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Monday 17 June 2013

Tenacity and patience required!




I love growing herbs even though i do not use it frequently. But growing herbs/plant that originates from temperate region is very trying. 

               
Greek oregano 5 months from sowing
Greek Oregano
It took so long to germinate, almost one month. The seeds are very small hence the newly germinated seedling is barely visible, not to mention at first leaf stage it look like  weeds. But to top it all, the germination rate is very low. I sow half of seed packet (hundreds of seeds) and only 5 germinate. Only 1 out of 5 seedlings make it, the other 4 died of drowning (my sis watering the minute size seedlings instead of misting it lightly) and powdery mildew. But looking at this sole survivor, make all my effort worthwhile. I’ll propagate the rest from cutting.

Fernleaf dill, 3 months from sowing

Germination rate is also very poor but definitely better than oregano at almost 50%. Dill is very hardy; once it germinates it is not easily killed. But i have other problem; house sparrow will pull it out to build its nest (i use wire mesh to save this one's life). So i only left with an only seedling that is still growing. I do not know whether dill like to be under full sun or shade. The information that i get in the internet are all about growing Mediterranean herbs/plants in temperate country not in blazing hot tropic!  So i keep moving it from one spot to another until i saw it was perking up since last 2 weeks. Finally i knew 2 hours of morning sun is all it needs to maintain its vigour in the tropic.
                                 
                                  

Chives
This one takes a trophy for poor germination. First 50 seeds that i bought from Kebun Bahagia Bersama never germinate.  Another packet was bought from USA, i sow 150 seeds, and only one germinates. 
 
So, for those who want to grow temperate herbs in the tropics, other than seed you need a patient of a saint and a tenacity of bulldog.
 



6 comments:

  1. So difficult to sow chives. I failed with the whole packet from KBB too.

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  2. do not put your expectation too high then you will be less dissapointed. Seeds from temperate region are programmed by nature to germinate once the temperature rise, but our temperature is always high.

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  3. mine was lucky with herbs..sbb highland sjuk kot..

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    1. Fh tu dah mcm late spring, mmglah herb tu suka:-)) Mcm hidup kat negara sendiri je!

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  4. Chives...aaahhh...have tried n failed...n tried n failed... errrmmm gardener i notice u r also planting lilies...o is it a lily...??? well...u r a miracle worker n i envy u... i bought some daylily bulbs in d past...but knowing that lilies need d cold to initiate flowering...i passed d bulbs to a friend in d US....meaning they didnt even reach malaysia...!! n ..errmmm how i envy KBB lilies...she is another miracle worker...!!

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    Replies
    1. It is no miracles, trust me. What you need is to sow the seeds at a right time. That is the only chives that germinate out of 300+ seeds. Daylily will be happy here but will not flower; I have a pot full of it. Yes, I experiment with lilies too, but since the bulbs comes from north hemisphere, by the time it reach our shore it is hot season already (whereby it is their dormant period hence it sulks). Yes, lily is happy in KBB because the bulb comes from southern hemisphere, their spring coincide with our rainy/ colder weather.

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