Gardening In Tropical Malaysia
 

OK here we go my first starter thread

I have tried tomato..........failed to get more than 4 or 5 small fruit per per plant
I have tried Chinese veggies with some degree of success
Italian herbs.........not much success
I am currently attempting Coconuts, bananas, jackfruit, lemons, mango and chilli
My chillies are a huge success.

The 'trees' I mentioned are only in the ground for about 7 months so I am not sure how I will do for home grown fruit next year. But with regular feeding they seem to be OK.
The banana trees are about 12 feet high but as yet not a flower in sight.

Non eating plants doing well with Penang Palms as they call them in these parts ( Melaka) and some sort of green leafed tree that has red leaves at first!
Pandan leaves grow like crazy and make excellent air fresheners and a drink too!

Oh I would like some colour in the garden too as required by Mrs PA

Happy to share what I have learned and been taught so far and to learn from others what is good and easy to grow.

Re: Gardening In Tropical Malaysia
 

Hey brilliant. Well done.
I'm growing a banana tree too. Mine's fruiting now (after a year or so), no idea what to do next though. More on this tomorrow. Time for bed!

JC3

Re: Gardening In Tropical Malaysia
 

Growing chillies in Malaysia seems almost like "coals to Newcastle" but my local Vietnamese restaurant (in France) has given me some seedlings which they sowed a few weeks ago so now let's see how they grow in France.

Be careful with the jackfruit, Poolie - you don't want that dropping on your head! I noticed up at the spice farm they tie them to the tree.

Re: Gardening In Tropical Malaysia
 

Good luck with the chillies I would think France should be warm enough to get a nice crop going. I shall certainly heed your warnings and keep well out the way of the monsters should I eventually get some hanging off the tree.

Re: Gardening In Tropical Malaysia
 

Lest hope your fruit yield a nice few bunches of bananas JC3.
The only think I know is to keep feeding the thing regularly and allow one of the suckers to grow ready for next year. The rest can be cut off and even re planted as long as they have roots on them.
I was also advised to get a bin bag and open it like a tube. put it over the fruit and tie it at the top. seems it protects them from bugs and monkeys and squirrels don't see them. No idea if it's all true but I shall be trying it should I get some fruit eventually.

Re: Gardening In Tropical Malaysia
 

Hi Poolie,

Thanks.
Here's some photos taken this morning. I have run out of space so this banana tree is crammed in a corner. I am rather proud of it as a very elderly Malaysian lady let me dig up a sucker from her garden on the beach at Tanjung Bungah in Penang, when she heard that I liked gardening. She told me this one is Pisang Raja, and that it's considered the king of bananas for eating and cooking.

As you can see it's fruiting now, and there's about eight hands of green bananas. I've been feeding it used coffee grounds most mornings.

I'm not sure when to cut off the flower (the purple thing on the end).

I need to cut the whole bunch of bananas off soon though, before the monkeys see them, any day now they'll be coming across the road to eat the fruit from our jambu tree.

I plan to cut the whole stem off soon and hang it on a covered balcony to ripen out of sight and harms way. I think bats like them too. Question is when to cut (they are not yellow yet)?

Also if anyone knows a recipe for cooking the banana flower - please share it. Thanks.

Happy gardening

JC3

Re: Gardening In Tropical Malaysia
 

Ooh... this is lovely! I'm down in Singapore (where the forum is more or less treading water, if not in dire need of resuscitation) and wife & I have grown (quite successfully) pawpaw (Hawaiian papaya) trees in our backyard, as well as the ubiquitous pandan and some lemon grass & ginger. Chillies are a given, as someone else said - I think they're so spicy that the birds and the squirrels (we have plenty of them where we stay!) don't eat them off the plant! I'll see if I can take a photo or two of our fruiting plants and share them with all of you!

Re: Gardening In Tropical Malaysia
 

Hopefully this is a link to how to a post about how to pluck a papaya that's out of reach

JC3


http://britishexpats.com/forum/malay.../#post11647486

Re: Gardening In Tropical Malaysia
 

OK. I've had time to show off the results of our love, sweat and many hours of watering in this crazy climate that is Singapore :) - thanks JC3 for the handy tip. Seeing how tall one of my papaya trees have grown, that tip will sure come in handy sooner or later!

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/...pscajfyjyy.jpg

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/...pswqgf1efp.jpg

Re: Gardening In Tropical Malaysia
 

Wow, that's great. I'm very jealous of your grass too. Is it elephant grass? I think our lawn must have been neglected for a long time. I hand weed and mow it regularly (my wife thinks I'm nuts) and it has improved tremendously, but it's nothing like yours. Any tips?

JC3

Re: Gardening In Tropical Malaysia
 

Hi JC3, thank you for the kind words - I think it's easy to maintain because land space is such a premium here in Singapore, our lawn's probably the size of your bathtub in Malaysia!

But, the real secret is getting the right kind of grass. I'm not sure if it means the same thing, but the grass we used for the backyard/lawn/smallish garden of ours is a variety called PEARL GRASS - it's incredibly resilient, super low maintenance and it makes idiots like us look good on forums like these :hysterical:

Then, just water it regularly (our incredibly motivated gardener does it for us every morning), fertilize it (we use Epsom salts and some organic mix we buy from the local shops) and let the tropical sun do the rest :)

It may not be much, but that little patch of green is essentially the culmination of 20 years of hard work in Singapore - that's how long it took for us to be able to afford a place with that tiny piece of land here!

Re: Gardening In Tropical Malaysia
 

Ok Hopefully somewhere on this message there will be a photo of a couple of, so far, non fruiting banana trees and a jackfruit to the left. I really don't like phones on cameras but its a palava to get the proper camera out and then Photoshop it down to size so I took the easy way out.
I am hoping for bananas sometime in the next 4 months or so.
jackfruit I fear could be a year or two away.:fingerscrossed:

I have been well impressed with the fruit so far shown by JC3 and xizzles and I hope I wont be far behind!

Re: Gardening In Tropical Malaysia
 

Very interesting to see your banana tree leaves. They look in great shape. Tropical storms have shredded ours, and quite a few are now somewhat singed round the edges too. I've planted several frangipani trees in the lawn, but think I might follow your example and add a banana tree or two.

JC3

Re: Gardening In Tropical Malaysia
 

PoolieAbroad & JC3 - you guys don't have lawns... you have a damn meadow and a half! I'm so insanely jealous of the 2 of you :hysterical:

Re: Gardening In Tropical Malaysia
 

But in my case no bathtub. So we must be quits.
At least that's another reason to stay in a nice hotel, preferably a suite at the E&O in Penang with their roll top bath tubs. Bliss. I remember the bathroom there being bigger than my own bedroom! Then again their beautiful lawns put mine to shame.
JC3