In Love with Bee's & Ash Gourd

It’s one of the Veggies that love warm weather, It’s also called as white Gourd,Wax Gourd Elavan in Malayalam , Kondol in tagalong and so on .

They are covered with a white chalky wax which deters Pest, and helps the Gourd to get more life.

It’s one of the veggies that is a must in my house in a week, for variety of recipes like the Avial , Olan etc yummy and simple to cook .

In Ayurveda remedies it used to increase appetite, its fresh juice is used to cure kidney stones, the seeds are cooked in milk and taken to increase sperm count and to improve sperm locomotion.

The one that I posted grew from the compost; it just came up without much fuss I would say.

When I saw this one grown up fast, all I did was moved it to another location where it could utilize some support to grow up.

I had some Trellis built for the beans, but Gourd utilized that and also provided some shade for the little beans that were growing in the ground.

From Compost , In Pot 

When I started seeing  some flowers , I added some cows manure , every 15 days – not sure if its correct procedure thou , but that did increase the amount of flowers .

There were days that I always longed to see how the bees pollinated, Google did say that bees could arrive in any place except Antarctica, but didn’t have any hope since the place behind my backyard is vast ,open ground with lots of construction and mud.

But nature always surprises me, I did get to see the bees around the flowers, stood there until they left got a Pic , not clear thou , but they posed for me .

Bee Love

See below male and female flower, just waiting for female to mature .

Male 

Female - yet to bloom

Hoping the process takes place by the bees soon and not waiting for me to hand pollinate.

Waiting continues, learning patience. 

Update as of Nov 19th. -The bees pollinated , But didn't want to take a chance hence hand pollinated the next day as well.Not sure if its right , but below is the outcome .
Its still growing Big , need to give a better support .

Support given - Using the onion bags .

Dec 07 - 2013 Update

Needed the Ash gourd for cooking Molagutal and hence was in a hurry to get it of to our table, guess it could have grown more, but i'm very happy & satisfied .

Tomatoes - Easy to Grow.

Tomatoes –it’s the easiest plant to grow, but hard for me to remember Solanum lycopersicum(botanical name )

I have tried my hands on the tomatoes last April and the outcome was juicy tomatoes. Got some saplings from the Nursery and placed it on the window shelf with some sunlight.

It’s one of the plants that could be grown thou you have some less space. Frankly speaking didn’t take care much, just watered it and put some coffee /Tea leftovers. Mother Nature was kind enough to give me a couple of them.  Had to go on a vacation and it died.

April 2012 - Harvest

H thinking its a ball ! 

Tomatoes are commonly classified as determinate or indeterminate.

Determinate, or bush, types bear a full crop all at once and top off at a specific height; they are often good choices for container growing. Determinate types are preferred who wish to harvest at one time, or interested in canning. 

Indeterminate varieties develop into vines that never top off and continue producing until killed. They are preferred by who want ripe fruit throughout the season, but in Qatar need to give it a try during real hot season. 

As an intermediate form, there are plants sometimes known as vigorous determinate or semi determinate; these top off like determinates, but produce a second crop after the initial crop. The majority of heirloom tomatoes are indeterminate, although some determinate heirlooms exist.

Once I moved to the new house– I sowed some seeds in the container again, and it was fighting for space when it popped up, but I was lazy to transplant it to another Pot and let it die without watering, feel guilty it was a healthy plant. 

It was interesting to see that it still survived for almost 10 days without watering in this hot season. Believe me it was still green; just a little work could have saved this one. I dumped it in the compost later.

Another day where I just put the left over tomatoes from my kitchen in a pot with some soil, it grew there also, but it was very leggy, so had to pull it off.

Now I’m back again with a new set of seeds from Carrefour, purchased it last shopping, sowed it in the seed tray last night. They say we need to keep the seed tray under a cool place first, and when it germinates we transplant .But I’m trying it just under a normal Netted place with some sunlight. Just watering it twice a day.

 To help avoid fungal problems later once it grows, avoid getting the leaves wet when you’re watering the soil. O yeah and the brand that I have purchased is Marglobe , which is supposed to be a determinate variety , if it’s a real one which is expected to grow 4-5`, but some sources do say its indeterminate , There are lots of attributes hmm..  I just wish it tasted better and fun to grow with zero pest.

Also have googled to see, companion planting for Tomatoes, to make it sweeter and distract the insects, its basil.I have a couple of them going to see later if it makes any difference.

Further I also sowed some spear mint or pudina in the seed tray, I'll write a separate post on it later , this seems to be a lengthy one , :)  hope you liked it and happy planting , share your tomato experience !