Rose Apple First Blossoms

I planted a rose apple tree more than three years ago at the front of my house. I bought the hybrid plant from a nursery. Well, to be more accurate, I bought the plant during Universiti Teknologi Malaysia convocation in 2017. During the convocation, there were many sellers renting stalls to sell  various products.

Yesterday, Wednesday, 4th March 2020, I found out the rose apple tree is blossoming for the first time. The tree height is about six feet tall. I rarely put much nutrient in the ground. There were a few times, I planted chicken and coffee waste under the tree.

I suspect the tree is blossoming due to the hot weather. There was no rain for almost two weeks. It is usually very hot as high as 42 degree Celsius at noon.

Due to the hot weather, I pour water to all my plants outside of my home such as pineapples, lady finger, banana trees, star fruit, mulberry, and others. It was during the moment I saw the tree is blossoming. However, when I bought the tree, I was promised it is red rose apples, not white.

In total, there are three groups of blossoms for the moment. I am hoping more blossoms will appear soon. The blossoming give me more motivation to spray organic pesticide to the tree and plant more organic nutrient in the ground.

Reference:
1. http://www.raw-food-health.net/Rose-Apple.html
2. https://toptropicals.com/html/toptropicals/plant_wk/rose_apple.htm

2nd Pineapple at Home Bear Fruit

Today 28 October 2019, I saw another pineapple tree bearing fruit.

I was very excited since this pineapple is planted in a 5 liter bottle. It is a recycle palm oil bottle.I planted the pineapple last year. It bear fruit after more than 9 months being planted.

I will post the progress pictures.

Planting Superfood Asparagus

I acquired asparagus tree in Dec. 2017. I had no experience planting asparagus tree and never ate them before. I thought it is bitter. Initially, I planted the trees in the ground of my home compound.

After six months being planted, the trees were dying as below:

After seven months being planted, the asparagus trees were getting critical. One by one the trees died. The soil is not suitable since there were water whenever it was raining. And it took a long time for the soil to drain the water.

Upon realizing there was one one tree left, I moved the asparagus tree into a vase on  4 August 2018. I put some essential nutrient to ensure the tree can properly grew. As the pictures shown, the asparagus tree was saved from destruction and grew new trees.

There was barely a tree still survived.

A month after I planted in a vase, the tree was getting healthier.

After two months, it was a relief to see new trees were growing.

After three months, the leaves were getting denser. The new shoot is getting thicker.

After six months being planted in a vase, the trees were healthier and sufficient to be split.

The roots had covered all the ground in the vase although there were still room to grow.

I felt it was time to split the trees into different containers. I managed to split them into three separate containers. The original vase was being reused. And one of them was planted in a 5L palm oil bottle!

The other two asparagus trees.

The process to split them was delicate. If I didn't careful, the tree being cut will die. I will wait for at least another six months before I split them again.

My family always harvest the asparagus rebung and put into a cooking. Sometimes, I ate the root? rebung? raw. When the first time I taste the rebung in raw condition, I was surprised, tt taste sweet!

Planting Pineapple at Home

I planted my first pineapple more than two years ago (2017) at my new home. It still didn't bear any fruit after two years. I thought it didn't bear any fruit since I planted it in a ploybag. The picture below was on Nov. 2018.

But, that didn't deter me from planting more pineapple trees. Some of them, I planted on the ground.

However, the soil at my new home is not fertile enough. So, I decided to plant all new pineapple trees in polybags and bottles. When there are so many of them, it is beautiful to arrange them at the perimeter of my house.

The pineapple tree on 26 January 2019.

To my amazement, I noticed on 8 September 2019, my first pineapple tree already bear its fruit!!

My daughter and I were very excited. The color of the new pineapple fruit is so beautiful. This motivate me to plant more pineapple trees.

Harvesting and Replanting Tumeric

Turmeric has many health benefits such as preventing heart disease, Alzheimer and cancer. It is a potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. It can also help improve symptoms of depression and arthritis. Turmeric is always being used in Malay foods such as lemak cili api dish, fried foods, rendang, telur itek masak lemak and others. You could also simply add turmeric leaves in most of your food so that you can get a more delicious flavor.

A fresh turmeric is also more delicious compared to powder turmeric. Hence, I planted six pots of turmeric plants for my family consumption. However, during Ramadan this year, my family used a lot of turmeric leaves in the meals cooking. The addition of turmeric leaves had ensure the foods were more tasteful due to Ramadan deficiency.













Since my wife forgot to buy new supply of turmeric, on 20 Oct. 2019, I harvested a group of turmeric trees. Instead of planting the trees in bottles as usual, the trees were planted in the ground of my garden compound. They were next to my berangan banana trees. I planted them for more than a year.

The harvest was quite bountiful. Most of the rhizome was harvested as deep as about 15cm. In total, there was 96 gm of turmeric rhizome. Some of them were already about to grow new buds. Hence, I planted them in new pots (plastic bottles).

But, some of the rhizome (3 units) can be reused and I planted in a vase. The original trees were planted in a plastic bottle. If all of them grow, I should have 4 new group of turmeric trees.

Pisang Berangan 3.0

Last month, I harvested Berangan banana.

There were only 4 combs per fruit. But it was satisfying enough for our family. The most important thing is the fruit is fresh, free from chemical pesticide or fertilizer.

Satisfying weight and size

It is more delicious than pisang lemak manis or pisang emas.

          Banana also helps my stomach digestion. After eating the fruit, the remainder of the fruit is very useful to fertilize my vegetables. I am looking forward for the next generation of Berangan banana trees.

Harvesting Cotton Banana (Pisang Kapas) Fruit 3 & 4

On 8th Nov. 2018, I harvested my 3rd organic cotton banana.

There were six brushes of banana which is quite good considering the soil in my house is not really fertile.

A bountiful harvest.

On 26 January 2019, I cut down another tree and harvest my 4th banana cotton.

Since the soil is not so fertile, the tree is not tall. So, I can easily cut down the tree.

It was still a satisfying harvest.

As usual, I destroy the whole tree. In the future, I should think how to reuse the cut tree.

Fresh Banana Cotton Fruit 2

These are the second generation of my banana cotton. Keeping the trees are easy since they don't require much work to do: putting fertilizer, pesticide or water.

19 July 2019. Most of the time, I just cut the dried leaves. And the tree will produce a reasonable bunch of banana.

Six brushes of banana cotton on 21 July 2018

9 August 2018

27 September 2018 with one on the right and one on the left

7 Oct. 2019 Right at the top, left at the bottom

Cutting the tree on the left on 3 Nov. 2018. Like I wrote, it is easy to keep the banana trees. 

But, make sure after you harvest the fruit, you cut the tree until the bottom of the tree. It is important to dispose the whole banana tree to ensure the next generation trees are in good health.

Measuring the weight of one piece of banana cotton

I cut the other banana cotton tree in the next few days.