And one week later, due to a bug called Mealy bugs (and maybe various attempts to eliminate it), my beautiful cherry tomato tree has wilted and dying. I've thus removed all the fruits for Arishah to play, and trim off whats needed, leaving the stems with what looks like small new sprouts of branches coming out. Sigh!
I've declared WAR!!! WAR to the Mealy bugs that destroyed my crops ooh so horribly! Went to Sg. Merab to rumah Arwah Abah and Mak Cik, and saw a plant nursery just beside rumah 5075. Told the owner about my problem and he gave me Malathion. I sprayed it last Sunday, and to my delight, upon contact with the bugs, the bugs just drop dead. Woohoo!!! But I've got to be careful because I'm planting vegetables and fruits, so no spraying 1 week before picking, that's what the labels says.
Surprisingly, my second tomato plant that I thought was sure to die [picture above], is getting better. I've transplanted it, trimmed it about 2 weeks ago. Now a lush of new green leaves are growing.When I took the picture (at night), I saw 3 mealy bugs on the stem sucking away the juices. I just squeazed it with my fingers. I don't think I should used Malathion that often, it says no more than once a week. But my hands are itching because the pest is still not controlled! It's driving me mad!!!
Here's another 3 pots of tomato plant, but these ones are round tomato plant, not cherry tomato. I thought of having a go at it. It's growing well, transplanted it from my styrafoam cup to a bigger cup. Once it has a good stem, then I'll transplant it the second and last time.
Anyway, at the plant nursery, Mak bought pokok cili padi. I've transplanted it for her to a bigger pot. She's been trying to plant the tree, she got three of them, all fully grown, but not one has bear fruit.Can you see the small small cili padi jutting out? Geram nye!!! So does Arishah. I have to keep saying 'No no no...' to her
The plant on the left is the one that she got from Kampung. All leaves but no fruit. I told her it's probably all males.
Here's my first try out with pokok cili. This is cili besar. It's no more than a foot tall, but since 2 weeks ago the flowers are blooming, and I knew it's only time. Now the biggest Cili is about 3 inches.I have two other cili tree, but it's small and refuse to grow further. It receives the same amount of sunlight though. I think it's the soil. Maybe next week I'll visit a plant nursery again and buy some more red soil. Mak loves the organic fertilized soil. But I think my plant needs a little bit more drainage.
Looky looky, my two eggplant tree! The left one has a fruit just a bit smaller then the size of a tennis ball, and another small one sprouting from another branch. The plant on the right has a purple flower on it.Arishah memang tak sabar nak petik. Kena bagi tau dia, 'Belum masak Arishah. You can pick it when it's ripe and ready.' Tak tau laa dia paham ke tidak, tapi she just kept looking afterward, tak pegang pun. Besides, her favourite colour is 'Purrr-pel'.
I love this this eggplant tree, they are resistant to bug and grow without much fuss. Me and Arishah just killed a snail with salt last week when we saw one trying to climb up the tree. One of the leaves already half-munched by it the day before. Arishah says, 'Yek!' Hehe. I've tried to germinate more seeds 1 month ago, but didn't took care of it well enough, so none actually sprouted. I tried again tonight. We'll see how it goes in 2 weeks time.
My cukes...short for cucumber. From 5, only 3 survived after we fought with the Mealy bugs. Cucumber tree and Okra tree is their favourite apparently...maybe because juicy stems. All the 3 cukes are in one pot. 2 stemmed - long cucumbers, and 1 climbing - stout cucumber.
This one looks big, but it's a close up. It's actually the size of a thumb aje. I heard too much fertilizer will make the cukes bitter. So I try not to use any fertilizer this time.I hope the biggie cucumber plant actually produce some fruit. The one I planted doesn't show any flowers. Maybe I've been cheated by the store. Maybe they are male ones, and I got unlucky.
Here's some more pics of other plants around the house. The picture to the right is Bayam/Spinach. Now they are dead and gone. They produced a lot of seeds in the end due to the hot hot hot weather. No fertilizer, they just love to grow.Next to it is my Kangkung. By end of the week, I'm ready to pick and eat it. They can be picked within a month of planting. Very easy Kangkung.
The picture on the left is my made up trellis. It has 3 pots of Petola/loofah (as you can see hanging down there), and 3 pots of snap beans ( and I think you can see some of them hanging a bit weird too). I'm happy with the Petola, ate one already, another made into loofah scrub. But I don't know what's wrong with my snap beans. They are bunched up and fat only at the end, but thin near the stem. I've sprayed with Malathion already to get rid of the ants. In the mean time, I'll let it rampage around the (ugly) trellis.That's an update on my garden. My birthday is next month, and I still can't figure out what to do with Arishah. I thought of going to Sg. Gabai waterfall again and have a picnic. Or go to a nearby beach, but don't know where it's quiet and water nice enough.
