The One with Strawberries

Strawberry. Success!!!

If you follow us on Twitter (Shameless plug alert: Follow us @ContnrGardenPR) you know that we're very excited about our strawberry plant. Just thinking of being able to taste fresh strawberries makes us salivate. However, our excitement was subdued by the fact that strawberries are difficult to grow in the tropics (see The Holy Grail post). They are prone to fungus and root rot due to the high humidity of Puerto Rico. To avoid this make sure your plants are in a well-ventilated area and that during watering no water falls on the leaves. Strawberries may also be victim to the dreaded aphids (We don't have a solution for this one yet but we're working on one.)

Against all odds, and much to our delight, in December our little plant produced a few flowers. Excitedly (and a little compulsively), we observed each day (did I say we were compulsive) how one of the flowers started to become a green strawberry fruit. We cared for it by keeping the soil moist and providing a balanced fertilizer every week.

The time had come. After a few weeks it ripened to a bright red color. We carefully cut the fruit from the plant, washed it clean, and cut it in half (Jessy and I both wanted to taste it). Taste-wise our strawberry tastes slightly less sweet than a supermarket bought fruit. I was expecting a bitter aftertaste but I was pleasantly surprised that it had the flavor I'm used to. In terms of size a supermarket fruit dwarfs our little strawberry which was to be expected. And now we wanted more.

Mother plant sending out a stolon. 

One of the nice things about growing your own strawberries (besides that sweet fresh flavor) is that they're easy to propagate. The plants you buy at the nursery are called mother plants. They send out runners called stolons which produce multiple daughter plants. Daughters can be potted and allowed to root (or they could be removed to allow the mother plant to concentrate on fruit production). Keep the potting soil moist and they should develop roots in a few weeks. Once they are fully established you can cut the connection to the mother plant (much as you cut the umbilical cord from a newborn). Voila! You have a brand new plant. With this simple technique you are able to multiply your plants almost infinitely since each daughter plant will become a mother plant after one growing season. As always remember to #spreadthelove by gifting plants to your friends and neighbors. Finally, let us know in the comments section if you've had experience (and hopefully success) in growing strawberries in the tropics.

Propagation:Cuttings

Propagation of oregano brujo by cuttings.
Left:Take the top 4-6 inches, Middle: 45 degree cut, Right: New Plant

You know that plant you love so much. The one that's almost impossible to find. Wouldn't it be nice if you could have more of that lovely plant (Man, that really sounded like an infomercial!). Well there is a simple way to make your this possible. Propagation by cuttings.

The methodology is simple but the execution takes a few tries to ensure consistent success (Believe us, we know). First do some research (the internet is your friend) to ensure your plant can be propagated through cuttings. As a rule of thumb most herbs, such as oregano and rosemary, and woody ornamentals can be propagated through cuttings. Some plants that we've propagated by cuttings are basil, tomatoes, oregano brujo, and roses (currently in progress from our miniature rose). In the picture above we provided an example with oregano brujo (one of the easiest plants to propagate).

The best time to perform this type of propagation is early in the morning or late in the afternoon. (Editor's note: Joel and Jessica aren't morning people so they do their cuttings late in the day) Take your plant and make a 45 degree cut on the top part (3-6 inches) of a healthy stem. Remove flowers and lower leaves to reduce energy demand. This will help the cutting to direct its energy towards root creation. Let the cut heal for a day in the shade (very important or the cutting will dry out and die). Then place it on a well-draining high humidity soil (50/50 potting soil/perlite should work), or even standing water, to encourage the development of roots. Some plants need additional help to develop roots. To aid in this development you may apply root powder (hormones that encourage root development) to the cut. Roots will develop in 4-8 weeks depending on the plant species.

And there you have it. You are the owner of a brand new plant. Enjoy! Always remember that this is a good way to #spreadthelove by gifting some of your new plants to a friend or neighbor.

Sometimes neutral jing is your best option

Today's title is a homage to one of our favorite cartoons: Avatar - The Last Airbender (highly recommended for both adults and kids). In this cartoon there are jings which represent options for directing your energy. There is positive, negative and neutral jing. Positive = advancing, progressing, attacking; Negative = retreating, evading; Neutral = not doing anything.  A lot of times when gardening the best option is to do nothing. Just sit back and let nature take its course.

Remember those whiteflies we were battling (see Pests: Whiteflies)? Well, they're gone. How did we eradicate them you ask? To be honest we don't know. Here's what we tried. We bought some sticky traps and set them around our plants (negative jing). The traps caught every insect imaginable but very few whiteflies. We also tried to kill with our bare hands (oh, the humanity!) as many of the flies as we could find early in the morning when the flies are not very active (positive jing). None of these things were very effective. In the end we just let them be and nature took its course (neutral jing). We believe the whiteflies were eradicated by a combination of factors.

Biological: Spiders set-up shop where the whitefly population density was highest. They probably helped control the adult population.
Environmental: Temperatures dipped which normally results in less whiteflies. If true it means they might come back in spring or summer.
Luck: A highly likely candidate. Never underestimate the power of pure dumb luck.

So there you have it, our experience on how to control whiteflies. Do nothing and just enjoy your garden. Join us next time when we might actually do something.

#Gardeningallyearlong

As we've been saying all along, one of the nicest things about container gardening in Puerto Rico is being able to garden all year long. Even as the temperatures dip into the 70s (yes, that's a dip for Puerto Rico) we're still able to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and other warm weather crops. This has inspired me to create a new motto for this little blog, #gardeningallyearlong. So follow us on Twitter @ContnrgardenPR where we'll be using this tag when we tweet about gardening activities over the winter.

It's the Season... for Herbal Vinegars

The Holidays are here and we already feel the spirit. We just want to party, have some days off, eat the season's treats... but we also want to share with family and friends and give away nice reminders of love and care. (Editor's note: #spreadthelove) As a gardener you have lots to share. Today we'll talk about one of the many great gift ideas for the season: herbal vinegars. 


We previously talked about basil vinegar in our Yucky-Yummy post. The process to prepare any herbal vinegar is basically the same. Take snippings or leaves of your favorite herb, stuff them loosely into a glass jar with a fitting lid, and pour enough vinegar to cover all foliage. White wine and red wine vinegar are the best kind to combined with herbs. Wait about a week, strain off and discard the leaves (This is an important part since the leaves will rot in your vinegar. Yuck). There are numerous recipes that use herbal vinegar. Remember they make excellent salad dressings but can also be added to pot roasts, stews, sauces for chicken and fish or steamed vegetables. 

If you enjoy herbal fragrances, another delightful use for these vinegars is hydrotherapy. The process is simple: add about a cup of herbal vinegar to the bathwater, slip in and enjoy. Alternatively you can just add half a cup to use it as a hair rinse. Don't worry, the vinegary smell dissipates quickly and you’re left with a gentle herbal fragrance on your hair. Many herbs are good for your skin and so is the vinegar itself. Vinegar cleanses the pore, restores skin and hair pH to the proper level, it's also good for your scalp, and helps reduce dandruff.

Each herb provides different benefits to your body or hair: 

• Chamomile is considered soothing and relaxing and it is excellent for dry skin. 
• Bay, oregano and sage are good for sore muscles. 
• Basil, bay, fennel, lavender, mint, rosemary, sage and thyme stimulate blood circulation, so they are both invigorating and relaxing. 
• Calendula and spearmint are also soothing to tough or damaged skin. 
• The foliage and flowers of bay, nasturtiums, rosemary, and sage have astringent properties which will tighten the pores of the skin. 
• Calendula and chamomile lighten hair color, blonds get blonder and auburn and redheads get brighter.
• Sage darkens hair color.
• Calendula, parsley, rosemary and sage add shine and body to the hair, and help control dandruff.
• Chamomile makes hair softer.
• Calendula, lavender, mint and rosemary are good conditioners for oily hair.
• Parsley and sage are good for dry hair.

Safety precautions: Not everyone reacts favorably to herbs, beware of allergies. Test vinegars on your skin before using any new herb. Dab some on with a cotton ball and wait and hour or so for any reaction. Discontinue use if redness or itchiness appear.

Nice bottles with a few touches will make your gift extra-special

Once you are familiar with the pleasures and benefits of the different herbal vinegars, you will surely want to share the experience. Bottles of herbal vinegar make very nice gifts. Use the following hints to make them extra-special: 

• Use pretty bottles, the kind with removable stoppers are the best. 
• Strain the finished vinegar to remove all particles. Although a spring in the bottle does look nice, the fact is that it degrades too fast, creating unpleasant layers of sludge. If you really want to include a spring or some leaves attach them to the outside of the bottle.
• Create a gift tag describing ways to use the vinegar, both in cooking and cosmetically or add a recipe card.
• Add crafts or labels with floral or herbal designs, either to the bottles or the tags.

Send us your comments about your herbal vinegars or other gardening gifts this season. We bet everyone will be delighted. Happy Holidays!

Getting back on the horse

After two weeks sightseeing in India we're back (and better than ever?)! Time to get back on the horse and do some gardening.

Even with a garden-sitter some of our plants suffered while we were on vacation since our friends went away for Thanksgiving. This left our plants without water for 3-4 days. As a result we lost our cucumbers (which were already struggling), a cherry tomato (which was already struggling), our bell peppers (which were already struggling due to an aphid infestation) and a few seedlings. I hope you saw a pattern there. Basically, all plants which were already weak or young were lost. Every other healthy plant was spared although some (such as our miniature and our new cubanelle pepper) were weakened and attacked by aphids (Damn you aphids. Why won't you go away! Mental note: Write a post about aphids). But alas not all is bad news. Our arugula looks gorgeous and the small leaf oregano has spread considerably. Also, some basil seedlings have matured and the payasitos are starting to bloom and multiply.

With all that being said we're ready to get back on the horse (Didn't we say that already?). Yesterday we planted some cucumber and bell pepper seeds to replace the ones lost. We previously had 3 cherry tomato plants which produced more tomatoes than we can consume (and gift to friends). Therefore, we're looking into what we can plant to substitute the cherry tomato plant. Maybe a plum tomato, some heirlooms tomatoes, a few lettuces, some flowering plants, who knows. That's one of the great things about container gardening. There are hundreds of possibilities to choose from; a little something for everyone. Keep tuned for more information and for updates on our little container garden.

Going away? Plan ahead

We're going to take a little vacation soon which means we need to prepare. The last time we left for a few days our cucumbers suffered (see A Death in the family). It also means no posts for at least two weeks! (It also explains why we haven't posted anything in a while. Planning a vacation is time-consuming) So what things you need to take into account when you're going on vacation?

1. Watering - Your first (and probably only concern but we threw a few additional ones just for the fun of it) concern should be watering. Your plants might survive a day or two without water outside and maybe 3 or 4 days if you move them inside. For short trips you can get some water bottles or 2 liter soda bottles and fill them with water. Make a small hole in the cap and insert the bottle upside down in the soil. Water will slowly trickle out as the soil dries out. If your time away will be longer than a few days then we suggest a garden-sitter. We recommend that you take this person to your garden and instruct them on how to water your plants.  Also, you can mix water retaining hydrogels into your soil. This will increase the availability of moisture in your pots. There are also automatic watering solutions but we cannot comment on them since we haven't tried them (Crystal ball: I see a future post about this topic).
2. Pruning - Take this opportunity to do a little pruning (Editor's note: Joel hates pruning but he knows it's necessary). This will help reduce the water requirements of your plants. 
3. Harvesting - Harvest as many fruits and vegetables as possible. Also teach your garden-sitter how and which plants to harvest while you are away. They won't mind eating some fresh vegetables while you're out.
4. Location - Since you have a container garden you also have the opportunity to move your plants to a shaded location. This will obviously reduce the water requirements for your plants.

These tips should help you in keeping your garden alive while you enjoy your days away. We'll be back in a few weeks. Until then keep on gardening!