Demise of my three "musketeers" ... *SOB*

Finally, the potted plants breathed their last breath and didn't manage to get revived even when I brought them down to the community garden.  ;(

These plants had brought us plenty of joy & happiness, helping us to get closer to mother nature in befriending yellow spotless ladybirds & olive-backed sunbirds.

Even towards their last remaining days, they had never failed to add beauty to our environment with their pretty blooms.  And for that, we're extremely grateful to their existence & their subsequent recilience against diseases.

As such, we would like to recite an eulogy in this blogging entry to commenmorate our precious plants who had died at our hands of excessive kindness (too much fertiliser) & we shall do so with deep regrets.

There is no night without a dawning

No winter without a spring

And beyond the dark horizon

Our hearts will once more sing...

For those who leave us for a while

Have only gone away

Out of a restless, care worn world

Into a brighter day

(No Night Without, by Helen Steiner Rice)



Adieu my darling plants, for I am sadly reminded by your presence through your "babies" who are found to be thriving so beautifully in the community garden. *SOB*

But perhaps, we felt a strong sense of consolation that you are survived by your young ones that are growing so vigorously & healthily at our neighbourhood's community garden!

The story of My "tree" musketeers - Signs of ailing health

After pruning off stalks which had aged beyond their ability for further growth, we were pretty relieved that new shoots had made its way out of the surface of the soil.

However, we did notice that these new shoots aren't as healthy as before because one of them came up with holes "burnt" into the stem as shown in the photograph below.




The rest of the green shoots seemed to have a reasonably healthy appearance as shown in the photographs attached below:

A hopeless struggle against Symphylans ...

Although my plants do have freshly bloomed flower buds which are "harvested" by the olive-backed sunbirds within a day of its appearance, it is sad to notice that the green leaves were infested with fungal spots as shown clearly in the photograph attached below:



Those yellow fungal spots were akin to skin diseases for plants & aren't curable. A strong & effective fungicide would have to be applied thinly on the leaves regularly to control the fungal condition.

The latest photographs of flowers that sprung out of the "scales" of the red "corns".





Although it isn't blooming as vigorously as before, having some flower buds is better than not having any at all.

So we've just got to take comfort in being complacent with the existing situation. We're keeping our fingers crossed that these plants wouldn't die on us...

Struggling against Symphylans (pests) ...

After repeated attempts to till the soil & pruning away many "dead" stalks of the "ginger" plants, I observed that there were improvements even though the plants aren't as healthy & lush in its growth as compared to the past.

These are some of the recent collection of its blooms for the past 1 month:

Invasion of the hateful Symphylans (pests)

Finally, killing my plants with kindess - over-fertilisation. :( 

I've been battling against all odds & fighting plant diseases after the use of the organic worm tea.  I shouldn't have experimented the organic worm tea on my plants... *SIGH*

The situation was further exarcerbated by the over-fertilisation quite some time back - I should have simply lay off all forms of fertilisation & flush out the excess using plenty of water (also known as "leaching").

It was a challenging feat & apart from fighting against the yellowing of the leaves & fungus in the form of yellow-spots all over the green leaves, we were shocked to see that white centipedes had invaded the soil!

After googling up some information of the white "centipede", I would like to take this opportunity to share in this forum that those were not beneficial centipedes or garden centipedes that feast on organic matter.

They were infact pests that are out to harm the plants & are known as Symphylans. I read through extensive reports on this pest & methods for eradicating this creature but apparently, there aren't any cures for it where chemicals are concerned.

They take over the tunnels created by earth worms & occupy them. And their behavioural patterns are such that they do not come up to the surface & would only barrow in soil that are hard in structure. As such, the only recourse is to partially reduce its population by digging into the soil & destroying their tunnels below the soil.

The terminology used by gardeners for an attempt to exterminate them is known as tillage. Meaning that we had to till the soil in loosening up the soil. Once the soil is sandy & easily permeable with water, these symphylans would just die off.

However, even with the most effective method being tilling the soil, this wouldn't cure the problem completely as it would only assist in reducing the population of these pests in the soil.

One of the rules for preventing symphylans is to have good cultivation habits, which includes not over using organic matters in fertilising. Reason being that when the organic matters rot, they introduce bad bacteria which inturn invites such undesirable pests such as Symphylans to your plants.

These pests would chew & eat up all the roots & the poor ginger plants would start to weaken & be unable to absorb any nutrients from the soil.

And in severe cases, the plants would die off due to the lacking in nutrients when it's roots are being eaten up by these pests!

These are some photographs of the hateful Symphylans.





Don't they look like white centipedes with many legs & a pair of fillers on top of their heads?


Disclaimer: I do not own any of these photographs of the symphylans which are posted as above. Kindly give the credits of these photographs to the its owners. Thank you.

A new visitor : Yellow Ladybird

Towards this early evening, I was surprised to see a yellow bug which clung onto one of my red "corns".

I took it off carefully & was told by my hubby that it was a lady bug which was said to be beneficial to all plants. Lady bugs were beneficial insects who helped in getting rid of pests such as aphids. By eating them of course.

However, out of ignorance, I brought the lady bug down to the ground floor & left it onto a flowering shrub as I didn't believe that it was a lady bug since it was yellow & not red with black pokka dots as typically depicted in cartoons or photographs.

I almost kicked myself when the search engines on the internet has confirmed that it was indeed a precious yellow lady bug! I've just sent off a good insect that would benefit my plants!

Ain't I stupid?

Right now, I could only be hopeful that my plants would be a future resting place for more lady bugs in the near future.

And the worse part was, I didn't even take a photograph of the yellow lady bug.

This was how my yellow lady bug looked like...

I think I must be crazy to chase away such a precious insect whose doing good to my ginger plants. *sob* Let's just hope that other lady bugs would find their way to my plants.

Outcome of a single application of IJO's Organic Worm Tea

After a single dose of ijo's worm tea, this is the outcome of my plants:

Even after I stopped watering the plants with worm tea, I did notice that the plants were blooming again with just watering them with tap water.

I had a sneaky suspicion that becox the N-component (Nitrogen) has been higher in percentage than the P-content (Phosporous, which is essential to promote flowering), the plants were growing vigorously with green leaves & new baby shoots at the expense of blooming.

After I stopped watering the plants with worm tea for the time being, my "Ginger" plants had been blooming consecutively for days when they had been exposted to an abundance of strong morning sun.

The following photographs were taken on 7th February 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:

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.

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.


A white pouch-like sac found concealed within the dried "scales" of the matured red "corn", resembling money bags.

IJO Organic Fertiliser (gray pellet form)

Of late, I require a replenishing of this organic fertiliser after the repotting process but realised that I couldn't find the product at Giant (Tampines) & other supermarkets such as NTUC Fairprice.

Although my plants had been overfertilised & didn't require fertilisers for now, I swore by IJO's organic fertiliser becox they worked wonders on my plants & they do promote healthy green leaves spotting fattish stems.

A photograph of IJO's organic fertiliser:

I was relieved that I didn't discard the empty satchet as the contact details of IJO Corporation was printed on the back (of the satchet).

So for you folks who are still interested in purchasing IJO's organic fertiliser, please contact the company directly to obtain details of where you could purchase the fertiliser from:

IJO Corporation Pte Ltd
3018 Bedok North Street 5
#06-49 Eastlink
Singapore 486132
tel: 6-447-8867

(email address: enquiry@ijocorp.com)

I was told by this manufacturer that IJO meant "It's Just Organic" in short. My verdict for this organic fertiliser is that it's a great product for nurseries & plant lovers.

Post-script:    It's sad to learn that this range of organic fertiliser has been discontinued & has been replaced by a new range of organic worm tea.  Although I had been informed by nurseries that the worm tea product has its regular buyers, it is most unfortunate that it didn't work out for my plants.  On the contrary, it killed off my poor plants eventually, promoting diseases & pests.

If you are interested in learning about the latest development of what detrimental effects it had on my ginger plants, please stay tuned to this blog!  Thank You!