Yea we can grow lùcuma here to (my uncle grows some), but Im not a big fan of it. Though I haven’t tried one since a kid so I should try it again (lots of my other food preferences have changed). How do you like to eat them? I’ve heard they are best in smoothies?
Yea they fruit great, we haven’t harvested any yet but they should be ready soon. (Or now I better check). They are so delicious
I’m not quite sure what you mean by elevation, But elevation would be only slightly above sea level and plantmaps.com says I live in zone 10b.
We live on the very limit for apples, only golden delicious and some cooking apples seem to do really well, other varieties we have don’t produce much and are vulnerable to pests. I hope climate change doesn’t skrew my apples over in the future but I think it might.
off the top of my head the ones that we grow and are fruiting (New Zealand):
Fejois (tons of em), persimmons, guavas, bannana, lemons (just started), avocados (nearing the end), quinces (gotta make jelly today), apples (we have picked golden delicious and cooking apples will be ready soon, I’m going to make some cider), figs (nearing end), Casimiroa, tamarillo, rocoto chilli. I think kiwi fruit are fruiting too but we don’t grow any.
Use them to predict the weather! Their scales close when its humid (predicting rain) and open when its gonna be sunny.
I’ve sowed corn lettuce and rocket, ready for the quickly approaching winter.
They taste like watered down sour, you will know it when you taste it.
Crystal apples and Port Albert only go sour if left on the vine way too long (they also get a very tough skin and sometimes go bitter if left really long). So you’re unlikely to find sour ones at the store.
I should have said it before, but you still get a lot of seediness before they go sour. I think all cucumbers go sour eventually, if you don’t like it just pick them early enouph and there will still be plenty of seeds. (For port Albert and crystal apples the more yellow the more sour)
crystal apple cucumbers seem to be a variety of lemon cucumber.
Crystal apple cucumbers are spherical and can both go sour if left to long, they also go yellow as they age on the vine making them look like lemons so that’s probably where the name comes from. there seems to be other varietys of lemon cucumber as well but I have not tried others.
Both would be kin to port Albert, I prefer port albert as they are a bit larger making them have a bit more seed per flesh.
Glad to be helpful :)
Bananas do and will loose their bottom leaves as they grow, so no surprises there.
As you probably know the black flaky stuff on the outside is normal sap, not mildew. As far as u can see there is only mildew present where the frond meats the trunk.
As there is only a small amount of mildew and no signs of rot I don’t think the mildew caused the leaf falling off (rather just natural growth). If it gets more chronic mildew it may cause issues in the future. We grow our bannanas outside and powdery mildew between old fronds is a given, and not a concern, however indoor plants are a lot more prone to disease so it may be a worry.
P.s. its not powdery mildew (mildew is white/grey). Its probably just some kinda mold that settled in the crack left by the leaf falling off. I would only be concerned if it is present between young fronds or starts rotting the trunk.
I agree with your parrot, the more seeds the better.
In New Zealand we have a cucumber called the port Albert cucumber, its big, easy to grow, and has tons of seeds. Unfortunately I couldn’t find it for sale outside of NZ (maybe under a different name?).
A slightly smaller international alternative, still with lots of big seeds (tho not quite as many), is the Crystal apple cucumber. Its also easy to grow.
We’ve grown both of them and will grow both again. They get more/bigger seeds when left to mature, but go sour if left for to long. I still love them when they are sour (your parrot might to) but everyone else thinks I’m crazy.
I like the way it seems she’s quickly escaping the cameras focus and about to duck behind the tree. It captures her elusive charm.
Makes the photo seem more alive. As if saying “in the corner of your eye you see a red flash above you. You look up, only to see a shaking branch suddenly relieved of weight. And far in the distance is the sound of beating wings.”
At first I thought: ooooh! I wanna learn go and raylib. So I looked at the repo, then realised I know basically nothing. I’ll have another look tomorrow, to try again and hopefully learn a bit more. However I think I’m a long way away from being able to contribute anything, but would like to contribute some day. Good luck though!
Sorry :( here’s a baby fern to hopefully make you happier 
Sorry for getting that wrong, I’ll update it to say parasitic rather than carnivorous. Looks like it might be that species. thank you! Will check on it tomorrow to see how its developed
A whole little world
Eyes can sometimes be less deiceving than marketing material.
my auntie, who has one many awards with her rare orchids, still cant figure out some jewel orchids. My own baby jewel orchid was looking beautiful before it got demolished by spidermites (at the time I thought they were just spiders until it was to late). Next time I’m going to try grow them in a bioactive terrarium hopefully they will be happier.
I’d love to see how your setup turns out and what plants you choose to plant, please post an update when you get them.
Is the LED light a grow light? If not that’s fine, most normal white LEDs are just as good or often better than cheap grow lights so don’t bother switch.
Its really hard to tell from a photo how bright the light is, but my guess is its medium indirect light, high indirect is still really bright.
I would recommend a maidenhair fern, their leaves look amazing, especially with light shining through and they can handle pretty much any level of indirect light.
Another recommendation would be a hoya, there are lots of varietys some have flashy leaves, and they are easy to look after.
Then if you want a challenge: jewel orchids; these orchids have beautiful iridescent leaves and tend to like high humidity, and low to medium indirect light, unfortunately they are an absolute pain to grow.
I also love mounted elkhorn ferns if you want a splash of weird. Very easy to care for.
I have had surprisingly good results with succulents in low light conditions, they grow very slow but seem to usually do fine.
Morganella purpurascens seems to be normally greypurplish (hence the name) not white. However the main reason I think it isn’t M. purpurascens is because M. purpurascens is a wood grower and your photo shows a gravely lawn (no tree matter), this isn’t the correct habitat for M. purpurascens.
I agree its probably a puffball though it could still be the young egg of another shroom
As another commenter said its pretty impossible to identify a puffball to speceis level based on a single photo. I’m not a fungi expert, but I don’t think an expert could either (though they would have better knowledge on what it might be).
For more insight, watch it grow, do the little spikes fall off? What color does it turn? Does the skin start to scale? What color is the inside? Does it develop a stem like structure? Does it bruise? How does it smell? Does a pattern emerge when you rub off the spikes? Does something hatch out of the egg? Ect. In the end I still probably won’t be able to tell you its species. but at least we will have a better idea.
I’m learning to, so I will have missed some info to look out for as it grows.
And always remember the possibility that it could be the egg of another shroom, perhaps a poisness amanita (though look for not just amanita egg but other shroom eggs to), hence, looking at the inner structure and waiting to see how they mature.
In my experience the best defence against ants is ants, they are very territorial.
I have had a colony of ants in a little box just inside my window for about 10 years now. They come in and out through a little crack in the window frame. The ants always stay near the window. I can even leave my food out and they won’t touch it (though any food placed on the windowsill would quickly be demolished). They seem to be only there for shelter. I respect their home and they respect mine.
However in another room that doesn’t have a resident colony I have problems with these pesky little ants that steal any food left out. They are so small they can even go under some lids. Their nest is outside yet they are so much more of a pain.
For you i would say there is no “nipping the colony off at the bud”, the ants are already there and properly settled, they probabably would have allready found the food if they were intrested in it, but if they start being a problem and taking food then you can get rid of them.
Otherwise just keep your house boundaries (such as with diatomaceous earth or carnivorous plants or in my case nothing at all), and they will be loyal guards of your porch, defending off annoying ants and many plant pests while improving soil. (Some ants also have symbiotic relationships with certain plants such as Pseudomyrmex ferruginea with Vachellia cornigera. the plants provide food and shelter and the ants defend the plant with their life).
Idk, I love ants. They are an important part of the ecosystem, and we couldn’t live without them. A loyal colony is good defence against other pests. And it’s nice entertainment watching them form highways carrying food and eggs too and fro. But if they become a nuisance in the house then you do probably need to get rid of them sadly.