May 2014: my beloved plants...gone from near death n back again.

After their week of near death experience....my chilli baby plants have bounced back to life thankfully!! 

Like a proud Mama, I watch their new development everyday, seeing them growing new leaves to replace those lost due to my inexperience. Such simple joy! Of course all my man asked was "so where are the chillies?!!" I gave him my best death glare:)

From experience, I realise now that the longer I delay taking the seedling out to the open to stand up to the variety of weather, the tougher it is on my plant. 

I did an experiment. I moved 4 pots out to the open (didn't harden them to climatise for 2 weeks as required but I was lucky it was cloudy that period)

The 4 that were growing in the open blossom and bounced back from withered and sickly yellow leaves. The 2 I left indoor was growing at half of the rate. 

With just 2 weeks head start, the first four seedlings have grown thicker stems, as well as huge leaves regardless of pot size. The 2 indoor ones were like captain America before being pumped with super being serum. U get the drift... See the stunted growth of the newly converted outdoor version & comparatively lesser leaves as those shown above?

Another mini test I did was to crushed hard boiled eggs shells and mixed it into the soil. Maybe 2 weeks are too early to tell, maybe I'm imagining it but I suspect it contributed to the greening back of leaves from earlier sickly state.

However given my roof has no shade and the summer sun is mercilessly intense, some of their leaves were bleached much to my horror. 

So had to construct some form of "rain n sun" shade that can withstand the constant wind, but not completely depriving them of the light. 

Let's hope this works!

I dread to think of Typhoon 8 though. Gonna be a bitch shifting all my pots!!

Not quite sure wats going on with that rosemary. It looks kinda sickly to me and so I'm not eating from it but just growing it to build up experience. I think I overwater it back when it was indoors n just when the stem started to brown, I brought them up n expect them to die but nope, maybe the sun cured it n now I see new leaves. Still, we shall see. 

As for my darling lavender, not good prognosis. I think it's too hard n hot at their tender age. They are dropping like flies. I must not have dry off their leaves after watering  n the sun scorched them. The younger ones just died. Damnit. One has purple leaves now. A sign if it dying soon. 

On a happier note, I'm proud to present my healthy bushy Basil!! See how much it grows!!! Comparing to the last photo I showed, such a difference one week made! Again, my man only thinks of eating them.... Sob sob. Good thing I grew plenty of basil for his plucking. They do taste quite good with my fried eggs I must say:)

It's close to 6pm now and the sun is finally setting. Time to keep the laundry n start cooking!