今年初めてサツマイモを育てています。冬の間にスーパーで買って美味しかった「五郎島金時」という品種で、ネット情報を見ながら芽出しをしました。例年ならパッションフルーツのツルを絡ませている、寝室横のキウイ棚を利用しています。下の写真左の鉢植えは、7月上旬に届いた日本ナツメの大苗ですが、以来、ひこばえが３本出てきたので根元がワサワサしています。
I am growing sweet potato plants in a bag on the balcony, next to my bedroom. I kept one of the sweet potatoes I bought in the shop during winter and managed to get new shoots, thanks to the information available on the internet. Normally, I use the kiwi scaffold for growing passion fruits but I wanted to try sweet potatoes this year. The pot on the left is the Japanese jujube plant that arrived in early July. Since then, 3 suckers have come out and the whole plant is thriving.
サツマイモのツルをバルコニー側から見るとこの状態。雨除けとしても効果を発揮しています。
Looking at the sweet potato plants on the balcony. The plants are quite useful not just for getting shades, but also preventing rain drops coming into the room when I leave the glass door open.
手前から、皇帝ナツメ、日本ナツメ、サツマイモのツルで狭いので、バルコニーの掃除のたびにうっかり枝を折ってしまいます。
From front to back, Emperor jujube, Japanese jujube, and sweet potato vines. The balcony is getting crowded and every time I clean the floor, I break a branch somewhere.
皇帝ナツメの苗は、今年のスターです。最終的に12個の収穫を目指して徐々に間引きをしてきました。あとは熟すのを待つだけ。
This is the Emperor jujube I bought in May this year. I have reduced the number of fruits to 12 and now waiting for them to mature. Based on the information on the internet, this variety's fruits are likely to mature late in the first year (early November), but they ripen in October as the plant grows older.
日本ナツメは庭木として植えたい樹形です。
This Japanese jujube plant would look very nice as an ornamental garden tree.
８月の開花からの幼果が、この高温気候でよく育っています。
These are young fruits from the flowering in August - good fruit setting thanks to the summer heat.
これは７月の開花からのもの。４個だけ残りました。実のサイズには決して期待できないけど、大好きなナツメなので味見が楽しみです。
This is one of the 4 young fruits from the flowering in July. Japanese jujube fruits are small but I love jujubes of whatever sizes.
バルコニーの東側に置いてあるオリーブに水やりをしていたら、床に黒いペレット状のフンが沢山落ちていました。アゲハの幼虫のフンを何倍にもしたようなものです。
As I was watering the two olive pots on the east side of the balcony, I saw a lot of black pellets, resembling the droppings of butterfly grubs. However, these were much larger than those of butterflies.
アゲハ幼虫の鮮やかな緑色のムシを探しても全く見つからないので、見方を変えてオリーブの葉っぱ色で形が違うもの、と思って目を凝らしたら、いました！
Since I was looking for a bright green grub like those of butterflies, I just could not find anything. It took me several minutes to find this culprit - a huge one
かなり大きくてグロテスクです。即、除去。オリーブの葉を食べる幼虫って初めてですが、もしかしたらすぐそばに置いてあるフィンガーライム目当てにやって来たチョウがついでに産卵した？
Gross! I removed it immediately, literally 'with a vengeance'. I have never heard of butterfly grubs eating olive leaves. I have finger lime plants next to these olive plants. Can it be that a butterfly made a mistake?玄関の冷たいタイルの上でくつろぐタイガ。
Taiga relaxing on the cool tile floor of the porch.
