I have been feeling guilty for not being able to put up the staple feature articles on the Green Culture Singapore (GCS) website since August this year. Even though three months have passed, I told myself that I have to make it a point to put up two articles.
The first article is entitled “Introducing Jewel Orchids” which was contributed by Ian Chung, one of the moderators for the orchid subforum in GCS and he is well-known for being an accompanished grower of these beauties.
(picture courtesy of Ian Chung)
Introducing Jewel Orchids
Jewel orchids have attractive leaves that can be likened to the stars that glitter in the night sky and during daytime, they also sparkle like gems when their leaves reflect the sunlight that shines upon them. Learn how to grow these beauties by reading this feature article contributed by Ian Chung.
URL – http://www.greenculturesg.com/articles/aug08/aug08_jewelorchids.pdf
The second article was written by myself which is entitled “Hand-pollinate Your Curcubits!”. Young fruits get aborted or become deformed if female flowers are not pollinated well. The article contains a step-by-step guide on how to pollinate the curcubit flower as well as some tips on how to do it properly, such as to perform hand-pollination only on fair days.
I have included a tip that has been used in squash breeding. Although this tip has not been tried on other curcubits, it may be worth trying and it requires one pick and store almost mature male flower buds inside the refrigerator which can be used to pollinate female curcubit flowers on a day where no male flowers are opened.
Hand-pollinate Your Curcubits!
Did your curcubit vines been producing deformed fruits or aborting young fruits? These observations could be due to the lack of pollination of the vine’s female flowers. Give your plants a hand by performing hand-pollination! Read this feature article to learn how to do it!
URL – http://www.greenculturesg.com/articles/aug08/aug08_curcubitpollination.pdf
