🔥 How to grow your own Pepper plants. Five most valuable 'Pipers'.

ℹ️ Leafy Pepper plants - Pipers - are a source of black pepper and many other "peppery" flavors. These plants come from the Piperaceae family and are used as a spice for their pungent, peppery flavor. Don't confuse them with with Capsicum peppers, such as bell and chili peppers.

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  🔻Piper sarmentosum - Vietnamese Pepper, Lalot: it is eaten raw in salads or cooked with other greens or dishes, or wrap meats and cook in oven or on stove or grill. It is used medicinally in India and SE Asia. The root is also chewed with Betel Nut as a tonic and medicine. The leaves are used as food (food wraps) in Vietnam.
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  🔻 Piper nigrum - Black Pepper: While black and white pepper were already known in antiquity, but green pepper (and even more, red pepper) is a recent invention. Pungent and aromatic. The pungency is strongest in white pepper and weakest in green pepper, while black and green pepper are more aromatic than the white one. Moderate growing vine that can be grown on a trellis. Prefers shade to semi-shade.
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  🔻 Piper auritum - Root Beer Plant, False Kava-Kava: close relative of Piper methysticum (Kava-Kava) and probably has some similar tonic effects. It is used for its spicy aromatic scent and flavor, liken to root beer, or to anise-clove. Huge leaves can grow over a foot long. The leaves are used for flavoring, as wrappings for meats and tamales.
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  🔻 Piper betle - Betel leaf: very popular Indian spice with medicinal properties. Chewed with Betel Nut as a tonic and medicine. Great for wrapping food (similar to grape leaves).
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  🔻 Piper longum - Indian Long Pepper, Pippali, Bengal Pepper: edible and medicinal plant used as spice and in traditional Chinese medicine. Fruit used as a spice and seasoning. It has sweeter and less pungent taste than Black pepper. Highly valued medicinal plant used to treat respiratory infections, stomachache, bronchitis, cough, and much more.

Learn more:
📚 Vietnamese Pepper - Lalot food wraps BBQ recipe
🎥 Growing Lalot Pepper

🛒 Shop pepper plants: Pipers

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🌸❓How to grow everblooming orchids like these?

• 💋Orchids culture is different from garden ornamental plants. They are epiphytes, so you cannot use regular garden fertilizer on orchids, because they are very sensitive to salts.
• 💋Orchids need a special, acidic type of fertilizer, very mild in action.
• 💋Sunshine Boosters formula is exactly what orchids need. It is amino-acid based, very mild, and doesn't create nutrient lock up (building up salts is one of the biggest enemies of tender orchids). Sunshine Boosters Orchidasm Complete Feed is scientifically balanced orchid food that contains all necessary nutrients, including micro-elements, for healthy, happy, vigorous orchids.
• 💋 Sunshine Orchidasm can be used as often as daily with every foliage spray.
• 💋From our testing experience, after using Orchidasm Booster, orchids not only get happy and thriving - they also bloom more often - up to several times a year, shooting new flower spikes one after another (while normal blooming cycle for most orchids is once a year). It gets even better - the flower display lasts twice longer!

😊To enjoy beautiful Orchid flowers year around - treat them with Love, give them some Orchidasm!

📚 Learn more: Sunshine Orchidasm

🛒 Order Sunshine Orchidasm

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🐰🐁🐿🦫 How to protect fruit in your garden from greedy competitors

• 🥭 Mango season is here, and so are squirrels, bunnies, birds, rats, and raccoons... They also love the delicious fruit but don't like to share. So you may end up getting their leftovers if anything!


Here is how we protect our mango and avocado fruit - so far it works great:

• 💰💰💰 Fruit Protection Bags

These mesh netting bags/covers are made of strong nylon and have an easy drawstring, helping to protect developing fruit on a tree from insects, birds, and rodents. With drawstring closures on both ends, you can easily tighten bag around the fruit. Available from Amazon for only 15 cents a piece.

🥭 🥑🍒 Enjoy your fruit!

🛒 Dont's have your own mango tree? Plant one now to enjoy fruit tomorrow.

📚 Fun reading: Penelope, the Squirrel Cat

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🌸 How to grow Orchid Trees in pots

🦋 Everyone loves beautiful Orchid trees with butterfly-like leaves and colorful orchid-like flowers. They are widely used in Southern landscapes. But what if you don't have a room in your garden for another tree? Or what if it gets too cold in winter for a tropical Orchid tree? You can grow it in a pot!

📝 This is how to n enjoy the stunning flowers and foliage of Bauhinia right on your patio or balcony:

• 💠 Choose the right variety. Some species suitable for containers:

B. galpinii, B. madagascariensis, B. monandra, B. alba (candida), B. acuminata, B. bidentata, B. blakeana, B. grandidieri and many others.
• 💠 Choose the right pot: Select a large, sturdy pot with good drainage holes. Bauhinia trees have a vigorous root system
• 💠 Use a well-draining potting mix. We recommend a professional soilless mix: Sunshine Abundance.
• 💠 Sunny location: Position the pot in a location that receives full sun to partial shade. Bauhinia plants thrive in warm, sunny conditions.
• 💠 Watering: Keep the soil slightly moist but not waterlogged. Water the plant when the top inch of soil feels dry to the touch.
• 💠 Fertilizing: For the most profuse flowering like in the video, feed the Bauhinia with liquid Sunshine Boosters Megaflor year around, it's safe with every watering.
• 💠 Pruning: Prune the plant to maintain its shape and encourage bushier growth.
• 💠 Winter Care: If you live in a region with cold winters, bring the pot indoors or to a sheltered location to protect the plant from frost.

📸 Bauhinia monandra - Napoleons Plume Orchid Tree, starts flowering when only 2 ft tall and grows well in containers.

📚 Earlier posts on Bauhinias: 1 2 3
Bauhinias: trees with Orchid Flowers and Butterfly Wings

🛒 Shop Orchid Trees

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🍧 How to get big shade tree in one season with an ice cream on it? It's real!

• 🍦 Ice Cream Bean Inga is the ultimate fast-growing, shade-providing fruit tree with an irresistible twist! It not only transforms your yard into a cool, inviting oasis in record time but also produces fruit that kids (and adults!) can't get enough of!
• 🍦 Picture this: pods up to a foot long, bursting with sweet, creamy pulp that tastes exactly like ice cream!
• 🍦 Craving instant shade? Perfect for those sunny spots where you need shade, the Ice Cream Bean Inga rapidly unfurls its lush, umbrella-like canopy, creating a natural, leafy retreat in just one season!
• 🍦 With its delectable treats and speedy growth, this extraordinary tree is sure to be the highlight of your garden - where shade and sweetness meet!

🛒 Get shade with ice cream benefit

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🥭 10 steps: how to grow a mango tree?

Follow these steps and you'll be on your way to growing a healthy mango tree and enjoying delicious fruit:

1. ❗️ Choose the right variety that suits your needs and yard. See earlier posts:
2. most Favorite Mango Varieties
3. Dwarf "Condo" Mango
4. large and vigorous Mango varieties
5. 🌳 Buy a grafted tree from a reputable nursery to ensure better fruit quality and faster fruiting.
6. 🏡 Planting site: choose a sunny location with well-draining soil. Ensure there is enough space for the tree to grow, as some varieties can become quite large.
7. ⛏ Planting: dig a hole twice as wide and just as deep as the root ball. Mix in organic compost to enrich the soil. Place the tree in the hole, making sure the growth point is 1-2" above the soil line. Fill the hole with soil, pressing gently to remove air pockets. Water the tree thoroughly.
8. 💦 Watering: Water the tree regularly, especially during the first few weeks. Allow the soil to dry slightly between waterings to prevent root rot.
9. 🪵 Mulch: apply mulch around the base of the tree to retain moisture and suppress weeds. Keep the mulch a few inches away from the trunk to prevent rot.
10. 🧪 Fertilize: use a balanced fertilizer formulated for fruit trees. We recommend Sunshine Boosters Mango Tango formulated specially for mango trees.
11. ✂️ Prune to shape the tree to encourage good airflow and sunlight penetration, and to improve the yield.

🎥 Shaping your Mango Tree.

9. 🕷 Pest and disease control: monitor for scale and mealybugs and treat them with systemic pesticides. Keep an eye out for fungal diseases and treat them promptly with copper spray.

10. 🥭 Harvesting: Mangoes are ready to harvest when they change color and soften slightly.

🛒 Shop Mango Trees

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🐞 The truth about Ladybugs in your garden life

❓ Q: I have Ladybugs in my garden, I wonder if they are eating my plants? Do I need to get rid of them?

• 
  🐞 Ladybug (Harmonia axyridis) is, in fact, one of the best insects you can find in your garden, it is a natural predator that takes care of many bad bugs, including aphids
• 
  🐞 Keep Ladybugs happy and bring them to your garden!
• 
  🐞 Ladybugs actually are cultivated as natural pest control, and you can even buy them for your yard, instead of chemicals!

📸

1. Love life of Ladybugs
2. Ladybug larvae eating aphids.
3. One of our #PeopleCats, "innocent" Ladybug (a.k.a. Bug) is wondering who else she can bug next...


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How to grow Noni tree for fruit?

💊 The medicinal Noni tree (see our earlier post) is one of the most suitable fruit trees for potting culture. A 1-3 gallon size plant will flower and fruit for you within a year.

Noni's special features:

• 
  ✅ flowers and fruits at young age, nearly year around.
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  ✅ tolerates shade and grows large ornamental leaves in filtered light.
• 
  ✅ suitable for indoor culture

- easy in cultivation, drought and water tolerant, not susceptible to insects.
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  ✅ medicinal properties are endless and cannot be under-appreciated.
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  ✅ This plant can be grown in any climate indoors, and will produce fruit for you under minimal care. Just provide warm frost-free conditions, as this tropical tree is very cold sensitive.

📚 Learn more: Morinda citrifolia - Noni. Life Sustaining Plant

🛒 Order Noni Tree

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❓ How to make plants green? Give them some Superfood!

🍀 Pale or yellow leaves? Green veins on yellow leaves? How to improve that look? Any special fertilizer?

• 
  ✅ Leaf chlorosis or in other words "iron deficiency", especially during wet rainy weather - may be not harmful to the plant but bad for the looks.
• 
  ✅ This deficiency can be corrected with microelement applications - Sunshine Superfood.
• 
  ✅ Use Sunshine Superfood once a week to correct the iron deficiency that usually goes away within a month.
• 
  ✅ Then maintain plants health with monthly applications.
• 
  ✅ It is beneficial to use microelements in combination with regular applications of health boosting fertilizer such as Sunshine Robusta.

🛒 Shop Sunshine Superfood

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🦎 Iguana attacking! your plants... How to keep iguanas away?

Q: I am having a hard time keeping iguanas eating everything! Any solution to keep them out?

Iguanas may become quite a problem in the garden. Our first suggestion would be - get a Duck as we have (Duck Dobi), she is so dominant and keeps any wild animals away from the property, including gators... and cats! They are scared of her! Dobi thinks she owns the place.

Here are a few other ways to control iguana problem in your backyard:

• 
  ✅ Rid your lawn of dropped fruits. Iguanas love fruit. And they love low-hanging fruit or fruit that's easy to get to. If you have fruit trees, take the time to pick up your yard and dispose of any dropped fruit.
• 
  ✅ Keep a lid on a garbage can. Put your garbage cans in a place they can't get to, or put a cinder block on your can lid.
• 
  ✅ Do not leave pet food out. If you're putting a bowl of dog food or a plate of cat food out for your pets, you're inviting iguanas into your yard.
• 
  ✅ Fill iguana holes. Iguanas like to dig. Wherever you see a hole, fill it. Stuff rocks into the hole first, then fill it with dirt and top it with sod. The iguana may return to dig again, but he won't dig through large rocks.
• 
  ✅ Do NOT feed the iguanas. Don't be friendly with them, so they won't come back.
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  ✅ Wire netting around plants. You can use wire netting or screens to prevent iguanas from entering plants and shrubs.
• 
  ✅ Spray them with a hose. When you see an iguana in the yard, spray them with the hose. They also hate loud noises. Constant "harassment" can keep them from returning.
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  ✅ Keep your yard clean. Excessive overgrowth or yard storage are great places for iguanas to hide.
• 
  ✅ Do not leave food out, unattended. Iguanas are mainly herbivores but that doesn't mean they won't smell something good and want to eat it. They will TRY anything.

Hopefully these tips help keep your iguana problems to a minimum!

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