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Monday, May 13, 2013

Our First Sunroot Malaysia Harvest

 We are doing a trial growing sunroot (Jerusalem artichokes) this year in this hot and humid tropical weather and one plant had died off which was planted last November. So we dig in and see what the results are from the spot we tried to grow the sunroot plant. The plant was only about 2 feet tall so I was not expecting much of it. Surprisingly the plant did yield several tubers, although not as many as we used to harvest from one plant. The location was in full sun. At the moment, I am contemplating to regrow the tubers again in different location. As I don't have much tubers to experiment on, probably most will go to re-planting them again rather than cooking the tubers.
 Our main harvest last week were sweet leaves (star gooseberry), chillies and butterfly pea flowers. I am not sure what this fruit is called but it is not a mango fruit. My mother gave most of the sweet leaves plants a hard-pruning 3 weeks ago and now new shoots are quickly growing. She pruned those sweet leaves plants to half of its original height.
 We also harvested some pattypan squashes, cape gooseberries, sweet basil leaves, cucumber tree fruits, sponge luffa, calamansi limes, soursop, nam nam fruits, purple plum radish, snake beans and pea eggplants. We made juice with the soursop fruit. I have been harvesting while doing some other gardening task and kept the harvest in the pocket. So this picture above summarise what we got to harvest from our garden last week.
 We only got a few mulberry fruits to harvest this week. Rayyan has to wait for the fruits ripening on the trees at the moment. Lemon fruits are not as many as previous to harvest since some got a hard-pruning so waiting for new shoots to grow. But we do have a few lemon trees fruiting which is still green not ready for harvesting. I think it is better to have them not ripening at once so we have a succession of harvest. We managed to prune a pamelo, calamansi lime, wax apple and nam nam tree last week. Last Saturday, my husband managed to give a hard pruning on this mango plant that we did not realised had 2 passion fruit plants climbing on it. No wonder we had ripen passion fruits under the bushy mango trees. Not only that we discovered so many orchids on the tree as well which has not seen light for some time I reckon. The passion fruit will flower much better now as they will received more lights and we can also spy whether the plants are fruiting or not.
 This is another mango tree that had a hair cut as well and we can now see the sky in any angle or corner of this tree. This is the mango that my mother pruned almost 2 years ago and she fell from it. Hopefully tomorrow when she returned she will be happy to see the mango plant had a hair cut.
 My husband in the mood to do some tree hard-pruning and has been asking me which tree next. I think it is time to give the sapodilla fruit trees a hard pruning. The sapodilla fruit trees bear fruits almost all year round. But the problem the plant is too bushy now and I can't see the fruits clearly except the ones facing outside. So I think better to give the sapodilla tree a hard pruning.

38 comments:

  1. Good thing you are doing so much pruning. Next year especially will be a big payoff in the amount of fruit to be available.
    Cher Sunray Gardens

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    1. We really hope so next year the pruned trees will bear us more fruits Cher. Still have many yrees waiting for their turns.

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    2. We really hope so next year the pruned trees will bear us more fruits Cher. Still have many yrees waiting for their turns.

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  2. You have such beautiful pictures I love your blog, And have you grown water chestnuts?

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  3. diana... akak tak pernah mkn sunroot tu.. boleh dimsk apa ye? atau jd bahan masakan spt halia, kunyit dll tu... sekali pandang its looks like a caterpillar.. hehe..

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  4. My eyes were on those patty pan squash! OMG you manage to grow it here. Gosh you definitely has a green thumb. With the ciku and mango tree, gosh they are hard to prune you know. I don't think I have the strength to do that. A big shoutout to your hubby!

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  5. wao! never heard of it. how to eat it? i am interested with your pattypan squashes. How is the taste anyway? it is really the smallest type of squash i hav ever seen

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  6. KA tak pernah makan sroot tu ler.. buat masak macam mana yer.... !

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  7. come back to MY, you still able to harvest so many veggie and fruits, amazing!

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  8. Delicious nam nam. Will order again. Tak sempat buat masak lemak. Semua makan begitu saja.

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  9. There is always a very first time.

    I am waiting to harvest my first Sengkuang.

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  10. Those lovely blue flowers just keep on coming don't they?

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  11. Since he is in the mood to trim trees ... have him do everything in sight! I love all the variety you get from your garden. It never ceases to amaze me.

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  12. I planted all dwarf trees since I'm the one that is going to be doing the pruning. I don't relish climbing up trees or using a ladder.

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  13. How different our sunchokes/sunroots look from one another!

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  14. My mango tree is just blooming and setting fruit, so to see you trimming now is so strange. I bet you will enjoy many more sweeter fruit for it!

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  15. I missed tropical fruits and veggies. What do you do with sweet leaves?

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  16. Your mango tree looks much better! Very smart of you to prune it before your mom has a chance to climb back up there.

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  17. What a beautiful variety of foods you are growing. Lots of unique stuff we can't grow around here! They are lovely to look at!

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  18. Very nice harvest you've got there, Diana. Wish I could grow half the plants you have there in my garden. Will you tell us what those mango-like fruits are when you find out? Tell us how they taste as well, please.

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  19. I really miss tree ripened tropical fruits, you have such a lovely variety.

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  20. Kadazan sis.TRGTuesday, May 14, 2013

    Hi, is that the sunroot (Jerusalem artichokes)? They look ike 'ulat sagu' to me!Never taken before.Usually i'll fry the sweet leaves (star gooseberry)with some eggs.(I am looking forward to your new recipe of the leaves..)My family loves soursoup so much-juice/raw.But it is quite difficult to find/buy nowadays. I've tried to grow them but they just grow and died without bearing any fruit. Da,da...my young mulberry is flowering! Hope, i can see the fruits soon....

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  21. Your Jerusalem artichokes seem to be doing well in Msia... we just got a new breed here, a much tastier breed than the first one we got and I am looking forward to seeing it grow...

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  22. Mango tree!! You have mango tree in your yard! I think it's my favorite fruit; back home in India, we have at least 1000 different varities!! Such gorgeous harvest. Hmm...for jerusalem artichokes, dig around a wide area. I find that they the tubers even grwow 2-3 feet away from mother plant.

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  23. Wha a great garden! or can I say "ladang"? Everything is there for you to harvest! DO your mum fertilize the fruit trees?
    It give me inspiration to look after my garden after so long!

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  24. Hi Diana,
    That's a lot of harvest! And you have so many fruit trees growing! Am so envious!

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  25. I always think its rewarding to trim or cut back mature tress and shrubs to let more light in. Good job as I know its hard work.

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  26. Hello Diana! I hope you will have success this time round with the sunroot with the experience you had earlier. I have wasted so many tubers/bulbs due to clogged pot. It's my own fault, see, I was lazy to to check the condition. Happy gardening and have a great weekend!

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  27. hi diana, i'm admiring those blue pea flowers. It's not common to see these blue pea flowers here and i was just asking my friend where to pluck..for making kuih. BUt managed to get the dried ones from bkk recently.

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  28. Hi Kebun Malay-Kadazan girls!
    Many of your plants are unfamilia to me, so I am so interested in that.
    Please be careful with prunning the tall tree.

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  29. Wow! I am so impressed with your kebun and all the fruits you managed to grow (even some temperate ones?). I have a kacang telang in a pot on my balcony but so far no flowers :(. hope you and your family are all well.

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  30. I never thought of growing so many edible plants in my garden.
    Truly its very heart-warming to see your lovely harvest as you take the trouble to care for them.

    Have a great weekend!

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  31. Magic City Patio Garden~ I have not tried growing water chestnuts. But do like to try someday.

    Kak MaDiHaA~ Sunroot tu substitue ubi kentang. Roasted pun sedap.

    Stephanie~ The pattypan squash do grow here requirements same as normal pumpkin. It does take some time to prune the trees.

    Olive~ Pattypan squash taste like squash? Not sure how to describe it in words.

    Kesuma Angsana~ Oh masuk dalam gulai masak lemak cili api pun boleh sunroot tu.

    Sonia~ Addicted growing our own food.

    Awin~ Nam nam sekarang berbunga je tapi takde buah sangat.

    Rainfield61~ Yes there is always a first time. Waiting for my first cotton now so we don't have to buy.

    Sue~ Yes the blue flowers never dissapoint us.

    KitsapFG~ We need to repair our chainsaw so we can prune much faster. Wish we have some extra money to repair it.


    Daphne~ Alas, the tropical fruits are rarely available as dwarf. All grows so big unless prune them often.

    Anonymous~I heard there are different sunroots variety even purple ones.

    Mac~ I usually stir fried the sweet leaves with eggs or soup.

    Kate~ Mom looks satisfied we did the pruning.

    Dewberry ~ The blue flowers a favourite in our house.

    Shawn Ann~ Lovely to look and healthy to eat.

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  32. Barbie~ The mango new shoots does sprout very fast as we expected. Now they starts to fill in all the bare spot again.

    The Novice Gardener~ I don't have the name but when the fully ripe. The texture becomes very sweet and creamy.

    Norma~ Thanks to our parents, we can enjoy the fruits to our heart content.

    Kadazan sis. TRG~ Yes sunroot/sunchoke is also called Jerusalem artichokes. I prepare the star gooseberry same as you too. We rarely get to harvest soursop as the squirrel likes them too. Soursop like water, they very sensitive to drought.

    Lrong~ Surprisingly, the Jerusalem artichokes did well and did not required that much attention. Now just to have more tubers and I have some new seedlings in the garden. But hope they will survived the drought season we are facing.

    KL~ I do hope some tubers were left unnoticed now as I don't have much stock to grow them. Mango is a favourite fruit of ours too.

    Malar~ We don't fertilise the tree often as there is too much to do in the garden which required more attention. The big trees are consider lucky if they are fertilise once in a year. But underneath there are many natural decaying stuff composting so in a way they been look after by the nature.

    Kitchen Flavours~ Once in Adelaide, I wish so much to have fruit trees growing in the garden. Now we have many but don't have much time to look after them.

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  33. Kelli~ Yeah sometime although the plant is fruiting they don't get much light to develop properly. So we tried to take some time to pruned at least one plant each month.

    Stephanie~ I am surprised that some of my Lilium bulb lay dormant for so long in the soil until I accidently dug them. I thought they were long gone.

    Lena~ The blue pea flowers is very easy to grow. They grow in most soil condition.

    Kumittyi~ Thank you must be very careful pruning the trees when most of them are so tall.

    Shaz~ Kacang telang needs a of light to grow well.

    James Missier~I like to mix the ornamental and edibles together in the garden.

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  34. Hi, can you grow globe artichoke there?

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  35. Can Someone tell me if Malaysian Esok goose-berries are eatable?

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