Planters Trees

Cleaned up the front on my house and repotted some trees. How does it look?

Left Front (Pink Guava Tree)

Left Middle (Avocado Tree)

Left Far (Peach Tree)

Behind the bricks and to the right are from cuttings

Papaya Tree

Bottom Left (Iris Flower)

 

Kumquat (Kinkan) Tree

Mikan Tree

Bitter Melon (Goya, Nigauri)

It has been unusually warm the past weeks and dropped Bitter Melon (Goya, Nigauri) seeds are starting to sprout.

Red Cucumber

(12/25) Found an out of season Red Cucumber on my second floor balcony. It looks like it is doing well and hope it grows to maturity.

(12/26) I can see notable growth in just one day.

(12/29) Three days later.

Bush Beans (Ingen, String Beans)

I have a rough Bush Bean (Ingen, String Bean) plant. It is well past it's season, but growing well and have many flowers, so expect to get some beans in a few weeks.

Guava Tree

I bought a red Guava tree about two weeks ago. It is a grafted tree and about two years old, so I expect to get some fruit next season. Guava trees are quick growers, live about 40 years and produce fruit for about 15 years. They are not particularly choosey about soil and have a shallow root system, making them a good tree to grow in a planter, as long as it drains well, and get plenty of sun light.

Abiu Pouterie Caimito Tree

My Abiu sapling is now seven weeks old and growing quickly. I did a little research on Abiu trees and learned they are originally from the Amazons. Obviously they do well in the tropics, but do just as well in the sub-tropics. They seem to grow well in pots and grown from seed tend to start to bear fruit from the fourth or fifth year. Since there is not a lot of genetic diversity with the Abiu tree, the chance of getting a decent tasting Abiu fruit from a seed grown tree is pretty good, so I am really excited.

Green Lettuce

The Green Lettuce plant is going to seed. During the day the flowers bloom and during the evening they will close, except for those that were germinated. These flowers will turn into a small fluffy ball that looks like cotton. Lettuce has a sticky latex type sap, so it is recommended to place the fluffy cotton like balls in a container to dry after picking before separating the fluff from the seeds; otherwise, it will be a sticky mess.

Papaya

I have two mature Papaya trees (3 years old)

I decided to pick a few Papaya for my co-workers. The average weight of each Papaya was roughly 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs), but had one that weighed nearly 1.7 kg (3.7 lbs). There are still 30-40 Papaya and still flowering. My trees are nearly three years old and the average Papaya tree will remain productive for seven or 8 years. Though the trees will continue to produce fruit it is getting more difficult to reach them since they continue to grow. I now have to use a ladder to reach them, so I have started a few more Papaya saplings to replace these tree in a year or two.

Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle

I noticed a lot of beetle larvae in the mulch I got free from my local recycling center and just found the first beetle. It is a Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle, which is popular with children. Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle remain in the larvae stage for over a year and feed on rotting vegetation, but unfortunately only live about four months in their mature stage, which makes them a rare and special insect. 

Tomato

It's getting cooler and the Tomatoes are starting to ripen. These are quite large and meaty. I got three more recently and counted about 70 more on the plants. Not bad considering these came from a store bought Tomato that went bad and I planted it. 

Swiss Chard and Red Daikon Radish

(Left) Swiss Chard (6 weeks old)

(Right) Red Daikon Radish (4 weeks old)

Eggplant (Nasu)

Many small Eggplant (Nasu) and flowers. The Eggplant are not scared like they were during the warmer months.  

Fall Planting in a Sub-tropical Climate (Update)

Cilantro (Pakuchi) 

These plants are from seeds that dropped last season, but estimate they are 6 weeks old.

Sunny Lettuce (Red Leaf Lettuce)

(6 1/2 weeks old)

Crowd Growing - Planter 1

Shungiku (5 1/2 weeks old)

Red Daikon Radish (5 1/2 weeks old)

Bush Beans (6 1/2 weeks old)

Crowd Growing - Planter 2

Celery (6 weeks old)

Red Daikon Radish (5 1/2 weeks old)

Yellow Potatoes (6 weeks old)

Celery (6 weeks old)

Red Daikon Radish (5 1/2 weeks old)

Not maturing as quickly as the package claimed, but I suspect this is due to the cooling temperature, which is between mid-60's (18°C) to mid-70's (24°C). 

Green Peppers (11 1/2 weeks old)

The plant to the right is flowering and has a few small Peppers.

Eggplant (12 weeks old)

I cut off most of the diseased leaves and added some nutrients and fertilizer. It has rebounded and has about ten Eggplant growing, plus it is still flowering. As I predicted from a previous post, the Eggplant are beautifully purple with no scaring now that it has cooled down.

Green Peppers (9 1/2 months old)

Tons of Green Peppers and flowering again. I keep adding nutrients and fertilizer and it keeps going. This plant has produced over 45 Peppers in the past. We just picked six Peppers today and there are still 6 more Peppers on the plant, plus there is new leaf growth and blooming flowers so I expect many more Peppers from this one hardy plant.

Six Peppers picked today.

Japanese Sweet Potato (Beni Imo)

(1 week old)

These Beni Imo vines look wilted, but have since perked up and taken root.

Chili Peppers (Togarashi)

(8 weeks old)

Abiu Pouterie Caimito Tree

(6 weeks old)

Yellow Potato (Jagaimo)

(10 weeks old)

Papaya Sapling

Just a quick update to show the status of my Papaya sapling. If you recall, I had to select one sapling from a group that sprouted. I'm pleased to see it doing well and growing fast. It is already three feet (1 meter) tall and suspect will start to bear fruit next summer.

Tsuwabuki (Japonicum, Leopard Plant) Flower

I saw this plant along the road while walking my puppy a year ago and took some seeds. I planted them in a small pot, but they stayed small, so I decided to plant them in the front on my house in the ground and they grew quickly and flowered. So pretty!

Tsuwabuki (also known as, Japonicum) or Leopard Plant in English is indigenous to Japan and grows along streams and shore lines.

Abiu Pouterie Caimito Tree

I got an Abiu fruit from a friend a few months ago and planted the seed. It finally started to sprout. I do not know how long it will take to bear fruit, but suspect years; however, it is simply enjoyable to just try and grow such an exotic fruit.

Abiu is one of the most delicious fruit I've ever tasted. It is creamy inside, like pudding, and tastes like caramel.

Green Lettuce Flowers

Lettuce Flowers are so pretty. I intend to let this plant go to seed so I can harvest the seeds for future planting.

Passion Fruit

I purchased two Passion fruit plants from a nursery about a month ago and had them sitting in their tiny pots on the balcony, but they started to grow into my Rose bushes, so I decided to transplant them. I put them in a large planter and extended some hemp for them to climb. I know it is best to put them on a trellis, but I do not have a trellis and it is too windy behind my house. Passion fruit do not like strong wind, so I'm confident they would have died if I put them in the back. I will let them grow and take clippings to make new plants for future locations. I'll post instructions how to propagate Passion fruit once I get some off-shoots I can clip.

Mikan Orange Tree

I have two Mikan Trees which I started from seed. They are about a year old and may take about five more years before they start bearing fruit, so I purchased a Mikan tree from a nursery. 

The birds started eating the fruit the day I brought the Mikan tree home, so I covered it with a net. The birds got many Kumquat (Kinkan) fruit as well, so I covered it also. It has been about three days since I covered the trees with a net. So far so good.

Japanese Sweet Potato (Beni Imo)

It has been over six months since I planted the first clipping and I decided to harvest. Just as a reminder, I planted a standard Japanese Sweet Potato from a store bought Potato, which had a purple skin, and harvested those about two weeks ago. You can check out that post.

Today's planter contained Potatoes I started from a clipping I got from a neighbor, so was not sure what type it was, but found out today. I have one more planter that I did not plant. It was taken over by the vines from this Planter. Those vines took over the third planter about two months after I planted the clipping, so will wait a few months before harvesting the third planter.

In the meantime, I will start a brand new planter from clippings I saved from today.

After I removed the vines I immediately saw this giant Potato quite close to the surface. I looks like a Beni Imo.

Beni Imo is the Okinawan Sweet Potato. There are white (yellow when cooked) and Purple. They are both delicious and generally sweeter than the standard Japanese Sweet Potato (Satsumaimo). Because I broke one of the Potatoes when I dug it up, I know I got the white type.

I only got two Potatoes, but both are quite large and weighed a total of 1,427 grams (3.1 pounds).

The largest Potato weighed 870 grams (1.9 pounds) and the other weighed 557 grams (1.2 pounds). It's cool to get such a large Potato, but how do I cook it? I would have preferred to get five smaller Potatoes, but I'm grateful for what nature provided.

Since it takes six months to grow Sweet Potatoes, I prepared a new planter and planted cuttings from the Beni Imo plant. The Beni Imo I got from this harvest was from one cutting, so this time I planted about ten cuttings in hopes of getting more Potatoes. We'll see in about six months.

Tomato

Got my first Tomato.

Red Leaf Lettuce (Sunny Lettuce)

(1 December) I have ten Lettuce plants outside, but do not know how well they will do through the cooler months, so I decided to try and grow Lettuce inside using Styrofoam cups. I cut a hole in the bottom of the top cup and filled it with potting soil and placed that cup in another to capture the water. I water them every morning and keep them near a window. Once the roots grow through the hole I will put the water and nutrients in the bottom cup because the Lettuce will probably be too big to effectively water it from the top, plus it may get messy.

I understand it takes about five weeks to mature and you can harvest leaves from them between five and 7 times. If this works out, I plan to plant many more and just grow them inside from now, because Okinawa is just too hot in the summer and too cool in the winter for a steady supply of Lettuce. I'll update my progress.