Sunday, January 29, 2012

IJO's Organic Worm Tea

I read through the web & got in touch with IJO Corporation's representative, Powan.

Both sources had suggested that the key for prevention of such infestations & diseases is to build up a healthy plant.

Powan of IJO had introduced the idea of worm tea derived from worm castings when I touched base with her earlier on in view of IJO Organic fertiliser in the form of gray coloured granules. However, I wasn't keen on the idea back then becox I didn't fancy using the faeces/ stools of worms for my plants when they seemed to be doing fine prior to over-fertilising!

Now that I had been driven to desperation, I had decided to throw in my lot with IJO worm castings.

The photograph below shows my newly acquired bottle of IJO worm castings & a well-oxygenated dispenser of worm tea derived from the product:

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Adverse effects of overfertilising & Fending off diseases & pests

Lately, I've been battling against insects such as ants who a sweet tooth, making its way up the stems of my plants to reach out for the nectar produced by my Ginger plants.

At the spur of the moment, I was seized by a horrible thought that it was a sign of aphids as there were sooty-like "dust" which were found at the joints between the leaves & the stems. The undersides of the leaves were spared as well although the condition wasn't serious.

I sized that my kindness towards my plants was bring down their resistance & killing them off. It suddenly daunted upon me that the adverse effects of overfertilisation had been kicking in finally.

And out of desperation, I marched into the nurseries & got hold of white oil from quite an established brand here in our local market but it didn't work.

Finally, I had no choice but to use Bayer's Fungus Fighter which I had bought more that a year ago from Far East Flora when one of their branches was still located at Kovan (in Hougang). Well, it seemed to work really fast. However, since I'm last to last few drops of it in the bottle, I'm wondering what sort of drastic measures I would resort to when the relapse took place. Far East had imported the product direct from USA but I supposed that the item wasn't selling fast enough here in Singapore for them to justify another shipment. As such, I had been told that they wouldn't be bringing in the product in the near future.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

The Story Of My "tree" Musketeers - Stembound New Plant

Check out this stem-bound new plant that grew out from the "neck" of an old matured red "corn" in this photograph.
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A white pouch-like sac found concealed within the dried "scales" of the matured red "corn", resembling money bags.
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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Sneaky visits by olive-backed sunbirds

The latest news about our regular visitor, the olive-backed sunbird, is that it has gone mute as it came without chirping at all.

Initially, when I spotted these holes on all my flower buds, I thought that the plants were infested with worms. And there was further confusion as my plant was also concurrently undergoing the after-effects of over-fertilising.

However, before I barge into the nursery to consult the Aunty who coached me in gardening, I caught the olive-backed sunbird red-handed.

Well, it didn't commit the "crimes" with any hands since they weren't part of its anatomy.

We discovered that instead of sticking its long, pin-like beak into the opening at the top of flower buds, it was a really lazy bird. Our friend use its pin-like beak to prick the flower buds & finally drilled a huge hole into the buds mid-way to suck out the flower nectar.

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As such, there were many pin--like holes & 1 huge gaping hole on all the flowers buds.

If you asked me if it looked awful, yes it does affect the appearance of the poor plants.

After we made such a discovery by the naughty bird, we no longer based its presence on its chirping since it's been quiet nowadays.

Instead, the freshly bloomed buds which were marked with such holes were a very clear indication that the silly bird has already visited & drank its fill of flower nectar.



Did you see the flower (which had already been "attacked" by the bird) being flanked by 2 other flower buds which are going to bloom at any point in time?


I thought that this was really cute as the flower bud had been pushed out right at the top of the red "corn".

It's quite a pity that the red "corn" was burnt off earlier in view of overfertilising & also, over watering. Before the flower buds were being pushed out of the red "scales", it had already started rotting. After the unbloomed buds rot & die off, they would simply turn brown & dry up like how it's featured in the above photograph.

The Story of My "tree" Musketeers - 12th January 2012

I've taken some new photographs of my "Ginger" plants & I noticed that there are new flower blooms almost every day without the use of fertiliser.

Thus, it is true that a good compost soil is extremely important for optimum growth of plants.

Here comes some of the photographs - I've got more which I would upload later on as I couldn't resist taking photographs of the plants as they were blooming so prettily that they have become a heart-stopper for any nature lovers.

This batch of photographs were taken in the late morning when there was a slight dizzle:
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New additions to the "Ginger" family:


The new shoot growing out from the stem of the mother plant has already been harvested & repotted in the neighbourhood nursery.

In fact, we were surprised that the new shoot grew out from the stem of the main plant even though the red "corn" has still been blooming actively!

In the past, when we "harvest" the stem-bound newly grown "babies", the mother plant was already ready to be cut away from the flower pot as it had already withered or is already withering.

However, these recent ocassions fascinated us as the mother plant was still thriving & blooming healthy with flowers.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

The Story of My "tree" Musketeers - 11th January 2012

Photographs are taken once again straight into the rainy season.

Buds being pushed out of the red "scales" & in the process of blooming soon:







Photographs taken in the late afternoon, towards evening when the sun has already set about a couple of hours ago :
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I couldn't resist taking a snap shot of the plants during the late evening on 11th January 2012.
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