Gardening: (2016– )

[chromedome]

7 hours ago, heidih said:

 

 

 

Looks like Larry from Veggie Tales.

The wrong cucurbit (Larry's a cucumber) but still...

[KennethT]

An updated family photo...

Everybody is doing well. I can't use the Genovese basil fast enough, it's becoming a tree already! The only one not looking so good is the curry tree. More research required for that one...

[heidih]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

An updated family photo...

 

Everybody is doing well. I can't use the Genovese basil fast enough, it's becoming a tree already! The only one not looking so good is the curry tree. More research required for that one...

I think liuzhou often uses the basil as a vegetable in quantity in a stir fry. Great "family portrait"

[JoNorvelleWalker]

3 hours ago, KennethT said:

An updated family photo...

Everybody is doing well. I can't use the Genovese basil fast enough, it's becoming a tree already! The only one not looking so good is the curry tree. More research required for that one...

 

My curry trees are still alive but not looking so great either.  I think they'd like more light.

 

[KennethT]

9 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

My curry trees are still alive but not looking so great either.  I think they'd like more light.

 

Thanks - that's one thing I thought of, but it's actually getting quite a bit of light - about 650umol/s... which turns into a DLI of not quite 33mol/day which is equivalent to being in full sun for about 6 hours in summer time...  I moved it after the photo was taken - maybe it'll get more light in its new position... I'll check with my PAR meter this weekend when I have time...

[dcarch]

12 hours ago, KennethT said:

An updated family photo...

Everybody is doing well. I can't use the Genovese basil fast enough, it's becoming a tree already! The only one not looking so good is the curry tree. More research required for that one...

 

Make friends with your building manager, or pay him/her off to get a key to the roof.

Imagine what you can grow on a roof garden.

 

dcarch

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, dcarch said:

 

Make friends with your building manager, or pay him/her off to get a key to the roof.

Imagine what you can grow on a roof garden.

 

dcarch

Not possible in this building - the roof is where the gym and swimming pool are, as well as lounge chairs for sunbathing.  When we move (hopefully in a couple of months), that building's roof has a roof deck and is already planted with ornamentals.  But the new apartment is North facing (instead of South where I am now) and has 10 foot high windows across the whole front of the apartment and gets a good amount of even light with no direct sun so it doesn't get super hot like my place now - so I was going to put the herbs in a row in front with some hanging supplemental lights... as well as a small ornamental green wall when I get some time...

[heidih]

@KennethT On the curry - have  you considered the ambient humidity?  New apartment sounds great. Oh I know you are mor than capable of googling - but ijn case - I found this a nice summary with visuals. https://pinchofseeds.com/buying-a-curry-leaf-plant/

[Nyleve Baar]

I've had a curry leaf plant for about 5 years. Indoors all winter, then out on the patio in the summer. Some years it struggles badly and some years it gets that horrible dreaded scale all over it and I need to go over the whole plant with a q-tip soaked in alcohol to get rid of them. This past winter it was so badly infested with scale that I was going to either throw it away or cut it down to the stalk. I went with cutting it down - cleaned all the scale off the main stem and repotted into fresh dirt. And it came back better than ever! It branched out in several places and put out more leaves than it's ever had. Very pleased. Don't give up on yours.  It's still a baby. Check it for scale or aphids. Probably needs better light but otherwise they are pretty resilient.

[KennethT]

25 minutes ago, heidih said:

@KennethT On the curry - have  you considered the ambient humidity?  New apartment sounds great. Oh I know you are mor than capable of googling - but ijn case - I found this a nice summary with visuals. https://pinchofseeds.com/buying-a-curry-leaf-plant/

Thanks Heidi.  I've googled tons about the curry plant - most of the results came from people growing them in India.  Most of the stuff I had found said that once it started growing, it went like crazy - so maybe I just need to wait for it to really take off. Your article was good because it showed the relative sizes of plants vs age - I had never seen that before.  So the light I'm providing should be fine, and the tree currently gets between 45 and 58% relative humidity.  there's a temp/humidity gauge sitting on the white crate.  Hiding to the right of the gas tank is a humidifier, although now that the other plants have taken off, it's not running because I'm getting enough humidity from the basil plant's transpiration and evaporation of the runoff from watering.

[KennethT]

7 minutes ago, Nyleve Baar said:

I've had a curry leaf plant for about 5 years. Indoors all winter, then out on the patio in the summer. Some years it struggles badly and some years it gets that horrible dreaded scale all over it and I need to go over the whole plant with a q-tip soaked in alcohol to get rid of them. This past winter it was so badly infested with scale that I was going to either throw it away or cut it down to the stalk. I went with cutting it down - cleaned all the scale off the main stem and repotted into fresh dirt. And it came back better than ever! It branched out in several places and put out more leaves than it's ever had. Very pleased. Don't give up on yours.  It's still a baby. Check it for scale or aphids. Probably needs better light but otherwise they are pretty resilient.

Thanks.  I check it all the time for scale/aphids/other pests....  right now, it's clean.  Many years ago, my lime tree had scales and they almost killed it. I did what you did and like you said, it came back really well.  I think I just need to be more patient. 

 

I don't think it needs more light - and I definitely don't need to upgrade my light - that light is currently only running at 60% output - it's a huge beast capable of putting out 1200umol/s/m2!  Very few lights can put out that kind of PPFD.

Edited August 7, 2020 by KennethT (log)

[haresfur]

I think this is the correct thread because my bay tree is under there somewhere.

 

A pretty wattle in bloom but acacia have short lives and this one is not indigenous to my area and quite weedy so I'm not too sad to see it go, aside from the damage to the bay.

[heidih]

Wow that tree was loaded. 

[KennethT]

This guy is my hero.... I want to be him when I grow up.

 

[heidih]

10 minutes ago, KennethT said:

This guy is my hero.... I want to be him when I grow up.

 

"Its my babies" So true. Thank you. I alsolike that he gets you have to let them do what gotta do cuz they are gonna do it anyway

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

"Its my babies" So true. Thank you. I alsolike that he gets you have to let them do what gotta do cuz they are gonna do it anyway

He's actually a botanist who specializes in plants of tropical rainforests.  He invented the vertical green wall.  And I love how his hair and shirt match the plants.

[heidih]

Yes those green walls are an international thing  though not here.  https://ecophiles.com/2017/02/23/7-lush-living-walls-around-world/

[dcarch]

I can't imagine living in a rain forest environment. 

I was in Costa Rica's rain forest. With temperature above 90 degrees and humidity close to 100% most of the time. Very uncomfortable.

 

dcarch

[heidih]

You adjust. My friends who retire to Costa Rica adjust. Not my ideal but ya learn to breathe differently. 

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, dcarch said:

I can't imagine living in a rain forest environment. 

I was in Costa Rica's rain forest. With temperature above 90 degrees and humidity close to 100% most of the time. Very uncomfortable.

 

dcarch

I've been in rain forests all over SE Asia and the Caribbean - I've thought it's usually much cooler in there than out on the street due to the ever present shade.

[TicTac]

Today’s pickage - pales in comparison to some of yours .... need to take a pic with of some of my other fun plants for yall 😉

[KennethT]

47 minutes ago, TicTac said:

Today’s pickage - pales in comparison to some of yours .... need to take a pic with of some of my other fun plants for yall 😉

what varieties are these?

[TicTac]

43 minutes ago, KennethT said:

what varieties are these?

Oh boy - testing my memory eh...lol

 

Clockwise - large tomato with the cork are Gold Medal's

 

The two purpley ones are Black Krum's.  The smaller red/purple I believe is a black krum cherry cross of sorts.  The long orange ones are from Israel (seeds smuggled back) - they are unreal, barely any seeds and super sweet.  Round orange ones are Sungold cherry tomatoes, smaller-mid size red one is a cross breeding project of my Gold Medals to an Italian beefy fleshy tomato (also, smuggled back...lol, are we seeing a theme here!?).

 

 

[chromedome]

48 minutes ago, TicTac said:

The two purpley ones are Black Krum's.  The smaller red/purple I believe is a black krum cherry cross of sorts. 

 

Cool. I'm growing Black Krim this year for the first time, and haven't yet seen a ripe one with my own eyes. Photos seem to vary, with some looking like yours and others being much darker, almost purple. I guess I'll see in a few more weeks...

[Nyleve Baar]

My black krim tomatoes are all wackypants this year! This one looks to me like a boxing glove. It was so big that it made an entire platter of caprese salad, with a few yellow cherry tomatoes sprinkled about for contrast. Delicious. I think it's my favourite tomato.