Cucuma elata flower

My cucuma elata ginger produced a very nice flower stalk recently. This plant is among one of those that managed to escape my "search and destroy" operation a year ago.

The story started from Bangkok three years ago where i bought $5 worth of different types of ginger roots from CTC market, including thai tumeric (different from the local ones in the market). Some cost 10baht while some are 20baht per piece. I put all of them into 3 big planters outside my house and before i knew it i have lots of different gingers sprouting all over the place. Very interesting at first but soon i lost interest and decided to clear the place for rosella, barbados cherry, mulberry and other herbs. So i decided to dig out the ginger roots.

Not as easy as i thought because i did not realise how big the roots have gotten. I dug out enough roots to fill 3 NTUC bags! And some of the escapees produced another round of ginger plants a few months later.

Since they are so lucky i decided to leave them alone so now i still have a few of those that got away.

Scotch bonnet is ripe

The scotch bonnets are ripe now. Must handle with care cos it is very hot!!! My fingers burn for a while when i accidentally touched an opened chili.





Close-up of the chili.

Pollinating the Chili Flower

This is how i ensure the chili flowers don't get pollinated by pollen from other varieties. I hope the seeds will be genetically uncontaminated.

Updates on Scotch Bonnet

The first fruit has grown bigger now and the lobes are more pronounced.

There are also more fruits on the plant now.

Scotch Bonnet

The beautiful flower of the Scotch Bonnet Chili. The flower is larger than the usual chili padi flower.

The fruit is forming. It is a bit angular, not rounded like in usual chili.

The plant is healthy now. Not sure if it will just suddenly die off like some other chili plants.

Pulasan and Pineapple

Me with the pulasan tree that i have planted 3 years ago. The tree fruits every year but in the beginning the fruits were flattened and contains no flesh or seeds, just skin. Maybe due to lack of nuitrients.



This latest harvest shows great improvement in the fruit quality. Likely due to the maturity of the tree.










A bunch of pulasans. The semi-red ones are already very sweet.

This is almost fully ripe. The dark patches in the picture is actually ant hive material. The ants are using the hard spikes of the fruit to hold their hive in place so need to bang the fruit on a hard surface to dislodge them before opening the fruit.

Another bunch with ant hive material, quite harmless actually.

This is a plant ripen pineapple grown from the crown of a dole pineapple bought from NTUC. One year plus and all you get is a small fruit although it is quite sweet. My mom says better to buy from NTUC.

Rosella (Hibiscus sabdariffa)

The flower bud of Rosella. The flower is typical hibiscus type and lasts only a day.

The buds can be harvested and made into a nice refreshing ribena-like drink. The Taiwanese drink it a lot in Karaokes to soothe their throat.

If i can, i will mix in a few Barbados cherries. This alters the sourness slightly and makes the drink even more refreshing.

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My orchids:

http://joestw.blogspot.com/