Tropical Fruit Seeds in Self Watering Containers

I got some tropical fruit seeds and will plant them and see how they do. The varieties that I have are Annona muricata (Sousop), Annona squamosa (Sweetsop or Sugar Apple), Averrhoa carambola (Star Fruit), Chrysophyllum cainito (Purpla Star Apple) and Annona cherimola (Cherimoya).

Since these are tropical fruit seeds they can take several months to germinate. I'll most likely forget to water them so I'm going to plant them in some homemade self-watering containers (SWC). I'm going to use the SWC's described below. Here is how the SWC looks.



Here are some of the seeds.



And here is one after being planted.



Annona muricata (Sousop)


Annona squamosa (Sweetsop or Sugar Apple)


Averrhoa carambola (Star Fruit)


Chrysophyllum cainito (Purpla Star Apple)


Annona cherimola (Cherimoya)

Self Watering Containers (SWC)

I'm making a modified self watering container, the principles which I learned from the internet. I'm going to use empty plastic soda bottles of the two liter size.

Here is how to make it:
1. Cut off the top of the bottle. Cut it off at the point BEFORE the bottle starts to taper and narrow. You are going to invert the top and insert it into the bottom half of the bottle. You want a snug fit. Cutting the top off too high will result in a loose fit. This top essentially becomes the BOTTOM of your pot.



2. Drill numerous holes into the top half of the bottle that you cut off. These are drainage holes. It is very important that you drill holes into the neck of the bottle as well.



3. Invert the upper half of the bottle and insert it into the lower half of the bottle.



4. Drill one or two holes into the side of the bottle. Choose a location that is just below where the inverted neck of the bottle begins to narrow. These holes will serve as the drain overflow holes for your reservoir.



5. Fill the bottle with potting soil.

6. Saturate the soil with water until it fills up your reservoir. It is very important that you saturate the soil. The mouth of the inverted bottle top will be submerged in your reservoir and this will serve to "wick" up the water via capillary action to the rest of your soil. This is how your container self waters itself. Always make sure there is enough water in your reservoir.




7. An alternate step, which I chose to omit, is to insert a tube or straw down the inside of your container from the very bottom of your reservoir up to several inches above your soil. This would serve as the channel via which you would refill your reservoir. Instead, I chose to refill my reservoir simply by watering through the top until the reservoir is full. This serves to wet the topsoil in the event the water somehow does not "wick" all the way to the top. It also saves me the trouble of finding tubes to use as a refill tube.

Roots

Garden Update

Manila Mango

I've been wanting a Manila mango for the longest time and I finally got one. Since I'm going to keep it potted, I wanted it to branch out at a low height so I chopped it in half. My intention is for it to branch out at the top. Here it is before I cut it.


Here it is after I cut it in half. There is a green stick used for support behind the tree so don't mistake the stick for the trunk of the tree.


Here are the two halves side by side to give you an idea of where I cut it.



I potted the top half in the hope that it will grow roots and become another tree. I doubt this will work since the experiment with my Carrie mango failed.



And here are the two potted halves side by side.


I chopped off the top of the trunk below the "purplish" leaves to stimulate growth and cut the lower leaves in half. I then placed a two liter soda bottle with the bottom cut off over the plant to serve as a mini greenhouse. I placed a zip lock bag over the top to keep the moisture in. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of it.

UPDATE 7/21/00

The top half sprouted some leaves!!! I don't have any pictures yet. The bottom half sprouted about 4 branches with a few other spots that look "plump." Not sure if they'll be new branches or inflorescence.

UPDATE 7/24/10
The leaves are getting too big for the zip lock bag and I'll have to change it to something else more roomier.


UPDATE 7/28/10 Wednesday
The leaves have gotten even bigger.


A closer view.


Here it is after I put another water bottle on top if it. This is how it is all day.


Here is the bottom half of the original tree. It sprouted three branches from the top and one lower down.

Cherimoya

I bought a cherimoya with the intention of planting the seeds. I'm not sure what variety it is. I've never tasted a cherimoya before and the taste of this one is just ok. I planted the seeds 6/2/10. It will take several years to bear fruit.

May 15, 2010 Vegetables

Here is my updated garden starting from the left and going right.

The tub on the left covered with plastic, I'm eventually going to transfer my cucumbers there. They are currently seedlings. The two pots in the foreground are Black Beauty Eggplants.



Tomatoes are in the white tubs.












These are some of the tomatoes in the white tubs. Peppers are behind them in the black pots. You can see how much they've grown in two weeks compared to the earlier pics.













These are zucchinis. A yellow variety is to the left while a green variety is to the right. Some more tomatoes are to the right of them.




These are Black Beauty Eggplants. I also have Asian Eggplants on the deck but I didn't get pictures of them. They are about 30-40% smaller then these.



Some lettuce.

May 15, 2010 Fruit Trees

Here are some updated shots of my fruit trees.

My 5-in-1 Citrus Tree which currently stands as a 12-in-1 tree now. It has grown a lot of leaves since its pitiful look from a few months ago.



My Tarocco Blood Orange to the left, Moro Blood Orange in the center and Improved Meyer Lemon to the right. Tons of winter leaf drop on the Meyer and Tarocco. Hopefully, they'll recover.



My Owari Satsuma Mandarin on the left and Oro Blanco Grapefruit on the right. The grapefruit suffered a lot of leaf drop. Hopefully, it will recover too. Its hard to tell but they are both covered in flowers.





Its hard to tell but this is my 5-in1 Peach/Nectarine/Apricot tree in the foreground and the 5-in-1 Asian Pear tree behind it. The peach tree has several fruits developing which are also hard to make out.



A little blurry, but this is my 5-in-1 Apple tree. I believe the two fruits on the right are Einshimer and the on on the left is a Dorsett Golden apple.




This is my avocado tree. I thought it was going to die. When spring came it started losing all of its leaves and the branches were turning black and dieing off. I pruned it beyond the black branches but it kept on coming. I've probably lost about 75% of the tree. It seems to have stopped now and the new branches are growing. I grafted two varieties to it but not sure if they'll make it.



This is my Carrie mango tree whose top I chopped off in an effort to make it branch out. You can see some flowers sprouting from the very top. I may pick those off to encourage real branches to form. You can also see a branch about a quarter of the way down trying to sprout as well as another branch about three quarters of the way down on the left that is already about an inch or so long. Also, at the base of the tree there are some flowers trying to grow. These are coming from below the graft line and I have no idea what my Carrie is grafted onto.

The branch that I tried to air layer looks as good as dead. You can look back at older posts to see that story.




Here is the papaya tree I brought back from the dead. You can look back at my older posts to see what I did to it. New leaves are growing and its looking good. Its twin died.




Papaya seedlings. I thought these were as good as dead too. You can look back at older posts for what they looked like. I thought the cold had killed them off. But spring came and so did they. I took off the plastic bottle just now to show what it looks like. I'll keep it off since its too big now. The other one has a ways to go. Wow, I'm surprised they came back.



My Malaysian Red Guava tree.