Red Harvest

What is your harvest this week? The few I have are are all red!!!

My 2-year old dragon fruit plant has been bearing big red dragon fruits regularly, but only one or two fruits at a time. The dried flower is still intact.

Do you see a big cloud of smoke above the dragon's snout?

Bird's Eye Chillies are also called Thai Dragon Chillies.  Unlike the dragon fruit, there is no smoke coming out from Thai Dragons unless you consume it. Then you might just see little puffs of smoke coming out from your ears! It is HOT!!! 

One particular chilli plant which I planted on the ground  has produced several kilos of chillies.  Some of the branches broke off due to the heavy load. That is why I have to harvest some of the green ones as well. Of course, not all my chilli plants are this fertile. Thank goodness they are not all the same as none of my neighbours welcome any more chillies.

I am delighted to see my very first ripe cherry tomato. Looking forward to more tomatoes. My neighbours are already flooded with chillies. Cherry tomatoes will be a good change.

Harvest

This is the first time I have harvested my red flesh Dragon Fruit.

Previously, a passerby couldn't resist harvesting on my behalf.

The pumpkin is 1.96kg in weight.

The Making of a Dragon Fruit (Part 2)

Hand Pollination done 3 weeks ago was successful.

The flower has dried up and the dragon fruit should ripen soon.

This is considered lucky as the first flowers do not always set fruit.

Is it the dragon fruit season? 2 more flowers found blooming.

This time we use a cotton bud instead of a paint brush to pollinate.

There were insects doing the job too but can we rely on them to pollinate successfully?

Here is a dragonfly on a dragon fruit plant waiting for a meal of pollinators.

The presence of dragonflies is an indication that the ecosystem is in good condition, since they are sensitive to pollution.

The Making of a Dragon Fruit

This brought hope...false hope, as it dropped off like many other flower buds.

This brought more hope. It bloomed last night.

The tall lady with spiky hair (stigma) is surrounded by many short yellow men (anthers). There are no bees working at night, what more in the rain. Using a new paint brush, I transferred the pollens from the anthers to the stigma. Since 10pm was an ideal time for pollination, the task was conducted during the fertile time in the rain.

Now we can only hope that the base of this flower forms a dragon fruit.

If not, there is still fresh hope...