No chili pods yet, but have sweet potato shoots!

While I am waiting for the chili pods to come out, if ever my hand-pollination technique using a round paintbrush is ever successful, what I see coming out from the potted soil are a number of shoots from my chopped-off end of sweet potato root crops buried beneath were alive - and growing!

I resorted to this method because the leaves they sell don't include the stems where new shoots could grow, and also since I like very much the Japanese sweet potato variety, I decided to chop off some ends every time my wife buys some. And if I am the one doing the marketing chore, I would pick up some loose ends, broken ends of these sweet potatoes, and would simply just show them to the clerk at the check-out counter, and she would smile and let me go off this 3 or 4 of these.

That's only twice, if I recall correctly. Just the few pieces that I need to start off my sweet potato farm.

So while I'm waiting for the pods to come out, I'm seeing purple stems and leaves shoot up.

So now I see some colors other than green and white. And I am looking forward to some boiled sweet potato shoots dipped in vinegar and anchovies. Yum!

Till then!

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Hand pollination

Image via WikipediaI have come across several articles in the web for doing manual pollination. Some suggested paint brush use, just the size enough for the flowers to be inter-pollinated, and some others suggested the use of cotton buds.

I chose the paint brush, as I always have these within my reach, and I don't have to throw them away after use.

Now, all I have to do is wait. I hope to be successful in my manual pollination technique!

Till then.

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No pollinators

Image by cskk via FlickrThe chili plants that brought me high hopes as my provider for leaves and pods - they all grew well. But it is just so disappointing, in that living up high in the flats among an almost concreted area will not have even a single pollinator!

The flowers come, sprout, spread, then wither and die. No pods.

And the leaves are almost always having some aphids sticking underneath them. I wouldn't have minded that for all I care, but then, there are no fertilized flowers that will show me some colors other than green and white, so I would be on the lookout on how to perform artificial pollination.

I hope to make this work - many flowers are waiting!

Till then!

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