The first two petola / luffa

Luffa / Petola is a quick plant. Roselle, bittergourd, winged beans, corns and a few others were sown about the same time, early November 2010.   By Tuesday, December 21, 2010 luffa/ petola were still learning how to climb higher by grabbing at anything in sight using tender tendrils ( vegetables on raised bed ) . By Tuesday, December 28, 2010 ( Six petola / luffa were taking turns flowering  ) tiny fruits then appeared almost everywhere so to speak.

I am not very lavish with fertiliser these days. The plants feed on whatever organic matter (fertiliser) that has been thoroughly mixed with the soil before they were planted. Occasionally I will spray them with organic liquid fertiliser.

Now  Luffa / Petola is offering us the first harvest, all within two months. We cut two big ones.... I took quite a number of pictures on these two because the texture of luffa / petola is an art in itself...

luffa / petola 
picture1

luffa / petola 
picture 2

luffa / petola
picture 3

luffa / petola 
picture 4

luffa / petola 
picture 5

 luffa / petola sliced 
picture 1

 luffa / petola sliced 
picture 2

Kakdah decided to use the bigger one for her simple vegetable soup. Slices of onion and  cili padi, a tea spoon of dried shrimps and a pinch of salt  were added to bring up the taste.

bangchik and kakdah

hasil petola di kebun sayur tanah merah

Kelantan

Blooming Friday

Year 2010 is divided into two phases, before Putrajaya and after Putrajaya. Putrajaya has been our home for almost three years. With 2 months left in year 2010 I have to say goodbye to Putrajaya, and slowly get my hands and feet into Tanah Merah, Kelantan. The obsession with gardening never fades....

Basil has been very central to our container gardening, quietly letting out  slightly purplish   little flowers and puts up pagoda like structure reaching for the sky. The leaves had gone into Kakdah's menu for aromatic taste many times.

The plant goes by many names; bunga bakawali in Malaysia, wijaya kusuma in Indonesia, Queen of the night, Night-blooming Cereus, Dutchman's Pipe, Gul-e-Bakavali  in Hindi, Kadupul in Sinhala. Bunga Bakawali is in fact a cactus. It has been with us since April 2010. Now the plant is letting a bud..., and God knows when it is going to open. It has been reported that the blooming stage starts off around 9.00pm, fully opens around midnight and closes around 3.00am. It opens only for one night. The famous Arabian Nights mentioned about the Rose of Bakawali, There is mystic behind this flower at least in this part of the world. I am not going to miss the rare and one-night-only-bloom.

 

Oxalis Triangularis:  The plant never stop flowering. Now that the weather is so wet, the flowers stay closed and heavy.

The slight purplish colour is so pleasing.

 luffa offers nocturnal insects nectar
in return for pollination for future generation.

 On the other hand bittergourd
prefers daylight to display it's yellow five petaled flowers.

bangchik and kakdah.

bunga, kebun sayur dalam taman

tanah merah kelantan

Six petola / luffa taking turns flowering

Petola was among the first to be germinated with bitter gourd, roselle, sweet corns and ground nuts at the beginning of November 2010.  By the look of it, petola will emerge as winner, being the first to flower with  sure promise of fruits soon. I read an article A Legacy of Luffa by  Elizabeth Harwick about luffa showing the first signs of  flowers or fruit setting 6 weeks after the seeds sprouted. Luffa is following the same pattern here, and that is a promising adventure. 

 

 large yellow flower of petola / luffa

at the lower stem.

close-up of petola / luffa flower

Petola / luffa  flower 

at different stage of development.

 Petola/ luffa fruit forming 

with tip blossom about to fall off.

 Petola / luffa tip blossom is not open yet.

 another fruit forming, 

waiting for blossom to open at the tip

 baby petola / luffa

Quite visible is an ant searching for food.

bug eating leaf. 

This is exactly the same specie that had been eating 

cucumber leaves in Putrajaya Garden

Weather forecast is pointing towards rains and storm the whole week. Today it rained, minus the storm. I wonder if petola / luffa can handle stormy rains......

Bangchik and kakdah,

menanam petola di Tanah Merah

vegetables on raised bed

Rhythm of life is somewhat different now , more because it is only two of us staying in Tanah Merah home. Whenever I have to go outstation, kakdah has to join, leaving the whole garden to fend themselves. Two days without rain is enough to yellow any delicate plants. For now, I really have to go slow with vegetable gardening.... But some plants are enjoying secluded spot, with just a few hours of sun . So no watering for a couple of days wont hurt them.....

Angled Luffa or Petola is something new to me. They germinated fast, with 100 percent success. Now they are crawling up the white stakes. The solitary bitter gourd seems to be doing fine. Honey dew seedlings are not so lucky. Bugs mutilated their tender leaves to the veins. No choice, they have to be pulled out.

Trellis. I have to thank Ahmad, Anwar and PakNgah for their help, in setting up the structure. Trellis is something we cant happily do alone.... I have come to a point where, whatever I do with vegetable gardening should satisfy certain criteria. Tanah Merah is not used to seeing white painted bamboo stakes as trellis...... I suppose Tanah Merah is about to see new things...

angled luffa or petola
green and healthy.

petola climbing up

another petola climbing up

trellis for angled luffa or petola,
all painted white.

bitter gourd, 

same age as petola on another trellis

both trellis, 

one for six angled luffa or petola and another one for bitter gourd. Bamboo stakes for bitter gourd are not painted.


Sand was earlier added and mixed thoroughly with the clayey red soil. Peat soil was also added to soften the soil. Fertiliser has always been poultry pellets. Occasionally I will spray liquid fertiliser to the leaves.

 bangchik and kakdah

home vegetable gardening, Tanah Merah