jamaicanmango

[jamaicanmango]

All the boxes with callaloo in them look like this, which is good because we'll probably end up losing a lot of the seeds I collected a little while ago (been feeling like shit and haven't gotten around to doing anything about them), and if this callaloo farming thing ends up happening we'll need all the seedlings we can get. It's gonna be a bitch to transplant all these, though. 🤔😮‍💨

[jamaicanmango]

Last apple seedling confirmed dead. Pretty much everything after the ones that last made it into their own cups has died. And in a good few cases, the roots seem to be the part that died first. I've been thinking (for a little while now) that seeds from fresher apples do better. It might explain why seeds from the apples we get here don't do much. Maybe I'll try something with the dried seeds I have and see what happens.

These guys all died too 😕

[jamaicanmango]

Was checking to see where I could cut when I discovered...

Flowers!!

Did not find any I'd say were ready to cut though. So it stays intact for a little longer.

Took this video to send to my brother. The spider plant's doing really well, I think my mom would be glad to see it. We had just figured out it does better with regular water and less direct sunlight when she got sick and then the plants weren't a big priority with everything else happening.

Think I'm gonna set one of the babies in a cup for him too. He'll probably like it and shouldn't have too much difficulty keeping it alive. 🤔

[jamaicanmango]

Took this video to send to my brother. The spider plant's doing really well, I think my mom would be glad to see it. We had just figured out it does better with regular water and less direct sunlight when she got sick and then the plants weren't a big priority with everything else happening.

Think I'm gonna set one of the babies in a cup for him too. He'll probably like it and shouldn't have too much difficulty keeping it alive. 🤔

[jamaicanmango]

Pastor's tomatoes coming up! Between these and the salad tomato seedlings that are also coming up we should be good for tomatoes again. After I get the red bug problem under control, that is 😮‍💨

In other news, that one guy kinda off by themself to the right is one of the ram goat scotch bonnet peppers. This is the first seedling I've gotten from at least 30-40 seeds planted. We had to pull up all the trees earlier in the year when the whiteflies left us no choice, so when I couldn't get a single seed to sprout I was very worried. Gonna set a bunch more soon so I'll hopefully be able to get more than one plant... Yeah, I think I'll set most or all of what I have and save a bunch of seeds from those. 🤔

[jamaicanmango]

How to Save Garden Seeds Seed-saving opens up a whole new realm of self-reliance and reduction of inputs in gardening and farming. Coupled with a dialed-in germination and seedling system for production, seed-saving can reduce garden costs and inputs incredibly. Simultaneously, it can give you seeds which are better-adapted to your specific region and even your microclimate through generations of harvesting from the healthiest plants. Once you learn soil-building techniques and practice water conservation, seeds & starts are one of the remaining large costs which gardeners and farmer can strive to eliminate through seed-saving. Before we jump into how to save garden seeds, let’s talk about the common ways in which plants are pollinated and how that affects seeds and seed-saving efforts… Self-Pollination vs. Cross-Pollination Self-pollination is an adaptation which allows plants to reproduce even without the presence of more plants of their species. It is a form of asexual reproduction […]

[jamaicanmango]

I need the chair to comb my hair (rhyme!) but there's stuff on it... 😕

[jamaicanmango]

Couple of fern spores got in with the pineapple while they were on the windowsill together, so now I have this fun little arrangement. I'm kind of worried this might use too much of the limited resources available in the cup but I really like how it looks. I'm gonna wait a little longer before doing anything about it. 🤔

(another shitty picture, just pretend this looks about 10x nicer than it does 👍🏾)

[jamaicanmango]

I guess she really liked the chicken manure and semi-regular water! Think I'm gonna snip the tiny one off and put it in my room. 🤔

[jamaicanmango]

Keeping these here till I can sort out more permanent accommodations for them. I only kept them in a little water for one day, after what happened with the last batch of seeds I don't want to leave them in water any longer than really necessary.

Once I start feeling a bit better I need to find pots for the second set of seedlings and move them, they stopped growing new leaves a little while ago.

[jamaicanmango]

[jamaicanmango]

Really didn't expect the melons to stretch this much right off the bat. Will have to do... something about this soon.

[jamaicanmango]

Uncle and his friend stopped by earlier and I guess my dad was showing off the apples to them because when I came down the friend was asking how I managed to get them to grow and saying that he'd even tried to do it a couple times without success.

When they left he asked me to set one for him too. I could've given him one of three that I have in cups in my room but my dad didn't like that idea. 😄 So I'll probably just put the newest one that I have coming up into a cup for the next time I see him. He and my uncle have a background in agricultural science so I think he'd be able to do a decent job with it, and he might be able to share some useful observations. 🤔

That aside, it was just really gratifying to see other people thinking this might be a useful thing to do? With how difficult this all promises to be and how many times I've already thought of giving up and focusing on more reliable plants, it was much needed flex.

The spray-squish combo seemed to work really well on the apples, by the way. I haven't seen anymore of the aphids and stuff since doing it. A few of the leaves still have/got the brown spots, but they seem to be less aggressive since I started watering them less.

I've got other stuff to post updates about too but I'll save them for a separate post.

[jamaicanmango]

She has spots! And one tiny root that's already out!

I know she's gonna be glad to go in the dirt outside because then I won't be constantly picking her up to look at her.

I'm just compelled to keep checking. Almost like I didn't even do this a few years ago and am completely unfamiliar with what will happen over the next several days.

Circa March 2021. I don't remember how this one died. 🤔

[jamaicanmango]

[jamaicanmango]

Been raining on and off since last night so I'll probably have to spray the plants again on I'm sure it's stopped. 😕

[jamaicanmango]

I'm searching my camera roll now, at 10:53 pm and realising that I didn't take a picture of the mixture once I diluted it and got it ready to go in the spray-er. It's not a big deal though. All that matters is that I got about a gallon of the solution and sprayed all the tomatoes (hybrid and heirloom), peppers (sweet and hot), and apples (in the pots).

The "insecticidal soap" is supposed to be good against whiteflies as well as leaf-footed bugs (and a few other things); and some whitefly control is always welcome with the two nightshades.

One of the apples got a lot of aphids on it, and another had a few starting to settle in - so I sprayed all 3.

Then I came back later and squished a bunch of them with my fingers because I wasn't sure if the spray was actually doing anything to them. (I sometimes employ a similar method with whiteflies on the tomatoes and peppers.) Then I sprayed them again.

While spraying I also pruned most of the hybrid tomatoes. Hopefully with the spray and the pruning and some regular water, the plants will come back and we'll have tomatoes again soon.

I also set a bunch of lettuce seeds I harvested from an old plant to sprout in one of the beds outside. I forget how long lettuce takes but hopefully everyone can enjoy some homegrown lettuce again at some point this summer.

Collected the seeds from this ☝🏾 I'll get some pictures of some live ones tomorrow. There's a bunch of lettuce that never got harvested (they just never got to a decent size, probably underwatering) and they're all at various stages of flowering. Which is great because I still need to collect some seeds for the hoard.

The hoard.

Finally, my mom's spider plant has become a parent as well! It's been doing really well since I brought it here. Some semi-regular water and I'm well on my way to having a baby spider plant to bring into my room too.

June 10, 2025

Making this recipe for insecticidal soap I found. The leaf-footed bugs wiped out the hybrid crop completely and have moved on to the fancier tomatoes. We're basically out of tomatoes now so I have to do something.

I'm a little woried about how this mixture is supposed to work though. 🤔

The culprit.