SOME GROWING SECRETS OF ALOE VERA
It's false notion that Aloe Vera doesn't need your hospitality of nutrition, moisture and sunshine.
Yes they can do absorb harmful gases from your living rooms in bare minimum resource conditions. But there growth remain stunted.
But they grow in our 8" pots (kept in sun) profusely. They enjoy the same hospitality we provide each and every plant on my terrace.
Alternate day morning nutrition supply, mid day 2-3 min shower and occasionally shower in evening (only in hot sunny day). Aloe Vera is no different from other plants.
Being a desert plant they are always hungry for nutrition and moisture. If these two resources are in bountiful supply they respond by growing lots and lots of thick leaves full of goodness.
Non of my family member is fond of internal consumption of aloe vera. But its cosmetic use is the reason for keepin them in 22 pots in addition to our three stock grove.
Today 19th April.
Sponge guard fruits in close-up inspection.
Three of them are ready for harvest. Evening is the time when we love to eat sponge guard as an accompaniment to our meal.
My whole family love it. Even my daughter (a picky eater) love to harvest it and eat when cooked.
Sponge guard vine is doing quite well and fruits have started settings.
Fruit growth is brisk. Today is 15th April 2020 morning.
Adjacent vines of bottle guard has taken over by aphids. They're in a spree to finish it up. I am not sure why it's happening at root level. Perhaps they are not competing well with this sponge guard in nutrient uptake.
I will watch till this bottle guard vine is completely anihlated by aphids. In fact it has started very very well but later competition was bit harsh between vines.
This is the time to repot 'Rain Lilly'.
A week ago a thickly populated pot was break open to release nearly hundreds of bulbs.
It was planted in this tray in hope to have beautiful bunch flowering.
If you wish to have this lilly as gift at the season end i.e. mid December when we empty the crate for winter rest for the bulbs.
This year i have earmarked this 'White Rain Lilly', 'Orange Amarilis Lilly', 'Red Kalanchoe' for sharing. So i will be multiplying them in numbers.
The process has started well after a week the roots of bulbs had well established now and growth is kiking now.
Few days ago we had a untimely rain whole day. This African Night Crawler adult escaped from one of my worm bin to take refuge in organic debries collected in surface drain.
My daughter whose last paper of 10 CBSE Exam was postponed due to Corona Virus pandemic was gloomy, saw this escapee and got very excited to see such huge worm(not measured length but it may be around 8 to 10").
She shot this video with all intentions to scare her friends.
Later it was taken back to it's rightful place i.e. our rooftop based worm bin(there we have 3 active bins).
More such monster may be there still hiding in the debries collected in the drain.
Enjoying self isolation due to Corona Virus granted for a month by our Jharkhand Govt upto 14 th April.
Trying to grow bottle guard and sponge guard in old 400 liter water tank whose bottom has got leaky. Thus to facilitate a growing top is trimmed too(not so perfectly because we forgot to to do it).
Half of the container is filled with wood charcoal cocopeat mix in hope to retain moisture in hot summer day.
It's supposed to be trained to the nearby pergola made last year.
It's testing time of our liquid nutrient mix which is having enzymes added by many fly larvaes.
We have planted many seedlings nearby in hope to create bountiful male and female flowers at the same time to alleviate pollination. In single seedling case we have observed both flowers don't get sported at the same time has poor bearing on fruiting.