Garden Detective Work - Bugs Galore!

A hot and scorching day. 38 degree celsius. Some of the melons lay looking really scorched at mid-day. I had to give them extra amount of watering. Early morning started with lots o dew and I selectively watered only the bay and tomato (transplanted from rooted sucker, see Tomatoes, Melons, Potatoes and Capsicum dated 15 Jan 09), since they were just planted and probably needed more moisture than the others. When evening came, the heat was gone and a cool change arrived with periodical breezes. It was a lovely evening so I decided to spend some time out doing closer examination of my garden babies. Good decision! I did not know that I could have found so many things out there. Some of the sunflower leaves look tattered like that. Wonder what caused this. A few leaves of my tomato bush look like that. Not necessarily caused by pests but I have to do further research on this.

  Ants going up and down the stems of the sunflower.

This caterpillar above! I noticed two tiny laksa/vietnamese mint leaves wrapped up in a strange way. I remember that happened to my spearmint before. Unfoiling revealed a tiny caterpillar! Gosh! Organic gardening indeed requires meticulous examination on a regular basis. Get them before they destroy my garden!

I spied a praying mantis (garden friends) on the sunflower leaves for the first time! A good bug though I dont quite that that evil look and how predatory it is.

A grasshopper (pests) amongst my tomato bush! A good find before it ruins the leaves! I did not have the slightest idea how to catch it. I just moved some leaves away and grabbed it at lightning speed. Not bad at all, my action was faster than that critter. A tiny spider has somehow found its way to my little tomato plant. Only two leaves but it has decided to build its home there. I thought I will just leave it there since it can probably take care of some pests for me.

Just to record, I have caught two other brown caterpillars recently - one on the sunflower and one on my tomato bush. It pays to be vigilant.

Melons, Tomatoes, Potatoes and Capsicum

These sunflowers are more than 1 metre tall now, towering over everything. Not sure if I should prune their leaves but anyhow I did, as their large leaves are preventing the melons and tomato bush from getting their share of sunshine.

Tendrils appearing. Providing a support could be good for such a small space but then again if they do fruit, the fruits are going to be heavy to support.

The melons are growing a little close to one another but I hope by feeding them well, they will do well. Lots of yellow flowers and some bees coming but not really sure if there would be fruits. But it is still a joy to have them grown successfully just from pulp! :)

This tomato seedling was actually a sucker broken off from the Mighty Red tomato bush, kept in water for a week or so and it produced a lot of roots. Last two days was horrendously hot so I patiently waited for today to plant it into the large pot I have prepared. In pot was cheap potting mix + seasol + worm tea + blood and bone + crushed egg shells.

Despite the cool weather, morning was a little warm for the well-watered seedling and it went limp. I misted the seedling several times.

When noon came, a sudden idea of shading it with an umbrella came and it worked great. I also nipped off part of the larger leaf to cut moisture loss. When I checked at 4pm, the stem was sturdy and firm, showing that it is doing well. Congratulations to a successful potting! Now I shall see how it will grow in this soil cocktail.

The clump of capsicum (forgotten the yellow or red) is growing good and I am waiting for them to grow bigger and a good weather to thin them out. Given them worm tea regularly.

One of the 11 or 12 clusters of tomatoes on the bush! 11x 4 is 44 tomatoes waiting to enlarge and ripen!!!

Another cluster!

A little potato plant emerging in the soil in vege patch and growing from the parent plant.

A little potato plant growing from the parent plant in the soil in the large pot of potting mix.

I have fixed up these water feeders or whatever they are called to help feed water to the roots of the plants.

Keeping Check.

Sam and I harvested some more of the greengages. They are quite fragile and since the tree is tall, some fell onto the ground and the impact caused broken skin. Given that to doggy which happily ate them up.

Thought this oregano is fighting space and nutrients with one of the melons close by, as the melon did not seem to be growing healthily and turning yellow, so I have dug the oregano up and potted it. It did amazingly well even in 37-39 deg celsius weather in the potting mix with seasol. I made sure drainage is good by placing the planter box on a sloped ground.

My two beautiful Laksa plants (vietnamese mint) are flourishing, growing taller and having more baby leaves. One thing for sure is to keep watering them :)..at least I am sure they thrive with lots of water!

Rosemary is truly strong, not even showing any fuzz after being repotted in new potting mix! And seems to be growing, having more stems appearing.

The two potato plants in the pot are growing stronger day by day, with new baby leaves growing on the stems, which is a good sign of health. Leaves are also firmer now.

Thyme continue to flourish in the pot. Hoping to see some flowering soon before I cut them back.

All the four Buk choy seeds germinated. I should have placed all four separately instead of pairing them up. :( good lesson learned.

Tip : If soil is dry, water before sowing. Use a watering can which allows gentle watering. Never sow and then water as the soil may form a crust over the seed and prevent entry of water to the seed or even prevent seedlings from breaking through to the light.

The bare lemon mint stem is doing so surprisingly well, growing baby leaves even in the seemingly dry soil.

I have pruned many leaves off the tomato plant and tied drooping branches to supports. Also pruned off some flowers so that the existing tomatoes would get most of the nutrients.

The mint cuttings have rooted well so I planted them into the potting mix yesterday evening, with mulching and kept them indoors overnight, with lots of watering and seasol. They have been taking it in and are out in the sun this afternoon when the sunshine is not so harsh.

Cut the lavendar back and hope that it will grow better from below. Also tested the drainage of the soil. Quite sure drainage is fine. Hoping that the leaves will revive and not continue to turn yellow brown. Not sure if the pyrethrum spray has caused the yellowing and browning of the leaves.

Both purple king have emerged! This morning this one could not be seen and in the afternoon, I was shocked to see that it has come out! Driven two supports into the ground.

This potato plant looked like it was going to die few days back but it survived!

Some Newbies in the Vege Patch.

Vietnamese mints (Laksa plant) seem to be growing well. Give them lots of water. Thai basil not sure. So far all four that I have tried growing arent developing too well. Could be better starting from seed rather than mature stems.

Buk Choy seeds have germinated in their large pots. Given them water and there was a fair amount of sunshine and warmth. Purple King beans have not emerged yet though.

Got these potato plants in large pot but not sure if they will survive very well.

The green gages on the tree are ripening beautifully. But they are already attracting some birds to feed on them.

One of the tomato vines, the largest and first to develop.

Thyme that grew from seeds are doing so well in the potting mix. One of my pride and joy. Could it be Jamie Durie's seeds that did the trick? Rosemary, chilli and mint were doing too well. I hope to come up with some remedy to salvage the situation. I have sown some more chilli seeds in a large pot of potting mix. They have germinated but hopefully wont have stunted growth this time. Or it would mean the seeds are of lousy grade?! Not sure.

Most of my melons are having flowers. I hope they put up a good fight and grow some melons, having been revived after thinning and transplanting shock. :)

Capsicums germinating fast and furious! This time round, since I know they are capsicums, I would just leave them in the ground and forgetting about transplanting! Most of the vege tend to do better in the ground than in pots!

One of the plums which I could hand-pick as it is low enough! How exciting watching it turn from green to yellow to red. I could not wait for it to turn deep red so I plucked it this evening.

The oregano is growing steadily. It is a bit close to one of the melons, being just next door. Thinking about re-planting it.

Summer - Warming up... ...

The pot of lavender bee pretty seems to have grown but are attacked by whiteflies. I used the yellow sticky trap which was quite good but no good with controlling them. So I did a pyrethrum spray and the flies were gone. The new flower buds have grown.

Mint given by a friend standing in jar of water (Christmas Day) waiting to root. Roots appeared 5 Jan 09)

I have harvested lots of plums. They turn from green to yellow to deep red. Taste sweet in terms of pulp but have sourish bitter skin.

The sunflowers are 0.5m tall for the tallest! Growing fantastically. Waiting for giant sunflowers!

An orange has germinated. However, I cannot remember which type it is. :(

I accidentally pulled out this plant but the smell seems so oregano. I replanted it and it is growing fine again. I hope it turns out to be some yummy wild oregano.

A friend has just given me two twigs of vietnamese/hot mint and I have re-planted them (26 Dec 08) in this pot with a thai basil which rooted while kept in a glass jar of water. The former needs lots of water. This time, I made sure I gave them Seasol to help with any shock. I kept the pot indoors and gave it lots water. So far so good.

I bought these two cheap pots of flowers ($2 each) to attract bees to come and pollinate my melons.

The Mighty Red tomato plant is doing well and have produced more than 10 fruits so far. These are the largest so far.

Clump of melons before thinning out.

Melon yellowing after thinning out.

Surviving melon plant with flowers. Seasol came a bit late on 22 Dec 08 but at least rescued most of them.

In my last blog, I mentioned that my peppers died of shock during re-potting. So, I have since sown some on 14 December after cooking some yellow and red ones. I also thinned out the clump of melons but they too went into shock despite my very careful job. Their leaves were turning yellow and thankfully I got some advice from a fellow blogger to add some fertiliser. So I did, with Seasol and they have survived. Some died but a good number survived. A few of them have flowered and I am so pleased to see bees coming to them one early morning on 27 Dec 08. That means pollination! I wonder if the two little cheap pots of marigolds are doing their job attracting bees on the vege patch. I hope to see melon fruits soon, either rockmelon or honeydew. I am not exactly a fan of them but it is fun just to see them grow.