Growing durian tree in a pot

When I mentioned to my friends or family about growing durian tree at my balcony, they said that I'm crazy. This is because they had never seen a dwarf durian tree before. Well, I have not seen one either and only saw dwarf durian trees in YouTube videos.

We went to eat at Ah Seng Durian store and packed some Bayou （肉油）durians back home.

I managed to save three Bayou durian seeds and placed them onto moist sphagnum moss. The seeds will germinate within a couple of days.

Bayou Durian Seed germinated

After the seeds had germinated, I buried them into the potting soil in a pot. After a couple of months, I transferred the seedlings into bigger pots.

8-month old durian seedling

The only thing that I need now is a scion from a mature, fruiting durian tree. I can graft the scion onto my durian seedling.

Growing grapevine from seeds in Singapore

Recenlty, I bought some "red/purple" grapes from the supermarket. They were quite large and round, and had many seeds. It was annoying to eat grapes with seeds and more so when they were large.

However, the grapes were quite sweet and juicy. I took the seeds and just buried them in the pot of soil. I had forgotten about them and thought that they would never germinate. I was wronged. They did germinate after a couple of days. I was surprised and quickly transferred them to another pot. The seeds were buried in a pot with watermelon cuttings because I thought that the seeds would never germinate.

I already have three green grapevines already which I bought from World Farm. They were with me for a year already but there is no sign of flowering. I think there is something wrong with the soil or missing nutrients. I need to do more research on this.

I didn't expect the grape seeds to germinate in Singapore's climate. I hope that the seedlings will grow well and develop into vines. Recently, my balcony's garden has been infested with spider mites. My watermelon plants have leaves with spider mites. I didn't notice them until the leaves started to dry up due to the spider mites sucking on the leaves. They are very tiny and can be found under the leaves. I didn't want to use any chemical, so I used a stiff brush to manual brush them away.

Grape Seedlings

African Avocado

I saw the local supermarket selling these little small avocados from Africa. I had planted avocados from New Zealand but not from Africa. These avocados are smaller than the New Zealand or Australia. I left them for one day and the inside was already blackened. I think the avocados were damaged during transportation. They were selling at $3.95 for 3 avocados. The ones from Australia Avanza were bigger and at the same price. I took one from Australia and two from Africa. The idea is to grow a variety of avocados from different regions. Currently, I have 4 avocado plants from Avanza New Zealand and one Sunfresh Australia still in the water. The two African avocado pits are in the water now and next will be the Avanza Australia pit.

So, now, assuming all pits can grow into seedlings, I will have 8 avocado plants.

African Avocado Pit

After the toothpicks are inserted into the pit (but not too deep, I say, maybe 2 to 3mm into the pit), you need to make sure that the small bump area at the bottom is in the water and not the other way round. The top part should be round and without any bump. You can see a parting line around the pit dividing the avocado pit into half. When inserting the toothpicks, try to avoid this line. After two weeks or so, the pit will split along this line and root will emerge at the bump area in the water. When the root is about 1 inch long, a shoot may grow from the top. Change the water every 3 days or so. Sometimes, I change the water after one week. Place it near a place where it can get some indirect sunlight. 

Avocado pit in water

New buds appeared on third avocado plant after second pruning

Two weeks after I pruned my third avocado plant, new buds appeared on the branches. This was the second time that I had pruned this plant.

New buds appearing

I have placed this near my window where it catches the late afternoon sun indirectly. I noticed some leaves have bent inwards. The browning of the leaf tip has stopped. It didn't become worsed because I had performed water draining every month. This helps to remove the salt accumulation.

The plant on the third week of pruning.

Growing bigger each day

New growths have emerged. Hopefully these can develop into new branches and make the plant short and bushy.

Planting avocado seedling - My 4th and 5th avocado plants

Following my posts in this blog and SG My Garden Is Good blog, you can tell when the avocado seedlings need to be planted into the soil. But I have seen in the internet that people use just water and the plants grow quite well.

The first avocado seedling that I have planted last year did not make it because I have missed the time to plant it. But wait, maybe it is because I have planted it in the soil that makes it worse and it becomes very small. Or maybe I have planted it into a recycle bottle instead of a proper pot. There are many reasons why the first avocado seedling did not survive. So, lessons learnt. Now I plant my seedlings into proper pots and plant them when they have at least 5 leaves and ready for pruning. However, I don't prune them until they are planted into the soil for a couple of weeks or so.

It is Chinese New Year now and noticed that the second day of Chinese New Year is a good day to plant my 4th and 5th avocado plants. I do not want to wait further because the seedlings may miss the time for planting (that was what I thought).

When I planted my 4th and 5th seedlings, I realized that the 2nd and 3rd seedlings have leaves that turned brown at the tip. I was shocked and quickly googled and found the reason for this. Well, again it could be due to few reasons. The browning of the leaf tip may be due to salt accumulation and under watering. I noticed that for a few times, I had used water directly from the tap without letting the water staged overnight. Could it be due to the Chlorine in the water? I'm not sure and now, I let the water staged overnight or at least for a few hours before I water the plant.

Leaf tip turning brown

Yesterday, I poured 1.5litres of water into the pots for 2nd and 3rd seedlings. I let the water ran out of the pots and waited till no drop came out from the bottom of the pots. I was trying to flush out the salts accumulated in the soil and hopefully this would remove them. I will monitor for a few weeks to see whether this will improve the leaves browning situation. I will water the plant every two days and to make sure that excess water drips out from the bottom and not to let any water stays in the bottom tray.

After two weeks, I will update whether this method works. Stay tuned!

Pruning avocado seedling to keep it dwarf

I planted the avocado seedling on 1 January 2015. After 10 days, I think it is time to prune the seedling. The third avocado seedling had seven leaves and I thought I would leave only 3 leaves after pruning. However, I did not want to over-prune it so I just cut away the top 2 leaves.

Third seedling

I used a sharp penknife and cut at an angle to remove the top two leaves. In the internet, some people recommended not to use a pair of scissors because the cut would not be clean. Most recommended a razor blade or sharp knife. The cut area will be able to heal faster and less likely to get an infection.

Sharp penknife to cut the stem at an angle

The cut area is clean and there is no juice or sap coming out from the cut area. I did not clean the area. I hope this is the correct way and will monitor the health of the seedling for the next few weeks. If everything goes well, new buds will appear at the base of the leaves and new branches will grow from there. Some people recommended to remove the small leaves along the straight stem. I'm not sure about this so I just keep them.

The cut area of the seedling

I will update this in SG My Garden Is Good blog. Come and visit the blog to see the progress of the seedling. I will also show the pruning photos of the second avocado seedling.

Growing avocado in Singapore - Transfer to pot

Growing avocado in Singapore! It may take a long time before it can bear any fruit or not at all. However, there is nothing to do except some time wasted but at least I try…

I cannot remember when I started to put the avocado in the water. I guessed it was in August 2014, about the same time when I started to sow the strawberry seeds. Well, after 3 months or so, I think the avocado seedling is ready to be planted into a pot. I used up the pot for my pineapple, so I guess I will use recycle plastic bottle for this until I can find a better pot.

Avocado seedling in water

I have about 5 leaves on the avocado seedling but two leaves started to turn brown and I trimmed them away. I think since the leaves started turn brown, I better plant it into soil medium instead of water.

Roots of the avocado seedling in water

Roots of avocado seedling out of water

I used a plastic bottle and cut it into halves. Made a few holes in the cap and re-cap it. Turned the top half upside down and placed it onto the bottom half. That way, the excess water can be drained into the bottom half.

I kept the toothpicks to secure the seedling into place (centre) and then poured the soil into the container.

Toothpicks can be used to secure the seedling

After putting the soil into the container, I removed the toothpicks carefully. At this stage, the seedling is very delicate and can be harmed by excessive forces. Tried to twist the toothpick and held onto the seed and pull out the toothpick carefully. Do not cover the crown of the avocado seedling. Kept half of it above the soil level.

Half of the crown is exposed. Do not cover the seed.

Avocado seedling planted on 30 Nov 2014!

So today, 24 November 2014, an avocado seedling has been planted. I will update the growth next time… 6 years to go before it can bear fruit… meanwhile I will need to prune the seedling so that it will not grown into a tall tree...