The chayote fruits that have been sitting on my windowsill since the beginning of the month are germinating. Progress is slow – this is the most advanced of the four – but they are all showing signs of life. A close-up examination is tricky without thick gloves or a pair of tongs to manhandle them with, as the spines are quite nasty.
The next stage is to pot them up, but I will give them a bit longer to grow proper shoots before I do. Then they need to sit somewhere cool until it’s planting time. That might be the Grow Dome, but as of yesterday morning it and the rest of the garden are buried under inches of snow, so it may have to be the old kitchen (now the utility room to visitors but my garden room to residents) which is north facing and unheated.
The new kitchen has a much better view of the patio, so I am hoping that some of my plants will enjoy growing there over the summer and make it look pretty. If the chayote survive until planting time they will be a prime candidate for the spot, as the shade cast by various buildings may fool them into believing the days are shorter.
When I put the chayote on the windowsill I didn’t know which end they would sprout from, so I laid them on their side. They shoots are coming from the bottom (i.e. the non-stem end, probably the blossom end), for reference.
Heiko wrote:
...on Sun, Dec 19 '10 (888 days ago)