Mini mango bonsai

So, I developed a simple hobby of trying to grow any seed. And when I say any seed, I really mean it. 

Few months ago when I was still in Taiwan, a friend of mine brought me a stolen mangoes. Yes, 4 stolen mangoes smuggled from Taizhong. The mangoes were stolen from neighbor's tree that... errr... let's just say, the tree had tempted my friend to steal them. Especially the mangoes looked so beautiful. I thought, "hey! we should make a mini fruit bonsai!"

So what we need would be:

- mango with seed

- soil

- pot

- small stones or pebbles

- water

- small shovel or spoon

- clean container

- fruit knife

- a good (gardening) scissors

After we ate them, I collected all the seeds. You know, the part that we usually bite and chew as our last resort in eating whole part of the mango. That part, is actually the casing of the mango seed. First, we wash the collected casings and clean the outer surface of the casing, peel the leftover mango fruit-flesh with the knife. Carefully find the the cleft on the side of the casing, and gently tug it open (or dig a hole) with the gardening scissors.

Then peek inside the casing, you will have the seeds. Pull out the seeds, and carefully not to cause any damage on the mango seed. Remove the brown skin from the seed and then soak the seed on clean water, in a clean container. Change the water everyday or earlier if the water had turned brown. I believe the brown color is a kind of sap (now, I forgot what's the scientific name, but it usually excreted by trees to avoid insects or when wounded). As for the casings, dry them under a direct sunlight. It usually dries out in 1-2 days.

After a 1-2 weeks, a bud (or more) will sprout. 

The color will then change from white to green. And if the plants were continued soaked, the bud will transform into a shoot and root. If you're lucky, the rootings will be long enough.

And after the rootings are established, it is safe for you to move the seed into a soiled pot. Make sure that the rootings are well sunked and covered with soil and pebbels. Spray with water (into the pot) immediately.

So, after I put the pebbles, I kept the mango bonsai on a well sun-lighted area in my room (direct sunlight is acceptable for the baby). And the plant grew quickly (thanks to the constant watering) everyday.

 

Now... who said that growing plant is a difficult way? It is easy and simple!

See you next time :D

My potato grew...

 I can't believe that my potato grows!

About one and a half month ago, my sister gave me a potato that already sprouted some buds. I decided to grow the potato. But since I don't have any good (deep) planting pot, I used something from IKEA.

So... use a very simple soil mix, I added some fertilizer pellets in the almost top of the soil surface. I made a hole in the middle of the soil, plant the potato, and then close the hole with the soil mixture, add the fertilizer pellet and add more soil. Make sure that the potato is under the soil.

Water regularly and give sunshine as much as you can.

And... this is 1.5 months later.

In my case, the potato suddenly showed up after 2 weeks. I was a bit worried, but apparently it grew ok. So... no worries. If you want to plant the potato and make them produce more potatoes, then you need a deeper pot (maybe about 15 inches?, mine is only 4 inches). Plus... you need to put them on a very good-lighted place. Mine is so small and I just want them to produce leaves. I want the plant to be semi-indoor plant that I can put on my desk.

So, if you have a potato that already sprouted new buds... don't throw them away. Plant them in your yard, or in a container, and have fun! :D

tiny cactus can be pretty too

 Lately, I've been fond of a song called Ugly from 2NE1. One of the sentence was "Just like her I wanna be pretty."

So, under that theme, I learned from a cactus park in Hsinchu, Taiwan, that tiny cactus can look pretty too.

What you need is:
- a tall glass, or any size that can fit the cactus
- colorful stones, or you can change them with colorful sands
- chopstick, to put in the cactus
- spoon
- and a cute cactus in a small pot. The size of the pot that I am using is 2.5 cm (diameter).



First, put in the stones, any color you like, until it reached about 1 cm thick.



Put in the cactus, and carefully put it in the middle of the glass.



Start to add in more stones, using any color you like, and carefully not to drop the stones on top of the cactus, because it will be difficult to remove.



Redirect the cactus using chopstick when needed.



Stop adding stones until the pot, soil and bottom part of the cactus is fully drown in stones.

  And voila!