Hammocked Banana

I didnt know what tapas were, had to google it, who uses Bing ;-)
Technically that wasn't canadian bacon, these are:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=canad...G_enCA562CA562

Although canadian bacon (pemeal bacon) is absolutely fantastic, the movie is also a classic, I prefer good old fashioned bacon.

Hammocked Banana

Ya this round of papayas were mostly experiments to figure out timing and if I could get them to flower shorter in a smaller pot (answer=no). I think I got it figured out now, but also want to try and start some seedlings in tall tree seedling nursery pots. I think for me I need about 10 months in a 15 gal pot, then transplant to the biggest pot avaialble at the start of the summer and I should be able to get some fruit set around the end of the second summer. The dream lives on

Edit: I keep short plants under my t5 lights but they are going to have to be segregated in winter now to keep mites under control (papaya plants bring them from miles around).

Hammocked Banana

Spending most of my time in the city is bumming me out, thankfully its off to the cottage this weekend. There are some neat things in the city though.

View from the rooftop patio. Another quarter inch to the left and you would be able to see the CN tower.


World pride was hosted in Toronto the other weekend. The CN tower lit up for the festivities.


Plants in the window, mostly herbs plus a DC and a pup seperated and rooting for the brother in-law. Left 3 leaves and it still didn't miss a beat. Notice the Gardener Express in the background, Ugh I HATE traffic!

Iunepeace

I know how hard it can be to live away from your plants; five months of the year I'm over 800 miles away from them in school. Still working to repair the damage done by neglect now that I'm back...

What is World Pride? I'm unfamiliar with the term sorry. And great to see you with plants in the city! Those bananas look great; I was given a small aloe plant from a church friend to put in my dorm room and it really helped fill a bit of the void not being around my plants left

__________________

Weather

Hammocked Banana

Each year one city in the world is selected to hold world pride, which is just a bigger global version of gay pride, where people celebrate the right to be gay/lesbian/transsexual/transgender.....I am straight but apparently am now classified as "accepting." Honestly I believe nobody should have a label, but I guess that take a time...

Hammocked Banana

Yes the papayas are difficult to overwinter. Like you said, they cant stand to remain dormant, so the trick is to not let them. You have to keep them warm and allow them to at least grow some. I'm going to start some more seeds from a store bought fruit soon, I think the trick is to start them in the heat of summer so they don't dampen off, overwinter them under lights so they're maybe 3 feet tall by spring, then transplant up and hope things work out, they really grow a tremendous amount even during our short summers, just have to make sure the tap root doesn't get bound/tangled. If tap root is stunted, so is the whole plant. Look into abnshrek's threads on his red lady papaya, he's almost got it dialed in perfectly now. My growing season is 2 months less here though so I have to have a bit more growth before the second year. This last wave of papayas I had tried to get shorter plants by keeping them root bound but it just stunted the plants and so I didn't get much from anything except the one in the largest pot, which got killed by sun burn this year. The two kept in smaller pots that got scorched by the sun also are doing some neat things since I transplanted them. They won't be anything, and I'll toss them at the end of this season but neat none the less.

Smallest one decided to branch into two.


Other one is jumping into gear.

Hermi?

Hammocked Banana

Finally made the other dragon fruit trellis. Spur of the moment, I decided to try another style of trellis, just to see how it works. Unfortunately the purple haze split a bit when trying to get it in there, so I had to chop it and plant as a second plant.

PH before transplant.


Good News, after a full year my Vietnamese Jaina has finally decided to grow.


In their new trellis. Top: PH (2 pieces), Right: VJ, Left: Physical Graffiti


Comparison of the two trellises


Closer shot of other DF. AB has some significant bug damage, they ate the growing tips. We'll see what happens, I let a few more branches grow lower down also just in case.

Hammocked Banana

More updates from last weekend. Biggest GN/DC not getting enough water and showing a K deficiency. Pups growing well but mother is only growing a leaf every 2 weeks or so.


Unknown/DC


Ensete maurelii. Some rodent or something burrowed into the corm of this one and there was basically only like 1/4 of it left. Recovering well considering, you can see the stem of an old leaf, which grew from the full corm, is much larger than the new growth. All other leaves are new and post-damage.


Washy finally has real leaves Something was eating a lot of the plants early in the summer, you can see the damage on this one too, but it will soon grow out of it now I think.


Blood orange, this is probably max size for this guy for a while, but I always have trouble pruning nice new growth.


Some figs, a big white fleshed one I had just gotten, and a hardy one on the right which I will probably plant outside next year.


Added a new agave too. One on the left has grown quite fast this year, working on its 5th new leaf.


Hmmm seems like a lot of my blueberries are missing!?! Hahaha small price to pay to have my family come and water my plants all week when I'm in the city. I'm very thankful to them, but soon Ill have some yard space to have my plants in the city, so I can give them the love they need (the plants that is).

Jeff_Ajax

We should start a Tropical Plant Society of Ontario.

__________________
Jeff M
Ajax, ON
Banana, Palm, Canna, etc etc etc lover...

Hammocked Banana

If would definitely be a good way to get/trade plants. All my gardens are sad this year though, they never got planted. I just stuck some plants in the ground to ensure their survival with my fam coming to take care of them for me. Im sure there are enough crazy Ontarians like us to do it though, I'm sure Matt would be in!

Iunepeace

Gorgeous plants Brady; what could you do about the K deficiency of that banana in the container setting?

__________________

Weather

Hammocked Banana

That plant is showing a K def because its not getting enough water, which is why it hadn't grown that much by that point. It has actually started to take off since and now has 2 nice sword pups too. Im moving it to the city on tuesday so I will be able to give it the care it needs to nurse it back to health before the winter.

Jeff_Ajax

Ok, We'll work on this for sure.

__________________
Jeff M
Ajax, ON
Banana, Palm, Canna, etc etc etc lover...

Iunepeace

How interesting; I didn't know plants could exhibit mineral deficiencies due to insufficient watering. Are its underwatering symptoms the same as the K deficiency symptoms?

__________________

Weather

Hammocked Banana

It simply isn't getting enough water to allow it to absorb the amount of K it needs. Actually I have been pounding it with K this year but my inability to water it enough, being in the city, has led to this def.

Iunepeace

So it's just staying dry to long between waterings to absorb enough K? That's a very interesting problem. Have you tried repotting it into something with a wetting agent/moisture control that dries out slower, or maybe covering the soil surface with a cheap heavy mulch to reduce evaporation?

I'm not sure what soil medium I was using at the time but a few years ago I remember when gardening my containers would dry out before I got home that evening if soaked with water that morning. I know how annoying that can be

__________________

Weather

Hammocked Banana

I feel like I got the perfect soil mix figured out, for me anyways. Drains well, absorbs when really dry, dries out at the right rate in summer and in winter here in Canada. The problem was just that I wasn't there enough to give it all the water it needs/wants. I've been hammering the water to it now that I have it with me in the city :-)

Hammocked Banana

The moving truck last Tuesday. Its twice as deep, but you get the idea, couldn't get a good pic.



Some flowers:

Papaya


Dwarf Pom


New arrivals, Raja Puri on the left and Cali Gold on the right. With most of the palm collection.

Hammocked Banana

Some updates of stuff in the ground still in Peterborough. Crappy day so pics suck but had to take pics while I could. Is this a Dwarf Cav?



E. Maurelii bulkin'

Hammocked Banana

Some things going on at the new place.



Papaya flowers opening


Quite possibly the best thing I have ever smelled


Ok I got another DF question. My american beauty flopped over in the move and took some damage in the narrow connection between segments. It kind of cracked halfway through this narrow section, and I am worried it isn't sending enough nutrients to the segments up top. Here is a pic of the whole plant and a close-up of the damage. Please ignore all the tying tape, I'm training the limbs so I will have a manageable structure long term. The damage is at the top of the segment which is planted in the pot. It has recently been sending out a lot of new growth below the damage so I feel like it might be telling me its connection to the upper portion has been interrupted. The top pods are still growing but I'm not sure if this is because of reserves stored in the pods, it doesn't have that many aerial roots yet. What should I do?



Nothing worse than a chorded lawnmower.