My Secret Garden (Jungle on A Windowsill) - Participant# 104 || 2004 Contest
Tropicas oasis
in Siberia
by Rinat Ziganshin (Siberia, Russia)
| previous participant | next participant | list of participants |
Email:
click on image to enlarge
Pictures published within Contest are property of the authors and can not be used without author's permission.
|
|
My name is Rinat Ziganshin, I am 18 y.o. I was born and grew up in Central Asia, in sunny Uzbekistan, likely all know, where such juicy and bright fruit as fig, apples, grapes and peaches grow. It's a mild-temperate climate area closer to subtopical, equal probably to zone 7-8 USDA. In Winter temperature dropped rarely down to -10°C (15F). |
| For some reasons, I had to move from there to cold Siberia, and here winters are as cold as -30°C (-20F). I was wondering if if was possible to amuse myself during long cold evenings, when it's so little of a sunsine, still dark by 8 am, and already dark after 5 pm... |  |
 |
The decision was made that I needed to create tropics or subtropics on my windowsill! I got some seeds out of dried fig fruit (dried fruit, snack type) and sown them. I was waiting for the germination about 3 weeks or hardly more, the seeds sprouted in October. |
|
They were sitting next to a frosty winter window... I waited for another 1.5 months, and plants have grown up, I realized they need more room! |
 |
 |
The solution came across my mind and I decided to make a miniature Hot House. I took 50 liter (15 gal) fish tank, it seemed to be enough. To provide a warm 'tropical' climate, I used a regular aquarium heater placed in a jar with water. |
| Here they are, the real Tropics on a Windowsill! The plants just loved it and started to grow fast and vigorously. Occasionally I opened the top glass, so the condensed water did not drip on fragile small leaves, fed up with a weak solution of liquid organic fertilizer. |  |
 |
The new mature type of leaves started to appear. |
This experience was a great reward for my efforts. Then I started to use more concentrated fertilizer soultion and it made my plants stronger and bigger.
After couple of weeks the stems became woody and started branching
 |
That was the best reward and Ablolute Holiday for 'Tropical Papa' (me) :-) |  |
 |
Sometime in January I re-potted my 'babies' into larger pots with potting mix, and since then they develop even more actively. |  |
My experience is not limited just with fig trees. I also grow many other tropicals from seeds!
|
|
Jacaranda was planted in summer 2003, now it's already 70 cm (30") tall! |
 |
I got this coffee plant as a tiny seedling. |
|
|
Strelitzia was sown in the spring 2003, and now look at it! |
 |
Solanum was sown in the spring 2003, when it sprouted it looked just like a tomato. It grew very slowly, bottom leaves yellowed all the tome, but finally it turned out to a nice plant that now looks like real Solanum.
|
And I got much more!
 |
Banana |
|
Lemon |
My advice for everyone who lives in cold climate is - try, and just in a couple of years you will have perfect mature exotic plants!