How Does Roberto’s Garden Grow..

It’s been a while since I was able to write about me gardening effort so I wanted to do some ‘catch-up’.  I’ll be doing an update to the Bamboo Site, very soon as well.

I’ve been at this for about 3 years now and I’ve come to the conclusion that the seeds, trees and flowers I’ve started flourished in spite of my efforts, not because of them.  As I mentioned earlier, I’ve had my fair share of failures.  Mostly because I was not prepared for the different needs some seeds/plants have.

That, and the fact that I tend to over water.  A hard habit to break.

Though Seedman was generous enough to provide me with a new batch of seed, none of those came up either.  I now think the black trays in the direct sun may have toasted them.  Those seeds called for direct sun so that’s what they got.  Probably too much of a good thing.  I do not attribute any of my problems with anything Seedman did or did not do.

The good news is, I do have several new prospects on the way.

I scored some very fresh seeds from my pal Sadhu at Govardhan Gardens here in PR.  I now have 12 Malay Apple sprouts in their own pots, 8 Pulasan in their own pots and 8 Cherry Mangosteen in their own special pots.

The 12 Malay Apple trees grew from just 8 seeds.

All but one seed split into 2 or more sprouts.  One seed had 7 sprouts on it!  I took one of the multi-sprouted seeds and carefully extracted it from the dirt to determine how best to separate them… they each had their own root system so I took a sharp utility knife and split them apart into groups of 2 or 3 each.

Now all 12 pots are thriving!

The Malay Apple will eventually grow into large trees, but because they are usually male or female, I have to start out with several.  Years from now, when I can determine what I have, I’ll cull a few out.  These will need their own space to thrive.

I do have one other Malay apple that’s about a year and a half old so the new ones will be planted down below it.

The first time I ever tried a Malay Apple was up at Sadhu’s place.. We love them and ate a bunch on the spot.  Many of these delicious tropical fruits have a very narrow window of maturity, cannot be picked green or will not stand up to handling and shipping.  Bummer.

The newly potted Pulasan starts are also male/female so I’ll be planting these in a group where I can monitor their sex as they mature and cut back a male or two, if I get too many.  These make a smaller tree, but need some protection from high wind.  Since they are considered ultra-tropicals, they also need lots of water in the beginning… until they put down deep roots.

These would not prosper around Guanica.. way too dry.

Both the Malay Apple and Pulasan seeds came up within a week of planting them.  The Cherry Mangosteen took over 4 weeks and I was beginning to think they would not grow.

My research into Mangosteens determined they were ultra-tropicals too with a very long tap root.  The 2 inch tall sprouts all had their roots hitting the bottom of the tray, with a little curl to them.  I am determined to grow these here so I cut up 4″ diameter plastic pipe and then split them so I could more easily extract the root ball later.

I’ll use a post-hole digger to plant them when the time comes.

These home-made tube planters are lightly held together with a little bit of hot glue at the top and bottom along with 3 ‘zip-ties’.  The bottoms have cheap window screen to allow for good drainage.  These are standing in plastic buckets with coarse gravel so I can monitor the water level.  Mangosteens like damp, well drained soil and I think I have that now.  The long tubes will allow them to mature some before planting them down in the hoya where there is some shade and a relatively constant supply of water.  We do have a dry season where we are, so until they are set in place I’ll have to keep them watered.

I know that seems like a lot of work, but have you ever had a fresh Mangosteen?

In addition to the African Oil Palm I started from seed 6 months ago, I now have 3 more from the same set of seeds we collected from the Tropical Agriculture Station in Mayaguez.  The 3 seeds took well over a year to germinate… not that unusual for palms.  These magnificent palms have many practical uses.

The two small ones in one pot will be moved to their own ‘6″ tube planters’ in a few more days.

I have not given up on trying to grow Acai, but I have had another major set-back.  Of the 6 perfect Dwarf Acai Sprouts I had potted, 5 were chewed off at the base by rats.  I’m about to go on a ‘killing spree’.  I rescued the one left, along with my 6th, Date palm and repotted them to larger pots.  They are now protected from any more rodent attacks until they get quite a bit better.

Unfortunately,
Acai are male/ female like so many others.  This means I’ll need to score more seeds for a
3rd attempt…

I had no problem with rats back when I first started my Date palms… I guess we are becoming a popular place.  They really like avocados, mangos and now, my papaya’s.

The ‘big’ planting..

I’ve talked at length about the Yerba Guinea grass that covers everything.  If allowed to go to maturity, it will reach well over 7 feet.  It would not be so bad, but it grows in tight clumps of 4″ to 8″ at the bottom.  The mass is so dense, you cannot cut it with a string trimmer.

Hence our ‘Chain Saw on a Stick’.

A circular saw blade with chain-saw teeth, made especially for a straight shaft gas trimmer.  This will cut through the dense grass like butter, but if you hit a rock or a metal fence post, it will start shedding teeth.  Nor are the teeth easily replaceable.  At $50 per, these are not cheap blades.  Some of the locals have taken to drilling out the arbor on a table saw blade and using them instead, since they are so much cheaper.  I may end up doing the same thing.

I did fabricate a ‘bumper’ from 1 inch plastic pipe and hose clamps to keep the blade from touching the ground and that helps a bunch.

The area I managed to clear off, now has small Noni, Pomegranate, Breadnut, Rambutan, Biriba and Star fruit trees, spread across it.  Near the bottom, there are a dozen assorted citrus trees and that is bordered by a bunch of baby Coconut and Date palms.  At the top, are two Mamey Zapote starts and the 3 White Pine starts.  It will be years before any of the fruit trees produce, but I’m OK with that.  I did lose a Star fruit and several of the Rambutan to the heat.  It’s been too dry for a while now.  I have Several Bilimbi I plan to replace the dead ones with.

The Rest of it…

We had a very good harvest from our old growth trees this year.  The grafted hybrid Mango and Avocado trees did great.  After giving away some of it to our neighbors, the rest went into our little freezer for smoothies.

This is the third year for the Jobo so I expect it will toss fruit soon.  Hard to believe this 12 foot tall tree is only 3 years old.  The first time it shed it’s leaves, I thought I had killed it.  The one mature Mexican Lemon tree has produced new fruit for almost 4 months running.  Picked green, just before they turn yellow, they taste similar to a lime.  On maturity, they taste like a cross between a lemon and a lime.

These make great Cuba Libres!

My banana patch also yielded up 2 nice bunches of fruit.  These are smaller, but more flavorful than the ones you get in the store, stateside.  Our mature Acerola produced a bunch of cherries too.

I’m so spoiled.

My most recent experiment was with Dragon Fruit I found at a grocery store in Ponce.  This is the red/magenta flesh version with a very mild flavor and a texture similar to Kiwi fruit.  I saved the seeds.  They took less than a week to pop and then I had dozens of tiny plants.  Since these are technically a cactus, I will try to keep them in pots for as long as I can.

I also got my hands on some Moringa seeds, but they have not sprouted yet, more about those as time goes by.

It’s been a pretty good year so far…

So in spite of my efforts, I have a multitude of things coming up.  I will order more Acai seeds in the very near future.  Once in a great while I’ll see a snake or tarantula, but they avoid me like I avoid them.

More and much larger pictures may be seen over on me Scurvy FaceBook Page… Arrg!!

My green thumb gets a little greener, every day.