Growing and Maintaining Orchids

Growing Orchids (Cattleya spp.)

Orchid Flower

Considered as a herbaceous plant, orchids belongs to one of the largest and colorful families of plants, where the big number is mostly found in the tropics growing in the mountainous places.

 Its flowers are elongated, lasting, and mostly pollinated by insects – peculiar variation of shapes and colors, usually range in sizes from a centimeter to several centimeters in diameter.

 Most orchid species are terrestrial but others are epiphytic that grows in the air which find support on branches of trees or on top of rocks. 

 Roots of orchids are classified into three types

1.    Provides mains of support.

Orchids roots are used to cling to its support to stand its own. Being an epiphytic plant they look for some strong support to survive.

2.  For feeds.

The roots of orchids are the ones that get food nutrients from the air. They are dependent from the moisture provided by nature. In order to survive you should supplement their water needs.

3.  Aerial, which usually hangs downward and extract moisture from the air.

 Most of the leaves of orchids are parallel-nerved and look almost like those of grass while others have long and wide leaves.

Culture of Orchids.

They are grown easily, especially in moist and shady places. Other species may be grown in sheltered rocks in the corner of the gardens, under trees which don’t get direct sunlight.

 But there are some new species that can withstand direct sunlight, however, they need frequent watering morning and afternoon – a tedious work especially if you’re on a commercial venture.

You have to make sure they are protected from strong wind.

Orchids needs ample amount of light , but not to the extent of excessive sunlight for it may cause scorching of the plants.

If you can make it see to it that orchids can receive the morning sun than the afternoon sunshine, because afternoon sunlight is too intense to the leaves and flowers.

For sun tolerant species, you can select Vandas, Renantheras, and some Dendrobiums, while for shade loving varieties, Phalaenopsis and Cattleyas response better.

A simple rule in orchids growing is to expose them gradually to sunlight, to increase light intensity without getting them sun-sunburned.

A little amount of light produces dark green leaves with few flowers, while those exposed to too much light makes them slower growth with yellow and tough leaves.

Its unsightly when the leaves are scorched since dark spots appears with too much light intensity.

For best result, and to produce more flowers, you should grow orchids in the nursery, terrarium or greenhouse. In the greenhouse, although costly to establish, you can control sunlight distribution, temperature and humidity are controlled to suit the plant needs.

The advantage of a greenhouse is, you can control pests and diseases attack since it’s properly screened.

For Phalaenopsis, the temperature is not a problem if grown in the open – putting a roof over them will do. You may also raise orchids in a plastic-roofed slat house.

Propagation.

Generally, orchids are propagated by seeds. The seeds are extremely small and numerous.

They are hard to propagate because they are easily killed by sudden changes in their physical environment and they are attacked by parasitic fungi which are apparent during its early plant growth.

 However, you can produce better propagation by placing the seeds in sterile agriculture tubes and incubate for about one year

Some new and other varieties of orchids are being raised and improved through breeding and selection.  Cattleya, butterfly orchids, vandas, and dendrobiums are propagated easily from the divisions of their root sections.

The waling-waling and mariposa produces few branches at their bases when very old. Roots grew on these branches, where propagation is done through these roots.

How to Mount Orchids.

Proper mounting is very important to promote faster and vigorous growth and produce them in abundance.

Some common mounting materials available are coconut husks (for countries that grows coconut), wooden basket, piece of wood, wire basket and earthen jar.

 If you’ll use an earthen jar, select the one with openings at the bottom as against with openings on the sides because it provides better drainage and with better moisture retention which is ideal for orchids.

If you’ll use a piece of wood for mounting, select the hard wood type with thick bark to withstand a longer usage.

Tie or strap firmly the plant to the wood with moss and shredded coconut husk making the plant lie closely to the wood and strapped firmly to promote faster recovery. Water the newly mounted plants at least once or twice a day.

To make a longer support for your orchids, a living tree is usually advisable to make them comfortable in their natural habitat.

Orchids does not compete with the tree for food nutrients because they are not parasitic, but epiphytes, meaning they are only using the plant as support but not their nourishment from the tree.

Plant Medium.

A mixture of moss, pieces of charcoal, and adobe stones for weight and firmness are a good plant medium for growing orchids.

Some orchid species needs no use of any plant medium. Other gardeners just simply tie the plant directly to the support and place in a shaded area.

 However, frequent watering is advised to retain enough moisture.

Establishing Your Water Garden

ESTABLISHING YOUR WATER GARDEN

When you plan for your water garden, you’ve to decide the size of your garden, the amount you want to spend, since establishing it, requires big amount especially if you’re on a large water garden with full of plants, rocks, light, and some species of fish.

Also consider your capacity to handle base on the size of your area, the time required and maintaining your garden.

All of these factors rests on the success and failure of your project.

However, if you’re determined to go on with your plan, the bottom line is your will power to act according to your plan.

Water gardening is a peasant hobby especially if your water gardens is blooming with water lilies, hyacinths and lotus are beautifully and pleasingly in good sights.

Combined with ferns and evergreens and filled with exotic fishes, your water garden becomes charming aquatic garden full of life and beauty.

Preparing the garden

Generally, there are two types of water gardens: the formal and informal.

The type of water garden should harmonize with the home flower garden or with the surrounding premises.

Concrete pools, tubs and aquariums are artificial water gardens which adds beauty and elegance to a place.

You should treat your water garden like a well-balance aquarium to maintain clear water. The bottom should be filled with rich clayey soil to provide enough plant food.

Add sad, fine gravel and rocks on top to prevent the water from having a muddy appearance caused by the movement of fish and other aquatic animals.

You have to place around the water garden some flower beds, wooden or concrete benches ad sculptured garden ornaments to cast reflections on the water surface.

Some plants ideal for water garden

The followings are floating, submerged or semi-aquatic plants that may be grown in water garden …

1) Water lily hybrids

2) Lotus, Nelumbium elumbo

3) Umbrella plant

4) Water hyacinths

5) Pickerel weed

6) Quiapo

7) Striped corn plant

8) Corn plant

9) Baston de San Jose

10) Fragrant dracaena

11) San Francisco

12) Aglaonema

13) Varieties of papua

14) Varieties of dieffenbachia

15) Coleus, mayana

16) Philodendron

17) Yellow water plant

18) Wandering Jew

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Cris Ramasasa, Freelance writer, writes about home gardening and Internet marketing tips. You can get a copy of his latest ebook “Discover How to get started in Flower Gardening” and “Vegetable Gardening Made Easy”, also get lots of tips, Free articles, and bonuses at: www.crisramasasa.com

How to Grow and Manage Cucumber

How to Grow and Manage Cucumber

Cucumber is a vine annual crop that is in demand as a salad dessert item in every meal for  the entire family and a commercial crops. It’s grown and tolerates in an acidic soil between 5.5 - 6.8 pH and 2.5 Ec tolerance of salinity.

It response satisfactorily in a full sunlight exposure as against a shady areas.

It could adapt to a temperature at an early planting on the last spring frost, that’s when the first apples bloom.

Plant care requirements

First and foremost, select the variety that’s not taste bitter. There are some cucumber species that are bitter.

But you can reduce this bitterness by planting them in a moderate weather condition. Avoid planting cucumber in high temperature especially with inadequate water supply, since the fruits well develop a bitter taste.

Most bitter portion of the fruit is found near the skin, and the parts close to the stem.

Select some varieties that are bitter-free even under stress condition.

To have a good fruit quality, plant them at distance of 48”-60” apart . Train the plants by putting support like; fences, trellis or cages.

Pruning

Cucumber needs to be pruned to provide a better fruit quality and reduce some pest and disease attacks. Pruning also improves the plant stand and eliminate unnecessary branches that competes nutrients requirements.

Here are the steps in pruning cucumber…

1)   Remove the lateral vines including flowers and fruits up to the 5^th node.

2)   Allow to develop fruits on the 6^th node up

3)   In every secondary vines allow two fruits to develop then cut the tip after the 3^rd node.

Fertilizer Requirements

For better result, basally apply an all purpose fertilizer before planting, followed by applying side dress in between rows with urea during fruiting stage at about I tablespoonful of 33-0-0 in every plant.

Water Requirement

Cucumber does not tolerate in waterlogged soil. You should select a well-drained soil but avoiding a dry soil. Apply water when the soil dries up. Keeping the soil moist at all times.

Pests and disease control

Cucumber and other cucurbits have similar pests and diseases. In any stages of the plant growth, these pests and diseases attacks.

Insect Pests	Chemical Control	Natural Control
·         CUCURBITS (Ampalaya, upo, patola, squash, cucumber, melon, kondol, chayote) -Squash beetle -Fruit fly -Leaf folder -Aphids -Cutworm -Cucurbit bugs -Thrips & Mites -White flies -Root grub	Azodrin 168 EC, Decis, Seven, Malathion Attractant, Malathion Malathion, Lannate Tamaron, Confidor Actara, Selecr54on, Malathion, Cymbush Lannate Dicarsol Malathion, Azodrin Furadan	Predators, cultural, botanical Parasites, Predators Cultural, Parasites, Predators, Botanical Botanical. Predators Botanical, Predators, Parasites Cultural, Botanical, Predators Predators, Botanical Cultural, Botanical, Predators Cultural, botanical

Harvesting

Cucumber can be harvested 40 Days after planting, or you can see by ocular inspection where you’ll select the fruit when they reach at a desired size.

You can harvest them for whatever purpose you intend to use them.

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Cris Ramasasa is a freelance writer, retired horticulture teacher. Writes on home gardening and Internet marketing tips. Written ebooks, titled; “Discover How to get Started in Flower Gardening” and “Vegetable Gardening Made Easy”. Subscribe his Free articles at: www.crisramasasa.com 

How to Grow and Maintain Asparagus

How to Grow and Maintain Asparagus

Courtesy of www.showshown.com

An annual plant, asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) is a delicacy especially made for the kitchen lovers of fresh vegetables. It’s delicious taste is very in demand for every household and become a part of the ingredients for every dish.
It’s a sun loving plant that thrives best and grows vigorously when grown
in full sunlight exposure.

Asparagus is a hardy plant and well adapted when planted in early spring. It tolerates at a pH from 6.0 to 6.8 pH level and very tolerant to salinity.

The pollination process in asparagus is made possible with the aid of some friendly insects. So don’t destroy some insects that are roaming in your garden. Try to investigate first the kind of insects in your garden, they may be a friendly insects.

Preparing the land

The land should be well-prepared to destroy all weed seeds and to make the soil properly pulverized. Asparagus does not tolerate weed presence, therefore, weed control should be your priority
.
Planting

During planting, put about two inches of soil over the roots and replace more soil as the plant grows. As much as possible, don’t cover the tips of the spear with soil.
Maintain a vigorous and healthy fern growth during the first two years to ensure a long production in the succeeding years.

Note: Asparagus should not be harvested in its first year of growth to get a maximum harvest in your first harvest.

Weed control

Weeds are the number one competitors for asparagus. To ensure a vigorous plant growth, you should maintain strict and complete field sanitation. To avoid weed growth, you should apply mulching materials at least two to three inches of pure compost every year.

Note: Don’t till the soil around the plant to avoid disturbing the delicate root system.

Fertilizing

Asparagus is a fertilizer tolerant crop and responds well with proper fertilizer application.
To get a better result, apply nitrogen fertilizer two times a year, at least once in the spring at early growth and follows up again at the end of harvesting.

Water requirement

Maintain its water requirement especially during the first two years of growth period and apply mulching materials around the plants to conserve its soil moisture content and controls weed presence.
At its fourth year of plant growth, you should reduce water supply thus reducing them every two to three weeks. This is to let the water penetrate to the soil at least four feet below the soil surface.

Harvesting

To make a white asparagus spears – which is considered a delicacy, make a mound soil about 8 inches high over the asparagus plant in early spring before the spears emerges from the ground.
As soon as the tips of the spears emerge through the top of the 8 inches mound, push a long-handled knife into the base of the hill and spears well below the surface and cut the shoots out by the tips and level the mounds again after harvest.

That’s it, you’ve your tasty asparagus ready for the kitchen or you may sell the extra harvest to add your family income.
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Cris Ramasasa, Freelance writer, writes about home gardening and Internet marketing tips. You can get a copy of his latest ebook “Discover How to get started in Flower Gardening” and “Vegetable Gardening Made Easy”, also get lots of tips, Free articles, and bonuses at: www.crisramasasa.com

HOW TO GROW YOUR HOMEMADE TOMATOES

     

Growing tomatoes is fun and a lucrative home  gardening business. Besides being nutritious, it could provide you with a real fresh fruits

coming directly from your garden.

You can produce them the way you want it. Producing tomatoes can be done without using chemicals because you’re the one controlling their growth processes.

If you’ll plant tomatoes with other vegetables, the occurrence of pests and diseases attack could be totally minimized or even none at all. Companion cropping or multiple cropping can control pests and diseases attack since they’re protected by the other plants.

Steps in growing tomatoes…

1)   Provide a seed box or germinating tray for sowing seeds. Sow the seeds 12 mm or .5 inch deep in the seed  trays or germinating tray. Slightly cover the seeds with thin soil to cover them.

2)   Cover the seed trays or germinating trays with newspaper or polyethylene plastic. Germination will take about 7-10 days from sowing.

3)   After  the seeds have germinated, remove the cover. Gradually expose the growing seedlings to the morning sunlight to harden them

4)   Prepare a separate seed trays or germinating trays the same manner as when sowing seedlings. Fill with the growing medium and level at least 12 mm or .5 inch below the rim.

5)   Use a dibber to form holes about 36 mm or .5 inch apart, the outer ones  12 mm or .5 inch from the sides.

6)   As soon as the seedlings are large enough to handle, prick or transfer them to the individual holes in the prepared seedling or germinating trays. This is to provide the seedlings a wider space to avoid over-crowding while in the seedling or germinating trays.

7)   Now set the individual seedlings to a growing bags or pots.

8)   Support the plants with sticks tied with wires or strings to hold in place.

9)   Feed the growing plants every ten days from planting up to the time when the first truss (bunch fruit) in formed.

10) Remove all shoots growing in the angles of the leaves-snap them sideways. Also, gradually remove the lower leaves to induce ripening of the fruits.

11) Harvest your fresh tomatoes when they’re ripe. You can give or sell your surplus harvest to your neighbors. And they’ll thanks for your generosity.

See, it’s very easy to grow your own chemically free tomatoes for your family’s needs.

Why not try planting your own homemade tomatoes. You’re sure you’ll enjoy it.

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   Cris Ramasasa, Freelance writer, writes about home gardening and      Internet  marketing tips. You can get a copy of his latest ebook “Discover How to get started in  Flower Gardening” and “Vegetable Gardening Made Easy”, also get lots of tips, Free articles, and bonuses  at: www.crisramasasa.com

Growing Red Palm Made Easy

GROWING RED PALM MADE EASY

The red palm is the most attractive of the Palmaceae family and favorite for landscaping and potted decorative plant because of its bright red color that adds it attractiveness.

A native of Indonesia red palm is actually growing in lowland areas submerged in water bordering tidal rivers. It only shows that they thrives best when the place is abundant with moisture and humidity.

Red palm grows successfully in acidic soil (pH 5 or less), where it produces an intense bright red color. It has also the clustering habit producing numerous suckers from the base of the plant and developed into a big clump.

The leaf bases which wrap around the stem are an exotic crimson. The red color extends to the leafstalk that bears the leaflets.

How to propagate Red Palm

Propagating red palm needs your skill to do it because it is a delicate plant. Home gardeners usually fails since they don’t know the proper way to separate the suckers from the mother plant.

However, the most practical way of propagating red palm is by division where the plant is grown in a size 12 pot using a very loose growing soil medium.

When you see lot of suckers with roots of their own, you have to take them out from the pot and shake off some loose soil that stick to the roots.

Separate the suckers carefully with sufficient roots then plant individually in pots with a porous soil. Place the newly potted plants in a cool shaded area and keep them moist.

After a couple of weeks from the shade when they are already fully well established you can transfer them to a place where they can be exposed to the sun.

Propagating by Seeds

Growing seeds is done by collecting seeds from a ten year old growing plants. When the seeds are ripe, pick them from the tree. Don’t wait for them to fall to the ground, but others prefer to let the seeds sprout before collecting the growing seedlings from the ground.

But if you want to have a more vigorous seedlings, it is advised to sow the seeds in the germinating tray. Seedlings uprooted from the ground may not survive because some roots may be damaged that may affect the growth of seedlings.

I recommend to pick the ripe fruit since fresh seeds are easier to sprout. Palm seeds have short viability period (1 month), so that they should be sown within that period.

However, their viability can be extended by placing the seed in a refrigerated container.

To grow the seeds in germinating or pots, prepare the soil medium with a mixture of coco coir dust and sterilized garden soil.

Don’t bury the seeds too deep, just barely covered. Maintain the moisture content of the soil not to let them dry out. In doing so, the seeds will be delayed in sprouting.

Fresh seeds that are moderately moist throughout will germinate in less than a month. There are instances, however, when the seeds take much longer time to germinate.

Seedlings grow very slowly, that within the first three -year period, they only reach a mere one foot height and the red color will not show up.

Once the plant has developed a good number of roots, that’s the time the growth becomes faster.

To make elongation faster, place them in a shady place, and give them ample amount of fertilizer.

That’s it!

You have been given the right procedure to propagate Red Palm.

Follow the steps correctly, and wow! You’ll get the vigorous growing Red Palm tree.

And yes. You can earn lots of money raising Red Palm.

Red Palm command a high price. A six inch seedlings cost around $1-$2 dollars.

You see, if you have 1000 seedlings, that’s money. And you don’t have to work that hard.
Once they are fully established, your only work is watering them to maintain moisture requirements of the plant.

Resource box:

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Crisologo Ramasasa is a freelance writer who writes articles on Home Gardening and Internet marketing tips. Subscribe his Free gardening and Internet marketing tips. Visit his site at: www.crisramasasa.com. Get a Free copy of his latest ebook “Discover How To Get Started in Flower Gardening” and “Vegetable Gardening Made Easy”. There are lots of information you can get with this materials.

How to Preserve Our Garden Friends

HOW TO PRESERVE OUR GARDEN FRIENDS

Lets first talk about some friendly insect pests. Not all insect pests are destructive. If you’re not extra careful in your garden, you might as will kill those insect pests that are useful and especially important as friends in the garden.

These insects get their livelihood from other insects as their source of food, and most of these food are the ones that destroys our crops.

Next time you visit your garden, be observant. Look closely each insect you see, verify if they’re enemy or friend.

To give you the idea how to indentify our garden friends, here they are…

·         Parasitoids - Are natural enemies of destructive insect pests that host inside the body of insect pests to complete their development to adulthood.

Examples of parasitoids are the following…

1)  Diptera (Fly and Miners) – Syrphid fly and flies

2)    Hymenoptera (Wasp and Sawflies) – Wasp

·         Predators - This kind of insect pests feed and damage directly to the destructive insects as  their main source of food.

Predators includes the following…

1)    Hemiptera (Bugs) – Bugs

2)    Orthoptera (Predatory crickets) – Predatory crickets

3)    Neuroptera (Lace wings) – Lace wings

4)    Dermaptera (Earwings) - Earwings

5)    Mantodea (Praying mantis) – Praying mantis

6)    Araneae (Spiders) – web-forming spiders, Big jawed spider, Jumping spider, Combed-footed spider, Lynx spider, Crawling/Ground spider

7)    Coleoptera (Beetles and Weevils) – Carabid beetles, Black beetles (like ants), Coccinelid, Lady beetle

Preserving Beneficial Insect Pests in our Garden

·         Go Organic. Organic gardening is the most effective way of controlling insect pests, and besides environmental friendly.

·         Practice companion cropping. Plant different kinds of crops in every cropping season to ward-off destructive insects. Insect pests are crop specific, meaning, they only attack a certain specific plant.

Next time you see these insects in your garden, try to identify them carefully so you’ll be aware which one is a friendly or destructive insect pests.

Your knowledge in identifying insect pests would increase your awareness to protect those beneficial insect pests and eradicate those destructive pests.

Insect pests that does not damage economically to vegetables are not considered enemies and are only in small population.

Other beneficial insect pests gives benefits to mankind in the following aspects…

1)    Pollinators – Bees pollinates flowers in magnitude all day long which form flowers into fruits. Without pollination, no fruits will formed.

2)    Decomposers – Maggots and grubs of beetles helps improve the soil by exuding decomposed excreta.

3)    Source of food – Mole crickets, locusts, etc. are good source of food.

4)    Biological control agents – There are some insect pests that eats another insect pests (e.g. praying mantis) and other predators.

5)    Source of important products – Honey bees provides honey and wax that are used as ingredients in the manufactures of medicine and beauty products.

6)    Silkworm are the source of silk which are used in the manufacture of fabrics.

There are insect pests our gardeners love, protect them and let them multiply into manifold.

Happy gardening.

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Cris Ramasasa, Freelance writer, writes home gardening and Internet marketing tips. Get a copy of his latest FREE ebook “Discover How to get started in Flower Gardening”  and “Vegetable Gardening Made Easy”, and get lots of tips, Free articles, and bonuses at: www.crisramasasa.com