Gardening Enthusiasts

[Clickclock]

Hi everyone! with regards to my sexuality, it is a meh, it does not make a significant part of me, it's simply my orientation and nothing more, what defines me is my mind and my personality and I would say that I am a Gardening enthusiast!

Just figured that I should create a thread for all Gardening enthusiasts here to share their pictures of their beloved plants! I really adore the act of nurturing a life from its very small and tiny beginnings, to its glorious bountiful future.

Here are some of my plants at my garden!



 

My watermelons! grew these from seed and pollinated the flowers all by myself =)



Strawberries started from seed!

 

Cotton!



Cucumber!


Besides the plants mentioned above, I have Vanilla, passion fruit, rosemary, mint, pineapple mint, lavender, zinnias, pineapples, aloe veras and more! Would be great if there are any gardening enthusiasts here. =)



 

Edited May 26, 2013 by Clickclock

[Dcky]

Wow, i love gardening too... Can share some tips how to grow those fruit?

Is there any particular soil?

[Clickclock]

Hey there, I'm sorry, I'm not very knowledgeable about soil conditions, I can offer you however, my experience in growing. 

I frequent the use of 'potting soil' that you can get from home fix or NTUC, they're the best that we can get in the heartlands as they are loose enough and they are capable of storing water in it. I tend to avoid soil with lumps of rocks in it as they tend to dry up easily due to excessive drainage. 

Honestly speaking, My fruits did not turn out large and juicy, I was only successful in getting them to emerge in the first place. The watermelons were the size of apples when fully ripen and the cucumbers had some stunted growth, they never succeeded in getting fertilized. 

Generally, soft soil, that doesn't drain much is the best choice for plants, that with a weekly addition of fertilizer. 

[Dcky]

Do u plant in pot or ground? Do u know khoon lee nursery at lim chu kang? I was there this morning n bought some soil, the aunt also tell me those mix with coconut husk can retain water better, but she advise to mix with fire burn soil, hence i listen n bot both... Lol

I planted vege, rosemary, mint, basil, dill etc...

[kitsune]

Generally, soft soil, that doesn't drain much is the best choice for plants, that with a weekly addition of fertilizer. 

 

From your list of growth, you are mainly growing herbs and edibles, which generally require soil that retains more water and need more watering, as compare to say plants (indoor or outdoor). I guess for different species, you'll need different type of soil depending on their conditions.

[Guest milxamax]

wow awesome! i love gardening too and i would like to say you have done a very good job in growing the watermelons! can i ask for you advice on how to grow the watermelons so beautifully? i tried growing honeydew before but its leaf turned yellow and started dying and i did not know how to salvage it. Same goes for my cucumber.

[Clickclock]

Hey mil, honestly speaking, I had good luck on my side during my first batch of watermelons. They grew beautifully and healthily during its first month, I reckon that the aphids have not arrived yet. The watermelons that came out were the size of apples so I wouldn't say that they've turned out well. They fell prey to aphids after two/three months oh well. One thing that I realized is that they love direct sunlight, it helps their leaves grow really fast and big. 

Whenever I encounter yellowing of the leaves, I would first remove the yellow ones to divert its growth energy to the healthier leaves. Thereafter, I would transfer it to a bigger pot with lesser sunlight for it to recover. Then again, there are many reasons for the yellowing of the leaves, this is just one solution that I would always do.

@ Kitsune, wow I really agree with you, I used to have a pot of basil before and those things drink water as if there's no tomorrow!

@ Dcky, like most singaporeans, I live in a hdb apartment, so I grow my plants in pots. Makes it really convenient to move it around. Alright ill use her advice, I'm not very familiar with soil types. 

Edited May 27, 2013 by Clickclock

[qez]

Not much luck growing plants for me. But I managed to grow catmint in a pot near my bedroom window.

[qez]

Wow clickclock! You managed to grow so many edible plants. Do you use any fertilisers?

[kitsune]

@clickclock I really like all your herbs and fruit plants!

 

I am not so lucky with all my herbs (mints, Thai basil, chive, oregano, dill and rosemary) they all just died after a while. Now only left dill which doesn't look as good as when I first got it  ... Maybe one of the reason is that I do not have a lot of direct sunlight in the house. I really like growing them from seeds... it is really exciting to see them sprouting out and everyday it's different. Think I will need to seek your advise when I'm going to get a fresh batch.

 

About those annoying aphids... maybe you can try organic pesticide and watch out for ants, they are sometimes the carrier for aphids. Both are dependent on each other, ants nurture aphids because they suck the sap from plants(demaging them) and secrete a certain high sugar concentration which the ants love, so they work together.

[Clickclock]

@Kitsune

Haha, those herbs that you have mentioned are mostly outdoor plants, the dim conditions indoors isn't really good for them to grow healthy and strong. Don't feel let down when your plants die, see it as a learning point in gardening. Just replace them, eventually you'll get the hang of it. To tell you the truth about 25% of the plants that I have ever owned died off, due to environment shock or lack of nutrients. I got some of my plants from the pasar malams and it's severe change to normal tap water killed them all off. sad.. really sad.

I've tried to grow mint and parsley from seeds before, however, I have encountered bogus seedlings that grew out of them. My guess would be that the companies which supplied the seeds substituted them with some sort of low-quality seeds. Ever since that incident, I became wary about purchasing herb seeds from the stores, its best to buy whole plants from nurseries and then get cuttings from them. With this method, I will be able to guarantee that I got the exact plant desired.

Oh, I have purchased a bottle of neem oil to treat the aphid infestations. Think of it as a Nuclear warhead for insects. It's extremely successful in killing the aphids, however, the strong power of the oil gave my watermelon plant burns and the aphids have this annoying ability to repopulate once the first generation has been eradicated. 

Well, having my garden high up on the 8th storey corridor has its benefits, I have ant problems so far! haha

[Clickclock]

Wow clickclock! You managed to grow so many edible plants. Do you use any fertilisers?

 

Yup, I use some multi-purpose fertilizer that I got from homefix, it comes in a green bottle with a convenient cup attached to it. It has done wonders to some of my plants, not all of them fyi. 

Nah, the number of plants should not be an indicator for your enthusiasm with plants. Plants are beneficial to us both in health and emotionally, be one or many.

[bob24246]

do you have white pomengranate plants?

[firereaver]

Anyone know where I can get herb seeds to grow? I'm also interested in creating my own terrarium.

 

I checked out the workshops offered by HortPark but they all seemed to cater for group bookings only.

[Dcky]

Terrarium is easy...

[kitsune]

terrariums are a good way in for most people who like plants because they are generally easier to take care of. Personally I think that open terrariums are easier... just that you need to monitor and water them more often then close terrariums which tend to mist and the leaves will rot. 

[firereaver]

terrariums are a good way in for most people who like plants because they are generally easier to take care of. Personally I think that open terrariums are easier... just that you need to monitor and water them more often then close terrariums which tend to mist and the leaves will rot. 

 

Closed terrariums tend to mist and rot?? Oh I thought they are "self-sustaining", according to lots of descriptions? It was mentioned that the water does not evaporate thus causing it to mist which acts as water for the plant. Hmm..

[kitsune]

Closed terrariums are "self-contain" cos they are a miniature ecosystem. Somehow for my case the plant doesn't really grow well after a while and I think because the leafs are in constant contact with the wall in the glass which has many water droplets, eventually they rot... hahahaha... and the whole plant look sick. 

[slackerj]

Just wondering, what type of edible plants or herbs could be grown without too much sunlight?

After the town council install the extended shelter to prevent rain water from splashing into the corridor, the short duration of direct sunlight for my plants has been cut off as well.

[Topple]

I grew some lily bulbs bought from supermarket

[Cube3]

I've a couple of avocado shoots that sprouted from fertile seeds, now grown to about 1 metre tall. But they'll never fruit cuz they're in small pots in my HDB corridor. Anyone interested to transplant them into gardens so they can grow and fruit? FOC...am located at Chinatown. PM me if interested

[Guest KimJongUn]

post deleted

Edited October 19, 2013 by KimJongUn

[sukothai]

I'm glad someone has started a thread on gardening. I dont have a garden but a planter at my apartment. I keep some staghorn ferns and plumerias. Here's some staghorn ferns (Platycerium species)

 

Platycerium ellisii

 

P. elephantosis

 

P. veitchii (cultivar silverfront)

 

P. bifurcatum

 

P. ridleyi

 

P. stameria

Edited August 20, 2013 by sukothai

[Cube3]

Hey am looking for ferns to add to my balcony garden...interested to exchange?

 

I'm glad someone has started a thread on gardening. I dont have a garden but a planter at my apartment. I keep some staghorn ferns and plumerias. Here's some staghorn ferns (Platycerium species)

 

Platycerium ellisii

 

P. elephantosis

 

P. veitchii (cultivar silverfront)

 

P. bifurcatum

 

P. ridleyi

 

P. stameria

[Swordaive]

I took a vegetable mum calls it 空心菜. I plant it in a pot. Now it's at the stage where it produce flowers. Really nice and big white flower! But it was infected by mealy bugs! I had to kill off some mealy bug only as I still need the ants around them to pollinate my flowers. The fruit is growing way too slow. I think it's because the mealy bug sucking the sap causes the problem. I throw in some unwanted piece of potatoes as fertilizer and water it everyday so that its water was not drained off the the mealy bugs. Any ideas how to kill these pest without damaging the plant?

[Swordaive]

And we'll I tried having Venus fly trap and ill just say its too difficult to take care of it. I'm currently somehow growing freshwater algae for my fish. I have a few plants which I'm not sure of the name.... But are healthy n no mealy bugs only my vegetable....

[ninamah]

  just started growing some red potatoes  and reportted the strawberiies...  My mublberry  seems  to be coming along just fine.  I have an overgrown garden  filled with   wild parsley, mint, rosemary and thyme

[Swordaive]

Anybody knows the name of a plant that has tiny leaves with root on its big leaves? When're the tiny leave drop, it grows. N lol feeling lazy so I just bought a potted curry leave plant n started on planting my kang kong seeds.

[Guest]

Anybody knows the name of a plant that has tiny leaves with root on its big leaves? When're the tiny leave drop, it grows. N lol feeling lazy so I just bought a potted curry leave plant n started on planting my kang kong seeds.

mother of thousands?

[Swordaive]

Ohh yup that one thanks.

[Cube3]

Ohh yup that one thanks.

 

Also called Bryophyllum. I have spare pots on my balcony...

[machine]

how to grow strawberries from seeds omg?!?! can meh?!?!

[Jekyll@hyde]

Here are some of my plants at my garden!

My watermelons! grew these from seed and pollinated the flowers all by myself =)

Strawberries started from seed!

Cotton!

Cucumber!

what sort of difficult you face in planting cultivating watermelon and cucumber ( a assume at your hdb balcony) Is It chosing the right soil and fertilizer? Is it the ocaasion watering? Or keeping it away from plant diseases?? Edited November 27, 2013 by Jekyll@hyde

[Clickclock]

what sort of difficult you face in planting cultivating watermelon and cucumber ( a assume at your hdb balcony) Is It chosing the right soil and fertilizer? Is it the ocaasion watering? Or keeping it away from plant diseases??

oh sorry for taking such a long time to reply ur posts! I did not know this thread was alive haha.

 

well, ALOT, had loads of problems in growing both 

 

Watermelon

1. Severe infestation of aphids and spider mites in the last few stages of its life, i've tried to spray neem oil but I think it burned the leaves instead. I tried to cut off the dead/infested leaves but I guess it actually made it weaker

2. At the later stage of its life, the vines became really stringy and the leaves became disformed and small

3. watermelons are not normal sized, they turned out to be as big as ping pong balls, prob due to the lack of soil and nutrients

 

Yea, I had to water it frequently, twice daily that is. Compared to orchids, its really really suceptible to diseases and pests.

 

Cucumber

1. more resilient than water melon in keeping pests away, they have tiny spines all over its vines to protect it from bugs. 

2. sadly, its older leaves kept turning yellow and falling off

3. it has a really large root system so alot of soil is needed

4. the main issue with the cucumbers is that the flowers never open fully and hence they could not develop into fruiting cucumbers, I have no idea whats up with them.

5. yea, as they are spiny, its hard to handle them as they prick my fingers alot.

 

yup, they are all placed along a south facing HDB corridor. Tho Its not under full sunlight, it still gets enough light throughout the day.

[Clickclock]

I took a vegetable mum calls it 空心菜. I plant it in a pot. Now it's at the stage where it produce flowers. Really nice and big white flower! But it was infected by mealy bugs! I had to kill off some mealy bug only as I still need the ants around them to pollinate my flowers. The fruit is growing way too slow. I think it's because the mealy bug sucking the sap causes the problem. I throw in some unwanted piece of potatoes as fertilizer and water it everyday so that its water was not drained off the the mealy bugs. Any ideas how to kill these pest without damaging the plant?

 

Hey swordaive, sorry for the late reply, 

 

I believe your plant is a Kang Kong haha! also known as a water spinach, a Morning Glory plant.

I had them as well, but it kept growing and dying at the same time, it finally gave up and died in the end. 

You can try to use neem oil on your plants to kill off the mealy bugs! Got a bottle from novena square a long time ago from two nice ladies.

 

umm another method is to cut away the infected leaves of the plants and wash the plant with a water jet to make sure none of the mealy bugs are still on the leaves. For some of my other plants that are more thick, I will use a paintbrush to brush the little bugs away.

[Clickclock]

  just started growing some red potatoes  and reportted the strawberiies...  My mublberry  seems  to be coming along just fine.  I have an overgrown garden  filled with   wild parsley, mint, rosemary and thyme

 

Oh cool, man.. strawberries are really tricky plants, one moment its leaves are falling off, the other moment, it starts blooming. Never really got a full proper fruit yield before from my ready bought strawberry plants. I bought like 2 , both died, sigh...

 

Hmm red potatoes? how nice, I wonder how it looks like. I've grown normal potatoes before, grew it from some sprouting potatoes in my kitchen, really fast growing and they really resemble tomato plants, haha they are in the same family (solancacae) afterall. It died in the end due to pests ....back then i never knew the existence of neem oil.

 

I've considered getting thyme once, but I figured I should be focussing more on flowering ones like petunias as my HDB corridor is lacking of space and it would be great for me to divert most of it to flowers.

[shyc]

Amazed by the postings here. I only manage to grow chilli and capsicum from the seed after I cut some for my meal. It managed to sprout to about 10-15 cm before it all slowly died away. Not sure why and I tried this a couple of time with same results.

[heianedenwood]

Amazed by the postings here. I only manage to grow chilli and capsicum from the seed after I cut some for my meal. It managed to sprout to about 10-15 cm before it all slowly died away. Not sure why and I tried this a couple of time with same results.

 

Haha! I'll be happy to pass you a plant or two if you wanna try something else.

[bluerunner]

How difficult it is to grow/ take care of sunflower plant?

Does the plant react well to evening sun?

Any advise would be appreciated.

Edited December 9, 2013 by bluerunner

[shyc]

Thanks. As much as I love to, I am usually a little disturb when plants die under my care. I am guessing the reason why they don't grown well in my home is that there are limited sun coming into the flat. Which is why they grow well when sprouting and till a certain height as over exposure to sun kills them. By the time they are well develop and need the sun, the lack of it killed them slowly. I will stick to just taking care of myself for now... but appreciate the offer.

Haha! I'll be happy to pass you a plant or two if you wanna try something else.

 

I have seen huge sunflowers grown along the street oversea but never occur to me to plant them here. Nor wonder why i rarely, if any at all, seen them grown here.I believe they need plenty of sun for them to grow to almost human height. Your quries made me curious to and have google some readings:

http://www.almanac.com/plant/sunflowers

http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/grow-sunflower.html

http://www.wikihow.com/Grow-a-Sunflower-in-a-Pot

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/care-sunflowers-inside-26624.html

How difficult it is to grow/ take care of sunflower plant?
Does the plant react well to evening sun?
Any advise would be appreciated.

 

[heianedenwood]

How difficult it is to grow/ take care of sunflower plant?

Does the plant react well to evening sun?

Any advise would be appreciated.

 

Sunflowers are easy. Full sun, lots of water and lots of compost.

 

It loves sun so evening sun is not an issue. The problem would be how fast it depletes the soil of nutrients.

[bluerunner]

@shyc, heisnedenwood: thanks for your advise. I m so tempted to try sunflower now.

[Jekyll@hyde]

oh sorry for taking such a long time to reply ur posts! I did not know this thread was alive haha.

 

well, ALOT, had loads of problems in growing both 

 

Watermelon

1. Severe infestation of aphids and spider mites in the last few stages of its life, i've tried to spray neem oil but I think it burned the leaves instead. I tried to cut off the dead/infested leaves but I guess it actually made it weaker

2. At the later stage of its life, the vines became really stringy and the leaves became disformed and small

3. watermelons are not normal sized, they turned out to be as big as ping pong balls, prob due to the lack of soil and nutrients

 

 

 

So it was more of putting weak pesticide to remove the pest for the infestation ?  so what sort of compost put to supplement the soil and give the nutrients it need ??

[shyc]

ok back to trying.

 

23 days old purple basil grown from seeds found in the tiny flowers when i bought the cut basil form the wet market.

 

3 days old tomatoes (yesterday)

 

4th day (grew twice the size overnight)

[Kage]

So it was more of putting weak pesticide to remove the pest for the infestation ?  so what sort of compost put to supplement the soil and give the nutrients it need ??

 

Compost is more of a soil conditioner than a sole provider for nutrients. It's always better to use fertilizers, be it organic ones or chemical ones. Both organic fertilizers and chemical fertilizers have their pros and cons. Organic fertilizers releases nutrients to the plant bit by bit through the break down of micro organisms whereas chemical fertilizers allows readily available nutrients for the plants to take up.

 

And when we talk about fertilizers, be sure to look at the ratio of minerals it possesses. The macro elements that are mainly focused in fertilizers are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. (The ratio can be seen on the packaging, for example, 5: 10: 10)

In layman terms, higher dosage of nitrogen generally promotes growth of shoots and as for phosphorus it generally aids more in roots growth. And as for Potassium, it helps the plant in flowering and fruiting. So by manipulating and controlling what you give to your plant, you can alter the way it grows. 

 

Not forgetting that there are essential micro elements crucial to plant's growth, these elements, generally needed in small amount for most plants, are crucial. Just get a worm tea fix and mix it into your soil, it'll help condition the soil and provide the needed micro elements. 

[Guest mrbotanyboey]

I'm glad someone has started a thread on gardening. I dont have a garden but a planter at my apartment. I keep some staghorn ferns and plumerias. Here's some staghorn ferns (Platycerium species)

 

Platycerium ellisii

 

P. elephantosis

 

P. veitchii (cultivar silverfront)

 

P. bifurcatum

 

P. ridleyi

 

P. stameria

 

 

Wow, I'm impressed with your Platycerium collection. To date, I only got one species (P. bifurcatum) and it's doing okay.

I'm surprise that some of the platycerium species look well here. I thought P. elephantonis & P. ridleyi needs a high humidity but I see it growing well at your balcony/corridor 0.o

I have other species of plants growing as well such as orchids, saplings, gingers, herbs, and some of the common ornamental plants.

I'm interested in collecting more epiphytes though.

[Guest mrbotanyboey]

Sunflowers are easy. Full sun, lots of water and lots of compost.

 

It loves sun so evening sun is not an issue. The problem would be how fast it depletes the soil of nutrients.

 

How difficult it is to grow/ take care of sunflower plant?

Does the plant react well to evening sun?

Any advise would be appreciated.

 

Full sun is really the main driving factor for growing Sunflower. mine died when there were too little sun exposure

[Kage]

oh sorry for taking such a long time to reply ur posts! I did not know this thread was alive haha.

 

well, ALOT, had loads of problems in growing both 

 

Watermelon

1. Severe infestation of aphids and spider mites in the last few stages of its life, i've tried to spray neem oil but I think it burned the leaves instead. I tried to cut off the dead/infested leaves but I guess it actually made it weaker

2. At the later stage of its life, the vines became really stringy and the leaves became disformed and small

3. watermelons are not normal sized, they turned out to be as big as ping pong balls, prob due to the lack of soil and nutrients

 

Yea, I had to water it frequently, twice daily that is. Compared to orchids, its really really suceptible to diseases and pests.

 

Cucumber

1. more resilient than water melon in keeping pests away, they have tiny spines all over its vines to protect it from bugs. 

2. sadly, its older leaves kept turning yellow and falling off

3. it has a really large root system so alot of soil is needed

4. the main issue with the cucumbers is that the flowers never open fully and hence they could not develop into fruiting cucumbers, I have no idea whats up with them.

5. yea, as they are spiny, its hard to handle them as they prick my fingers alot.

 

yup, they are all placed along a south facing HDB corridor. Tho Its not under full sunlight, it still gets enough light throughout the day.

 

Did you mix your own neem oil or did you purchase the ready mixed one? Well mixed neem oil shouldn't burn the leaves of the plants, unless you've used it in a hot afternoon or a hot day. (It's always best to use pesticides, no matter what sort, at night.) For infestations, isolate the plant that is infested and discard any infested leaves far away from the plant, make sure you spray the neem oil all around the plant, including the bottom of the leaves. 

 

Watermelon generally prefers sandy loam soil that has a slightly better drainage, keep the soil moist but make sure you don't over water (which causes the soil to be water logged), and oh yeah, watermelon requires a fertilizer that is high in nitrogen, be sure to use one that has a higher nitrogen base. Make sure your watermelon plant gets full exposure to sunlight, they need loads of sunlight! 

[machine]

anybody into succulent plants?

[Cube3]

anybody into succulent plants?

 

Yup a variety of edible & medicinal aloes, epiphyllums...