I have just repotted some of my plants, one of them being the coleus I bought recently from Far East Flora. Let's see how things go from here. My updates coming soon. Happy Gardening!

My first real project of 2010 - Update 1

This is my first update and I've got both good news and bad news to share. Let's start with the bad news first. Woe betide me, 1 day after I made the post on the project, the fledging cosmo died on me. It had been growing fine for weeks, well, until that fateful day. Most disheartening a thing to happen, it seems that I have to start from scratch all over again.

On the brighter side, my kale seedlings are showing their true leaves, albeit a little slowly I may add. Perhaps the amount of sunlight or nutrients is limiting its growth somehow; according to the information on the packet, it should take approximately 45 days to mature but judging from the looks, I suppose a longer time will be needed for me to see the flowers. Actually, to link this phenomenon back to Biology, this slow growth is known as the lag phase. In this phase of the development model, there will be minimal change in the length or mass of the subject in question and this can be measured accordingly. However, that does not really have anything to do with this post now, does it. I apologise for the digression. My point of stating the lag phase, really, is to correlate what result I have yielded at this moment with what I have learnt and also, to follow up with the log phase, a period associated with a spurt in growth. Normally accompanying the lag phase, the log phase is what I am anticipating now. Indeed, I am looking forward to a profusion of growth from the kale seedlings. With so much anticipation building up, I really hope the log phase will come soon.

More updates to come.

Seedling slightly revealing the first true leaf

A better close-up of the true leaf

I didn't really notice this before. After looking at the pictures carefully, I have come to realise that the first two leaves of the seedlings are cordate. What love!

My plants have always been plagued by mealies, scales too. Recently, I have started a new approach to this mealy bug situation - feeding the vermin to my fish. This new and radical (at least to me) method has been put in force for the past few days and the fish seem to be enjoying the food. I just hope the "food" that I am feeding is not poisonous!

My first real project of 2010

My only cosmo seedling

I have started this batch of new seeds to grow. It is really exciting, I find, that the seeds have germinated. As of now, I have about 5 types of new plants growing, namely: Crotalaria retusa, Hibiscus sabdariffa, kale, cosmo and chilli. The seedlings have been growing for a few weeks now and I certainly hope they will thrive in my small corridor garden.

These are kale seedlings which I just took a few days ago. The clarity of which does amaze me as I have not been able to obtain such said clarity before.

More kale seedlings in the same pot

I will be posting my updates and more pictures very soon. Wish me luck!

Contrary to what my blog name suggests [lycopersicon, meaning tomato], I do not have any tomato plant in my small garden at all. I suppose I should start a few tomato plants soon once things get going in this small piece of paradise for me; I still need my other plants to become established before I divert my attention to grow the amazing lycopersicon soon. I want a tomato plant so badly!

A pleasant surprise!

Boy was I surprised to find this small little shoot while I was on my way to work this morning. Inconspicuously hiding behind a bigger pandan plant, this zamioculcas zamiifolia young, or commonly called the zz plant, was an accident in the works as it was no intention of mine to grow it. It was, however, an unexpected growth from an abandoned part of the bigger plant I have in the pot thanks to my mother who did some trimming a couple of months ago. Nevertheless, it was nothing short of wonderful, and lovely too, as it brightened my day today! I have since taken it out of the pandan pot and transplanted it into a more comfortable pot where the new shoot can have the whole place to itself. Hopefully it will enjoy the change in environment. Well, it's fingers crossed yet again!

It's like impossible to root those tagetes lucida cuttings which I took. I have been trying so many times and no one time had I gotten any promising result. Those cuttings just either wilt a few hours later or simply bide their time to eventually rot into nothingness. I am really finding it very hard to garden around these days when this is not the only setback that I have faced. Besides the tagetes lucida, my basil cuttings did not work out too. I have no idea anymore. I probably watered too much. It could also be the soil that may be the problem as it was perhaps unsuitable for the establishment of the said cuttings. Nevertheless, I shan't let this lack of success bog me down too much. I shall try again and hopefully, the next attempt at rooting the basil and tagetes lucida cuttings would be splendidly successful! Let's keep my fingers crossed for now.