What do you think went wrong?
I want to grow a few kinds. But I’m wondering if it’s still too cold here to grow them.
@owleyes - Tomatoes. Often these need to be supported from a very early time to get them to continue growing upwards. Mine are about half the length of my index finger and it’s now time to stake and support them - photo’s coming today (was delayed by having to do some actual work. Such a hassle…)
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OK! This is a lot of photos for not much growth but for what it’s worth
Aloe in the front porch windowsill
Bigger aloe on a back porch windowsill, in milk cartons (the aloe (as ‘pups’) came from the mother-in-law). The big white planters came as a surprise from my Mother in London who was very pleased to be able to place an order with carrefour. Nothing apart from soil and a few planters mind. Not even a chocolate bar. Hiding behind the milk cartons is Gotu Kola which is not doing well but I’m very very interested in it as an anti-inflammatory agent, given the price of ibuprofen here. And in the very back is some spinach I ate and am attempting to re-grow. It’s not going great but persevering.
Basil seedlings flanked by some sweet potato cuttings to give me sweet potato leaves - in theory.
Two full size planters of catnip (foreground) and something I forgot to label (my mother would never forgive me) but I know it’s edible.
Turns out catnip is apparently quite good at keeping away mosquitos. Definitely didn’t plant it because the mother-in-law is scared of cats. Definitely not.
Coriander (massively over planted) in the front (@owleyes should recognise the smaller pots next to it - much appreciated - those are also coriander and there’s plenty to go around)
Front porch, I didn’t plant the flowers on the left but I’m happy to claim credit for “maintenance”. This is also my workspace that I share with a gecko and a billion mosquitos. I will have a lot more here in due course, my furniture hasn’t even been delivered yet so bare with me!
Lavender. This is at the back and there are also some more of these in hanging baskets. Not sure how well lavender cuttings take - will let you know.
Lemon balm seedlings in the circular pot (with a singular cutting of rosemary in the middle) and behind them some more cuttings - again @owleyes should recognise the pots.
More basil seedlings
My Oregano gang
This is a rogue oregano plant - on a different windowsill - he wasn’t playing nicely with the others so he’s in isolation.
Rosemary in a milk carton and tomato seedlings.
These tomatoes need to be planted out in proper pots and even at this height they need to be tied to a support stick - at least that’s what I’m used to - never grown anything in a hot country before
These were spring onions that I bought from the market, ate, and stuck the roots in the soil, I’ve since eaten the growth again and these remaining few are going for dinner tonight. In between them are some seeds just coming up that I’ve also forgotten what I put there, maybe kale? I dunno.
That’s all for now. I think.
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The “stick” (?) of your mint is so green! Mine becomes brown like a tree branch almost immediately. It grows well and I managed to “duplicate” (?) it in a separate vase by planting a stick. I hope this summer it will look more prosperous, though.
I’m growing almost everything from seeds that I plant on my balcony. Biggest success so far a Lomquat that gave me fruits this year. Keeping my fingers crossed for the several lemon/lime plants I have, some of them are reasonably sized and I’m looking forward to some flowers this year.
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This is the status of my balcony as we head into the warm season.
I’ve grown ginger last year, it grew well and after harvesting we ate some and planted the rest.
A basil stick seems like it survived. I have few hopes of it becoming a full plant, but who knows.
I have lemons / limes everywhere because I like growing plants from seeds and we always have lemony stuff at home.
Both my lomquat (spelling?) trees are making new leaves. Last year the big one gave me 3 fruits, let’s see what happens next season.
I recently moved mint to a wider vase. It’s enjoying it, but it got a bit too excited and it’s now trying to culturally enrich a neighboring vase. I’m not a bigot though, and I know that diversity is a strength, so I’m sure they’ll integrate just fine.
Right before last winter I decided to plant some chilli seeds. They grew, then they realized it was cold and stopped. Hopefully they’ll stop their growth-strike once the sun becomes more reliable.
I doubled the amount of sweet potatoes by simply breaking a stick and planting it. I didn’t know it can be propagated like that, now I understand why it’s such a popular plant: easy to grow, easy to spread, requires little to no care and both leaves and the potato-thingy are edible. Psa: don’t plant it with other plants, they grow roots like crazy.
I also have some plants that I have no idea what they are: I see a seed, I plant a seed.
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LOL. I do this. I have eight-foot-high trees on the farm that I planted from seeds a couple of years back. I’ll find out what they are if/when they fruit.
I assume you grew the loquats from fruit that you bought? How long until first fruit? Reason I ask: I just tried the same thing last month.
Yes, the lomquat are from two seeds I planted in early 2013 or late 2012. They’ve been growing in fairly small vases for a few years, then when we bought our apartment with a proper balcony I put them in larger containers. One is now roughly 170cm tall and have us fruits last winter (a TON of flowers, it looked really cool). It has a stick-look to it, but I have no way to give it a bigger vase. The second plant fell from our 3rd floor straight into the rice field and cracked in half, due to early typhoon winds while I was not hone. It has been growing well (after a fairly long recovery period), but it’s under 50cms tall.
I often think about using part of the (unused) roof of our building to create a green corner with much larger containers, but I worry about weather, pests and also neighbors potentially sperging out.
The lomquats look like this:
In the second to last photo, on the left you can see the small one (the one that fell from the balcony) growing light green leaves. On the right, the large leaves are coming from the bottom of the bigger tree, In the last photo, the stick on the left is the bigger lomquat, near the top. I’m wondering whether cutting it and make it grow from the bottom would be a good idea, its bottom leaves look much healthier and are larger, but in order to do so I’d have to cut down like 80% of the tree, including the part that gave me fruits last season. Feelsbadman.
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Your talent is wasted. How is it that your are not employed by the Vatican to paint artwork on ceilings?
I hate cutting trees. I only do so if they start looking like beanpoles. It’s a tough decision, because unless you know for sure how the tree will react to having the top lopped off - they vary dramatically - you can’t be sure if it’s going to help or hinder. Personally, I’d leave it alone for now. From pictures on the internet, it looks as if their normal growth habit is a sort of mop-headed appearance, a bit like a palm tree. So the tall one is probably OK and the little side-shoot is an aberration.
I’m planning to start a GoFundMe page to earn money for my artworks. I know @mad_masala would be one of the first backers.
I often pass by one in Taipei that has a very bush-like look. It’s very wide but not excessively tall, it has a ton of leaves and last season I saw it producing plenty of flowers and fruits. i;ll see if I can take a pic of it later, I’m in Taipei today. If cutting down my stick-lomquat could force it to grow in a more balcony friendly shape it would be great, and I’m fairly certain the huge leaves at the bottom would be enough to sustain its growth because before they suddenly grew last year, the whole tree was relying on even fewer leaves coming out from the top of the stick. But yeah, as you say if the tree dies I’d be very upset, it’s the first fruit tree that i’ve ever managed to grow from seed and had it produce fruit in my balcony.
All the lemons/oranges/whatever citrus trees are roughly the same age as the lomquat but are far smaller and haven’t shown any sign of fruit yet.
this is the lonquat in Taipei. It looks like a tree, not a stick like mine, qq
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Good idea, but in Taipei needs to be a drone to fly somewhere with sunshine.
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Loquat #3 has joined my balcony. Took a long time to show up, I was starting to think that seed wasn’t going to survive but he made it!
The Mint cultural enrichment project is going great. I’m sure my purple heart plants are already feeling better people. Or plants.
if anyone has ants issues, I can 100% recommend this. It’s based on boric acid and in less than 24h it obliterated a huge nest of ants. For the first few hours I had thousands infants going back and forth between the trap and their nest, bringing back home the chemical of doom, and then they disappeared. Now my trees are feeding off their corpses, oh sweet retribution.
Sometimes auto-correct takes us to delightfully dark places.
Yes, yes autocorrect…of course…
(THE PERFECT CRIME)
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About a week ago I finally set up this little planter that my friend sent me for Christmas. The basil sprouted. Then the chives did. But the cilantro seeds in the middle are still sleeping…
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I don´t understand why the friggin heck cilantro is so difficult to grow here. Really frustrating. 
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I feel the same way about broad-leaf parsley
Is it?? That’s a bummer. I thought it was just a late bloomer.