The Green Onion Project part 1.

experiment with my onion plant - #1

After doing a lot of research today online I found that the green onion or scallion type onion can be regrown. They said to let the plant grow to minimum of 6 inches and then cut about 1/2 an inch above the bulb to regrow.

So I had a couple that were slight over 6 inches about the soil line and I cut them. I smell like onions now, but that's ok.

I then took these three tiny plants and put them back in the soil to see if they will regrow.

Somehow I had trouble with keeping the tiny roots intact, but I'll attempt this test nonetheless.  I still have a small cluster of onions that I will let grow further so if these fail I'll still have some healthy onions growing.

I'll try to post a picture tomorrow. Also, I forgot to mention I placed these in a larger container.

I then took the small scallions I had cut off, rinsed them and put them in the refrigerator for the night. I'm not sure if that's what I was supposed to do with them, but who knows. Maybe I should let them dry out.

I'll have to do some more research.

Here goes.

update on my two basjoos!

There is snow on the ground today, but my basjoos are doing well indoors.
Actually most of today it has been around 68 degrees in my sunroom.

These are a couple pictures I took today to show their growth.

This is my Basjoo #2. It seems like it finally got comfortable in its pot, grew some roots and now is getting ready to grow a leaf.  If you recall I did a video a couple days ago and there was a hint of a sprout there, but now it is very easy to see the growth.

This is my basjoo #1. You can clearly to see the small leaf trying to grow. Now that my second plant is also well established lets see which one grows faster.

my garden has grown. VIDEO

new additions...

These are some pics of my new additions.
Yes only one new fruit, but a fruit is a fruit.

Here you go:

This is my rectangular tray with some Parsley in it. There are four small plants in this tray.

This is a different angle where you can see the small plant better. This smells really good.

On the other side of the pot I have some curly mint. This also smells good and as you can see it grows up.

These two are my other small Parsley plants. They didn't fit in the larger pot so I divided them up.
We'll have to see how they do.

This is a bunching onion. They are very small and I believe you can eat the stem leaves as well.
Here's another angle.

And this is my strawberry plant. Its supposed to be very hardy and can withstand up to about 30 degrees. It was 46 degrees earlier today and it was growing outdoors. A small flower was trying to grow under the foliage, but wasn't doing well. I'm hoping to nurse it a little and get it to grow some more.

Video coming soon!

i went to the local nursery and...

Yes you guessed it I picked up a couple new plants.
parsley (6) same price as one fully grown one
mint (1)
small onion (1)
hardy strawberry (1)

I have just potted them and will be taking some pictures after lunch.

I will be growing these in my sunroom as well for now.

a couple pictures I took tonight of my fruit garden

These are a few closeups of my garden.
I really like the look of my blueberry plant as its leafs are nice and red.

I picked up a sodium additive to put in the blueberry pot to help bring down the PH levels.

This should also do well in my Tangerine tree, and meyer lemon pot.

This helps the leafs growth and color as well as keep the PH acidic level where it needs to be.

This is my basjoo plant #1. If you can see in the middle there it's trying to grow another leaf. I'm very proud of this plant as it has been through a lot and continues to want to grow.

This is a close up of my blueberry plant. As you can see it wants to open up a couple more leafs. And this is only one spot. If it gets used it's pot soon I'm sure i'll be seeing several leafs sprouting soon.

This is another area where I am seeing the potential of growth.

 This shows a cluster of small leaf sprouts and the leafs changing from green to red. This is a very pretty plant.

This is my SDC banana plant #1. It grew a tall leaf, but I think it's cold as its refusing to open the leaf fully.  This is a after I misted it a little so you can see the droplets.

This is the upper part of the plant where the leaf would open, but it hasn't yet. I think this plant is getting cold.

 This is a the mid part of the soon to be open leaf. I'm hoping it unravels soon.

This is a close up of my SDC #2 plant. It's nice and healthy.

This is another picture of my tiny fig tree. I'm not sure but I think the little budding leaf has grown a little.
I don't expect this one to grow much more, but I think its doing well.

about my Banana plants! Video!

This is a video that gives you an intro on my banana plants.
I've had them a total of 3 weeks now.
My newest basjoo I"ve only had for one week now.

Enjoy, and feel free to respond/comment.

My New Top Hat - VIDEO

This is a quick intro to my Top Hat Blueberry Plant.

I will continue to provide updates on a weekly to monthly basis to show you how this plant grows.

Thanks!

I got my Top Hat Blueberry plant today!

I arrived home today and found my blueberry plant boxed up on my front step.
It was really wet and had some snow on it, so not good.

But the rain/snow had not gone through the box exterior as I found out when I opened it.

I potted it and put some soil, lots of peat moss and perlite.

The plant is very small, but the leaves do look healthy and have a fall color to them.

This pot is wider than the other pots I already have so it makes the plant look extra small.

From doing my research I have found that blueberry roots like to expand on all sides and not as much downward. This is why I made sure to give it enough room to grow well.

Here are a few pictures.

I will most likely make another video over the weekend and you'll be able to see this plant a little closer up as well.

It looks very healthy and I think it will do rather well in this large pot.

In the picture it was on the floor, but I have moved it to my table near the window.

my first video of my container garden!

I will be posting another one this weekend as I should have my blueberry plant by then.

Enjoy!

Final addition to my indoor garden

I purchased a Top Hat Blueberry plant as they are very hardy in various climates.
All it is a Dwarf variety and should add some nice aroma to my "green room".

It just shipped today so I should have it in by Friday or Saturday.

I'll have to find a pot for it.

If you're looking for a container type blueberry plant that will thrive indoors check out the Top Hat variety.

I ordered mine off of Amazon from the same company that I got my Super Dwarf Cavendish banana plants.

I trust that they will package it properly.

Basjoo plant #1 has opened its leaf

My first basjoo plant has opened its leaf and soon it will probably try to grow another one.
It is growing rather slowly still, but that's mostly because of the coldness of the season.

In any case it is still looking healthy.

Here's a pic I took yesterday.

I picked up an Aloe Vera plant...

I headed over to Home Depot yesterday to pick up another pot and found some very small Aloe Vera plants on sale.

I figured that for $3.00 it was worth trying one out.

I then put in a small pot and watered it (oops!) these don't need much water at all.

As you can see in the picture the leaf on the furthest right got a dark green and I think got damaged along the way.  Today it has toppled over so I think i'll just remove it.

I then potted this plant in a 10 inch pot so hopefully it grows its roots.

I'll make sure to water it once a week and a half.

My little indoor garden is growing!

I did some research on citrus trees as I really want to grow one. I had looked at one before, but it was about $30 and I ended up being trigger shy on purchasing it.

But I found some great information on another blog about this site:  www.directgardening.com
They are rated very highly and have a great assortment of plants, trees, etc to order and grow.

And on top of that the prices are very good.

They have tons of information on all they sell and have a vast variety as well.

I felt very confident ordering from them and ordered myself a Dwarf Tangerine tree.

I should be getting it in about 2 weeks.

I'm pretty excited as I hear they emit a wonderful fragrance and they should produce fruit in my first season.

I'll update again once I receive my small tree.

basjoo #2 arrived!!

I got home 20 minutes ago and my basjoo was waiting at my front door.
I opened the box and inspected the plant. It looked very healthy although a little damp as it was warm out today, but overall very green and healthy.I have potted it and placed it.

This plant should do well.
I will post a picture tonight.

Here is the pic. It has four healthy leafs on it and is a little taller than the first plant.

musa basjoo update

I took a picture yesterday of my basjoo. As I had mentioned earlier it had started growing a leaf. It has slowed down its process, but it does seem like the leaf is getting bigger, but really hasn't opened much more.

Take a look.

My new basjoo should be in tomorrow or Saturday. Hopefully it is healthy as well.
Already have a nice pot for it and a better soil mix.

Mini update.

My plants are doing very well.

Fig Tree : still small showing minimal growth, but I'm sure the roots are settling in nicely. I know it would love more sun, but its October in MA so it'll have to get what it can get.

Basjoo: Leafs are still looking green and its growing and almost unfolding a new leaf. I'll try to take a pic in the am to post, but still looking healthy.

Basjoo #2: Still has not shipped, but hopefully it will tomorrow. If it comes in good condition it should grow at the rate of my current one. I hope to get it by Monday latest.

Cavendish plant #1: Looking good and has its newest leaf almost fully open now. Wish it had a little more sun, but its still doing very well.

Cavendish plant #2: Opened up its leaf a couple days ago and its new stock is growing rapidly. Maybe by the weekend it will be ready to open its new leaf.

SDC plant update.. another leaf!

It's crazy but those two very sunny days we had really made a difference. My two Super Dwarf Cavendish plants are doing very well. My plant #2 has opened up a leaf and is growing its next stock.

Now a day after that one opened my plant #1 is getting ready to open it's own leaf.  I believe this one will give it 12 leaves!

The weather is starting to cool a bit, but the plants seem to be doing well in my sunroom.

Here is a picture of its newest leaf that its trying to open.

Now had it been nice and sunny today it may have opened, but it's been cloudy the last couple days.

Here is a peek on my plant #2 which just grew a leaf. The center stalk "new leaf" looks very healthy.

Improving soil for my plants

Today I headed over to home depot and bought a bag of perlite.
I learned that having more of it it would be able to retain water and also help drain water better through the pot. It would also help the roots 'breathe' a little better as well.

I bought a new pot as well and moved my small Hardy Chicago Fig plant into it as I hear they like to be in larger pots. When I took the plant out of its current pot I noticed that its roots had been growing rather well.

I plan on putting the basjoo in the slightly smaller pot when I get it in.  I don't expect it to grow much over the winter.

But, I do have a 5 gallon pot for the first plant to grow at a rapid rate.

I know eventually the basjoos and the fig tree will feel much better in a 5 gallon or larger pot once they get over 2 ft tall.

Nursed my basjoo back to health!!

I'm excited to say that I have somehow nursed my small damaged basjoo back to health.
I woke up this morning and noticed that it had a small growth in the middle and thought "its going to try to grow a leaf"!!

Here is a picture taken this morning and this afternoon.

The change in color and lighting is due to the fact that in the morning it was taken with natural sunlight and the second picture was with the overhead light on. But you can see that in about 10 hrs it grew a little.

I hope it continues to do well.

I was fortunate enough to be sent a second basjoo plant from the seller in case this one died as it was badly damaged.

I hope that one comes in better shape and thrives.  I went and bought another pot for the new plant and some Perlite as well.

update on Basjoo....

After a week or so of having my musa basjoo (banana plant) I decided to contact the seller and let them know it really wasn't looking good and wasn't recuperating from the its poor shipping conditions.

I shared some pictures with them and they agreed to send me a replacement.

I can't wait for this one to come in and am hoping it comes in better condition.

I hear that in a good environment they can grow rather quickly.

So I'll keep everyone posted on here when that plant arrives.

Chicago Fig Tree update 10/8/2011

My small fig tree is showing signs of life on its stems.
Also, I'm seeing a couple small buds perking up which I think will produce a couple more leafs.

It has not changed since yesterday, but I think the sun today is really going to do the plant well.

Here are a couple pics I took.

So as you can see the plant looks healthy. I'm sure the roots have grown in the last week and its starting to build up some strength. These two pictures show the small buds that are forming.

This is from behind the plant where the sun is hitting it. I just really liked this angle.

My Super Dwarf Cavendish Update 10/8/2011

Today was abnormally warm and I wanted to take my plants out on a field trip. So I set them up outside for  about three hours so they would have direct sunlight.

Honestly I think they liked it.

Here are a few pictures I took today as they were basking in the sun.

Plant #2 is growing well is about to open its new leaf.  A couple more sunny days and I'm sure it will open completely.

Sounds silly, but I really like this picture because the leafs are starting to get creases in them as true banana plants do. This all happened from yesterday to today. They seem to be pinching near the middle of the leaf and creating folds.  This is evident on both plants.

This is a close up of the new leaf that is about to open on plant #2.

They are really doing well and seem to like where I have placed them.

I also picked up a misting bottle, so when i'm not sure if they are thirsty or actually need it I am spraying them with a little water mist.

Update: 8/10/2011

This is that same leaf which opened last night.

Chicago Fig Tree, some growth!! 10/06/2011

I got home a little earlier tonight and found that my small fig plant had shown some growth. I had one small sprout there a few days ago and now I'm seeing that its' twice its size at about half an inch now.

And on the lower patch of leaves there is a small growth as well.

I hope it continues to grow as the weather should warm up a little the next couple days.

I'll try to add a picture in the morning.

update: 10/7/2011

So as you can see there are two areas of growth. I'm sure they are leaves trying to sprout.

If only I could get this plant more sun, but its too cold to put it outside. Yesterday it had more sun than usual so I'm sure that helped.  I have moved the plants to another part of the room near a big window which might catch more light throughout the day.

Here's hoping!

I'm glad to see that the Fig plant is feeling better and showing some growth.

Now to nurse back my small basjoo plant which still looks the same.

My plants update 10/6/2011

After doing more reading I found that my plants might need some more sun.
So I took the small end table I had been using and moved it closer to the screen door.  It is south east facing I believe and its big so by moving it closer I would assure more direct sunlight for a longer part of the day.

The temperature last night dropped to almost 40, but the plants are doing fine in the sunroom.

It was about 58 in there when I woke, but they had a lot of sun.

I took a couple pictures of my plants to share.

It think they will get at least an extra hour of direct sunlight here. That should help a lot.

In this picture I have my SDC #1 on the back left. Its leaf is almost fully open now.
SDC #2 is on the back right. You can see its trying to grow another leaf.
On the bottom left is my basjoo which is having transport shock as it wasn't packaged well. I cut off most of the really yellow leaf to see if it helps it.  But, it still has 3 leaves and they are not as bent as before. So to me it looks like its healing itself.  I don't think it was getting enough sun the last couple days so I hope this move helps it.
On the bottom right you see my hardy chicago fig tree. This one is still healthy, but has not grown at all.
This morning when I looked at the tallest stem I could see some green there so it quite possibly be getting ready to grow a leaf or branch, who knows.
I'll keep my eye on it. It was definitely not getting enough sun which is why I moved it with the others.

All my plants should be pretty happy going forward with more sun.

I'll post an update over the weekend.

Chicago Hardy Tree update 10/4/2011

My Chicago has not grown at all or shown signs of new growth at all.
But, after ready some forums on www.gardenweb.com I found that it could be due to the plant being in shock from the transport, getting used to the soil and also developing its roots further before growing upwards.

But, the plant is very healthy and should show signs of growth by the weekend I believe.

I'll post again over the weekend.

Update 10/4/2011 of my banana plants...

All three of my plants are doing well so far. The weather has dipped a little and it's been raining a lot, but they are still doing well in my sunroom.

My #2 plant is still growing at a faster rate than my #1 plant as its getting ready to open a new leaf.
My #1 plant is still trying to fully open its new leaf. I think it just needs another couple hours of full sun. But, that's ok I know it's trying.

My basjoo tree has not changed much at all, but that's expected as I just got it in yesterday. I'm sure its still in some shock from the trip and being repotted.

Here are some pictures.

This is my plant #2. Getting ready to open up another leaf. That will give it 9 leafs once it opens.

This is my plant #1. The leaf is almost fully open now, but not quite. Hopefully one more day.

And this is my basjoo! As you can see the leaves are very different. Even though that one leaf is very yellow it might still do ok. Also you can see the main stem is different to the SDC stem as this one looks more like a tree and is much thinner and taller.  This one is planted in a 8 inch pot and the other two are planted in 10 inch pots.

Also, after reading some more online today I found that I was giving the plants too much food. So I will cut back to once every other week until it gets really cold.

All in all I'm happy with the results and they are all very healthy.

Bananas.org 5 STARS!!

I have been inspired and also learned a lot from this Forum community.
There is banana species info, care, history, photos, forums, q&a, and some great information.

I even found some other people on there from New England who had great success with some of their banana plants.

Also, in addition to that people actually check and answer your post.

I've been on other forums before and once you introduce yourself you get lost in the shuffle or they say go read other posts.

In this one people are good about replying, sharing experiences, knowledge and even pictures if you ask.

It looks like some of these people have been part of the forum for years and trade/sell/give banana plants to each other.

Also, the forum is very well laid out so its easy to find things and each topic/thread/category is very easy to get to.

It also keeps track of all the pages you have been following and replying to.  And you can set it to alert you if someone posted after you.

It is easy to become a banana addict from being part of this forum and I can see how you can spend a few months and find yourself with four or five kinds of trees.

Great, great site!

Hardy Chicago Fig Tree 10/1/2011

My small fig tree hasn't really grown at all, but the leafs look healthy and I'm sure its just getting accustomed to the new weather here.

I just replanted it into a slightly larger pot.

It has a couple tiny buds growing, so I'm guessing more leaves, but no noticeable change so far.

Here is a pic.

SDC plant #2 10/1/2011

My second SDC plant is doing well.
It already grow a leaf yesterday and the pseudostem has already grown about two inches in a day.

This plant seems to be growing a little faster. No idea why, but it must have done better during shipping as it seems to be stronger. Also, I think it's getting a little more light than the other plant.

In any case at this rate it should grow another leaf by mid week perhaps.

Here is an update picture after it grew a leaf.

Hard to see from the picture, but the leaf to the right of the stem is the new leaf it just grew. If this stem grows another 4 inches it might just be ready to put out another leaf. I'll keep an eye on it.

SDC plant #1 10/1/2011

My first SDC plant is still trying to grow out its leaf. Yesterday afternoon and today have been raining so it hasn't gotten tons of sun light. But I think by tomorrow it will open up completely.

Here are a couple pics.

The good thing is that overall it does seem to be healthy and enjoying its soil/pot.

I took those pictures this morning and I think now its a little more open.  I'll take a picture tonight or tomorrow morning if there is a big change.