My beautiful wife loves cooking with Scallions. They have a mild onion flavor that goes well with any meal that needs a quick kick... She used to buy a bundle of them from the supermarket, chop up the usable green leaf, then dispose of the lower bulb:
One day, her mom got an idea...
After chopping off the edible top, we placed the white bulb into a small glass of water. Sure enough, the bulb began giving roots and the green top began growing back! We soon learned that we could simply put the left over bulb into soil and the plant would grow on its own! This method should save you some money at the supermarket...
I've thrown together a visual guide to re-using your old scallion bulbs below:
A scallion. The edible part is green. The white part to the left of the photo is the bulb.
Chop off the edible top to be used for cooking.
Plant the bulb directly into soil. Leave the top tip above soil. Water immediately and regularly (don't go crazy with watering these...they don't seem to need too much H2O).
You can see the scallion I've just planted in relation to scallions I just planted a week and a half ago!
They can get big! Note that we chopped off the tips of some of these scallions...they will grow back!
The bulbs widen considerably.
The leaf , bulb, and roots...
I'm not entirely sure how many times I can "decapitate" my scallions and expect them to grow back. I will let you know if I find a limit...
But what...it seems the petals are withering away :(
Don't panic! This is normal as long as the bud remains on the plant. If the flower and bud fall off the plant this could be a warning sign -- temperatures are too high during the day or too low at night ---- the plant is not getting a sufficient amount of water and/or nutrients (too much or too little) ---- and/or you may lack pollination
Is there something growing under those dried petals?
What? It seems a green pepper is rising from the withered petals!
:)
A growing pepper in the company of buds and petals.
It's hard to believe that supermarkets sell small bags of fresh basil for $6+ when a bag of 100 seeds can be purchased for around $1. Growing basil is easy, cheap, and a great experience.
I'll talk you through my experience in growing basil:
1) Start from the seed!
I started growing my basil seeds in a Jiffy Indoor Seed Starting Greenhouse. These greenhouse sets can be purchased at all hardware/gardening stores for relatively cheap prices ($6-10). You can also buy them on amazon, although I've found that they are cheaper to buy in stores like Home Depot. (the individual seed pellets are cheaper to buy online, however) I will break down how to use one of these sets in a post dedicated to seed starting later this month...
2) With adequate light, my basil plants grew phenomenally indoors and outdoors.
3) Basil Flowers: Finally this week I noticed a small flower growing at the very top of my basil plant. Before I got a chance to photograph the flower, a workman outside pinched it off. He correctly told me that it was essential to remove the flower. Had the flower remained on the basil, its growth would have stunted and the plant would have decreased its production of oils. These oils provide the basil with its amazing aroma and flavor.
A bird's eye view of my basil plant. The purple color at the center of the plant are the remains of the removed flower. I later removed the remaining flower.
4) Pruning Basil
Removing the basil is not enough to produce lush amounts of flavorful basil. It is necessary to prune your basil plant to produce more bumper crops.
First I'll talk you through conservative pruning with some of my own pictures. At the bottom of my picture gallery you'll find a helpful youtube video dedicated to basil pruning:
My basil plant ready for some simple pruning.
Identify the top part of the plant above two new lateral branches.
Cut the very top of the plant off. The two laterals below will grow in fuller and stronger. More nutrients and water will now be transferred to these areas...
You can remove much more of the plant than I did if you would like to produce more basil. You can freeze whatever leftovers you have for the winter season...
Even if you don't care for the taste of basil, having a basil plant in your garden is an effective way of attracting natural pollinators like bees!
(But you will need to let the basil flower grow for this to work!)
The young plants grew rather slowly indoors, but as soon as the warm summer air moved in, they started to grow like crazy. All my seeds grew, none failed -- so I guess that's a good promotion for Burpee's pepper seeds...
(In fact, I had so many plants I had to give most of them away to family and friends...)
Anyway, my plants finally started to grow flowers about a week ago (the start of July).
A typical sweet pepper flower.
These flowers have both male and female organs, so there should be no problem as far as pollination is concerned.
I have tested a few techniques to self-pollinate these flowers. I have shaken and flicked the flowers to increase the chance of pollen reaching the female organs. I have also used a Q-tip to help spread the pollen. Examples of these two techniques can be found on my video below.
One of the most lively plants on my balcony is the Armenian cucumber. Since the summer heat has kicked in, the plant seems to be growing at an intense rate. Just in the past week, the plant has also begun giving a large number of lovely yellow flowers.
Unfortunately, these flowers are only males. I've done some reading online, and apparently within a week or two, I should be getting some female flowers as well.
You can differentiate a male from a female flower by the area below the flower. A female flower will have a small "mini-cucumber" growing beneath its flower. The male flower will have nothing special growing under it.
In addition, the male flower will only have long stamen at its center. These long protrusions are tipped off with pollen which will eventually fertilize the female flower and induce the growth of the cucumber. Thus, it is absolutely necessary to make sure that cross-pollination occurs between male and female flowers. Bees and insects do a good job at spreading pollen between flowers. If you live in an area with few natural pollinators, you can self-pollinate your flowers with either a cotton swab or your fingers.
It's also interesting to note that the Armenian cucumber is in fact a melon, not a cucumber.
Stay tuned for updates and more facts on the Armenian cucumber and all the other plants in my garden. I'll update the Armenian cucumber as soon as I spot some female flowers...
Below I've posted a video of my plant so far, in addition to some photographs:
My Armenian Cucumber growing in a six inch pot.
A male flower. The closed flowers had bloomed the day before.
More flowers!
The male anther is clearly seen from this angle
Hi and Welcome to my apartment garden. The purpose of this blog is to document my first attempt at a vegetable garden. I began growing most of the plants in this blog by seed in the spring. Unfortunately, I only began documenting their growth in July 2012.
By sharing my experiences and photos I hope to improve on my garden and give advice to all my readers!
I encourage anyone to post advice, questions, or comments on any of my posts!
