Lettuce

Growing faster than I can use it.

Tomato

This is one of the Tomato plant suckers I planted. Look how fast it is growing inside a bottle. The picture on the left is from 18 January compared to today, 24 January. 

Asparagus

I cut away all the dead Asparagus stems, stopped watering and covered the top soil with fertilizer since I expected it to go dormant during the winter months, but I 'm starting to see Asparagus spears pop up. 

As I mentioned previously, this plant is from a sucker I pinched from one of the beefsteak Tomato plants. I planted it almost a month ago, but it did not grow, so I covered it with a bottle. About a week after that it started to grow quickly and I remove the bottle. It has been about a week since I removed the bottle and the plant is doing great. I also put some fresh clay soil under the plant to help prevent any fungus from splashing on the leaves when I water it. 

This is another sucker I pinched off a beefsteak Tomato plant about two weeks ago. It is doing well.

In the back is a third sucker I pinched off a beefsteak Tomato plant about a week ago. It is doing well too.

Lettuce

This Mizuna Lettuce is doing well. I can pick leaves almost everyday for a salad. The leaves are sweet and tender while so young. They grow back as fast as I pick them. I need to start another container.

This container has three types of Lettuce. I have another container of Mizuna, but want more Red Leaf Lettuce, so need to prepare another container. 

Passion Fruit (Purple)

One of my purple Passion Fruit vines is starting to produce flowers. I'm pollinating about 5-6 every day and see about 30-40 more buds. This vine is in the shade and tends to bloom off season. Last year it bloomed in March and I got fruit in May. This year it is blooming in January, which means I should expect fruit in March. 

Guava Tree

Though many of these Guava are still young, birds have been picking as them; therefore, I decided to wrap them. I wrapped nearly 100 fruit, but you can still see many unwrapped. I will probably let them for the birds, since I can not reach many of them. 

Lettuce

I let this Lettuce plant bolt so I could collect the seeds. Some of the flowers are going to seed, so I am collecting them day by day. All the Lettuce plants shown in recent posts have been from seed I collected. After I collect the seed, I let them dry for a week or so inside and then separate the seeds from the fluffy material and store them in a plastic bag. 

Green Lettuce, Beets, Red Radish, and Cilanto

This Lettuce plant is doing well and I need to remove the bottle soon.

These Lettuce plants are doing well, but still fragile, so will keep them covered a while longer. 

Clusters of Beet seedlings are sprouting. I need to separate them soon. These are salad Beets. They can be used like regular Beets, but are extremely sweet and can be eaten raw.

The seedlings on the left are salad Radishes. I need to separate them. To the right is a Tomato plant. I'm not sure where that came from :)

The Pakuchi (Cilantro) seedlings are doing well. They are still fragile, so will keep them covered a little longer. I've already started to plant more and will try and keep the cycle going all year. 

Tomato

I planted this sucker I took from one of the beefsteak Tomato plants a few days ago and covered it with a bottle to create a sort of mini greenhouse. It is doing well.

This is a sucker I planted a few weeks ago and had covered with a bottle. It is doing well and getting quite large, so I removed the bottle.

This is a beefsteak Tomato plant I bought from a nursery. It is doing well and the stock is so thick. 

This is another beefsteak Tomato plant. It is doing well, but not as thick as the other plant. I do not think it is getting as much sun as the other plant.

All the following pictures are of self seeded cherry Tomato plants. 

I selected the strongest, but still have a few planters with multiple plants that I need to address.

I covered them with fertilizer before they sprouted and added some nutrient pellets once they sprout. 

Recently I covered the top soil with soft red clay soil intended for roses to prevent fungus from splashing onto the plant when watering.

Fungus and spider mites are my greatest problem. I can control the spider mites, but fungus it always a problem considering I live in a subtropical region with high humidity; however, I am hoping this fresh top soil will help. 

Goya (Bitter Melon)

I decided to pick this Goya. It would probably get larger, but it is just about the right size to make Goya Campuru for two people, so I picked it. 

Biwa (Loquat)

The Biwa (Loquat) fruit are starting to get larger and starting to turn green. When they were small they were brown. I thought the brown color was a shell from the flower, but I now realize it is a fuzz. Now that the fruit are getting larger I can see the space between the fuzz spreading out and less apparent. As the fruit matures they will start to turn yellow.

Peach Tree

My Peach tree has a few Peaches and still flowering. I hope I get a few more. This verity is from Thai and the Peaches are small, but tasty. I got this tree from a neighbor a few years ago whom grew it from seed. It's a cute tree.

Chocolate Mint (Herbs)

I bought a Chocolate Mint plant from the Nago Aquri Park greenhouse a few years ago, but it died. Today I found this plant at my local MakeMan for 298 Yen ($2.25) and had to have it. I planted it in a large planter so it grows wild and make it a point to propagate this plant. 

Birds

The Birds love rip Papaya fruit.

Its head is completely inside the Papaya.

Goya

This Goya is ready to pick, plus I notice a baby just getting started.

Pineapple

I planted this Pineapple cutting in June 2019, which has been 42 months ago. It typically takes 30 months to produce fruit and now wonder if it will ever produce :)

Spearmint (Herbs)

This Spearmint plant is starting to produce flowers. Spearmint flowers are edible. The flowers do not change the quality of the mint leaves, but many folks pinch them off anyway to prevent them from spreading. Spearmint plants produce both runners (stolon) and seeds that can spread quickly and overtake a garden. 

I trimmed one of the plants a few days ago and made mint tea. 

Passion Fruit

The purple Passion Fruit plant on my side balcony has produced a few flowers, which I have pollinated; however, this seems to be the only fruit that set. I can see more buds and will continue to pollinate and hope I get more fruit.

Strawberry Guava

My Strawberry Guava bushes are full of buds.

Pakuchi (Cilantro, Coriander)

The Pakuchi (Cilantro, Coriander) I covered are doing great and growing. Recently I planted a new seed. It is the one covered by the bottle in the center. 

Strawberry

 

I propagated these Strawberry plants last year and had them in small starter planters for months, but decided to transplant them a few days ago. They had well developed root systems and are doing wonderfully. 

I had these Strawberry plants covered during the summer to protect them from the heat. They are now starting to flower, so I pulled up the covering to allow them to get more sun. 

My original Strawberry tower. I do not see any flowers yet, so think I need to move the tower so it can get more sunlight. 

Spring Onions (Blue Onion, Negi)

Honestly, I can't remember when I planted these Spring Onions (Blue Onion, Negi), but believe it was sometime in 2020 or 2021; regardless, they are doing well. I grow them just for their greens. Recently I added a backing and crisscrossed some wire to keep them upright considering how windy it is in my region. This has helped keep the greens in good shape.

Celery

Okay, I finally got around to cleaning up my Celery planter. I pulled as many weeds as possible and then covered the soil with some dried razor grass mulch I treated with anti-fungal spray. 

In just a couple days I could see new stocks appearing. You can compare the corner picture above from 29 December to compare.

Tomato

My beefsteak Tomato plants are doing well, but have a lot of suckers that need to be removed so the plant can focus it's energy on the main plant and producing fruit. Some people ask what is a sucker and how can I tell. Suckers are simply new branches that grow above and between an existing branch and the main stock. See the arrows above. 

Flower stems grow from the stock directly, but sometimes they are close to a branch and difficult to tell when small; therefore, let them get a little larger and you will start to notice the flower buds.