THE "OTHER" FILES

[ahayastani]

Welcome to my OGLOG!
I'm growing a few plants that have absolutely nothing to do with peppers: edibles (), "edibles" (), and ornamentals (). We'll soon begin building our house and I've started to grow plants for our garden there.

Location: Chiapas, Mexico. Our climate is tropical with pronounced dry and rainy seasons.

What am I growing (table will be updated over time)?

Appreciation guide: (very) good | excellent | I love palm trees | kitchen favourite

Scientific name​	Common name​	Subjective appreciation​
Alpinia caerulea	native ginger
Alpinia galanga	galangal	​
Archontophoenix alexandrae	Alexandra palm	​
Areca catechu	betel nut palm	​
Boesenberghia rotunda	finger root
Calamus oxleyanus	? (rattan palm)	​
Cinnamomum verum	cinnamon tree	​
Copernicia gigas	?	​
Curcuma longa	turmeric	​
Curcuma sp.	ornamental turmeric
Cycas siamensis "Dwarf"	dwarf Thai sago	​
Diplazium esculentum	paku, vegetable fern
Garcinia humilis	achachairú	​
Latania loddigesii	blue Latan palm	​
Licuala parviflora		​
Musa sikkimensis "Red Tiger"	red tiger banana	​
Ocimum x citriodorum	lemon basil
Ocimum basilicum "Marseille"	basil "Marseille"	​
Sauropus androgynus	katuk
Tacca leontopetaloides	Polynesian arrowroot
Wodyetia bifurcata	foxtail palm	​
Yucca rostrata	beaked yucca

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[ahayastani]

I bought a very young cinnamon plant ($20, about U$1). I've planted it in a container (blue one in the photo) together with a Maui Purple pepper. My plan is to harvest my own cinnamon in a few years. I'll buy another plant next year and harvest from each plant every two years.

 

[skullbiker]

Alright, another growing other thread! Peppers are the key but there is always so much more going on.

 

[ahayastani]

I like palms and recently purchased seeds from species that are hard to come by in MX. One of the palms is Copernicia gigas, a species that is endemic to the coastal area of SE Cuba. This is supposedly a slow-growing palm that can reach ~20m in habitat. I don't really have a plan for this species. I wanted one specimen to grow it in a container, and one or two more for the land I still have to buy to plant my fruit trees I soaked 10 seeds in water for three days and placed them in peat/perlite (2:1) on July 18th. I noticed two leaves on August 14th, and I transplanted all 10 to individual grow bags on August 28th. Impressive.

Compared to its original habitat, my local climate is slightly hotter and receives more rain during the rainy season.

 

[HellfireFarm]

Jealous about the Cinnamon! I don't think they would overwinter here.

 

[Downriver]

Great to see you posting again @ahayastani, and glad you started this Other Glog. It's nice to see what else other folks are growing. I'll be following along.

 

[ahayastani]

Pioneer tomato that popped up in a container with Heliconia. ID still unknown... But interesting plant.

 

[ahayastani]

Something happened with our postal distribution, although it's difficult to pinpoint exactly what went wrong... Unregistered mail seems to have stopped arriving. Several forum members have sent me seeds but nothing has arrived Yet, registerd mail arrives in a breeze. My conclusion was theft at the local post office.

A while ago, a former work colleague told me she'd go on holidays to the Canarian Islands and would "send me something". A few months later, I found a postcard in the mailbox. Mmmm... Thanks! Last weekend, the mail man delivered a small envelope I contacted her, and yes, she'd sent me some seeds. I don't understand anymore... Envelope doesn't have a single stamp on it, which from a Mexican bureaucratic perspective, is extremely suspicious. All international mail that I've received is stamped at customs (Mexico City) and at the local post office, so I can always see where it has been. This seems to have fallen out of (k)no(w)where.

Anyway, I'm hopeful again that somehow, some way, some day... seeds may still arive. My apologies to those forum members who sent me seeds. I didn't know or even suspect it would go this way.

 

[ahayastani]

I received Boesenberghia rotunda (fingerroot, sometimes referred to - although not the same - as galangal) as freebie some time back. Very happy receiver... It has been an easy plant to grow so far. Eventually, all seven rhizome cuttings succeeded. ¡Viva los tropicos! There even is an uninvited pepper plant growing there (last image). I still haven't decided what to do with it. Probably waiting for the rhizomes to send up a shoot and have it "staked", as with "bamboo torture".

 

[ahayastani]

Achachairú (Garcinia humilis), one of my favourite tropical fruits. Seeds take a long time to germinate (about half a year) and grow very slowly in the beginning. New leaves are orange but quickly transition to green. This plant is nearly one year old.

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[ahayastani]

I harvested container-grown sweet potatoes a few weeks back. It was the best harvest I'd had from a single plant. Yesterday, I planted two cuttings in a wider container, hoping to increase the yield One cutting comes from the previous plant, and the other was a shoot from the recently harvested sweet potatoes (barely visible at the top of my finger).

I had taken cuttings from the plant at the time of harvest, but they all mysteriously and simultaneously died as they were rooting in a container with water. So I searched and found some plant material that I could use to make a new cutting.

 

[ahayastani]

Good news from the tomato front! More tomatoes are ripening but I haven't been able to identify the variety. Taste is as good as any homegrown tomato, but that's about it. Not overwhelming, just better than mass produced green harvested store bought hybrid tomatoes. I removed a sucker and put it in the same container (second image). Five days have passed and it hasn't wilted, so unless disease will kill it, I think it will grown into a new plant. A sucker has also appeared at the foot of the plant and thus far I've allowed it to grow. The plant has nearly reached its maximum length and it would be nice to grow a new stem from the same roots.

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[CraftyFox]

That's a pretty interesting collection of plants.. I don't think I've seen anything from the Garcinia genus in stores up here, do they not keep long? Or just too damn good to export? They sure sound tasty.

 

[ahayastani]

Yesterday was an exciting day for me because I sowed cycads for the first time in my life. Water-soaked Cycas hainanensis (from the Chinese island of Hainan) at the left, and (likely) Cycas siamensis "Silver" at the right.

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I'm also proud of the succesful germination of Bentinckia condopanna. The genus is named after this Cavendish-Bentinck family member.

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[ahayastani]

That's a pretty interesting collection of plants.. I don't think I've seen anything from the Garcinia genus in stores up here, do they not keep long? Or just too damn good to export? They sure sound tasty.

Not sure... Achachairú can be stored for two-three weeks in my climate, but it cannot be refrigerated. Refrigeration has a negative impact on its appearance. In my climate, the fruit begins to shrivel after more than three weeks at ambient conditions. Another drawback is the relatively large seed, so the "fruit yield" is not very high. But my garden will certainly have a tree for off-the-tree picking

Carambola (star fruit, Averrhoa carambola) is another fruit tree that will find a spot. I sowed only one seed, so 100% germination I had bought a very tasteful batch to make jam, but the larger fruits were seedless and only two seeds were recuperated. And since one seed escaped from my care, only one has made it.

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I also sowed tree dahlias (Dahlia imperialis), but we'll see what will become of it. It certainly is a tropical plant but only of the higher altitudes. Perhaps the high humidity here near the coast will kill them somewhere along the way. The video below is not mine but shows what to expect from this species. Basically, a shrub full with dahlia flowers .

 

[ahayastani]

Turmeric began to flower.

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One of the Alpinia caerulea seeds sprouted and was transplanted to a bigger pot. Not sure what to expect, but it's "edible" according to the Internet. Not sure whether Australians can be considered reliable sources in that respect...

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[Grass Snake]

Are you familiar with Chipilín (Crotalaria longirostrata)? Just wondering because you’re in the region where it originates and often used in cooking. I wish it was more readily available in my area.

 

[ahayastani]

Are you familiar with Chipilín (Crotalaria longirostrata)? Just wondering because you’re in the region where it originates and often used in cooking. I wish it was more readily available in my area.

Yes, chipilín is used a lot in these regions, but personally, I seldomly use it. I once tried to grow it from a cutting, but the experiment failed and I haven't felt motivated enough to try it again. There is an Etsy-vendor from Guerrero (MX) that offers seeds (CieloVerde). Not cheap and customs may be Russian roulette, but other seeds I bought from him had good germination (and mail took 3 weeks to arrive, national).

 

[Grass Snake]

Yes, chipilín is used a lot in these regions, but personally, I seldomly use it. I once tried to grow it from a cutting, but the experiment failed and I haven't felt motivated enough to try it again. There is an Etsy-vendor from Guerrero (MX) that offers seeds (CieloVerde). Not cheap and customs may be Russian roulette, but other seeds I bought from him had good germination (and mail took 3 weeks to arrive, national).

Thanks I’ll definitely look out for that seller. I’ve grown it successfully some years back but failed to collect seeds. We have a similar plant that grows wild here that looks identical to Chipilin only difference is ours is poisonous so I wanna make sure I get seeds from the right source.

 

[Ratatouille]

Can we do a temporary garden trade? A sabbatical of sorts?