Repotted UCSB lab plants

I repotted the lab plants in small disposable cups filled with potting soil. Both coleus seem to be doing remarkably well, as is the creeping charlie.


August 30, 2005: Repotted lab plants

Finally, the larger coleus plant cutting has developed roots. However, unlike the previously mentioned coleus, this particular cutting developed roots all along the submerged stem, not just from leaf nodes.


August 30, 2005:rooted coleus

Random UCSB tomato plant update

Look at how red all the tomatoes on the random UCSB tomato plant have gotten.


August 29, 2005: Random UCSB tomato, ripened tomatoes

R and I aren't interested in picking the tomatoes since I've tried one already and it's pretty tasteless.

Isla Vista (IV) passiflora edulis update

This morning I walked by the IV passiflora edulis again. While most of the fruit are still green, several have turned darker shades of purple, and several have also fallen off the vine.


IV p. edulis: ripening fruit

I always thought the p. edulis purple fruit should be a purple-black, so it seemed many of the already purple fruit had a long way to go.


IV p. edulis: fruit in various stages of ripening

This fruit is closer to ground level. It still seems nowhere near as dark as it should be when ripe.


IV p. edulis: close to fully ripened fruit

But I noticed many fruit had fallen to the sidewalk/street that ranged from red-purple to magenta to dark purple.


IV p. edulis: fallen fruit

Maybe some of the fruit had been knocked off by cars or the wind?


IV p. edulis: fallen fruit, different sizes and shades of purple

I opened up the fruit with the darkest skin and found the typical yellow/gold pulp.



IV p. edulis: fruit innards

I saved 43 seeds from this smaller fruit, but I don't know how useful it will be to dry them. I've heard it's best to germinate passiflora seeds from fresh fruit, not dried seeds.

Comment spam?

How irritating. I appear to be getting spam in the form of comments posted to my blog entries. What marketing company cooked up this scheme?

Spider plant or not?

I was walking by the family student housing complex the other day, and I spied a bunch of plants near the base of a big tree, plants which looked like young spider plants.


Looks like spider plant?

On closer inspection, I reasoned they weren't spider plants, since there were MUCH larger plants nearby that had very very broad leaves.

The Wonderful World of Plants

Up until this morning I wasn't certain how my passiflora incense was doing ever since I received and repotted it last Monday. With the last p. incense, the plant hadn't exhibited any rapid vine growth before it died, and I was afraid it was the same case with this one.

That is, until I went out and looked at it this morning and saw the flower buds looking ready to open up. By the time I had left for lab, they had still not opened up.


Passiflora Incense update: flower buds opening?

A wonderful suprise was in store for me once I arrived in lab. One of the woebegone, limper colius had perked up after R had cut its stem shorter the previous day. Now the leaves had more body to them.


Lab plant cuttings update: healthier leaves

None of the larger cuttings, (3 pothos, 1 colius) had developed roots since Sunday when they had been put in water, but neither were any of them wilted.


Lab plant cuttings update: tips of pothos and colius cuttings, no signs of roots yet

Next up, while the colius leaves looked healther, neither the colius cuttings nor the creeping charlie had yet developed tiny white root nubs.


Lab plant cuttings update: tips of colius and creeping charlie, no signs of roots yet

But then, to our amazement, we saw one creeping charlie and one wandering jew (yes, I know the name is offensive, but I can't find another common name for it) with small but sturdy looking roots. The creeping charlie cutting, in particular, had developed 2 longer roots with a cloud of fine root hairs. One main root had developed at each end of a stem node.


Lab plant cuttings update: tips of creeping charlie and wandering jew, tiny white roots developed!

Later, as R and I walked around campus, we stopped by to check on the UCSB random tomato plant. The ripening tomatoes seemed to have developed brighter orange/red hues.


UCSB random tomato by Broida: darker color developing

When I walked home, I anticipated at least one opened blossom, but I found out both had opened!


Passiflora Incense update: flower buds opened up!

Here's a picture of the top blossom, which I hadn't expected to develop for another day or so.


Passiflora Incense update: top blossom closeup

And here's a picture of the lower side blossom, which I had expected to see this afternoon.


Passiflora Incense update: lower side flower closeup

Despited it being after 5:00 pm, I tried hand-pollinating the passiflora incense. But from what I've read, passiflora incense is not self-pollinating, so they likely will not yield decent fruit, if at all. They are grown more for their lovely flowers than for their fruit. If any fruit developed, I wouldn't eat them, but rather save their seeds.


Passiflora Incense update: after some hand pollination (some anthers removed), and with plant moved into late afternoon sun

I stuck my washed-out looking spider plant that I got from E's mother plant into the fading afternoon/evening sun. I really hope that the lack of bright light on the window sill the plant usually perches on doesn't cause it to fade to a uniform grey-green.


Chlorophytum Comosum variegatum: looking pale and washed-out

Since 2 of the lab plant cuttings had developed roots, I took it upon myself to take them home and repot them.


Wandering Jew, Creeping Charlie, right before repotting

Taking out waxy cups that the lab used to get with the water that is delivered by Arrowhead every 3 weeks, I filled them with soil (about 8 oz), dug out a tiny depression, and stuck the plant cuttings in.


Wandering Jew, Creeping Charlie, repotted...

I'll bring the repotted plants in tomorrow.

My tiny container garden in Isla Vista (IV)

Here are all the plants I currently have outside/inside of my little room in Isla Vista. Note that only the largest container (dark green, 3 gallon plastic container) is kept outside.


My IV plants: picture of all of them

It contains 2 passiflora incense that I got from a lot of 3 plants via ebay, 1 jade plant cutting, and 1 unknown tillandsia perched on the twine. Yep, the passiflora incense are from my second round of passiflora purchasing. The jade plant cutting was stuck in the soil about 2 weeks ago. The tillandsia isn't exhibiting spectacular growth, but neither is it dying yet.


My IV plants: closer up group picture; plants in 3 gallon pot are: 2 passiflora incense, 1 jade plant cutting, 1 tillandsia ?

Lastly, here are my assorted spider plants. The one on the far left, with the green leaf edged in white, I got from E's spider plant before roots had developed much. The one with the white stripe down the middle and the all-green spider plant I got from R's raid on her mother's plant collection.

They are usually kept on my windowsill, but my room was too dark to take a good picture. Besides, if there's still sunlight outside by the time I come home from the lab, I like to stick the plants out to get maybe 10-30 minutes of sun.


My IV plants: Assorted spider plants - (from left to right) Chlorophytum comosum variegatum, Chlorophytum comosum vittatum, Chlorophytum comosum

I realize spider plants don't like direct light, but trust me, my room doesn't get enough sunlight, let alone direct sun. If they don't get enough sun, then the ones with white stripes may lose their distinctive markings.

Update on IV p. edulis, and plant cuttings from R's mother's place, yar!

Arg...back in Isla Vista again. I woke up in the morning and decided to check out the massive passiflora edulis vine to see if any of the fruits had started to ripen like L's sole fruit had.


Ripening p. edulis fruits: color comparison

Even though many of the fruits here are as old as L's fruit, only a small fraction of them have developed that telltale purple blush. I'm hoping to get a fruit or two to start a p. edulis plant. Clearly this plant here in Isla Vista is a proven producer!


Ripening p. edulis fruits: most vivid purple hue so far

Now we touch upon the random tomato plant growing on the UCSB campus. This update shows how our staking undertaking has helped keep some of the fruits from developing rot on the blossom end.


UCSB tomato: Various stages of ripening

Only one fruit is bright red, but as you can see from the pics, more of the fruits are starting to turn orange/red.


UCSB tomato: Ripest-looking tomato

Unfortunately a few of the blushing tomatoes have some black/grey spots that don't look too good. BER strikes again? We haven't been able to water the plant too regularly.


UCSB tomato: Varying tomato skin hues

It was a pain walking to lab today since I was carrying all the plants/cuttings R got from her mother. There were many spider pups (Chlorophytum comosum "vittatum" and an all green one) with big healthy roots which we were able to pot. Spider plant roots are pale, fleshy things.


Plant's from R's mother's place: potted spider plants, cuttings to root in water

R's mother also got her several plant cuttings for us to root in water. The purple/magenta-tinged leaves belong to the coleus cuttings. The cutting with the rounder leaves with a serrated edge is the creeping charlie (Glechoma hederacea). Lastly, the rather normal looking green plant cutting (no serrated edges) is the wandering jew (Tradescantia fluminensis). The name seemed pretty offensive to me, but I guess it's the only common name for the plant.


Plants from R's mother's place: creeping charlie (Glechoma hederacea), wandering jew (Tradescantia fluminensis), coleus

Hopefully little root nubs will develop on the cutting edges immersed in water within a few weeks. Otherwise, we'll just get rotted stems to throw out, and we'll have to send R back to her mother's place for more.


Plants from R's mother's place: better picture of cutting tips

Another coleus and pothos are rooting in the water bottle.


Plants from R's mother's place: pothos, coleus also rooting in water

L's Garden Checkpoint 4, part 2: random bits

And here's a day picture of L's sole ripening p. edulis fruit.


Garden checkpoint 4, part 2: Ripening passiflora edulis fruit, day pic

So before people moved into the houses in L's complex, the developer had gardeners plant several cheap trees and shrubs/herbs.

We were able to identify the herbs really easily, but the boring trees have stumped us. Here's a picture of the leaves of 1 commonly planted tree.


Garden checkpoint 4, part 2: another unknown tree

And here's a picture taken from farther away. Can anyone identify what I guess must be a common and cheap tree but for the life of me I can't figure out what it is?


Garden checkpoint 4, part 2: another unknown tree, bark pic

As my dad and I waited for R to come pick me up and then sail away in the Rusty Barnacle back to UCSB, after killing leafhoppers, aphids, and various stinkbeetles, we finally noticed a quasi-good insect: a praying mantis.


Garden checkpoint 4, part 2: Praying Mantis, lateral view

It moved slowly but surely along L's fence's handrail. Eventually we turned our attention away from it, and then it suddenly disappeared. I hope it actively goes after the bad bugs/worms/etc. in the area, but knowing my luck, it will just eat ladybugs and destroy L's plants.


Garden checkpoint 4, part 2: Praying Mantis, frontal view

L's Garden Checkpoint 4 -- 5 weeks later

I hadn't been planning on coming home this weekend, but since even pirates like R need to visit their mothers from time to time, I hitched a ride with her down south. This gave me an opportunity to get another garden update.

L's smaller potted pepper plants are turning purple. According to the coworker that gave her the pepper plant, they should finally ripen to red. I guess they will go from a creamy yellow to purple to red.


L's garden checkpoint 4: ripening peppers

The horrible thing is that the 3 passiflora incense we ordered on ebay (3 plants for $3.50) all wilted. I have heard the passiflora incense are susceptible to a woodiness virus, and even though R's held out the longest, in the end even hers succumbed.


L's garden checkpoint 4: ebay passiflora incense, repotted

Remember we received 3 healthy vines that were each started from seed on July 29th, 2005. M's and my plant died around the 15th of August, and R's died about 1 week later. I ordered another round of plants, to replace our passiflora incense, and also to give some to L so she could drape them on her fence. I repotted M's and my plant on Monday, August 15, but didn't get around to R's repotting until today.

Now we know that the 3-4 week mark is a good indicator of whether the passiflora incense will survive.


L's garden checkpoint 4: R's new repotted passiflora incense

Next up is L's strongly fragrant jasmine sambac (also known as Arabian jasmine). As I posted earlier, this is the jasmine Chinese people use to flavor certain teas. My mother originally had a larger jasmine sambac, then it died. Later a rather bare cutting started to develop green leaves. Now the plant seems to be thriving in its new locale.


L's garden checkpoint 4: jasmine sambac, healthy growth

Here's E's front door aglaia odorata (Chinese perfume/rice plant). Its fragrance is faint but sweet. L says it reminds her a bit like fragrant tea.


L's garden checkpoint 4: aglaia odorata

I've read a lot about how gardenias can be tricky for some home gardeners, but all the gardenias L purchased seem to be doing well, whether in her little plot, or all over E's garden. Here's one of the $7 gardenia mystery plant's bloom. One reason I can't smell the other fragrant plants that L planted in front of E's house so well (such as osthmanthus fragrans, aglaia odorata) is because of the gardenias strongly wafting scent.


L's garden checkpoint 4: gardenia mystery newly opened blossom

After developing some healthy new leaves, E's mountain apple tree has leaves curling and rolling up in an ugly way. I think it's due to too much water. The sprinklers water the lawn every day for 10 minutes, and the tree is right near a sprinkler. Some of the older leaves are turning yellow and dropping off, solidifying my belief that too much water is to blame.


L's garden checkpoint 4: mysterious ailment afflicting mountain apple's new leaves

Here's the fuyu persimmon tree L got last week and plunked down between 2 unknown trees. It's probably still adjusting to being transplanted.


L's garden checkpoint 4: fuyu persimmon tree, adjusting to transplant

Can anyone identify this tree? It is one of many planted by the developer's gardeners before L and E moved into these units.


L's garden checkpoint 4: unknown tree, pic 1

Here's a closeup of the leaves; they have serrated edges.


L's garden checkpoint 4: unknown tree, leaves upclose, pic 2

The leaves are palmately compound.


L's garden checkpoint 4: unknown tree, pic 3, backside of leaves

L's guava trees haven't started fruiting yet. On this guava tree only one blossom has opened up. We tried our hands at hand pollinating. The other guava tree as many new blossoms (35+) waiting to open.


L's garden checkpoint 4: sole guava tree blossom

One week later and the Russian "Black Seaman" heirloom tomato plant has grown 2 more fruits, bringing the total count to 3 so far. The tomato from last week has grown noticeable in size within just 1 week. I hope we have enough sunny weather before the rains and cold come in so that the current fruits can ripen.


L's garden checkpoint 4: black seaman tomatoes, 1 week later

The Principe Borghese tomato plant looks very stressed. There are > 70 fruits growing now, and only 1 so far noticeably ripened.


L's garden checkpoint 4: principe borghese tomatoes, 1 week later

There are holes eaten through many leaves, and also through the unripe fruits. I've also seen some caterpillar scat trails around some of the leaves.


L's garden checkpoint 4: principe borghese tomatoes, with pest scat on leaves

L's pingtung eggplant and sweet genovese basil are growing healthy leaves, but there just isn't enough time for the eggplant to fruit this year. Sigh.


L's garden checkpoint 4: luxurious foliage growth of pingtung eggplant and sweet genovese basil

Omar's Lebanese tomato plant has about 16 tomatoes; they are noticeably larger than the other tomatoes, but they will not likely grow into the 1+ lb monsters this cultivar normally begets. Still, I'm hoping not too many bugs eat holes into these tomatoes.


L's garden checkpoint 4: omar's lebanese tomato fruits

The French Carmello variety still only has a handful of fruits. This particular plant is supposed to weather colder weather better than most tomato varieties, so I'm hopeful we'll get a decent yield from this little container plant.


L's garden checkpoint 4: carmello tomato fruits

It's very sad -- the sweet millions hybrid cherry tomato plant started off so strongly, but fungus and bugs and insect-transmitted diseases are slowing down the plant. There are still 40+ cherry tomatoes, but the foliage is looking pretty damn bad. Ah well, it's close to the end of the growing season anyway.


L's garden checkpoint 4: sweet millions ripening fruits

The few fruits we were able to pick (several sweet millions,1 principe borghese) did have a strong concentrated tomato taste. Most of them we picked in order to ripen in the kitchen.


L's garden checkpoint 4: picked sweet millions cherry tomato, and principe borghese tomato

Here's a picture of L's tomato, eggplant, and basil container "garden," with the passiflora edulis in the background.


L's garden checkpoint 4: patio edible container garden

Yesterday and today I took the opportunity to pollinate the flowers I saw opening each day. There were four yesterday, and four today. Despite the many flowers opening each day, L's p. edulis still only has 1 fruit.


L's garden checkpoint 4: bee pollinating passiflora

Imagine my surprise when, after 3:00 pm, I saw a honey bee come 'round to each flower and pollinate, hours after I had tried to. If fruits eventually develop, I won't know whether hand pollination worked, or whether the bee was essential. Ah well, either way I wouldn't complain.


L's garden checkpoint 4: bee pollinating passiflora, up close

I have heard that time of day does determine whether the pollen takes or not. Some people say that when the styles are closer to the upright position earlier in the day/afternoon, there is a better chance of pollination, and the bee didn't come until the stigmas were down lower.


L's garden checkpoint 4: bee pollinating passiflora, up close pic 2

It's interesting the bee finally showed up, since L hasn't noticed many bees in the garden for the past month, only harmful pests and wasps.

Below is L's one and only passionfruit finally starting to turn purple. It's been over 5 weeks, maybe closer to 7 weeks, from when the unripe fruit grew to its final size to when the fruit started to exhibit the purple blush.


L's garden checkpoint 4: night pic of sole ripening passiflora edulis fruit