First Taste of Mulberries

Today I checked on the mulberry tree and noticed the mulberries are turning red. Some of them have already turned dark purple.  Since the branches are skinny, I was able to just pull them down and pick the berries. They are smaller than I expected but tasted good. I am sure Cracus would eat them off the ground when they fall off on their own. I will need to check on them on a daily basis from here on.

The passion vine is blooming and little passion fruits are forming.

It's Almost Harvest Time

Japanese Cucumbers 

Back in May I planted some Japanese cucumbers, passionfruit, and Peruvian Gooseberries. They have been growing vigorously in the last 3 months. The cucumbers had a lot of flowers. I used a little brush to help with pollination between female and male flowers. Unfortunately, most of the baby cucumbers just dried up except the 2 in the photo above.  I am letting them grow a little bit before cutting them off.

I also propagated a small cutting that already rooted from our previous location in El Cerrito. In 3 months, it branched out to all directions and bloomed its first flower.  It's getting a bit late in the summer, so it might not have any fruit this year.  If the flower successfully grows into a fruit, it will not be ripe until late winter. Next year, it shall have a lot of passion fruit as the vines continue to grow through the winter.

Passion Fruit

I also propagated a bunch of Peruvian gooseberry cuttings. All of them died off except one. It went from the tiny plant to a good sized bush with a bunch of little berries hanging. The husks on a couple of the berries are starting to dry up. Soon they will be ready for picking or fall off on their own. I also found an accidental Peruvian gooseberry plant growing next to the passion fruit vine (see the photo above in red circled area).  I was worried that the Passion Fruit would takeover, but it has been growing slowly and steadily. It looks like it will continue to grow bigger. I guess there must had been a seed that got mixed in the soil when I propagated over the passion fruit vine.  I love this kind of surprise!

Peruvian Gooseberries

Freezing Cold!

2016 has been an unusual year in many ways. Weatherwise we had a lot more rain than the past years. According to SFgate.com, in October this year we had 200-300 times more rain than the typical October average!  This December has also been very cold. The temperature has dropped to low 30's Fahrenheit in the Bay Area for this entire week.

My immediate concerns are the plants particularly the young mulberry tree and the passion fruit vine. I can't bring them inside at night. All I can do is cover them up and hope for the best.  On the first night the temperature dropped to the 30's, the top tip of mulberry tree got frost damage despite being covered up in a big plastic bag. The passion fruit is holding up better.  I have not seen any damage to it.  On the second freezing night, I covered the mulberry tree with 2 big plastic bags to make sure all parts were covered.

Unfortunately this morning I found the bags being blown away from the tree!  It was freezing and crazy windy last night! The wind had completely blown the bags away from the tree despite all the rocks I used as weights on the bags. Some of the leaves on the tree are turning black. That is not a good sign. I can't wait for this cold temperature to pass. The yard is now a complete mess with mud and covered in fallen leaves and overgrown weeds.

Passion Fruit Propagated!

passion fruit next to mulberry tree

While visiting the old Sand Village Farm last week, I dug up one of rooted cuttings of passion fruit in the rain. I put it in a small temporary blue container before I could find the time to plant it outside. Remember the 4" dwarf mulberry tree I ordered last year around this time?  Well, it's about 4 feet tall now.  I put the passion fruit cutting next to it for comparison. I am sure by spring the mulberry tree would be at least as tall as I am. I can't wait to have fresh mulberries right in my backyard!

Cracus always wants to help

I picked a spot that is sunny for the passion fruit. It's next to the kiwi vines. Since the passion fruit is still so small, I needed to put something around it to protect it from the pups. They don't bother plants much, but occasionally one of the pups would just decide to attack a random plant. Since the mulberry tree no longer needs extra protection, I moved the wire plant protector over to the passion fruit. As you can see, Cracus was very curious about this new addition to the garden. He kept sniffing and circling it. It was about 9:30, and everything was still wet outside from the morning dew. His paws and tummy got quite muddy from stepping all over the damp soil.  By the time I was done, I could not let him back in the house without a bath.  Bath time will be the next topic.

Cracus proudly posing with the newly planted passion fruit

Passion Fruit Vines Reach the Roof

Over the weekend, Cracus and I returned to the old Sand Village Farm to check on the plants. Take a look at the passion fruit vines!  This is basically just one plant as you can see in the photo. It's now covered the entire arbor and reached the roof. Remember when I first blogged about it back in 2011 when it had its first flower?  There are fruits hanging down everywhere now. I like to pick the ones that are ripe, so usually they already fall on the ground. Those are the sweetest. They are dark purple. If you touch them while they are still attached to the vines, and they come right off, that means they are ripe. If you have to twist or pull them, then just wait for a few more days.

Cracus was so excited to be there. He ran around like a mad dog. He is always so enthusiastic about everything and every place he visits even though he has been there many times.  I just walked around and picked up all the passion fruit on the ground.  There were more than 20 of them. I can't wait to propagate some over to the new location. People need to know about this delicious fruit that has ten amazing health benefits. It's high in vitamin A and C, both are strong antioxidants. It's also high in fiber. A full list is available here on the fitness wiki page. However, I love it because it smells amazing and tastes so good. It always reminds me of my grandfather, who shared them with me when I was a toddler.

Even More Passion Fruit!

Another year has gone by and now the entire arbor is almost covered by passion fruit vines. Some of them have extended to the top. This was what I had hoped for. Even though I have moved to a smaller location, the original Sand Village Farm is now occupied by my parents, so I still get to go pick all the passion fruit I can ever eat. I thought of propagating some to my little backyard, but there is no reason to grow the same fruit. My kiwi vines will need a few more years to reach maturity to produce fruit.

In the meantime, I am thinking of growing a couple dwarf fruit trees. Perhaps a mullberry tree and some gooseberries. I will be working on my little backyard garden in the upcoming months.

The wrinkled ones are the sweetest!

Abundance of Passion Fruit

For the very first time, I have so many passion fruit that I am able to give bags away to friends, neighbors, relatives, and co-workers. I can have several passion fruit everyday for months. It's end of September, and the vines are still full of fruit, and more fruit is forming from recent bloom of flowers!

When I give them to people, the first question is always, "What is that?" with a puzzled look. Even though passion fruit juice is sold in every grocery store and Jamba Juice, few people around here have seen passion fruit in its natural form. Once I tell them, they are amazed. They want to know where I got them. When I tell them that I grow them, they are even more amazed.

Since all the fruit is coming from just one passionfruit plant, I figured it is time to propagate it.  I have promised to give baby passionfruit vines to a few friends. Today is overcast and drizzling. It is the perfect condition to make some cuttings. I found a spot in one of the vegetable beds to place my tray and stuck a bunch of cuttings in it. I think I got the original cuttings from a friend back in summer 2009 or 2010.  It took about 5 years to get a full harvest. My next challenge will be growing golden kiwi along side of passion fruit. I don't know anybody who has a golden kiwi vine, so I probably need to order my first plant online.

Spring Break 2014

Passion fruit vines are spreading fast and so does the fennel

I have not been spending much time on the farm due to my full time + job. Most of the vegetable beds I built have been taken over by weeds. Fennel is considered a weed in my garden. It's constantly competing water and nutrients with my passion fruit and grape!  Yes, under that bushy fennel plant (see photo above), there is a Concord grape plant.  Every time I try to cut off the fennel, I accidentally cut the grape, too.  It happened again today even though I was trying to be very careful.  I ended up using a piece of tape trying to save the mostly damaged grape plant. We will see if it survives again this year.

Lots of fruit and flowers

A week ago, I noticed some partially eaten loquats on the ground. I looked up the tree, and to my surprise, it is full of baby loquats for the very first time. I don't remember exactly when this tree was planted, but it has to be at least 15 years ago. It produced very little fruits year after year, and usually the fruits would be so high up and almost impossible to reach. This time the fruits are everywhere including all the lower branches that are just within arm's reach!

Can you see all the baby loquats?

The tree is full of baby loquats for the first time

The peach tree is once again growing peaches. I spent a couple hours pulling weeds and checking out all my fruit bearing plants. The weather is starting to feel like summer.  

Baby peaches

Freeze Warning Tonight

You know that I have been worried about the survival of my passion fruit during the winter. Although it's always sunny during the day, it's been really cold at night. However, I haven't seen frost so far in the morning. I covered the passion fruit a few times with plastic sheets and bags during the night but haven't done that lately. Now we got freeze warning for tonight, so I put on my headlamp and went outside to cover up every single inch of the passion fruit vines.

Last passion fruit from last year

Before I started covering up the vines, I picked the last passion fruit from last summer. We really didn't have much of a summer last year, and the passion fruits took about 6 months to ripen. I savored the last passion fruit slowly since I might not get more next summer. The leaves that are on the outside of the arbor are looking significantly worse than the ones inside of the arbor. They are green-yellow and some of them have crumbled up and died (see photo above).

The greener side with much new growth

The greener side that's inside of the arbor has a lot of new growth even though it's growing very slowly. If we had a normal hot summer, the arbor would have been covered up by passion fruit vines.

All covered up

I have never bothered to cover up any plants in the past. I figured if anything died, I could just grow it again. Since I spent almost 2 years nurturing the passion fruit cuttings inside of the green house, I will try my best not to let it die from the cold. I had 5 passion fruits last summer. I hope that I will have an arbor covered with passion fruits next summer so that I can share them with everyone I know.

All covered up

Sharing My First Passion Fruit

Ready to eat my first passion fruit

A friend of mine came by the other day to visit. As we sipped on our coffee talking about the upcoming holidays, she asked me how my lilikoi was doing. She lived in Hawaii for many years before moving to El Cerrito, so we both love and miss tropical fruits. I told her that I have quite a few fruits but they didn't seem to be ready yet. My passion vines started to bloom in June, and I discovered the fruits in early July. It is now November. I started to wonder whether they would ever be ripe.

We stepped out to the farm, and I lifted up the green bean vines over the passion fruit vines to show her the hanging fruits. One of the dark purple ones fell on the ground as I was pulling the vines. Since it was dark purple, perhaps it was ready although I thought it had to be wrinkly. I picked it up, and we went inside to cut it open. As I cut the smooth hard purple shell open, we immediately smelled the distinctive fragrance of passion fruit. Both of us cheered in excitement and took our cameras out to record this historical moment. We were both amazed that we could a fresh passion fruit right here in El Cerrito in the middle of November.

It took me two years to grow the cuttings indoors until they established roots. I planted them outside in November 2010. A year later, I have fruits. If it survives the winter, I am sure I'll have a lot more fruits next summer. My friend looked at the passion fruit with envy. I handed her a spoon and half of the fruit. "Let's try it!" I said.

It was sweet, and both of us savored it with fond memories. Passion fruit always reminds me of sharing them with my grandfather when I was a kid back in Taiwan. My memory of passion fruit was bigger. I am not sure whether they were bigger in the subtropical climate or perhaps everything looked bigger to a 5-year-old.

Passion

The only one cherry

On April 4th, I discovered one successfully grafted cherry scion; unfortunately, that section ended up dying. To my surprise, I discovered another success on the opposite side of the tree! This one has actually grew a couple new branches and one single cherry!

For weeks, I watched the cherry in fear that any second it would be taken by a bird or a squirrel. Although it was not completely ripe, I ended up picking it and ate it. Next year, this grafted new section should grow more cherries.

The tape on the right is where the scion was grafted on

I also discovered a passion flora in full bloom on June 16th. Today, I was surprised to see two passion fruits growing at where two flowers were previously. I can't believe that I didn't notice them before. It's starting to look like I will have a few passion fruits this year since the vine is full of flower buds.

Tomatoes and Passiflora

It finally felt like summer for the last two days. I spent 3 hours this morning clearing out some weeds and planting some strawberries. I checked on all of my tomato plants and finally spotted a few baby tomatoes!!! I planted all of my extra tomato seedlings that have been sitting on the propagation table for the past month. When it starts to get really hot, the tomatoes should start coming in rapidly. I hope.

The big surprise is the passion fruit flower! I got a few passion fruit cuttings more than a year ago from my friend's overgrown passion vines in Oakland.  His vines produced tons of passion fruits that year. It took months for my cuttings to start growing roots. I have much sentimental memories of eating fresh passion fruit in the tropics as a kid, so I was willing to do whatever I needed to nurse these cuttings. They stayed in the campus green house for months before I took them home and kept them in my green house. I even took them back to the school's green house when I was out of town.  Last November I decided they were big enough to be transplanted outside next to the new arbor. They grew very slowly in the cool temperature of El Cerrito. For a while they didn't seem to be getting any bigger at all. This morning I was shocked to see this one flower in full bloom (pictured below). There are several more flower buds.