Update of the 22nd of May.

It will be a bit long because I have to cover two weeks. Last week I went to Merida to get my passport, so I wasn't able to do an update. I thought I would find some plants to buy in Merida, especially some orchids, but there weren't any, they were just selling Adenium, but they have become quite expensive, so I'd rather order seeds and cultivate them myself.

Finally got my mango tree. I have been living in the tropics for 5 years, eating mangoes for 5 years and I haven't even tried once to sow one, but now it's done. To sow it, I opened the pit to get the almond, then I laid it between two damp napkins and waited for the seed to sprout. It took about a week or so. After it had sprouted I waited about 10-15 days more and then into the soil. It came out quite quickly after having been put into soil.

The same mango tree about 10 days after.

I also sowed some eureka lemon seeds. In Mexico, I can only find lime and though I like lime, I prefer lemon, I think that they have a better taste. One day I went to the supermarket and they had small lemons variety eureka, I bought some and then kept some seeds and sowed them. After about a month, 8 of them sprouted as in the second pic.

Showing the progress on my adeniums. The first one got beheaded during a shower (my fault), I thought it wouldn't make it, but as you can see it has produced side branches. Actually many of them are producing side branches, I'm really amazed to see how they are growing.

This is some fun I am having with a chayote "seeds". To reproduce chayote, you usually put the entire fruit into the soil, well half of it, because it has no coated seeds. I had one in the fridge and the almond began to come out, I opened the chayote and the almond came off and I decided to put it on damp paper to see what would happen, after a few days roots appeared and at the moment more roots appeared and the little sprout is forming. 

This is something else, I'm doing it for a friend, I swear. One of my friend got some cannabis seeds and I was curious as to germinate them and of course she doesn't have such of a green thumb, so she gave me some and here it is. To be honest, they germinate and grow fast, but either they germinate, either they don't. She gave me some more seeds and let see if these will germinate.

My hoodia gordonii and trichocaulon annulatum

My caralluma russeliana

A survivor, my orbea variegata. This little guy almost died when I went to Mexico city. When I came back, it was kind of dried, I think the roots actually rotted because they were dry and I thought it wouldn't make it, but after a few days it got better and it fully recovered, even better it has already produced a side "branch". I am so happy :) 

My wittia amazonica

Another baobab. Of the 10 seeds I bought 8 have germinated and 7 made it, pretty good percentage. I have already quite a lot of baobab. I don't know what I will do with them. 

This is a cashew apple, the "fruit" of the cashew tree. On top of the cashew apple is the pit, inside the pit is the famous cashew nut that we know. The cashew apple is edible but with quite a weird taste and it leaves a weird sensation, I usually blend it with mango, it makes a good juice. However I kept the seeds, 6 of them to sow. Before sowing I soaked them for 48 hours and let them dry under the sun.

My talinum caffrum are getting bigger and bigger and they are even producing flower, The first pictures show the flower developing and the last two pictures, show the actual flower. The caudex/tuber are also developing. It has been such a nice plant and quite easy to take care of. The flowers don't last long but I guess when it will be bigger and have more flowers, it will be a nice plant. Apparently from the first flower, it is also growing a seed capsule so I might end up with a lot of seeds, I will sell and also a lot of plant, since I'm waiting for 100 seeds of them, if I had known, I wouldn't have bought them.... 

My aloe noid also bore fruits and they opened, so took the seeds and laid them on some soil. Let's see if they will grow. I have tried once to grow some aloe seeds, but I didn't have any luck.

This is a plumeria I sowed about 3 to 4 years ago, I don't remember, I would say 4 years ago. One day while I was watering it and looking at it, I discovered between the new leaves a strange growth. I couldn't believe my eyes, my big baby is mature and is developing flowers. It is supposed to be white, but it might not come true, so it will be a surprise. 

My gardenia cutting : I killed two gardenias, but when I bought the second one, I thought I would take some cuttings and try to root it into water. They took quite a while and I lost most of them, but one decided to grow roots and then I put into soil and it decided to start growing and now it is growing, it seems that it even wants to give a flower, I don't think the flower will make it though, because it gets dry quite easily. The glass it is in isn't big enough anymore, I am just waiting for some peat moss to transplant it in a slightly bigger pot.

My sauromatum venenosum are already producing offshots. They are so small but already giving new side shoots. 

My turmeric and my ginger are awaking from their sleep. The turmeric went to sleep quite a long time ago and I was actually thinking about throwing it away, but when I went to throw it away, I realized a growth had come outside the ground, I transplanted it into a bigger pot and it will actually have quite a few growth coming out, I'm even hoping for some flowers. Same story for the ginger, my ginger was doing really great, I transplanted it and it began to die and I was really sad. I kept it and at the same moment I wanted to throw it away with the turmeric, I saw some new growths coming out and it will also give me quite a few growths as well. 

Argyreia nerviosa, it has some beautiful hairy leaves, I like it. 

My new additions : 4 orchids. I am quite happy with this purchase, because they look fantastic and also of good quality. I hope I can keep them alive, especially the two grown in regular soil. 

The plumeria I sow about one months ago (maybe two). They are getting bigger and they weren't fitting well in those cups anymore, so I put them in a larger containers, there are 44 of them.

The weirdest thing is that some are already branching as you can see in the two following pictures, so small but already with side branches.

Those are the only thing I bought in Merida. Two bulbs of amaryllis, supposedly one double flower white and one double flower red. I don't think they will be this, because many sellers on the street sell bulbs that aren't what they say they are, but I bought them to practice propagation. Bulb propagation often involves killing the mother bulb. I have three amaryllis and I wanted to do it, but I have felt reluctant because they are two beautiful to kill them. So I thought I would practice with one and if it works fine, well I might chop up one of those I bought. I mean I propagated zephyranthes and sprekelia and it worked quite great, from one sprekelia I got eleven new bulbs. 

Of course, the last good news of the week. On Saturday my order from Koehres finally arrived. This time I received :
10 seeds of Fockea
20 seeds of Secamone
20 seeds of aloe variegata
about 20-25 seeds of streptocarpus, submatucana, monilaria, trichodiadema and some disocactus species.
20 seeds of stepelia mix
10 seeds of pachypodium saundersii
I've already sowed all the cactus, succulents and streptocarpus seeds. I soaked the aloe seeds and sowed them on Sunday. The asclepiadaceae seeds were soaked and then laid on damp paper and some sprouted these morning. It is quite a slow start, comparing to the other asclepiadaceae I've sowed so far. My only problem is with the fockea, they are really fast to grow fungus.