm not so sure but I'll monitor more closely for those first flowers to bloom and hopefully pollination can occur.

Hands back on work!

Hi guys! It's good to be back from a wonderful vacation from Macau and Hong Kong. It's been a one month holiday and I enjoyed it so much as I got to see old friends and family members :)

I missed home so badly, specially my plants as couldn't stop thinking about my little seedlings under the care of my husband lol! So I got bad news and good news. The bad news is that my Dahlia and Cosmos plants have died as well as other seeds that did not germinated :( I have no idea how it happened... maybe It was too much water, fertilizer, not enough sun, too much pesticide, it didn't get used to outdoor environment, etc.

 So much questions yet to be answered but the good news is that my only young plant survivor is the Zinnia Lilliput. Most of it have died so it left with 2 strong little plants which grew taller and with new leaves.

Zinnia Lilliput young plant

These are my Zinnias on their 54th day of life. Seems pretty small and young but I have no idea how they are supposed to look like by now so I'll just keep my fingers crossed that they'll stay strong and survive. In 2 to 4 weeks ( approx. mid June) is the estimated flowering period for this little plants but i'm so doubtful as their stems are still so thin. Anyone to share experiences?

As many of my seeds unsuccessfully did not germinated, I will sow them once again in these coming days and monitor it more carefully. 

Till next drama episode!

Zinnia Lilliput and Dahlia seedlings

The 10th day of life of my little plants.Growing fast and healthy with 2 times watering, one in the morning and late afternoon, light fertilizer (suitable for seeds and seedlings) on every Sundays and catching the first morning sunshine at 9:00 am inside my tiny greenhouse.

Zinnia Lilliput

Dahlia

My other seeds never germinated, not even my carnations and phlox so I guess I have to sow them once again when I come back from my loooong holiday! 

This will be last post in Singapore and last chance to see my seedlings until I come back in May! Praying that they will survive during my husbands care. So excited to see how they will turn up!

True leaves of the Cosmos flower

Many of you might be wondering what is the meaning of "true leaves". Well, It's simple. When a seed starts to grow, two-sets of identical leaves will form first. Then after a few days, a third kind of leaf ,or leaves, will emerge looking totally different from the first two leaves. That is the true leaf.

True leaves of Cosmos: small and thin emerging between the first leaves.

When the true leaves come out, that is the perfect time where you can start transplanting them to bigger pots.

These are my Cosmos on their 18th day of life and approx. 5 weeks to go until they can start flowering.

Portulaca and Dahlia seedlings

My little Portulacas (left) and Dahlias (right) are "hatching" and soon, when they get a bit bigger, I'll place them in the greenhouse together with my Zinnias to get a little sunshine. I'm getting really surprised that my little seeds are all germinating really fast than expected.

At first, I thought the Portulaca seedlings were the just invasive little plants that came together with the soil. I noticed It yesterday when they started to come out, but today, after giving a closer look, I saw the seed casing attached to the little plants tip! I'm so surprised how tiny the Portulaca seedlings are and yet to be strong plants when they are mature in just approx. 6 weeks.

Closer look at the Portulaca seedlings. About 5 mm tall.

Dahlia germinating. Seed casing still attached to the plant.

My Carnations and Phlox are not showing any signs of germination at all but I'll give them a little more time before I start to sow a second batch of them with the same soil as the others that germinated.

As for my tomato plant, well the bottom leaves are all dying due to the fungus but the top leaves are still nice and healthy. The local florist and nursery is still far away from where I live so I will have to wait for my husband to come back home from his holiday so that he can give me a ride. Hopefully I would still have time to save it. 

*These seeds are from the Horti brand and It costed 1.69$ each packet*

Germination of Zinnias and Dahlias

I'm so overjoyed! My little Zinnia and Dahlia seeds are now little seedlings! They germinated very very fast and I wasn't expecting them to germinate not until next week. Oh the joys of gardening!

Look at those little sprouts <3 These are the Zinnia seedlings that germinated in 3-4 days. Next to it are the Dahlias but Its still very small. Tomorrow, or next week, my carnation seeds should be starting to germinate but I don't see any signs of anything poping out yet. I used different soil for the carnation and zinnia so I will have to monitor that or maybe change the carnation soil in the future.
I cut the Zinnia pots and place them inside my little green house in the living room to get sunlight during morning hours and to protect my hungry cat from eating it!

My cherry tomato plant is not really getting any better. Last 2 days I ventured out and tried the home-remedy for my tomato plant by rubbing alcohol on the mealybugs which It said that It would suffocate the bugs. Today I found my tomato plant leaves are suffering from fungi disease (You can tell by the brown spots on the leaves)! I don't know If it was caused by the alcohol or watering the leaves but all I know is that my tomato plant is dying! Guess I have to stop again at the flower shop and get a fungicide while its too late.

Anyone with a similar story? Please share your ideas!

Sowing Frenzy!!

I'm so greedy! I bought sooo much seeds at Ji Mei Flower Shop down at Thompson and Giants and a few other stuff like soil, fertilizers and tools. How can you possibly resist the diversity of colors and ideas that you can do with these flowers!

So I added Livingstone Daisies, Portulaca, Dahlias, Zinnia Lilliput, Gold Medallion, Lavender, Pink Sun Flower and Cactus Mixed into my collection. All of them planted except for the cactus since it requires "their" own type of soil.

This time I placed them in peat pots that I purchased at Ji Mei at 9.90$ for 36 tiny pots. And because I'm new into gardening, I've never done transplanting to any plant. I was so afraid to damage the roots so I got the peat pots to facilitate the work. After doing some research through the Internet, peat pots are pots that comes in various shapes and sizes that are made with sphagnum moss peat and wood pulp fibers that are excellent for water absorption to help keep your soil and seeds moist. What I like about it, is the fact that you can just place the whole peat pot into the established pot that your plant will spend the rest of his life in. The roots of your new plant can still penetrate the walls of the peat pot! So It's a pretty good way for beginners to start sowing their seeds and not needing to worry about root damaging during the process of transplanting. Cool, huh? 

I bought a set of 3 mini gardening tools at Giants for 3.95$ and great tools for plant thinning just in case you're not using peat pots. But I bought mine just because it's cute...

After sowing them in their own little pot, I gently sprayed water and applied a bit of flowering fertilizer from Zagro and then leave them on my kitchen windowsill. 

My husband planted this beautiful Cherry Tomato plant from seed a few weeks ago, and look how much it grown! But I'm facing a bit of a headache now... It's infected with mealybugs! These bugs were responsible for the damage they caused to my chili plant that ultimately died. And It would be a pity If this beautiful tomato plant will end up in the garbage bin. So I applied a concentrated pesticide from IJO (It's Just Organic) that It's specially formulated to prevent and repel these annoying bugs by mixing 500ml of water with 1 teaspoon of pesticide and sprayed all over the leaves and roots and, of course, directly on these bugs. Let's see how will it turn out tomorrow!

Here are the photos of the pesticide that I used on my tomatoes and the foliar fertilizer that I used on my seeds. 

IJO costed 7.90$ and the fertilizer, 9.80$ and both purchased at Ji Mei flower shop.

Sowing Carnation and Phlox seeds: First attempt

Today is my first attempt to sow carnation and phlox flowers and I'm really excited to see the first tiny plants come out.

I bought these seeds in Giants hypermarket at Vivocity for 1.69$ each packet from the Horti brand, then lightly sow them in a potting mix soil that I bought at a local florist shop. The carnation seeds will germinate, hopefully, in 10-14 days and the phlox in approx 14 days. I lightly water them using a gentle spray twice a day leaving the soil damp and not entirely wet then I leave them to rest on my windowsill where not much of direct sunlight but has warmth.

I think I'm safe If I follow all of the instructions! Let's finger-cross!

I might pass by Giants again to buy other types of flowers since I have so much empty pots and soil at home.

Rest them on 10cm pots

Here are the seedlings of the cosmos flower I planted last week! Aren't they cute? First attempt to seed them as well and pretty happy that they germinated in just a few days! Hopefully they'll grow into beautiful strong plants in the following days! I placed them outdoors in my corridor after they have germinated to catch up with the beautiful sunshine in the early morning.

                                            

A close up look at the cosmos seedlings

I know little about these beautiful flowers but what I do know is that these flowers are easy to grow and requires minimum care since it can adapt to tropical weathers. 

Can't wait for what the next days will bring!