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Friday, October 31, 2014

GARDENING ON THE BALCONY : OCTOBER 2014

A bare 'land'....
Yes, ....just a few pots on my balcony. 
I only have a few time on gardening, a busy month.
Just keep watering, no more handling.
I put my chili pepper collection here.
Lets check it up....



These are the Buth-Jolokia peppers.



 


This one  is the Filius Blue pepper...




'Ceremai' pepper, with a pumpkin-like shape.




The mini red Habanero...



The Black Pearl pepper, the survivor.



Hot chili 'Taring'




Big pepper 'Gelora', the survivor...



The baby 'Cupetinho' chili pepper...


Yes... each variety is the survivor from serious Thrips attack several months ago.
I hope no infestation again, and they will grow so healthy and productive.
I wish...

Thursday, October 30, 2014

MY PUMPKIN THIS MORNING

Finally, I'm finding a little pumpkin on my back yard.
This vine looked so poor along this dry season, actually I have had no expectation.


I don't know how many time I have cut the rotten or dry shoots and branches.
I still keep watering and spread kitchen scraps on the raised bed although this plant didn't give me a good expectation.
What a surprise, when I found a new shoot from the broken stem, then it grow so well so rapidly.


I have found lots of flowers, but until this time I just found four female flowers.
The first and second flowers have fallen down to the ground.
And now, the third is forming a little fruit above the kitchen roof.


I hope this little fruit will grow so well and I can pick the ripen and  healthy pumpkins this year.


I have to check this vine using an A-stair.
Wow... not just a little pumpkin, a blossom and a female flower bud are hanging on the vine.


I have to wrap this little fruit to keep it free from the fruit fly attack.
And also often check the female flowers and little fruits that have formed, so I won't miss them.


Lots of ripen pumpkin hanging on the vine... 
I hope it will be a reality.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

GREAT WEEK FOR MY CALAMONDIN

I think this dry season and  several shower this week look so favorable for my Calamondin.
Lots of scented flowers through the branch and the little fruits too.
So lovely...


The beautiful white flowers are blooming.
And the fresh aromatic fragrance is spreading on my backyard and on my bedroom too.





The little fruits are so promising.
I will find a lot of vitamin C source soon.
I hope no fallen fruits and no bugs.
All will look great...




Reader, do you have special plant this week?

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

MY GREEN ROOF TODAY

The rainy season haven't come yet, but my green roof  have thicken more and more.
You can see my green roof several months ago here.
Yeah... now, the roof of my garage is full covered by passion fruit vine.
We couldn't see the true poly carbonate roof anymore, all look green and green.
When we got our first big rain several day ago, we didn't find rain water got into our garage.
Actually there are several holes on the roof, and now the holes have covered, so the leakage problem have resolved temporary.
These are views from my balcony.




We can see lots of white-purple flowers here and there.


Look... lots of passion fruits too!
Yes, I'm finding immature fruits under the leaves.
I don't know how to collect the ripen fruits next.


View from the garage, lots of fruit are hanging on the vine.


View from the drive way, the fruits make me so happy.
Yes, for about last four months, we only find just 1 -2 fruits on the vine.
Now... 'the fruits are back'


Actually it's not easy to keep the roof always tidy, cause the vine grow rapidly.
At least I have to do pruning twice a month, or my house will look like a jungle.
Oh no... 
But we love it so much!

Sunday, October 26, 2014

COCONUT : PART 7

Coconut has so many 'layers' of 'skin', there are exocarp (the outer), mesocarp (the middle) and endocarp (the inner).
Here, the hard glossy exocarp is called 'kulit'.
The mesocarp is called Sabut kelapa, and Javenese call it as tepes or sepet'.
And the endocarp is called batok or tempurung.
The endocarp is very hard and strong to keep the white flesh inside and also the water too.
The mesocarp is very fibrous, consist of a lot of tough brown fibers.


Coconut are mostly harvested on the mature stage, although sometime they are harvested on the partly mature stage.
Indonesia is the second biggest coconut producer in the world.
Everyday thousands even millions coconut are picked and sold for home or industry purpose.


After the fruits have picked, they will be peeled, I mean the mesocarp and exocarp.
The 'peeling' process is called 'nyrumbat', and this process leave a stripe of mesocarp to make the transportation and the handling became easier. 


So the partly clean coconut is ready to be sold on the market or send to the factories to be processed.


The exocarp and mesocarp as a waste, now become a great material for so many industries.


There are a lot of thing that I want to talk about coconut.
I hope we can continue  it on the next monthly series.
Thank you for following and have a great week.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

COCONUT : PART 6

The first fruit cluster of coconut tree usually established five year after transplanting.
On the 'genjah' (early harvesting) varieties, the first fruit could be picked on the fourth year after planting.
The ripening period of the fruit is about 9 - 12 months after the pollination, depend on the variety.
The color of the skin is so various, from the green, yellow, ivory and brownish.
And the shape is also so various from globular, round, sprawl, or  triangular.
The size is so various too, depend on the variety.


In the Javanese tradition, all stage of the fruits have their own name :
Bluluk : The youngest stage after pollination
Cengkir : The intermediate stage before the fruit flesh is formed
Degan : The young coconut fruit when the tender fruit flesh have already formed
Kelapa : The mature fruit when the flesh have thicken and harder
Kiring : The over ripening fruit that the skin have wrinkled and the water inside have depleted
Cikal : The fruit that have sprouted 


Here they are the 'bluluk' that I found under the coconut tree near my house.
During this windy and humid weather, or heavy rain period, we can find a lot of fallen 'bluluk'. 
When I was child we often made so many traditional toys using bluluk.


The young bluluk is usually used in traditional salad called 'rujak bebeg', that mixed with other fruits.
Grated bluluk is also cooked with grated coconut, spices, meat or fish, seeds, and other stuff, then wrapped using banana leaves and then steamed.


But please..., the bluluk that I have found is too 'old' and have decayed on their base.
The hole inside will be bigger and filled by the water. 


Cengkir is the medium size of fruit, much bigger than bluluk, but smaller than the mature coconut.
In this stage, the coconut water have filled inside, but the flesh haven't formed yet.
Cengkir is often used in traditional ceremony 'mithoni'.
Mithoni is a Javanese tradition that held for seven months pregnant mother.

Degan is bigger than cengkir, and the size is the same with the mature fruit.
In this stage the sugar content of coconut water is on the highest level.
The tender flesh have formed, so on this stage coconut is usually present as special and delicious drink.




Kelapa or klapa is the mature or ripen fruit, that the flesh have thicken and harder.
The fruits are usually harvested on this stage.
The size and color is the same with the degan, we can distinguish both of them by knocking outer side of the fruit.
If the sound is 'heavy', it's still on degan stage, but if the sound is 'light', the fruit have mature enough.
The 'light' sound is caused by the coconut water have reduced.
The sugar content of the coconut water on this stage is lower than degan.


Kiring, this is over ripening coconut fruit, and sometimes used as a seed on the nursery.
But the quality is usually not good enough.
We can see that the skin have turned brown and wrinkled.
The 'kenthos' (the little shoot) begin to be formed in the fruit inside.


And the last stage is cikal.
Sometime we can find cikal grows their own under the coconut tree.
The old fruit that fallen and were in the favorable micro-climate will be sprouted.
These cikals are ready to be planted on the ground.

Next we still talk more about the other part of coconut tree.
Thank you for following and have a nice weekend.