Imafans 2020 Garden

[imafan26]

I am am starting my new journal for this year. It has been raining most of the day and it was 70 degrees this morning and it is 70 again this evening. Tonight's low will be about 67 degrees.

I still have 3 Soarer cucumbers to pick. Suyo has a new 3 inch baby cucumber and I hope this one does not get stung. I had to throw the last one away because of fruit fly damage. The Suyo vine looked small, but in the last couple of weeks the leaves have gotten bigger and they are taking off now. I fed everything in the main garden and tomato pots 5 days ago with 10-20-20 that I had left over.
The papaya is getting tall, but it has set its' first fruit. It is a two stemmed papaya since I have cut it down once before. I will probably not keep it long as the fruit will soon be out of reach.

Things that are ready for harvest: lettuce (2) heads, harvesting outer leaves for sandwiches. Komatsuna, calamondin, Meyer lemons, eggplant, chili peppers, beets, and choi sum. Herbs spearmint, peppermint, lemon grass, Jamaican oregano (needs to be cut back), ginger, pandan (needs to be divided).

What is in bloom now: 3 dendrobiums, spike is up on the phaius, ascocenda Princess Masako, onc. sphaceolatum spikes are up ( they will not bloom till May)

1 pink rose is blooming. I found a volunteer red button rose. I need to dig it up and pot it. alyssum, and the gardenias.
Cutting box: bougainvillea Barbara Karst, red ribbons rose, pikake, look like they are ready. I need to check the roots to see if they are full enough to transplant. All of the tea rose cutting died. If anybody has any hints, I have a hard time propagating tea rose cuttings. All of the citrossa cutting also died but I tried leaving them out in the sun and I guess that doesn't work for them as they dry out too fast.

I sprayed glyphosate a couple of weeks ago and I thought it did not work, but now the weeds and grass are finally dead. I will have to use image on the lawn to try to thin out the nut sedge. I have more nut sedge than grass in the front yard. I have to pull out the seedlings of the weedy trees and the fukien tea, glyphosate does not work that well on them. I missed my green collection. My can is only half full, so I still have 1-1/2 cans to fill. With all this rain I will have to mow the weeds again soon.

Things on my to do (wish) list: Mix more soil mix. I need to bring a 4 cubic bag of perlite to the back lanai and some peat moss. The 3.8 cu ft bag is too heavy for me to use so I will decant it into 5 gallon buckets and mix a bucket at a time.

Need to start seedlings for February plant sale. Peppers, tomatoes, green onions, cilantro, Thai basil, fennel, dill, and parsley. Cucumbers will need to wait till 3 weeks before the sale. I can divide pandan, spearmint , peppermint, okinawan spinach, and lemon grass. I can make more cuttings of calamondin, citrossa, rosemary, mussaenda glabra, and lavender.

I can try to make cuttings from the peppers. I have not done this before, but it should be possible. I will keep trying to get the tea rose cutting to grow. I have to cut the roses anyway so I'll keep playing around with it. The ramblers are easier to grow. I have extra cutting celery seedlings in the garden I can pot up for the sale.

I have a few more seedlings to plant out in the garden and I need to clean it up to make space for the new seeds. Snails are out and I have to bait every two weeks. I am still finding one or two snails in the onions almost every day. I am getting anywhere from 2-4 large snails on morning snail hunts. The snails have eaten the won bok cabbage and there are a few holes in the broccoli as well, but the undersides of the leaves are clean. I have been seeing monarch butterflies, but no caterpillars. I don't have milkweeds at my house, so they must be from the neighbors.

I have to repot some of the citrus trees, ginger, araimo, and peppers. I need to clean out the orchid bench and repot the orchids on the table so they can go out to the bench. Need to fix the shade supports for the bench. Need to dig out the parrot beak heliconia and pot them up. Kill the rest of them. Dragon fruit: ditto make cuttings for potting up and cull the rest (it is over 10 ft long now. Make cuttings of ajaka basil, repot citrus, Try to make more cutting of lehua (new leaves are out). I can make some cuttings from the confederate rose(if the branches are clean), More cuttings from bay leaves, bougainvillea since they have to be cut back anyway. Ti leaf needs to be cut back and branches thinned. Pot up some of the hare's foot fern and pink ginger.
Make cutting of Euphorbia cotonifolia and then cut it back and reshape the ball. Rhapsiolepsis indica needs to be trimmed.
Replant the garage edging where I killed the weeds with akulikuli gazania and cuphea. I will probably also replant cuphea again on the border on the other side of the front lawn. Trim back the tree gardenia and possibly cut back the mussaenda glabra. ( I may need help with that since it means going up a ladder.) Replant the surving agapanthus and amaryllus bulbs. Make cuttings of adenium. Pot up the honohono seedlings. Where to put them I don't know. The trees are full.

Still on my to do list. Replace the sprinkler manifolds.(I have put this off for two years already, and I am not in a rush to do it. I hate glue and pvc). Cut down the palm trees.(For this I really need help. The palms are over 30 ft tall and I need a spotter. Cutting the palm is not the problem. It will be controlling where it falls.) Cut down the fukien tea and other weeds behind the plumeria and in the back bed. I can barely see the pineapple and I haven't seen the orchids under the weeds for a long time. I don't even know if they are still alive.

Wire the jade for bonsai. Cut the pomegranate and possibly repot to let it grow out more. Repot the jaboticaba to let it grow out.
Bougainvillea wires might be able to come off. Maintenance trimming after blooms fall.

[applestar]

Wow when you list them up like that, it feels like a LOT of things. I suppose if I did the same thing, I might have similarly complex list of to do’s ...and give up! I need to put blinders on and trick myself into focusing on and taking tiny bites at a time.


...about the tea rose — I was wondering if you are up for trying something new? Since you have/can grow plenty of rootstock, what about trying to graft the tea rose onto them? Grafting has become pretty commonplace for vegetable seedlings so it’s become easier to find/get those handy clips to hold the cutting onto rootstock, and you can get them in different sizes for solanacea seedlings and cucurbita seedlings (and even larger)... Or you can go old school and wrap with grafting tape etc.

You seem to have the ideal cutting and probably grafting bench climate so you probably don’t have to build a misting table and auto-irrigation set up first like I would... but if you are tinkering with your irrigation system, you might pull a line from there and throw in an overhead misting for the hard to root cuttings and graft nursery bench.

[imafan26]

I could try grafting. I actually do sort a belong to the grafting hui. I have a 100% failure rate. I know the technique but I have a weak wrist so my cuttings look straight, but when it is put together you can tell it is wavy. My wrapping technique was fine, but my mentor said the graft is not stable because it is not cut long enough. I have to work on that. I actually do have all the grafting materials parafin tape, grafting knife and I even have a new grafting tool. ( I forgot what happened to my old one). My tea roses are bigger than the rootstock so it is actually harder to graft that way. I may have to work on getting the trunk on the rambler bigger. Usually I grow citrus trees by cuttings or bring in scions from my mothers persian lime which takes very well. I have been grafting citrus trees and even the better grafters said it is a difficult plant to graft and maybe I should start with something easy to graft like succulents or hibiscus.

One of my co workers used to just chop her roses and stick them in a can of water and they would root. She said she did not pay any special attention to them. I did get roses to root under a humidity tent, but they eventually got mildew and died. I root the shrub roses like every thing else in perlite and only watered once a day and they are fine. No humidity tent. The humidity is high here so I don't know why I would even need one.

[imafan26]

I went out during a lull in the wind and rain yesterday. The plants that are under the eaves, entryway, and lanai needed to be watered. They are drying out from the wind. I wanted to do cuttings but there is too much wind. I did plant some Kuroda carrots, and Bok choy in the garden. I harvested some overgrown cucumbers. Two were still good, two were too stung to keep.
Soarer may not last much longer. It is starting to show signs of bacterial and fungal diseases. Suyo is doing better, but it is more resistant to mildews. All in all Soarer did pretty well considering how much rain there has been and that I have not fungicided any of the plants yet.

I also planted Red romaine, green onions, won bok (napa cabage), baby bok choi, and parstey. I am not sure the peppers will do well at these marginal temperatures. Emerald Giant is a gamble, super chili seeds are from my plants so there is no seed cost; worth a try. A wild super chili sprung up on its own in the last month, so it is worth trying. The wild chili is about 2.5 feet and has a few peppers on it. It grew tall because it was under the eaves next to the bench.

The Oregon sugar snow peas have finally started to flower and I found 5 pea pods. Greencrop bush beans have a few more beans to pick, but it looks straggly. It is missing a few leaves. One bok choy in the garden was dead and the choi sum is blooming. One beet is ready to pick. Cutting celery seedlings are popping out all over. I will have to repot some of them when it is less windy. Suyo has another cucumber, but it is not ready to pick yet. The bittermelon is climbing over everything again and I will have to pull it off. I harvested the araimo for NY but I did not get many. Most the the larger corms had already started to rot, so I have a lot of smaller corms that need to be replanted. The downside of miracle grow potting mix is showing up now. Some of the plants that were doing well in it when it was dryer are now rotting because it is holding too much water. I will have to add more perlite or start making peatlite again. I would like to put the cover on the orchid bench, but it will blow off in this wind. The shadecloth does not block the rain. Although my orchids are potted to handle daily watering, they don't like to be watered 24 hours a day, except honohono orchids and vanda which don't mind it.

I still have a lot of peppers on the bushes. Some of the annual peppers like the bell pepper and the jalapeno are either dead or not looking good. I have super chile, kung pao, and Fushimi sweet producing peppers. Bhut Jolokia, is doing o.k. but is not producing peppers when it is this cold. Peppers are good for trade now. At the market over Christmas, the small peppers like the super chilies were selling for $28 a pound. My BIL told me they were over $20 per pound but I rarely have to buy them so it was sticker shock. I do have to admit, this is a warm winter, because normally, I don't have a lot of peppers this time of the year. Peppers will ripen on the tree but it won't flower very much when it is cold.

The gardenias, Indian Hawthorne, e. cotonifolia, murraya koenegii, and the weeds all need work. I even have a wild rose growing in the dirt in the middle of my back yard. I can't grow tea roses from cuttings, but the wild rambler roses root themselves.

I got some light copper wire the jade.

[imafan26]

It is still raining. Some of the peppers are showing black speck now. There isn't much I can do about it. It is an ongoing problem whenever the weather gets like this. The wind broke one of the e. cotonifolia's lower branches. It will be a little lopsided for a while. Interesting, most of the wind is actually breaking things relatively high up, the things on the ground seem to be o.k. The trees and shrubs are taking a beating, but except for small pots that get blown over, the other things are as affected. When the sun does decide to shine and the wind dies down the bees come out, but they are pollinating the weeds. It might be a less windy day today. It is the first time I have seen the doves come out at my house for days. I hope they leave my chili seeds alone.

[imafan26]

The lettuce seeds have sprouted with 24/7 rain. A few more seedlings are popping up, but as expected. It is cold and the peppers show not a peep.

I brought home another phalaenopsis from my orchid club annual meeting today. It has one broken flower and one flower open, but the rest are in bud so it should last a couple of months at least. When I went to put it out on the table, I discovered that I have another phalaenopsis with a small spike and another dendrobium also starting to spike. I watered the orchids. They could probably go a little while longer but it has been three days since they were last watered and the wind has still been windy. I have been either going to work or staying in the house since it is raining and windy most of the time and the ground is muddy.

I went through my seed bags and I will have to adjust my wish list for this year. I also found a container of tofu that expired in 2017 in the back of the seed bags. It is a good thing that the tofu package was sealed. That frig is used mostly to store pasta, flour, pancake mix, dried foods, garlic, seeds, and overflow from the other fridge. I did manage to shrink my seed bag by 2 bags. That is an improvement. I will have to go through it again, because I did not look at the seed expiration dates and I probably have more that can go. Pretty much anything over 5 years is iffy unless they are beans or dill. I should get rid of the mystery seed or plant them to see what they are.

[TomatoNut95]

@Imafan, do you have a freezer? Perhaps storing your seeds in a jar in the freezer would help them last longer.

[imafan26]

I have 2 refrigerators with freezers and a chest freezer. The power outages tripped the circuit on the chest freezer and I did not know about it for a while. I had to throw out almost everything in the freezer. There are still some things frozen in the permafrost in the bottom of the freezer. I keep my seeds on the bottom shelf, vegetable drawer and door, of one refrigerator. If they were in the freezer, I probably would never find them. I really need to go through the seeds, some of them I purged earlier were from 1999 and 2007. There was abut 3 inches of water in the freezer and water was pouring from the lid every time I opened it when I found it. I am amazed it still works considering the freezer is almost 20 years old. I have 7 or 8 grocery bags full of seeds.

[TomatoNut95]

7 or 8 bags full! Wow! I don't keep my seeds in the freezer either, even though I should. Freezing seeds helps them last for years. I keep my tomato seeds in little plastic storage baggies in a jar in a box under a chair. My other veggie seeds are kept in their packets in a ziploc bag in the same box under the chair.

[applestar]

My head just went white/blank trying to imagine how to clean out a freezer in that state. I guess you need one of those alarms that goes off when power is cut off.

Our chest freezer used to be plugged into the GFI outlet in the garage, but it turned out that it was also on the same circuit as the outside outlets, and when THAT got tripped (my pond stuff are plugged into that, as well as extension cord for using electric garden tools), the freezer would lose power. My “fix” for that situation had been to plug in a heavy duty outdoor extension cord with a bright orange LED on the end and secure it to a fence within easy view from the window — if that light was not on, then the GF had tripped. But - yeah - we ended up installing a dedicated outlet for the chest freezer.

I’m inspired to clean out my chest freezer and refrigerator, too. Like Rainbowgardener said, it’s something that needs to be done before the growing season starts producing new harvest to be preserved....

[imafan26]

Actually, the main circuit tripped. Usually, only the bathroom GFCI trips when the power goes off. The chest freezer is in a bedroom that I use for storage. This house was wired with 2 bedrooms and the living room (formerly the third bedroom) on the same circuit. I rarely go into the bedrooms and most of the things except the living room lamps and a lamp in each bedroom are even plugged in. The freezer actually is drawing most of the power on that circuit ( it old from 1972). In 1991 we built the extension and put in a larger box but we did not rewire the house. We cannot turn on all the lights in every room and have a tv or anything else plugged in without tripping that circuit. The freezer should be on a dedicated circuit. We have a similar situation with the second frig. It is in the old dining room and it is on the same circuit as the old living room/current dining room. I don't turn on the lights much there either. But it should also be on a dedicated circuit. The new extention is also a loaded circuit. The inspector said it was legal but it was "full". When I installed the two window AC's in the bedroom and the computer room, the installer said not to put both AC's on at the same time. Actually, we did run it with both AC's on and it does handle that. There was brown out when the AC, Stereo, TV, Ceiling fan, halogen lights, table lights and the iron was on at the same time. Most of my electric bill comes from the 2 refrigerators, chest freezer, and 2 water heaters. The refrigerators are too full so they are the biggest power consumers. I have fluorescent lights almost everywhere. There are incandescents in the closet but they are rarely turned on. Because of the frequent power outages and surges most of the things like the tv's, and lamps in the rooms I rarely go to are not even plugged in. I have electronic surge protectors on the phone, computer, and the CPAP machine, but the phones and computer still got fried. I only rarely use the AC because it would raise the electric bill too much. I have night lights so even at night, I rarely put on a light and I turn off lights when I leave the room. Right now besides the night light, and the clock, the only other source of light is the computer. It is like this everyday. I don't need LED lights. Most of the fluorescent lights are 20+ yrs old.

The freezer is going to be hard to clean. When I opened the lid the water poured out of the lid. I can't even reach the bottom of the freezer very well even with me standing on my tippy toes. The freezer is probably over 20 years old too.

[applestar]

My take on the freezer — if you can open the lid, then open it and siphon out all the water — easiest if you use the kerosene heater oil manual siphon pump with ends extended/inserted in a garden hose (if it fits tight) or maybe I used a different tubing — I do seem to remember it fit in a 1/2 inch hose.

It might help if you use a large shop-vac and vacuum the water near the top out first to lower the water level. I have a commercial model — a hand-me-down from my DB when he moved and I haven’t tried using it yet — that has a floor cleaner attachment with a wide, very narrow flat nozzle which might be useful if I had it turned on and inserted into the gap as soon as lid is cracked open. This would be further helped if I lifted the freezer on one corner on a riser/wedge first so the water will come out of the other (designated) corner. (You could concentrate on prepping the floor on this end for the inevitable flooding.)

If you can’t open the lid without the water pouring out, and the lid does keep the water in, I can only suggest getting/hiring someone to strap down the lid and carry it outside on a furniture dolly first. At that point, you can probably get the same person to lay it down on its side for you.

[pepperhead212]

@Imafan, Sorry to hear about your power failure there, and the loss of all that food. Hopefully, you can save the appliances.

[imafan26]

The freezer is actually quite light, but getting it out through the door is not easy. I am planning to get a large tarp and some sheets and towels. I will have to cover the opening where the motor is to keep more water from going in there. Unplug the freezer and let it thaw. I still will have problems getting to the bottom of the freezer. I got a lot of the water out from it the last time with a bucket and sponges, but I can't really get all the way to the bottom easily. I probably have to go and buy a string mop to mop it up. The only things I could save was the butter. I did not realize how much I have. Some of the flour was high enough and the nori is in plastic wrap so they did not get wet. I have to find somewhere to put that stuff in the meantime. I will probably have to take the seeds out of the frig and use that space. I used to bake a lot more before, but I get tired even doing that now. The flour and butter are kept in the freezer to keep the bugs out of the flour and so the butter will last longer. The butter is unsalted. My mom gets meals on wheels and she gave me even more butter that is in the other freezer. I don't use a lot of butter for anything. On the positive side, that freezer needed to be cleaned out a long time ago.

I did finally go outside today since the wind and rain have taken a short break. It is still overcast and it smells like more rain is on the way. The kales and lettuce have sprouted. The Soarer cucumber is done. The beans lost half their leaves but they still produced a few more beans. The lettuce heads have pickable outer leaves and the cutting celery is growing. I will have to pot them up soon as well. The komatsuna is also ready to harvest. I picked some beans, hon tsai tai, snow peas, currant tomatoes for dinner tonight. I still have a cucumber to eat on the counter. Lettuce, green onions, and a couple of beets are ready to eat as well. The green onions took the worse beating from the wind and rain. Many of the tops are bent over. They may not look good, but they still taste fine. I got 4 amaryllis bulbs from Sam's club yesterday and they already are starting to grow so I potted them up temporarily in 1 gallon pots. The ground is too wet to work and red clay is not something that can be worked wet. Sam's had bare root roses but they had all broken dormancy. Too bad, they had some cultivars that I liked like Pink Peace and Pristine. I only go to Sam's once a month, so I did not know they had their garden stuff in yet.

[TomatoNut95]

What is komatsuna and hon tsai tai? And you took the words from my mouth: NEVER work in wet red clay. 'Course it's hard to work in when it's rock-hard dry either....

I've got a ton of hoeing I need to do, the Chickweed and Henbits are taking over my garden since the stupid Texas winter weather isn't staying cold enough to keep weeds at bay until Spring.

[imafan26]

Komatsuna is a spinach mustard. It is a brassica, but unlike the mustard relatives, it does not have a strong bite so it is good for soups and stir fries. It can be harvested multiple times in a season. The link below only shows komatsuna in its baby leaf stage. The one in my garden has an 18 inch diameter with leaves over a foot long.

Hon tsai tai is an Asian broccoli. It is harvested just as the flower buds appear. The buds are also edible as well as the leaves. It is also used for stir fries and soups. Asian greens can be grown over winter in warm zones and has a bit more heat tolerance than regular brassicas and lettuce. Hon tsai tai is skinny purple Kailaan. Kailaan, Chinese broccoli, has white flowers and a thick stem. I can only grow western broccoli and cauliflower between September and May. I can grow Asian green from September to about June. I could possibly grow them in partial shade, temperatures above 90 will make them bolt and get bitter and tough.

"Winter" is the rainy season and the bugs are not as active, but the weeds grow an inch a day and the snails are having a party.
Asian and tropical plants fair pretty well since humidity does not really bother them. The western and Mediterranean plants are another story. Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, sage, cucumber, lavender, basil, and thyme struggle with the constant rain and mildew and bacterial diseases are difficult to control. My succulents are all in rocks in terra cotta or well aerated pots and they have been the survivors of many rainy seasons. So if it does stop raining even for a brief period they will survive that is, as long as we don't get another 42 days and nights of rain. True cacti are in the entry and are being watered now less than once a week. If they were out in the rain, they would all be mush now. When the rain does stop the bees do come out to forage. Bees and butterflies here do forage year round. They do cluster but they still have food sources, unfortunately, they pollinate the weeds. I do make sure that I have something in bloom year round for them. I have alyssum and cuphea which bloom most of the year and provide nectar for beneficial insects as well as bees and butterflies.

https://adventuresomekitchen.com/hon-tsai-tai/
https://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/white- ... green-3204
hisnzlife.co.nz/grow-komatsuna-delicious-leafy-green-youve-probably-never-heard/

[imafan26]

The rain finally stopped yesterday. I took out the Soarer cucumber vines and there was still one cucumber on it. Suyo has two cucumbers but they are touching the ground so they are curling. The snow peas are producing flowers and more peas are on the way. I have to enjoy them while I can, there is only a short time to grow them. I found 2 bok choy on the nursery bench and planted them in the garden. I have to remember where to plant them. The garlic in the tomato pot have been overwhelmed by lack of light. Only a couple remain and they may not be around much longer. The garlic with the beets are doing the best. They also get the most sun. The onions next to the cabbage has the organic soil and is near the cabbage, although the cabbage should not be blocking its light. I will need to feed it more. Lettuce leaves are ready to harvest. Lettuce will last longer as long as the weather is cool. The seeds I planted survived the almost constant rain and wind. The kales have all sprouted and a few of the rainbow chard as well. Green onions are just starting to poke out of the soil. I did find a snail on the bench and a couple in the green onions so I will have to sluggo everything again before the snails munch on the seedlings again. Chili peppers and papaya have not made an appearance. It is cold for them. Komatsuna is harvestable and so are some of the beets. I have already harvested the hon tsai tai. The calamondin does need to be picked as they are starting to ripen.

The wind knocked down the vanda again and it is sunburned. I cut it into three pieces. The original bottom is still in its' pot on the tree. It will take time but will regrow a new top. The middle and top are in separate 4 gallon pots and I put them under the citrus tree. The middle will have to grow a new top. The sunburned top was not burned at the growing tip, so hopefully it will survive. I have to take out two other orchids to make room for the ascocenda Princess Masako , so I potted up the gram and the epi and put them on the front orchid bench.

I got 2 snails in the onions, one on the nursery bench with the seedlings, 3 on the other nursery bench that is overgrown, 2 in the orchids by the tree,2 on the ground near the front orchid bench, one near the cucumberr, and 2 slugs in the empty nursery pots. I guess I need to sluggo again. I got up late and it was after 8 a.m., there would have been more snails out earlier. I did not even go to look in the other corner of the yard. I usually have more in the front yard than the back yard since I don't sluggo the front yard much. Considering how much rain we had for such a long time, the lavender is holding up. I think the strong winds helped to keep the tops dry. Usually, the lavender turns black when it rains almost continually. The Rabbit foot ferns are starting to reach out into the sidewalk. I think I will have to get around to thinning them. The ti leaves are growing thick. I should thin them again, but I will wait until there is less wind, they are less likely to break if they stay together and they are a windbreak for now. The plumeria is leafless, but the weight of the orchids swinging and the fact that the branches of the plumeria are old and rotting is why the plumeria is breaking now. I should replace the+ year old trees. I would need to find somewhere else to put the orchids. I don't have other trees or a shade house to hang them. Even if I plant new plumeria, it will be 10 years before they get big enough.

Blooming in the garden (besides the weeds), orchids: Phalaenopsis, Paphiopedulum maudiae hybrid, Phaius looks to have three spike now and three dendrobiums. ( I just got another Phalaenopsis from the orchid club annual meeting in bloom).
alyssum , cuphea, gailardia, rose (Pink one, I don't remember the name). Musaenda glabra ( it blooms year round), Swan neck agave spike has reached the roof so it is at least 10 ft tall now, the buds are swelling. Parrot beak heliconia (which is growing through my main nursery bench has a lot of blooms. I will have to destroy the patch since it is spreading and is hard to control, but I also want to wait to harvest the flowers. I may have to do some selective culling. The aloe vera is also starting to bloom. Mine has yellow flowers. The bees do like the aloe, but they like the weeds and palm racemes more. The bougainvillea is at the end of this cycle of bloom, but has not dropped many flowers yet.

[imafan26]

The lettuce has gone to seed. I have pulled out half of them and replanted Red Romaine, manoa, and mei ching choi (bok choi). the seedlings were overdue for planting out. I got some cascabella peppers to sprout. I had to hide them from the birds. I am surprised by the fact that my peppers are still producing peppers now. I checked at the market and the market price for hot peppers (Hawaiian, super chili) are $28 lb. A bouquet of flowers 5 anthuriums and some greens are $8.99. Calamondin sells for $3.69 lb. These are things I don't buy, and are growing in my yard right now. If I actually ate this much, I would be making a dent in my grocery bill for sure. I don't, but these things are still good for trade. I traded calamondin for pancit and Lumpia. Good deal.

It was windy again last night, but I was able to fill up my second green can in time for today's collection. Now, I have to fill it up again.

[imafan26]

I went to the herb garden on Saturday and got some weeds pulled and spread some compost in a couple of small sections. A couple of people came to help me and we ended pulling two 32 gallon bags of weeds + some dead basil that was too big to put in the bags. I planted English and French thyme, manoa lettuce, and won bok. I replanted shiso by repositioning the volunteer seedlings. It should be too cold for shiso now, but it has been unseasonably warm so maybe they will do o.k. I got tick seed stuck all over my clothes. I have to remember to get me a lint roller to take it out. I don't want to take that home.

I wanted to plant more seeds, but the water to the shade house was turned off. So far, it rained the last couple of days so the plants were still moist. Hopefully they will fix it soon or the seedlings I have will die as well. I still had water in the herb garden but all of the faucets and sprinkler system in the shade house are not working. It is too far to bring a hose from the garden.

The trench composted beds look like they can be planted soon. I will have to extend the irrigation systems to water those beds.

I need to find some leaf mold for the fig tree and I have to prune it some more. I knocked my head into it while weeding, so it is sticking out too far.

There are some eggplant and figs ready to eat in the garden.

There are also some snails, beetle grubs, earthworms and a large number of centipedes in the compost.

The bees were out working the basil. They are usually there for most of the day. The Carolinian bees are pretty docile and they are used to me working around them, so as long as I am mindful that they are there, they did not buzz me.

We now have 10 hives again in the apiary. A swarm moved into one of our empty hives in the apiary. We have been feeding the hives through winter and they have just been treated with MAQ's for varoa mite. The citrus trees are already blooming so we will have an early honey flow. Hopefully, we will be able to put the supers on the hives soon. We lost a hive to mites and deformed wing virus in the fall, but so far, all the other hives have survived winter. We did have to re queen a couple of hives.
Our bees do have year round forage, but they can't fly in wind and rain. We have replaced most of the combs in the hives. Most of the supers have newer combs. There are still some frames in the brood boxes we need to change out. It is hard since the queen likes to lay her eggs on the same frames. We replace frames to cut down on disease in the hive. We did have chalk brood , but so far no American foul brood or nosema. So we have been lucky. We try to clean up around the hives for about 15 minutes every time we do a hive check. We have also replaced most of our boxes since many of the old ones were rotting and not sealing properly. We still have a few short frames in the brood boxes we need to switch to medium frames.

In my home garden, I planted out more romaine lettuce and bok choy; pulled out the old manoa lettuce. I bought a green eggplant the other day, but I still have to fill the pot and plant it. I moved the bougainvillea out to the sun again. I put it on the ground this time so, it actually was able to keep standing even with the wind.

I have two or three phalaenopsis buds starting to fill out. The phaius is still opening buds on its three spikes, one paph is still blooming, the other is fading. I have a couple of dendrobiums also in bloom. The popcorn oncidium has opened one flower and a couple of other spikes look like they will be blooming soon. It is unusualy for them to be blooming so early. the honohono leaves are yellowing, but they have not dropped. I don't think they will bloom in time for the show in March. The roses are in bloom as well as the gardenia, Princess Michiko hibiscus and tropical rhodedendron. The foxtail agave spike is budding up.

In the garden I have an overgrown cucumber, yellow collards, komatsuna, cutting celery, beets, manoa lettuce, romaine lettuce, Kuroda carrots, garlic and onions. The onions have small 1 inch bulbs on them now. I accidentally pulled a couple of them when I was trying to weed them. The red currant tomatoes have some bacterial spots on the leaves from all the rain, but all in all not too bad.

[imafan26]

It is raining again with a strong system passing overnight. There are a few puddles in the yard and the water came in a couple of feet into the lanai. My shoes in the entry were full of water.
The rain has eased up so I went out and harvested some komatsuna for dinner and planted some manoa lettuce and soarer cucumbers. I don't think I have to water the yard today. I found wild cutting celery, tomatoes, a rose, and even a carrot growing in the yard along with the weeds. I am going to have to clean up a lot after it dries out a bit.

[imafan26]

I finally figured out how to upload pictures from my new phone to the computer. The hardest part was figuring out where they landed and getting them out again. Sorry all the pictures are sideways. They don't look like that on my computer, but I don't want to mess with it now.

[imafan26]

I went out today to fill my second green can for collection tomorrow. The skies are over cast and it is cold for me (71 degrees). I harvested some lettuce from the garden. A few of the lettuce are bolting. I have already planted some succession lettuce. The komatsuna I harvested yesterday, wilted. I think it may be a goner now. I only have one cucumber left. Something ate the second cucumber seedling and the stem has been cut off. I still have volunteer tomatoes growing and I have to pull them out since I know they are are the current tomatoes. I only need the one plant for now. I already planted charger and so far that one is o.k. Some of the older vegetables like the beets and collards may have to be harvested. I know what to do with the beets, but I have to figure out how to store the collards. I usually grow fresh vegetables because they are fresh. I don't usually have room in the freezer or tried to store anything for later. The bok choy looks like it is also ready for harvest. At least that one looks just right and not ready to bolt. If I don't have squash, at least I can use the green papaya as a substitute. I would plant a hyotan but it would take up too much space.

I cut the Indian curry plant and bilimbi back. I have more to cut after the cans get emptied tomorrow.

The weeds I sprayed earlier look like they may be starting to die back. There are a lot of more weeds to pull everywhere and the grass needs to be weed whacked again.

I have some sunflowers, I need to plant out in the front yard. The peppers are growing slowly in the cold weather, but I will need to pot them up eventually as well. If I can get more of the older plants out of the vegetable garden I might be able to move more of the seedlings out. I also have two quart ziplocs of kitchen waste frozen that needs to be buried in the garden. I could use the freezer space.

[SQWIB]

Pictures... awesome
Everything looks great.
Would love to see a full shot of your entire yard.

[imafan26]

Yesterday I harvested 2 Soarer cucumbers. The first one from the two plants I have and harvested lettuce and Red romaine. I made a salad for dinner with the cucumbers and lettuce and I made a dressing with the cilantro I bought from the farm and limes from the yard. I have to find some people fast to give the lettuce to, there are too many for me to eat and I have succession plants that need to go in as soon as they are out.

[TomatoNut95]

Lol, that's funny, I'm having to give my Romaine lettuce away to! I don't believe I've ever grown so much lettuce, but I've got someone that happily took it. (not all of it, I saved enough for myself)

Have you ever tried growing sweet basil? If so, have you ever had trouble with that wilt disease? My sweet basil keeps getting it and dying. I blame the disease being caused by poor weather/humid conditions.

[imafan26]

I used to grow sweet basil but I have not been able to since 2011. Basil downy mildew kills it within weeks. I do grow Thai holy basil (krao prao thai basil), ajaka, and blue fil basils which are resistant to downy mildew. I am hoping someone would GMO the sweet basil because the basils they have developed to replace sweet basil taste horrible I.e. Eleanora (moderately resistant and it does not taste good), Obsession (resistant but tastes a lot like Thai basil). Commercially, the basils need to be sprayed every week. I can't even get adequate access to the fungicide and the cost would be prohibitive. The other option is to grow the basil in summer and sheltered. The spores are in the air and humidity makes it worse.

I have only a couple of romaine left. I have a lot of manoa lettuce. My Eggplant is also flowering now and this variety has flowers in clusters and not singles, so when it does fruit there will be a lot on one plant.

[imafan26]

I did get some work done in the yard the last couple of weeks since the rain has diminished.
Today I harvested 7 heads of manoa lettuce, 1 red romaine, 1 bok choy, about 1/2 lb of super chilies. Yesterday, I harvested 2 soarer cucumbers. I gave most of the lettuce, cucumber, super chili, and bok choy
to my sister. I still have a few more heads of lettuce to harvest, but they are smaller and I may have more time with them. The snails are eating out the center of one of the collards. I think I won't get many leaves out of them. I am going to pull them especially since I have succession plants of komatsuna, and more lettuce to put into the garden. The red currant cherry has gone over the top of the trellis and is skirting the ground. There are some green fruit and lots of flowers. I am not getting much tomatoes, but I am getting volunteer plants so the birds are eating most of the fruit. The tomato is not netted. It is prolific and huge and I can actually get at least some the fruit . I will have to net Charger, because the birds will go after that one too. I need to get bird netting and maybe some pvc to build a cage for it.

The gardenia and roses are in bloom now. The gardenia do have thrips so I may remove the spent flowers just because they are thrip magnets.

I have some white flies on the super chili and the tree gardenia. I have knocked most of the white flies off the pepper and I still have to work on the gardenia.

I don't know why the pictures are oriented the way they are. They don't look like that on my computer.

[TomatoNut95]

That's beautiful!

[imafan26]

I think I found out why the pictures are uploading in different orientations. My old phone uploaded the pictures the same way that I see them. This new phone (technology baffles me) does not work that way. I guess I am not holding my phone the right way to get the pictures to upload in the right orientation. The picture of the neighbors amaryllis ended up upside down when I was holding my phone sideways. I am left handed so it does not help , but it does make sense. I would have to hold the phone a "right handed" way and I haven't figured it out yet. I could not upload some pictures because of file size. I just figured out after 2 days how to find my pictures and resize them. I still haven't figured out how I have to rotate the pictures to get them to appear normal once uploaded. That may take a few more days.

[Gary350]

I think I found out why the pictures are uploading in different orientations. My old phone uploaded the pictures the same way that I see them. This new phone (technology baffles me) does not work that way. I guess I am not holding my phone the right way to get the pictures to upload in the right orientation. The picture of the neighbors amaryllis ended up upside down when I was holding my phone sideways. I am left handed so it does not help , but it does make sense. I would have to hold the phone a "right handed" way and I haven't figured it out yet. I could not upload some pictures because of file size. I just figured out after 2 days how to find my pictures and resize them. I still haven't figured out how I have to rotate the pictures to get them to appear normal once uploaded. That may take a few more days.

Upload pics from phone to computer first then rotate them to be right side up on computer then upload them from computer to here then they be right side up here.

[imafan26]

Thanks Gary. That is what google told me to do. I guess I need instructions for the instructions. I resized the photo but they still did not upload. I finally got 1 photo to rotate and stay that way. All my other attempts rotated the picture but still did not upload them in the right orientation. I'm still working on it.

In the meantime. I took out the collards and most of the lettuce and some of the carrots are gone. I have a few heads of lettuce but the weather is getting hotter and the lettuce is getting tougher and some are bolting. I planted some of the remaining romaine lettuce, komatsuna, and some bok choy. It will be the last of the lettuce I will plant. I planted a couple of Charger tomatoes. I need to find space for one or two more. I have gotten 8 cucumbers from Soarer and three more are getting bigger. My Thai eggplant really is green and I can see the fruit starting to grow. I was worried for a while. This is a different variety. It has white flowers in clusters instead of single flowers. I thought maybe it was a white eggplant by mistake.

It is getting to around 79-80 degrees everyday. I can still water every 1-2 days right now except for the seedling which need to be watered daily. The green cans were not emptied, the city truck forgot to pick up my cans again. I know it is useless to call because they will just tell me to hold it for another 2 weeks for the next pickup. I will have to switch to a different yard project since I can't finish removing the heliconia for now.

I have to sift through my seeds and look for summer seeds. Charger does not take the heat, but TYLCV limits my choices. Red currant, won't be bothered except by the birds.

I have some swiss chard and komatsuna in the garden. I will look for my long and Puamoho bean seeds. I potted up dill and fennel. They are o.k. now, but I will have to find a place at least 10 ft away from anything I want to actually grow once they bloom. I might put in a couple of more chard. If I can find the amaranth seeds, I could put that in too. Maybe okra? One of the sunflowers I put in is blooming. It is really stunted because it was in the starter pot for so long. I also potted up Aristotle bell pepper, cascabella, and a couple more super chile. I have some thai basil that I have planted out and some Blue fil and kra prao thai (kapoor tulsi) that I don't know where I am going to put yet. The main garden is full so I won't be able to plant corn anytime soon.

Weed whacked the grass and weeds in the front yard. The geranium is blooming (one flower). Scented geraniums are not great bloomers, but they are big plants. There are a lot more weeds to go. The honohono and sphacelatum orchids are in bud. Both are blooming a little late in the season. Sphaceletum (popcorn orchid) usually is in full bloom for mother's day. It was about 2 weeks late last year and it looks like it will do the same this year.

We are officially in our hurricane preparedness week. It is essentially the same things as Covid 19 and there isn't much more available to stock up on anyway.

[imafan26]

I harvested three more Soarer cucumbers yesterday and had two for dinner. I still have 5 in the refrigerator. One more on the vine will probably be ready in a couple of days. That one has curled into a "C".

I put out the last of my snail bait. The snails seem to be after the cabbages this time around. They are not bothering the lettuce. They ate the cores out of the collards, and now they are after the Portuguese and Lacinato kale.

The bucket I added fertilizer and topped off with about inches of compost basically all of the plants died. I will have to remix the planter and try replanting again. I put fertilizer in the other buckets and they were fine, so it is most likely the compost that caused the problem. It is not the first time this has happened when I add compost instead of potting soil to the container. I don't have much potting soil left.

[imafan26]

I pulled out the collards and put in some more romaine, manoa, bok choy, and komatsuna. I also pulled out some of the cutting celery to gain more planting space. I only need one plant. I have planted an additional charger. Now, I have two in the garden. I still have more seedlings though. All of the plants died in the 18 gallon tub where added, N'rich and fertilizer. I will have to remix and plant it again. I have been harvesting Soarer cucumbers. The garden is fully occupied, so I won't have room for corn this year.

The birds are getting most of the currant tomatoes. I got a few. I don't have bird netting on the tomatoes. Red currant is over the top of the trellis and back to the ground so it is massive. The snails have been gorging on the cabbages. The collard centers were eaten out. Now, they are after the kale and Portuguese cabbage. Some of the lettuce has bolted and while the lettuce is not bitter, the leaves are getting tough. The day temperature is around 80 degrees now. I won't be planting any more lettuce for a while.

Ascda Princess Mikasa is blooming. The photo looks pink. It is actually bluer in real life.
Some of the orchids are still blooming from last month. A couple of more phalaenopsis spikes have also bloomed. Den. aggregatum, onc. sphacelatum (popcorn orchid),

Other things in bloom now are Princess Michiko hibiscus, Double rose pikake, Nanu gardenia, tree gardenia (looks like tiare), fuschia, parrot beak heliconia, agapanthus. and a few of the pelargoniums. I have two sunflowers that are also blooming. They look like dwarfs but actually, they were kept in the pots too long. The Jamaican oregano is always in bloom, Pic 'n Pic squash, peppers, and the citrus trees are blooming.

[imafan26]

More picture from today.

[applestar]

I’m really enjoying your photos

[imafan26]

Thanks. I still haven't figured out how to hold the camera. I edited the photos in paint to upload them in the right direction.

It is getting up to 88 degrees today. Some of the lettuce have bloomed and I might try to collect the seeds if they don't blow away. Most of the manoa is starting to bolt as well. I have a won bok that needs to be harvested before it opens up and I still have 6 cucumbers and a bag of lettuce in the frig.

I harvested the first eggplant today. I made tortang talong = Filipino eggplant omelette. I used soy sauce for color and in place of the salt. I also added truvia to cut the bitterness from the soy sauce. This green eggplant has a tough skin and is very seedy. Thai's do like this type of eggplant. It does have some mild bitterness. I prefer the softer green eggplant that is less seedy and stays soft for a long time. I will probably try to get another variety. This one was labeled only as long green eggplant.

Tortang talong is a Filipino breakfast dish. The eggplant is usually charred first. I have an electric range so it is harder to char it evenly. I nuked it as well, but the skin is so hard that it was still hard to peel. I needed to char it longer. It tasted o.k. with a little bit of bitterness. This type of eggplant is good for stewing but seedy eggplants will get more bitter as they ripen.

https://panlasangpinoy.com/filipino-veg ... ng-recipe/

[imafan26]

The manoa lettuce have pretty much bolted. It is getting too hot for them. Some of the romaine is still good, but probably not for long. Komatsuna, swiss chard, pic 'n pic squash, and eggplant are ready to pick.

Carrots that are left are starting to split, so it is time for them to come out. The won bok center rotted. I should have picked it last week. I always have this same problem. I still end up starting more plants than I can use and all the different plants ripen at the same time and I can't eat them all. I will call up my friend and ask her if she wants some of the extras. My family does not eat a lot of vegetables especially "exotic" ones like kale, swiss chard, bitter melon, or komatsuna. Cucumbers, lettuce, green onions, eggplant, and chilies they will take, but they don't know how to prepare the others.

Charger tomato is big enough to harvest for fried green tomatoes. I will have to pick them at first blush or the birds will get them. The birds are getting most of the currant tomatoes. I found five for my omelette.

The wild bitter melon is still running wild. I could harvest the leaves. I usually don't see the bitter fruit until it is too late. I might grow the chinese bitter melon since it does grow so well anyway.

I have cucumbers still in my frig and there are a couple of tiny cucumbers forming on the vines, but the vines are getting old, so I may replace them.

There are a couple of bok choy growing in the komatsuna. I need to harvest them soon as well.

As always there are super chiles, calamondin, green onions, ginger, and cutting celery available pretty much anytime. So are many of the herbs. The Indian curry tree, is also seeding and I am pulling up the offspring. These are the few plants I don't have to worry about production and don't have to harvest on time. I am getting more tomato, Indian curry, and cutting celery seedlings popping up in the yard as weeds though.
The volunteer super chile is almost five feet tall.

I have vanda growing wild through my calamondin. My vandas grow best when they can climb. I have a few of them that are over nine feet tall if they would actually grow straight (most of them don't.) The honohono orchids are still blooming. It is actually quite late for them. It has been a strange year.

I have the usual weeds everywhere. It is round up time again. I finally got my green cans emptied (I missed the last green day because I forgot what week it was), so now I have room for some of this stuff. It usually takes me less than an hour to fill a can with big stuff and it will only clear a space of about 20 sq. feet. This is going to take a while. I will probably put some of the weeds in the household trash can. The city will not give me another can. I had to prove I needed the second can before and now they will only give additional cans for lots greater than 10000 square feet. It is ridiculous. If a lot that size is only in grass, they won't even fill one can unless they wait until their grass is over two feet tall to cut it.

It is 67 degrees now and the high will be about 85 degrees. It would not be bad except this is Kona weather and the humidity is 99% and the winds are 3 mph so it is hot and muggy. Hopefully, Trades will be back later in the week. Normally, on days like this, I would rather go to the mall or shop at midday where there is air conditioning, but not really an option. Pools are still closed and the beach has been packed now that they have reopened. That leaves me with extra time in the bath tub.

[TomatoNut95]

@Imafan, would you please take a look at my orchid and give it a check-up?
I noticed this one older leaf looks wrinkled. The leaf does not feel squishy, just feels and looks wrinkled. And do I need to trim off the brown roots and administer a bit of cinnamon again?

[imafan26]

The orchid is in too much shade because the leaves are very dark green. They need to gradually be put into more light. The orchid appears to be a mini catleya. One of the leaves look a little shriveled. I do see the brown root is dead but the other roots that are outside of the pot are white and firm. I suspect the roots in the pot are probably dead and that is why the leaf is shriveling. Catleyas like 50% shade. You can use a light meter. Catleyas like about 3000 foot candles. I have a light meter and 50% shade cloth. I also have orchids under my plumeria tree. They like trees with dappled light. There is enough light coming through the canopy for ferns to grow under them. If you move the orchid, it still needs to be gradual. Even 50 percent change would be a lot now.

Orchid roots rot when they get too much water and too little. Yours looks like it is from too much water in the pot and probably some media breaking down and becoming toxic.

orchids really do better mounted than in pots. They are epiphytes that live on the branches of trees. Only people like them in pots. They are happier mounted on wood ( a cedar or redwood plank, cedar shingle, or cork are the main wood choices because they are naturally rot resistant. Hapuu would be best but it is very hard to get. A small amount of long fibered sphagnum moss is used to provide moisture to get the plants started when they are mounted. The next best thing would be a wood or plastic basket. You still want a small basket that is just big enough to hold the roots with about an inch or a finger breath of space. I you use a pot a 4 inch terra cotta azalea or orchid pot would at least breathe well . The media can be orchid bark + large perlite (no. 4), or medium bark (orchiata would be best). Bark holds water longer and will last about 2 years. Potted orchids in solid plastic pots don't dry out as fast as baskets, terra cotta, or mounts. They need to be watered more carefully. Mounted and basket orchids can be mounted with very little media and will need watering almost every day. I actually have some orchids that are in baskets and pots without any media so they can be watered almost every day. Orchid roots should be firm and white for a catleya. They should not be mushy, stringy, brown, or rotting. When you water the roots they will often turn green. This is a healthy reaction. If the roots are green, they don't need water until they get white again. Most orchids only need to be watered once or twice a week, but they do need to drain well and need good air movement to promote drying.

We all lose orchids. I find a lot of dead orchids on my bench when I clean it up. This is something that happens to every one. But we usually also have orchids that need to be divided so cleaning up the bench makes room for more. Right now the popcorn orchids are in peak bloom. I divided them last year and some of them can be divided again. I doubled my collection of popcorn last year. Popcorn is an easy orchids. Mine are in mostly cement pots with no media and they are watered almost daily and they are in almost full sun. They are on the side of the yard and get some cover from the neighbors house and shrubs around the fence. I have saved a couple of orchids that are now growing new roots and I only have them in pots with some styro foam blocks to support them. The roots will eventually attach to the pot. This is the best way for me to keep my orchids because I actually like to water almost every day all year long. Bark media is not suitable for this kind of watering for most orchids. However, if I lived in a hotter, drier micro climate near sea level, a different media and watering schedule would work better. It is the same with my succulents, I only grow the ones that can be mounted on the trees or in baskets without media or in cinder. I can only grow the ones that will handle more water. The true cacti, opuntia, and ferro cacti, that I have are in terra cotta and cinder in my entry and they only get water once a week. They would not live long outside in the rain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xNZhl8Zk7s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgHaLpN7nb4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4l_rmn8x40

[imafan26]

It is only 71 degrees today. but no wind, and 90% humidity so it seems a lot hotter. It is going up to about 86 degrees. The cool season crops in the garden are pretty much done for. The manoa lettuce have bolted, the remaining carrots are splitting, There are a few romaine left but while they are not bitter the leaves are getting tougher. Time to take these out and plant the warm season crops.
I do have to replace the cucumber. It is still making cukes but the vines are definitely aging. The charger tomato has tomatoes but the first one rotted from something. The currant is still keeping the birds happy. The eggplant has some mite damage, but it is liveable. Cutting celery, thai basil, and komatsuna look good. I have already harvested a few of the komatsuna. The sunflowers have bloomed as well. The pic 'n pic squash now is only producing male flowers. I got two squash so far.

The popcorn oncidiums are in peak bloom (they are about 3 weeks late).
The agave spike fell and now I have hundreds of agave seedlings.
The wild bitter melon is still growing wild.

I have found a few white flies but this seems to be a low white fly year. I have been able to control them with water. They are primarily on the peppers where they usually like to be.

When I get around to it. I am going to replant the pots with cucumber, beans, and long bitter melon (less wild than the wild ones and not as bitter). Okra, chard, perpetual spinach, and I might interplant some zinnias, marigolds, and cosmos in the garden. I have some aristotle bell peppers in pots that are starting to flower now and more thai and kapoor basil. I did repot 4 citrus trees into 2 gallon pots.