Red Hot Chili Peppers Bear Fruit (Siling Labuyo)

It's been almost a year since I planted a load of siling labuyo seeds.    Most of them died because ironically a lot of bugs were eating them.  I guess the leaves weren't hot.  One survived though and it so happens this one wasn't potted.  It just kinda grew out of neglect.  Sometimes too much love kills a plant.  I've proven that to be true many times in the past.  But anyway, look at this one.  It looks lush, healthy and big.  It's almost as big as my biggest mango plant.  It has also started bearing fruit. 

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Everything Germinates in the Worm Bin Experiment Update: Worm Bin Adventures in the Philippines

It's been just over a week since I started testing the germinating potential of vermicompost.  It's simple.  I just put a couple of seeds in my worm tray.   This afternoon, I found these little babies. 

I think those are all watermelon seedlings.  I'm pretty sure a dozen or more should sprout.  My chico seed hasn't showed up yet;  neither have my indian mango seeds.  I'll give the rest of the seeds about a week more.    As for these seedlings, I'll probably plant them in some small pots within the week. 

Oh by the way, if you look at the bottom left part of the picture, you'll find the carrot top that started growing stalks.

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Everything Germinates in the Worm Bin Experiment: Worm Bin Adventures in the Philippines

I keep reading that a lot of seeds "volunteer" inside worm bins supposedly because of all the beneficial bacteria inside the bin.  Supposedly, bad microbes won't infect seeds inoculated with worm castings.   Here in the Philippines, a lot of people are interested in germinating mango seeds. 

Since germinating mango seeds is what got me into gardening again, I have a series of blog posts on how to germinate mango seeds.  But that was before my fascination with worm composting.

A few minutes ago, I pushed aside some material from my worm tray (at this time, the tray has probably about 75% worm castings).  The I put in two Indian mango seeds, a chico seed and a few dozen watermelon seeds.  However, the mango seeds interest me the most.  Oh by the way, I didn't bother to remove the fibrous shell.  Finally, I covered the seeds with the material I pushed aside earlier.

Supposedly, for mango seeds to germinate, they need to be placed in the sunniest / hottest location in the yard.  The seeds should also be kept in a ziplocked bag to ensure high humidity.   The environment in a worm bin is a lot different.  While also moist, worm bins are generally located in cool, dark areas.  Will it work?  I wonder if anyone else in the Philippines has done this test. We'll see in a couple of weeks. 

For me there are three measures of success:  1) the mango seeds germinate at all; 2) the mango seeds germinate within two weeks (it takes longer in the prior method I talked about); 3) my worms don't crawl away follow the introduction of a citrus element inside the small tray.

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Year Old Mango Tree

Has it really just been a year?  It seems so long when I started gardening again.  It all started with the mango seeds I wanted to germinate.  Now, I have three of them left and this is the biggest one. I'm not sure why, but it's about a foot bigger than the others.  This one is about two feet tall and is starting to bend because of the weight.  The main stem or trunk hasn't become woody yet.   As you can see, it's also still in a pot.  I added kitchen scraps mulch to bring the soil level higher and in case you're wondering, the root system isn't all that developed.   A year old basil has a lot more roots than this mango.  I'm not sure the current roots support such a big plant, but that's what I saw when I dug up the plant.   I wonder if this will bear fruit in a pot?  How cool would that be?

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Growing a Mango Tree

Remember my mango plants?  Those mango plants are what started my gardening resurgence after about a 15-year hiatus.  That was almost a year ago.  Since then I've moved on to mostly herb gardening and now most recently vermicomposting.  But hey, let's look at my old favorites. 

As you would see in the pictures, the plants are still relatively small.  I mean they are almost a year old.  My Cat's Whiskers are bigger than them!   I guess I have to give them credit though.  They survived my backyard when every other plant died of one disease or another.  I guess that means they're hardy plants. They remained healthy although the soil in the pot is always wet.  In fact, all the companion plants of these mangoes (mints and basil) died.

Anyway, like all my other plants, I moved them to a sunnier location.  Hopefully, the next couple of months will be more productive for them in terms of growth compared to the past couple of months.  And since the soil level of these plants are pretty low, maybe I can use my first batch of vermicompost for them! 

I wonder how long I can keep them potted.   Hmmmm...

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How to Grow a Mango from Seed: What Works, What Doesn't

Over the past three months, I've experimented with about a dozen or so mango seeds.   I've pretty much tried every mango seed germination technique that I've read about in other sites.  I won't tell you what's right or wrong, but I'll tell you what worked for me and what didn't.

• Germination Technique # 1: Dig a hole.  Put your basic mango seed in.  Wait.   There was neither seed drying nor fibrous husk removal.  Initially I thought it didn't work.  I put in about 5-6 seeds (Carabao and Indian mango) in a big pot. Water it once in a while.  Guess what?  In about a month, to my surprise they all started sprouting.  So I had to transplant.  It's not very elegant, but it works apparently. 
• Germination Technique # 2: Dry the seeds. Put it in a zip locked bag with water and a paper towel. Leave it out in the sun.   After three weeks, nothing happened.  Useless seeds.  Tsk.
• Germination Technique # 3: Remove the seeds from the fibrous husk.  Put it in a zip locked bag with water and a paper towel. Leave it out in the sun.   After three weeks, all the seeds have roots.  The longer you leave it out, the better the chances of seed survival. 

And that's it!  Try all of it out just for fun and see what works for you. 

How to Grow a Mango from Seed 2

Here's an update to my latest and best mango germination story.  This mango seed had grown big hairy roots, and the last time I blogged about it, it looked like this.  As further evidence that it's really good to keep the mango seed in the plastic bag for a long period of time (if you're not following, read the prequels to this post), let me show you the seedling.

There are multiple green, healthy looking leaves.  The seed itself  has remained completely green.  New leaves are starting to sprout even as the first ones are still unfolding.  The other seeds had amag (not sure what the English term for that is).  Even though they grew, they weren't as beautiful as this one.  

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How to Germinate a Mango Seed

It's been a while since I talked about my mangoes, so I decided to write an update.  At this time, I am growing five different mango plants!  Some are Carabao Mangoes and some are Indian Mangoes.  Why those?  Well those are the varieties I got from the supermarket.

If you're interested in germinating mango seeds (growing mango plants from seeds), check out the steps I followed in this mango entry.  The germination rate is almost 100%; that is, they always grow roots.