To Bee or not to Bee............

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based gardening blog about growing vegetables in containers in the UAE and the Arabian Gulf region.

Ok, so I think I'm a comedian.  Anyway, I recently received a comment the other day on an older blog I did in April 2011 - What vegetables should you plant.    Bradder asked:  Hi, I have a question for you - I was wondering whether I have to pollinate my flowers by hand?  I haven't seen much in the way of bees etc (I'm in the Springs) and concerned now my aubergines and tomatoes are flowering that they will come to naught!  Thanks.

This brings up a point that I would like to mention.  Do not kill ANY honey bees as they are having a tough time around the world surviving for some mysteries reason as I have blogged about in the past here and here.   If some bees decide to make a home in your garden - just leave them alone and they won't bother you.  The little local arabian bees are very docile and you will learn to be able to get very close to them to observe them and they don't mind.  The only exception to this is if you have small children that can reach a bee hive and are too young to understand that the bees can hurt them - then try to find a way to make them leave without killing to many of them.

So, I'll get off the soap box now.  If you do not have any bees buzzing around your vegetables flowers then YES you will need to start buzzing around  some of your vegetables yourself if you want a better harvest.  It might bee a good idea to dress the part so your plants do not get confused as to who is handling their reproductive bits.

But, before you start buzzing your vegetable plants you need to know a few things first to take the sting out of it. :-)

Blossom Drop

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

As many of you know we have had some rather cool weather lately.  Some of you may have noticed some of the flowers on your tamaters and peppers have fallen off  or have not been producing as many since the start of the cool weather.  Both low & high ambient tempertures can cause Blossom Drop resulting in lower yields.  However, temperature is not the only cause of  Blossom Drop  But, it is the one factor I am going to blog about today.  If you would like more info about "Blossom Drop" and it causes then click here & here.

Pepper Plants

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

Today I would like to share an email I recieved from Dan (with his permission) about his problem with his pepper plants.  I hope this may be of help to others with a similiar problem or someone can post a comment that knows what problem Dan is having and can share it with all of us.

Quick Tip #2 - Pepper Pinching

Howdy,

Happy New Year and welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.  I came across something today I wanted to share now as some of you may be doing the same as me. 

If you are letting your pepper plants flower to soon then you could be stressing the plant of nutrients and growth.   As the plant is now concentrating on making peppers instead of establishing itself as a heathly plant then you could find smaller yields and fruit size.

Update

Howdy, welcome to my blog. 

Been away for a couple of weeks and returned to find the few plants I had planted before leaving are still alive and doing well.  They were watered properly this time.  I planted some tamters, eggplant and a chili pepper.

Propagating Pepper Seeds

Howdy,  welcome to my blog.

I have had problems in the past couple of years with getting my bell pepper plants to germinate.  I planted them in small seedling pots and waited for them to pop up but not much ever happened and the few that did come up the Bulbuls ate them.  So, I thought I would try something new this year!!!