The Curious Gardener | Gardening discoveries in Singapore

The ratoon pineapple

Posted on July 27, 2017 by CuriousG

The ratoon pineapple and new sucker.

Last May, we harvested our first pineapple, and I decided to leave one sucker on the parent plant to continue growing. This would give what is known as a ratoon crop. It grows faster than starting a new plant, but the fruits are reportedly smaller. Me being me, I had to test this out for myself.

It took almost eleven months before the ratoon plant started flowering, and as we watched the fruit develop, it definitely looked smaller than the first fruit. There seemed to be fewer flowers, which made the overall size of the fruit smaller. I was disappointed, but this was an experiment, after all. Compared to the original plant that had taken about three years to bear a fruit, this was definitely much faster.

As with the last time, we waited for the pineapple to ripen on the plant. What I didn’t count on, though, were mealybugs and industrious ants looking for a shady place to hide during the hot weather. They set up home along the base of the fruit, and while they didn’t penetrate the skin, they managed to damage it a little, resulting in dark spots on the skin.

I fancy the pineapple wasn’t as tasty as the first one, but that could just be me. Flavour-wise, it was sweet, and definitely more delicious than store-bought pineapples that are still greenish in colour when we buy them.

As with the last time, the plant produced a new sucker. This time, though, I won’t leave it on the parent plant. The sucker, along with the new crown, will be removed and planted separately. Now my next question is whether they will follow the original or ratoon parent when they grow up…

Propagating sugarcane

Posted on June 12, 2017 by CuriousG

Sugarcane stems being prepared for planting

One of our neighbours harvested some sugarcane last week and shared it around. When we got our armful of it, we dilly-dallied a bit too long and it started drying up to the point where we decided it was too hard to try to consume. It would have been a different story if we had one of those nice roller-squeeze machines that they have at the hawker centres to extract the juice, though.

Naturally, I decided not to let the sugarcane go to waste. I had noticed several buds along the stems, so I cut them so there was just one bud per piece of stem. From experience, I know that roots will grow from below the bud, along the circumference of the growth ring, so where I was able to, I cut the stem as close to the bottom of the bud as I could. It wasn’t easy, because the exterior of the stems was already rather hard and woody, like bamboo. For those that I could, I cut close to the growth ring. I’ll be able to just push the stem straight into soil, and they will be able to start growing. For those stems that were too hard to cut, I’ll lay them sideways to grow. Plants are very adaptable and will do what they need to to grow!

A bud above a growth ring. Roots will grow out from below the brown ring.

The last time I tried growing sugarcane, I had mixed success. The plants need a good supply of water, and some of them died off in the drier months. I particularly liked the one growing in a pot because with the dark red stems, it looked very pretty, like an ornamental bamboo plant. However, it has a tendency to topple over as the plants get bigger. This shows me that sugarcane needs to be planted out in the garden rather than in a container.

Choosing and storing seeds

Posted on May 31, 2017 by CuriousG

Packets and packets of seeds with so much potential in them!

I love growing plants from seed. Just opening a packet of new seeds and pouring them out to take a look at them is like Christmas or a birthday to me! I’m just amazed to see them in all their different shapes, colours, textures and sizes, with each seed containing the potential to grow into a plant that can delight with flowers and provide sustenance through their fruits, stems, leaves and more.

Yes, I tend to go a little overboard whenever I’m in the vicinity of seeds, but over the years, I’ve managed to learn a little restraint. Instead of choosing things that catch my fancy, I’ve learned to consider the plant’s growing conditions to see if it has a chance of growing in our hot, humid climate in Singapore. There have been many disappointments in the past when I had no luck growing plants from cool, temperate climates – but that was just me being optimistic. I guess I’ve become a little more realistic now. If I’m making an order from, let’s say the US, I’ll now choose those that grow in the southern states where it’s hotter and more humid, and closer to the equator. Or I just choose seeds from countries closer to home, like Malaysia, Indonesia or Thailand. That leaves plenty of choices.

Having lots to choose from means I have quite the collection of seeds right now. Since we live in a hot climate, the best way to store your seeds is to keep them in the fridge. This prolongs their lifespan for much longer than is stated on the seed packs. I have some that have been in the fridge for more than four years that can still germinate. For those, I try to remember to save seeds from the newly grown fruits or flowers to store for the future. Saved seeds will be even better because they will be acclimatised to our garden, so I sometimes consider the first planting a sacrificial one because the plants need to get used to the new environment. As long as they produce fruits that I can save seeds from, I’m happy.

Do note that if you order seeds online to be responsible in what you get. Anything sent in will be checked by Customs, and you don’t want to get flagged or have to go and pay to collect your shipment, do you?

Sweet potato harvest!

Posted on May 10, 2017 by CuriousG

Almost 3kg from this sweet potato harvest

Well, the sweet potatoes have been growing in the same spot for about three years, and I figured it was time to move them to another spot. It’s that thing called crop rotation where leaving the same plant in the same spot for too long means it will drain nutrients from the soil and deplete the soil vitality.

Anyway, we’ve started pulling up the vines and of course found more sweet potatoes to harvest. They were of all shapes and sizes, from skinny to oval to turnip shaped. There was one monster-sized one that made me wonder how it had escaped detection for so long! We haven’t pulled out everything yet but got a harvest of almost 3kg of sweet potatoes. That’s not too bad in my books!

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