gejala pokok | symptomatic trees

i’m going crazy. i used to have a life. blissful hours of vegging out in front of the telly, going places, seeing people - all the things that makes a person normal.

but the past few weeks, all i’ve done is spend hours, hours, checking on my little seedlings, getting all stressed out and turning into an anxious wreck, panicking over transplanting needs.. even my web search habit has changed drastically.

i used to read socio-political blogs, blogs on poetry, arts stuff, news. but now? all i read are gardening blogs. all kinds of gardening blogs. gardeners who rant, gardeners who rave, gardeners who love their gardens, gardeners who hate other gardeners… it’s a mad, mad world. and it’s not even been a month yet since i started this obsession.

now i have more than twenty pots of seedlings in multiple sizes needing light, shade, water, coaxing conversations, all kinds of attention. i’m really afraid that i might not get out of this bubble. and i’m so totally, crazy in love with this.

oh dear.

so, back to more important things

my sunflowers are doing great! there’s true leaves showing, and none of them have keeled over or died yet. which is super cool. here’s a latest picture.

they’re still under florescent light in the toilet, and i think i might have to invest in some table lamp thing soon. i can’t keep one toilet occupied by pots and trays forever. also a little worried that they shouldn’t be under constant light, so i’m going to give them a rest tonight and switch it off. hopefully they will still be happy and standing tall tomorrow. please, please, please…

so since the sunflowers are alright, decided to transplant the balsam and the sage as well ’cause they were getting a little leggy. also the phlox, ’cause it doesn’t look so healthy sitting in that big pot.

same exercise: take out the gardening mat, mixing up the soil (regular hummus mix, with a little bit of peat moss and vermiculite, and layering the bottom of the pot with coconut fibre), putting it in the pot, carefully pricking out the seedlings with a chopstick, then spoon, then fork (works the best if seedlings are quite tiny), putting them in new pots with more space between each one so that they can grow, tamping down the soil around the roots and stem gently, water from below, and under the florescent light they go (just for the night).

very, very anxious that they might suffer the same fate as the statice, but this morning, they seemed fine! no flopping over, no looking like they’re shriveling up slowly but surely, no signs of impending death.

yay!

the phlox, as of an hour ago.

the sage with new leaves still growing fine. though this particular one suffered from my clumsy fingers. one of the cotyledons snapped off when i was trying to loosen it from the soil. but with a lot of hope (and pillow talk :|), hopefully it’ll turn out fine.

and finally the balsam. notice the one that also suffered from my clumsy fingers - with more dire effect. i snapped off not only one of the cotyledons, but severed the other one as well. boo hoo! may the others survive in lush-fullness.

that took more than 2 hours and a very cramped back. ah well, they’re worth it

haven’t had a chance to post up pictures of the marjoram, balsam, petunia & sage that germinated early last week. took some photos today, they are looking strong and good and getting taller and taller!

these are the balsam. they’re growing a little leggy. i borrowed some of tukangkebun’s horti seed and potting mix for this. doesn’t seem to have that much difference from the soil mix i used. but i wonder if this means i’ll have to transplant them since it’s a ’soil-less’ mixture, meaning no nutrients for the plant.

the petunias are growing mad. i think they’re the spreading kind, which means they need more water than the usual. i used the same horti mix, and now really regret it because how on earth am i going to transplant such teeny-tiny little things?? apparently they grow quite slowly, and take some time before true leaves show. so i’m going to take the time to figure out this problem.

marjoram. just marginally bigger than the petunias. i mixed a hummus-y soil with some peat moss and vermiculite for this. which hopefully means i wont have to re-pot them cause they’re soooooo tiny also. they’re a little crowded i think. but it might be too soon to thin them. not sure. but they seem happy..

there’s ‘true’ leaves coming out! the sage was actually slower than the rest in germinating. used the same self-mixed soil, and it’s growing a little leggy also. crap. but maybe i can re-pot them soon.

more little phlox popping up! the fine hairs are actually from the cat, who was trying to catch a mega huge ant crawling around the pot. i hope he’s learnt his lesson about not chomping on the plants or digging them up. he’s been quite good so far, except for the lipstick plant incident =|

and the latest addition, the “yellow empress” sunflower! sown on 19th april, and looking very very happy. except i might have burnt them by putting them on the window ledge where they’ll get direct sun. keep forgetting that they’re only tiny. put them back in the balcony now, where it’s more shade than sun, but still light enough. as long as no more storms come along.

i think i might have to add some soil to the balsam and sage, cause they’re getting really long and a little wriggly, trying to reach for sunlight. but i’m not sure if that’ll suffocate the roots. hmm… another question for the forum.

oh, and balcony was getting way to cramped for new seedlings, new pots of plants etc. so had to try and sort out some spatial problem. got this trolley from ikea (i know i know…), but it was not super expensive (RM45) and can be pushed around to catch the sun or avoid the rain. quite handy

also bought my very first gardening book, “an encyclopedia of garden plants & techniques“. this is quite scary, considering i just started this whole plant thing on 1st april. help, help…. but i’m loving this!

oh, and found a handy tripod site by a malaysian gardener! awesome if you want to plant cactus here, this is where you want to go: kh man’s cacti & succulents site.

i planted some phlox together with my old cosmos seeds on 12 april. they haven’t done much except some mold was growing on the soil (!!), and the fertilizer (organic black pellets) was getting a bit furry. heh. i sort of gave up on it, but didn’t take any action to reuse the pot or the soil. planted some other stuff, and then suddenly, the phlox seems to be reacting!

in a rare moment of documentation, after getting over-excited and confident with statice and celosia germination success, we photographed each step. here you go!

how to (not to) grow phlox properly

yay!! i didn’t suffocate the seeds after all! they’re not all eaten by mushrooms! but the cosmos i think, are dud. oh well…

but i’m keeping an eye on this pot. more and more are coming out each day. wish me luck