Before our Jaunt to Bali...

Before our Jaunt to Bali...

A quick update of how the plants looked before I abandoned them to go to Bali for 10 days, it was fingers crossed to hope that it would rain enough whilst I was gone and would not kill them all.

Ginger Plants

Mango Plant, accompanied by a small ginger plant

Aubergine, repotted before I went away

Tomatoes and Sweet Chilies

Capsicums

Sweet Chilies and Garlic

Lemon Seedling

After the House Move

After the House Move

Koh Tao Snake who tried to gate crash our Barbecue

Just another Quick up date on how the plants were doing once we moved house.

Sweet Chili and Capsicum

Capsicum and Garlic

Pretty Flowers

The capsicums are doing well, and growing up and outwards.













These were from Seed bought from Aukotan, but since we lost the packet, I have no idea what they are, but thought it was nice to post something in bloom!

Tomato Plants

So the tomatoes are doing well, and the sweet chilis in the bamboo have exploded into action!

Re-potting Madness

Re-potting Madness

Ok, so a little behind in the updates, but a few more postings to follow shortly...

Here are so pictures of me re-potting before we moved house.

Lizard Sunbathing in Koh Tao

Garlic, Capsicum and Sweet Chili

Tomatoes and Sweet Chili

Mango Seedling

Adding together the Garlic, some capsicums and sweet chili plants, lets see how they all grow together.












So I separated out the tomato plants to help them grow a little bit better, and added some more sweet chili seeds to the bamboo container.










And here is another shot of the mango seedling.

Before the Monsoon Hits

The Sun is Shining before Monsoon begins.....

Sairee Beach Palm Tree with Long Tail Boats

Garlic just keeps on growing

Ginger, now with two sprouts

Was amazed at how quickly the Garlic is taking, and how quickly it is shooting up, not to mention lots of roots. One of the benefits with the plastic containers is you get to see the root system growing.

Citrus Trees, note the couple of new sprouts

Lemon Tree Sprouts

The Ginger on the right seemed to die and wither away, but then burst back into life with a new shoot. Guess the message is that even if it looks like your ginger is dying, it is likely to bounce back, may just take some time.







The citrus trees are doing well, and was happy that some extra lemon seeds that I planted about a week before started to burst into life. These do not grow very quickly, but it is nice to see how far they have come.











These are definitely lemon sprouts, think the above ones are too, but planted a mixture of lemon and lime seeds, so will probably never know..

Just won't stop Growing

Just Won't Stop Growing

Thunderbolt and Lightning Koh Tao

Ok, so this isn't a picture of plants, was just extremely happy to actually capture a lightening bolt!

Ginger Sprouting and romping ahead

So the ginger is going through a real growth spurt, and I'm so glad that i have managed not to kill it yet!

Spring Onions grown from offcuts

Capsicum seedlings in their new pot

So these were grown from the offcuts of spring onions, was amazed at how quickly the roots took and how quickly they start shooting up.











The capsicum bell pepper seedlings took very well to their new bigger pot.

Garlic Sprout after 5 days

After our garlic seemed to be growing a life of it's own in our fridge, I decided to pop some cloves into soil and see what happened, and it sprouted and shot up really quickly.

Mango, Mango, Mango!

Mango, Mango, Mango!

Mango Seedling at Sunset

This entry is being devoted to that of the mango seedling that I never expected to start growing. After following advice on soaking the pod for a week, changing the water every day, I actually ended up soaking it for 2 weeks and changing the water about 3 times. I planted the pit and there is sat, seemingly dormant for another 3 weeks. I then noticed something green start to become visible through the plastic bottle I planted it in. I then decided it was probably time to repot it into something a little roomier, and was then not sure if I had killed it, or willed it to live?

So below are the pictures that show the succession of events that lead to the final shot today (1st Nov) that is at the top basking in a lovely sunset.   

Mango Sprouting 17/10/13

So after the drama of re-potting  around 2 days later I saw this purple thing coming out of it, and was a little excited that I had managed not to kill it! This was taken on the 17th October.

Mango starting to show it's leaves 18/10/13

This shot was taken the next day (18th) and I was really excited to see what looked like a leaf starting to sprout.

Mango Seedling 22/10/13

This sprout grew impressively in four days, this shot was taken on the 22nd October

Mango Seedling 25/10/13

This Sprout grew a phenomenal amount in just 3 days, this one was taken on the 25th October

Mango Seedling 30/10/13

This was taken on the 30th October, and now the leaves seem to be growing in size rather than in number

Seedlings and Sproutings....

Seedlings and Sproutings

Flowers in Koh Tao

Here are some beautiful flowers from just outside our apartment, though I have no idea what they are, look like something similar to a hibiscus, so if you know, please feel free to let me know!

Tomato seedlings at 5 weeks

These are the tomato seedlings from the previous post, they have been growing exceptionally quickly, so much so that I had to re pot them.

Aubergine/Eggplant Seedlings at 4 weeks

The Aubergine/Eggplants depending on your preference, took ages to actually come through, these were some of the bought seeds, and seemed to perform worse than most that we took directly from the veg. The only exceptions are the sunflowers, which seem to do well everywhere!

Ginger starting to Sprout

   

  

The Ginger has been an ongoing conundrum, always tricking me into thinking it is dying then springing back into life, I have no idea what is the correct way to treat ginger, but suspect it is growing due to the tropical climate, and despite my interactions with it, rather than because of it!

Sunflowers at 5 weeks

The Sunflowers at around 5 weeks, not much else to say, except these seem to have done really well, just need lots of water.

Just Keep Growing.....

It Just Keeps on Growing

So here is the next installment of how the plants are doing. Here is a lovely picture of some turtle topiary with Sairee Bay in the background. It is lovely that this island is surrounded by greenery.

Turtle Topiary at Sairee, Koh Tao

                                                                           

Capsicum Seedlings at 2 weeks

So the Capsicum Bell Pepper seeds started sprouting at a phenomenal rate as you can see to the right. This picture was taken 10 days after the previous one on the blog, so shows just how far they have come. 

Tomato seedlings at 2 weeks

Here you can see the tomato seedlings, they were planted at the same time as the capsicums. I was amazed that they actually sprouted as they came direct from tomatoes rather than from seeds. Just hope this means that they will eventually flower and fruit....

Lemon/Lime Seedlings at around 8 Weeks

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The mystery still revolves around whether these are lemon or lime seedlings, but I do not mind as long as they just keep growing....

Ginger Root Sprouting

And lastly an update on the ginger, as you can see the original piece with life has withered away, whilst the piece that showed no life has slowly decided to grow again.

Gardening Lowdown

The Beginning

So you would think that gardening on a tropical Island would be easy, and yes the plant life here is abundant  however gardening is not so easy. 

It is difficult to come by pots and fertilizer, unless you order it from the mainland, and the seed selection is frighteningly limited. As such most of what I have attempted to grow has come from seeds directly from the fruit or vegetable. 

I have so far managed to have a few deaths, but some successes at the moment, but nothing is flowering as yet, so we'll have to see. I'm going to start by adding some of the start out pictures and try to tantalize you over the next few weeks to show you how they are doing.

I'll try and Include some of the beautiful native flowers and plants that are all around too.

Hibiscus at Mountain Bar, Mango Viewpoint, Koh Tao

Ginger Sprouting

So this piece of ginger did eventually shrivel up and die, however the brown bit at the bottom of the photo has since sprung to life. I am not sure exactly why some take root and others do not. I first thought they were not sprouting because they were stored in my fridge before planting, but this does not seem to be the case. I also followed advice on soaking the pieces in water over night before planting, but this just seemed to make them wither away, largely because the insides became nice and tasty to the insects. So far the ginger plant has been extremely hit and miss, so just glad one is growing for now.

Citrus Saplings

This is actually two citrus saplings. I planted lime and lemon together so it is a mystery as to what they will actually become.
I did mange to get a lemon sapling to around 10cm before in the UK, but left it when I moved to Australia, so it is likely dead. I hope these plants do better in this climate. Lemon and lime trees were everywhere in Oz, and I have seen a couple here on Koh Tao, so there is hope. They are currently planted in the bottom of a big water bottle, and I have used the top to create a greenhouse, to keep the moisture in.

Capsicum Seeds Sprouting

These are capsicum seeds from a yellow bell pepper. I was amazed at how quickly they took, this was 3 days after removing the seeds from the vegetable. I dried them over night and then added to soil the following morning. Most of the seeds are below the soil level. Again my pot is the bottom of a water bottle and I used the top to create a mini greenhouse. I planted so many at once because I didn't expect many to sprout, so will now have the fun task of trying to separate them...