Mulberry Delight

My tri-graft Mulberry is doing really well. It has lots of little green berry clusters on it, that I hope hang in there to maturity. I don't know anything about this plant, but it seems to take care of itself pretty well. The leaves are large, green and growing quickly. The only concern is that one of the grafts has a bud on it that doesn't seem to want to emerge fully. If it doesn't then it probably won't survive as a graft for through the winter months. Hopefully that pushes out in the next month or so.

Please Pulasan

Well, I think the sun fried my Pulasan,  Miracle Berry (Synsepalum dulcificum) and Abiu (Pouteria caimito). I moved them to the greenhouse for warmth and filtered light, but it might be too late for the Abiu. The Pulasan and Miracle Berry however are recovering. They're pushing a bit of new growth, so I have a bit of hope for the Abiu too.

Farmer's Market Refurbish

A few years ago I planted a Passiflora edulis plant growth from a farmer's market fruit's seed in my backyard against a wall. It slowly climbed up and took over as the dominant species in the back yard. It saw Thyme, and Moss, and finally Dichondra planted between the stepping stones and survived them all. One flower emerged last year, but this year, despite its location (which can't be helped) a flower every other day has opened for the summer. And every single one of them has been finger pollinated by me. And several fruit have set. It's far from a crop, but it will work for a dessert or cocktail once the fruit fall.

New Jabo Growth

My Jaboticaba are doing well it seems. They first just sat in their little water logged pots and did absolutely nothing. But not that the heat of summer, such as it is here in Redondo Beach, is finally causing something to happen. Lots of new little branches and leaves are coming out on my Grimal Jaboticaba and my White Jaboticaba. The Yellow and Red are less active, but there's a bit of growth on those too. Who knows how long before I see flowers and fruit.

No Plant is an Island

I've been trying for weeks not to pollinate my Annona flowers. I collect pollen in a medicine bottle, save it in the fridge, and then wait for the next flower to crack. The lapse between any flower opening in male form to the next opening in female has been more than 24 hours. The general concensus seems to be that stored pollen isn't much good after that, but that hasn't stopped me from trying. And it seems like one of my attempts finally paid off. It's tiny, there's a long way to go, but it's something. I have a tiny little Atemoya 'Island Gem' fruit. Now to keep it hanging on until maturity.

Comfortable and Cozy

I was cleaning out my home including the linen closet, such as it is, and I came across some bed skirts and European pillow covers in a comforter bag. 'I haven't used these ever and I've had them for years...trash.' So I tossed the lot in a pile, and I nearly took them out to cans when I realized that the comforter bag, was clear plastic like a grow tent, and about 2'x2'x2' with a zipper opening. Eureka! I had a mini grow tent and didn't even realize it. So I build a tiny armature out of PVC that I had lying around from another project and in about 10 minutes I had some weak plants in it, under a 24 hour light. It should have been so obvious, and maybe someone has already realized this, but jeez it's the perfect table top humidity controlling tent for suffering plants.