Grafted avocado plant

It has been difficult to get one grafted avocado plant in Singapore. If you are lucky, you may find one grafted avocado selling at around $80 in one of the nurseries. I have checked World Farm and they are selling avocado trees grown from seeds. It is around $100 and at least 5ft tall. Well, if you follow my blog posts, you will know that I have grown avocado from seeds in end 2014. The trees that I have now are about 6ft tall (coming to 3 years old).

Most articles said that it will take 7 to 13 years for the avocado trees that are grown from seeds to bear fruits. They may not even fruit even after 13 years. Even if the tree bears flowers, it will not be able to get pollinated without the different types of flowers (Type A and Type B).

However, I have come across lone tree bearing fruits in Singapore. From the FB group posts, there is someone who has a fruiting avocado tree outside his house. The variety is unknown but it was bearing fruits even without other type nearby. He was trying to do air-layering to propagate the avocado tree. However, he was not successful. I have not done air-layering to my avocado but I have successfully rooted a cutting. I think rooting via cutting maybe a better option if air-layering failed. There is another matured avocado tree in Singapore. I will not disclose this location openingly but if you are interested, drop me a comment or message. It is at least 2 stories high and it is in a compound. I saw a couple of fruits around the canopy. Well, I was hoping that if they ever prune it, I can get a scion or two from them for me to graft on my seedlings. However, I think it is NOID type.

Avocado Tree in Singapore

The lowest branch I think is above one storey high. It is a big tree and if you zoom in the picture, you can see a couple of avocado fruits.

Grafted avocado trees are highly sought after in Singapore and especially if the variety is known. I happened to chance upon a seller in JB who has grafted Miki (fr Indonesia), Si Pendil and Kendil. But it was quite expensive and you got to bare-root them to bring them across the customs. There are also sellers that can help to courier the trees to Singapore. Since the seller is in JB area which is very near to Singapore, I contacted the seller and purchased a grafted Miki.

The seller has many grafted avocado tree and I chose the best grafted Miki. This Miki has many side buds which will develop into branches. The leaves are green, big and healthy. The seller had just repotted and fertilised it. The seller also advised on how to take care of the young tree. I will leave the tree in its black plastic bag until it has acclamatised to its new location. I bought this Miki avocado tree on 9 July 2017. Hopefully, in a couple of years from now, it will be able to bear flowers and also fruits. The seller told me that this Miki avocado is Type B flowers. I hope it will not need Type A nearby for pollination. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Grafted Miki

The master grafter tied a plastic to state the variety. The grafted area is very clean cut and fused completely. I had placed a pole beside it to stack and strengthen it. 

10 July 2017 - buds appearing

You can see that there are many side buds on the tip. I guessed the seller had pinched away the terminal bud to promote lateral branching. I chose this because I can tell from it that many side branches will propagate soon.

After 2 weeks in its new location, the Miki has grown very well and you can see the branching taking place. I will wait until the branches have at least 8 to 10 leaves and I will pinch away the terminal buds to promote more branchings.

Branching in progress

This Miki is not under direct sunlight as I don't want to cause sun-burn leaves. The seller mentioned that it is better to place the young avocado under a big tree so that it can get shaded sunlight. When I have more branchings, I will be experimenting on grafting Miki onto my young seedlings. Stand tuned for the grafting of avocado.

Growing Strawberry from seeds in Singapore

Last year, I had tried to grow strawberry from seeds in Singapore. They germinated after 30 days from a pack of strawberry seeds that I had purchased from a local supermarket store. The seedlings grew but after a couple of months, they started to turn red and died. I didn't research much on the internet and had wanted to experience how it would turn out. It was a waste of my time and I thought it is impossible to grow strawberry from seeds in Singapore. Many people have the same idea that it is not possible to grow strawberry in Singapore's weather. But I have decided to start again this June 2016 because of two things.

First thing: I have researched on the internet and found that someone actually grows strawberry successfully from seeds in Singapore. The website is http://sgstrawberries.com/. It has recommended to apply ground coffee to the soil to make it acidic.

Second thing: I bought a strawberry plant from a local nursery, World Farm aka Hua Hng at Bah Soon Pah Road. It is very near to my house and I frequent the nursery often. It was throwing out berries and now it is still flowering. So, it is possible to grow the strawberry in our climate but how about growing from seeds? The plant that I bought is very well established and can survive in our climate and weather. But wait, my research told me that strawberry plant needs at least 8 hours of sunlight as well as cool night. I think the strawberry may be able to adapt to our not so cool night but definitely we have a lot of hours of sunlight.

I still have the remaining seeds from the pack that I used a couple of years ago. I thought might as well use it since it might have expired already. Also, I managed to take a few seeds from the Driscoll's Strawberries that I bought from the supermarket. I used regular potting mix and placed the seeds over the soil and applied a very thin layer of soil to cover them. I placed the pot in a bright area, not under direct sunlight.

After a couple of weeks, the seeds germinated and a number of seedlings emerged. The last time, after the seeds germinated, I had transferred the seedlings too early and caused stress to the seedlings. The seedlings managed to grow for a couple of months and then they called it quit. This time round, I will not make the same mistake.

Strawberry seedlings appeared after a couple of weeks (21 June 2016)

You will notice a small plant with two leaflets appearing. I noticed that some seedlings were unable to anchor themselves into the soil and will die. I tried to gently push the seedlings to see whether they have anchored to the soil. If it moves, I will try to gently bury the roots. I have saved quite a few seedlings using this method. I saw a few clustered together and wanted to separate them. But I stopped. This is because I don't want to make the same mistake again. I will let the seedlings grow by themselves undisturbed for at least 3 months before transplanting them to individual pot. I will probably remove weaker seedlings to make the survival rate of the seedlings higher. In the sgstrawberries blog, it mentioned to use bottom watering instead of top watering. In this case, I will try the top watering method. Maybe in the next batch, I will try the bottom watering instead. More and more seedlings started to emerge and I was thinking whether I can handle that many strawberry plants. If the seedlings are successful, I will consider to give or sell them away.

More strawberry seedlings after one week (27 June 2016)

After one week, more seedlings appeared and some earlier seedlings had developed the third and fourth leaflets.

I think it is crucial not to move the seedlings until 3 months later. So, in late September 2016, I hope that the seedlings will become hardier and then I can separate them and pot them into individual pot. I'm quite curious how the seedlings develop their crowns. When you pot them individually, it is important not to bury the crown. I didn't see any image of the seedlings with crowns in the internet. I hope by September, I can take some images of the seedlings with crowns and show people how to separate and bury the seedlings.

The soil that you sow the seeds on is very important. One of my interns has interests in growing strawberry from seeds. He was quite successful in the beginning and the seedlings were quite tall before they died. He started to plant again in May and sent me a photo of his pot of seedlings.

A friend's pot of strawberry seedlings - failed

The above picture showed a friend's pot of strawberry seedlings that went wrong after a couple of weeks. They all died. I think it is due to the soil that he used. It was too hard for the seedlings and probably not suitable. He is starting a new batch and will share the result soon.

Update: 5 July 2016 Strawberry Seedlings

More seedlings appeared and they have grown taller. I think I have scattered the seeds too close to each other and there are many clusters of seedlings. I'm resisting to separate the seedlings as I'm afraid that I may injure the young roots and stems. I will leave them to grow and establish their root systems and develop more leaves.

Last weekend, I placed the pot in direct sunlight and I realised that I might have done the wrong thing. However, it did not seem to cause any major problem yet. For now, I will leave the pot in the bright area at my balcony but not under any direct sunlight.

Pot under bright area at the balcony

I have taken some close-up views of the seedlings. I have one seedling from the Driscoll's strawberry variety and I'm not sure whether it is day-neutral, ever-bearing or June bearing variety. I don't think I will be able to tell unless the seedlings grow into mature plants. If there is a way to identify the seedlings, let me know. Thanks in advance.

Close-up view of the seedlings

The seedling from the Driscoll's strawberry has a red stem as compared to the rest which have green stems. I remembered I grew some strawberry previously and they were also red stems. Let's see whether the rest of the seedlings change the colour of the stems in the next few weeks.

Driscoll's strawberry seedling has a red stem

Recently, I chanced upon a post from www.igardenplanting.com and gotten the permission from Dianne to share her post on my blog. It is "How To Grow Strawberries and 10 Best Strawberry Recipes".

Growing avocado in Singapore

Time to check in with growing avocado in Singapore. I have three avocado seedlings growing in the pots with soil. They are on my windowsill that faces the western sun. The seedlings are growing well with new leaves appearing. One of the seedlings has a lot of leaves that make the top a bit heavy for the stem. I want the seedlings to have more branches instead of growing upwards. So, I need to trim or prune it. The leaves at the very bottom are quite hard to touch. They are not soft liked the new leaves that form on the canopy. I do not want the seedlings to grow tall as I know that avocado can grow into a tree if it is left unpruned.

As you can see from the photo below, the seedling has many leaves and there is only one branch. I think by trimming the top leaves, it will force the seedling to grow new branches. I also trimmed the branch to promote growth of other branches. Let's hope this works.

Avocado seedling

The pit of the avocado does not have the same phenomena as the one in water. The pit is still the same size and colour. It does not turn brown and rot as in the case of the avocado growing in water.

Pit of avocado

Another strange that I observed is that some leaves curled up as shown in the photo below. Is it due to the sunlight or normal for the leaves to curl at the stalk area? I'm not sure but the leaves tend to curl inwards and not spread out as in the normal plant.

Leaf curled

Yes, not just one leaf, there are quite a number of the leaves curling up. Those are smaller in size that the ones at the canopy. That is why I'm suspecting that they are affected by the sunlight.

Leaves curling

 

Growing Portulaca Grandifora from seeds

Portulaca Grandiflora is a great garden plant. It grows very fast and spread to other areas in your garden pretty fast. You can grow them by stem cutting. Pinch one branch and insert it directly into the soil. Keep the soil moist and the plant will grow roots and new shoots will appear. The good thing about propagation by this method is that you know the color of the flower that you will be getting provided that it was blooming when you cut it. The bad thing is that there may be aphids on the branch that you pinch and it will spread to other plants. Always check that there are no white aphids before you plant them.

I found a pack of the Portulaca Grandiflora seeds in the local supermarket. It has assorted colours and I will not know what I'm getting when I plant them. Maybe I will have a number of different colours or maybe they will be of the same colour. Well, let's see what we can get in the next couple of weeks or months.

Germination after a couple of days 31 Aug 2015

11 Sep 2015

The growth of the Portulaca Grandiflora is quite slow. I think it is probably due to the sunlight that it is lacking.

Avocado leaf tips turning brown

Recently, I noticed that my 2nd and 3rd avocado plants have leaf tips turning brown. It started from the tip of the leaves and slowly moved towards the stalk. Small patches on the leaves also turned brown. It occurred on all the old leaves as new leaves start to emerge from the pruned area.

Leaf tip turning brown

Leaf turning brown

It could be due to salt accumulation and under watering. I water the plants every three days and maybe it needs another watering in between. See SG My Life Is Good blog on the avocado seedlings.

I did a research on the internet and found that it could be due to the two reasons that I have mentioned above. One way to remedy this is to flush the salt away from the soil by pouring water over the soil continuously until water comes out from the bottom of the pot. I poured about 1.5litres of overnight water over the soil and ensured that the water drained completely from the pot. I don't think that it is due to the sunlight because the plants are placed near the window but there is no direct sunlight. There are no strong winds except when I switch on the ceiling fan to the strongest and it can be quite strong. However, I don't think this is the reason but maybe due to the winds generated from the ceiling fan, the water in the pot dries up quickly. The browning of the leaf tip may be due to insufficient watering. I plan to water more frequently, so I'm going to water the plants every two days instead of three days. I may plan to place the plants under direct sunlight to see whether this will give better results but I doubt so. Since 2nd and 3rd avocado plants have leaf tip turning brown problem, I will take the 2nd plant and place it under direct sunlight in the weekend to see whether the browning slows down or stops completely.

Third Avocado Seedling planted

The leaves were greenish brown and relatively small. The roots were quite developed and the stem was  at least 10 inches tall. I realized that it was time to plant this seedling. I planted this third seedling and the second seedling on 1 January 2015. The leaves curled a little bit after I placed the third seedling under direct sunlight for less than an hour. I think that the seedling is not strong enough to place under direct sunlight. It has to be under some shades or indirect sunlight. The second seedling is placed beside the window and it was doing fine. I put the third seedling beside the window and the leaves started to become flat and turn towards green colour. I watered the seedlings every weekend to prevent the roots from rotting.

Third avocado seedling

The stem is a bit crooked and I will probably need to rotate the pot to let the stem straighten up. I will let the seedlings set in their new environment before I prune them. It is crucial to know when you want to transfer them to pots because the first seedling had missed the time and currently it is not doing well. I will do an update on the first seedling soon. Stay tuned!

The three seedlings have different colours to the pits. The first seedling has green pit now, the second seedling has brown pit and the third seedling has beige pit.

Green pit - First seedling

Brown pit - Second seedling

Beige pit - Third seedling

I wonder whether they are from different species or the pit's colour changed over time. Maybe it will be interesting to take note of the colour of the pit a month later to see whether there is any change. The first seedling is a bit malnutrition and probably I have left it out on the balcony and the chilly winds in the night had injured the seedling. I have moved it indoors and will monitor its progress.

Second avocado seedling planted

Finally, I planted the second avocado seedling. It was planted on 01 January 2015. I had planted a third avocado seedling on the same day. I used potting mix bought from the local supermarket store and a 2kg pack can plant two seedlings.

Potting mix that I used

The second avocado seedling has few but big leaves whereas the third avocado seedling has many small leaves. The colour of the leaves for both plants are different too. The second seedling has green leaves whereas the third seedling has greenish-brown leaves. I will post the photos of the third seedling over the weekend.

Second avocado seedling

The second seedling is doing well and the leaves have not changed colour. This is a good thing I hope and I have not watered it since 1 Jan. I intend to water it once weekly and monitor its progress.

Roots of seedling

Roots of seedling

Crown above the soil

Planted in pot - need to remove the toothpicks

After planting into the pot, you need to remove the toothpicks carefully. I rotated the toothpick a bit to turn it and then pulled it out gently. At this stage, you try not to be overwhelmed and excited because you might damage the plant. I watered the soil thoroughly until I could see water coming out from the base. I will leave the plants indoors and see their progress.

Strawberry seedling leaves turn red

My strawberry seedlings have leaves turning red in December. I'm not sure whether this is because the leaves turn red during winter but it cannot be because the seedlings are in Singapore. Unless the seedlings have internal mechanism that tell them that now is winter. In Singapore, it is always 24 degrees C to 34 degrees C but in December, the temperatures are slightly lower. It is about 24 degrees C to 31 degrees C.

The seedlings are not dying but just the leaves are turning red. I hope it is only a temporary thing and maybe in February next year, the leaves that emerge will be green. The strawberry seedling growth is quite slow and I wonder this is normal. It is about two months and the seedlings are almost at the same height.

Strawberry seedlings leaves turning red