Vitex trifolia
I got these as cuttings from a local nursery. The mother stock was a large tree over two meters tall. Since I’d been a regular customer at the nursery and one of the bosses knows me, he gave me some cuttings.
It’s supposed to be a pretty effective mosquito repellent. The leaves can be burnt for that purpose too.
I treated the cuttings I got (some time back in March or so) the same as mulberry cuttings – I stripped off the outer bark about one inch in length from the bottom of each cutting, applied rooting hormone, and firmed the soil around the cuttings; after which they were left in a bright but shaded area. They root surprisingly easily.
The plant now.
Healthy leaves.
Another set of leaves.
Mulberry cuttings
Got these mulberry cuttings from Chawanmushi of GCS (very kind lady!) The ones in the pictures are their second time sending out shoots. I think it should be safe by now to let the shoots form instead of snipping them off to direct energy to root development. But if not, well, give them a few more days, and I’ll snip them off for my dad’s tortoises.
Red spider mites
Still around, but getting them firmly under control. I saw that my vitex trifolia’s lower set of leaves were infected, so I snipped them off, sprayed white oil on the mites, then did a photo-shoot of their tiny carcasses.
Insignificant-looking red dots – killers of plants.
Leaves scarred by the mites.
Compared with the healthy leaves.
Posted by blur ting on April 19, 2009 at 1:29 pm
My parents have two big mulberry trees at home laden with fruits. Last week, I decided to plant some stem cuttings too so I can bring them back to my apartment. It’s funny how we’ve always had mulberry around and yet I had never tasted one until that day. How we take our backyard plants for granted!
Posted by skyfiery on April 19, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Oooh cool. How much fruits do they harvest each season? We have a KL member from GCS who is the source of most of our cuttings for members in Singapore. She prunes her bushes regularly and on a good season, she can harvest up to 2kg of fruits, I believe.
=D
Mulberry leaves can be boiled for tea, too!
Posted by blur ting on April 20, 2009 at 8:30 am
We had NEVER harvested or even eaten any of the fruits. Such a waste isn’t it? It’s in the yard amongst our mango trees etc, it’s amost treated like a weed. Sometimes the workers trim it down mercilessly only to find it growing voraciously again. How we tok it for granted. Now that I’ve learned how precious it is amongst the gardening community, I shall pay more attention to it.
Posted by skyfiery on April 20, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Oooh. Now it’s the time to play catch-up! =D