Gardening in Fuerteventura

[Jason W]

Thank you Tamara, Steve, Perry - off to Happy Plants.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

My shrubby poinsettia has been plagued with cochineal for the last couple of months - nothing seems to shift the pest this year - but it still recognises it's time to start putting out red leaves. Amazing how the hours of light/dark change the leaf colour! Fingers crossed it will look fabulous for Christmas.  Unfortunately the southern gale we had last week broke quite a few of the branches off and it wasn't worth trying to do cuttings because of the cochineal.



All the shop bought potted Xmas decoration poinsettias that I was donated in the New Year didn't survive the year in the garden. Some lasted weeks, others months, but all gave up in one gale or another.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

The high winds last week from the south broke off a few young branches from my buddleia. While buddleia grows like a weed in the UK with typically purple sprays of flowers, out here it is not common and the only one that I've found that will grow here has yellow flower spikes. All buddleias seem beloved by the butterflies.

I managed to cut the broken pieces into 3 cuttings which I placed in water, hoping they would root. Later in the day I was using a specialist Kelp product on my indoor orchids which promotes root growth. However, due to the risk of cross infection I only use liquid on one orchid and then dispose of it (general watering in the garden). I thought it was worth trying on my buddleia cuttings so tipped out their water and reused an orchid mix. In 5 days I had strong root growth!



I'll be trying this with other cuttings!

In the UK you can buy Maxicrop Root Growth Stimulant which works quite well but I've never had such quick results as this! The best kelp product though is one that has been cold-pressed as it preserves the auxins (I think I've got that right). I order mine direct from the manufacturer/distributor in the Netherlands. Not cheap but 1 litre of Kelpak product makes 250 litres of usable product. 1 litre is 15€ plus 15€ postage. I can provide contact details if anyone wants them.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Delighted with this hibiscus which has recently started blooming, just love the frilly petals!


Had a surprise when I opened one of my compost containers - papaya seedlings!

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

My apologies if I've mentioned this before!
I planted a blue plumbago a few years ago but subsequent blooms saw the flowers getting very pale, almost white. Spoke to Saskia at Happy Plants and she said it needed more feed. The results have been amazing, better blue than the original plant!


I'd thought about feed affecting general growth/size/health/leaf colour etc but not equated it with flower colour - duh!

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

An update from this post: https://fuerteventura.click/Thread-Garde...6#pid19346

Banana: the fruit have been very reluctant to swell and ripen. I've been feeding and watering but still not much progress. I've been reading about them on a permaculture site and decided that the remaining pups had to go. I'd removed 3 pups earlier in the year and another 3 had grown, several of them very vigorously. I think they were just taking too much out of the parent plant and the available water and nutrients. We'll see! I cut off the bottom of the flower spike several weeks ago, it wasn't doing anything productive anymore. The support got dislodged by the wind yesterday and it was a major effort to get it back in today with the weight of the fruit spike.

  before and after pup removal

  the pups, before and after



Maracuya:

The wind also knocked off 2 of my maracuya fruit (passion fruit). Although the fruit had ripened to a pale yellow it had not yet gone slightly wrinkled which normally indicates when it is ready. Still, they were off the plant so I had to try them. They were delicious  . Slightly tart but perfectly edible. Another week or 2 on the plant and they would have been a bit sweeter. Not for the squeamish, you have to close your mind to eating vomit coloured frogspawn 🤣 If you have fruit in enough quantity at the same time you can make jams etc.

 

looking forward to this plant, Flamevine or Cape Honeysuckle, coming in to full bloom:

  

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Climbed up onto my garden wall this afternoon to trim the tatty end off of the windsock. This gave me a birds eye view of one of my jungle areas:

 Drago in foreground, honeysuckle on fence and drago, banana at rear.

  the Swiss Cheese plant that now completely surrounds the Drago

and is encroaching on the hibiscus and banana!

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Flower round up, taken over the last few days:

  

  

  

  

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

cont.
  

  

  

This is what we get for having the equivalent of a second spring in the autumn! Puts a smile on my face every day 

[Can the Man]

Stunning Tamara, absolutely beautiful. You truly have green fingers.