What a Toad!

Last week while at my Bintulu eco-farm, I was dumbfounded to see this strange creature. I was not sure whether it was a frog or a toad. Now in Kuching I checked many of the books at the libraries here to find a similar picture. None looked similar. When I checked on Google images no similar image appeared. OK, this could be my special find.
On that day( 5th March) I was having my normal morning walk when my eyes were caught by a tiny movement on the earth road. I knelt to see this tiny toad and ran to my chalet to get my camera h/p N93i. Luckily it was still there when I returned. For one thing this stubby bodied creature could only make a distance of about 10 cm per jump probably due to its short hind legs. I read that toads have poisonous glands behind their eyes. Could it be that nature has 'created' the two big eyes on its back to scare potential predators? Throwing signals like ' See, I'm a bigger toad with loads more poison on my back. Be warned!'. Notice too how well camouflaged is the overall colour and design of its back to the colour and tiny pebbles on the dirt road. Nature truly amazes me.

Gift for the New Year

On this last day of the year, I took ample time to walk around my eco-farm . I had the best gift for the new year. From the hundreds of fruiting oil palm trees and for the first time around, I managed to gather the first batch of ripe fruits since they were planted from the tiniest of seeds in December 2006.



The above bunches came from five trees. A morning harvest of one ripe bunch per tree, makes my day even though they are just 5 trees out of 600. Average weight of a bunch was 3 kilos. Today's first harvest weighed 15.5 kilos. This is so important for me because I have spent hundreds of thousands of Malaysian Ringgit to develop the farm over the last three years. Currently there are 600 trees in different stages of fruiting covering an area of 10 acres.
My excitement today is beyond words. It is my fervent hope that the bunches will grow heavier over the coming year and many, many years to come, albeit with more fertilisers and appropriate agronomic and other cultural practices. For those who are not familiar with the oil palm tree you may like to note that the economic life of an oil palm tree is 25 years, after which they are replaced by re-planting programmes or the holding may transform into other profitable land use e.g. an eco-resort or a housing development area. At the peak of growth ( 10-15 years) one ripe bunch may weigh between 25-40 kilos. In other words my pension are my trees.

Close-up of a 30 months old oil palm tree ( Elaeis guineensis) at my eco-farm ( Tree tag no: ZA-18) bearing the first ripe fruit bunch, weighing 3.5 kilos. On the average one tree may have 10 - 20 bunches at differing stages of inflorescence and ripening. Normally you can undertake two rounds of harvest a month/tree.

Evening Downpour

It happened so suddenly. A minute ago I saw in the distance dark clouds heralding a tropical rainstorm , the winds blowing from a south-westerly direction. Within seconds they streaked over my farm and then the thunderous sound of the downpour sent my two cats scattering under the sofa.

The Blessed Rain

A Panaromic Sunset to end the Muslim Year

Today, 28th December,2008 is the last day of the Muslim year 1429 H. I watched this sunset over at my farm this evening and managed to capture its panoramic colours with my cameraphone N93i. It was such a wonderful and inspiring moment.

Watching the Banana Inflorescence

In my eco-farm, I have about 12 varieties of bananas that produce fine edible fruits of various tastes and texture. I hope to get more better fruiting varieties in future.  Lately, I have been watching the flowering stages of one particular banana 'tree'.  I type 'tree' to differentiate the banana from other kind of trees.  The mature banana 'trunk' consists of concentric tubular leaf-sheaths. What appears as the banana stem is actually the bases of the leaves fitting closely together.  Newer large leaves are formed, each with a longer sheath than the last, until the full length of the plant is reached.

Below are the exciting moments.

From the very end of the stem the flowering spike thrusts upwards.

The terminal spike is enclosed by large overlapping purplish bracts, now bends over.

One bract opens out from the terminal spike to expose the first female flowers.

The female flowers producing the fruits appear in stages and are arranged in a hand-like formation.  After successive groups of female flowers have appeared, the remaining terminal spike consisting of closely fit bracts contain only male flowers.  The pendulous male tip of the inflorescence is called the 'jantung' in Malay.  The jantung is edible and many eat it as salad or cook them as vegetables with coconut milk.

A CU view of the female flowers. Note one free petal ( white in colour) and a gap between it and stamens above.  At the base of the stamens nectar is produced oozing a sour-sweet smell, attractive to the bats which lick them normally in the evening hours.( Of course with their claws stuck to the bracts,hanging upside down)

To cut the short story short, I move over to the next tree and to show kind folks around how a bunch of the banana fruits looks in mid air.

Enjoy your bananas.

P.S. In cultivated species, the pollination of female flowers are unnecessary because they acquired the habit of developing without pollination. Anyway, bananas have no seeds except their wild cousins.

Intermediate Harvests

The above picture shows this month's major mainteneance works to the oil palm trees here. The first fruits are removed together with the leaf bases to encourage better and bigger fruits in future fruiting. However, following the concept of an eco-farm with biodiversity values, other harvests are possible, which I call intermediate harvest as described below.

While maintenace works at our eco-farm continues as scheduled, we are happy with the prospect of intermediate harvests. At the lower left hand corner of the picture above the leafy vegetable called 'cekur manis'( Sauropus androgynus(L.) Merr.) eaten for its young leaves, have been harvested many times already.This hardy shrub plant will stay as long as the oil palm leaves do not over top them. On the upper right hand corner is seen an 'iron wood tree' ( Mesua ferrea) that has been gradually trenched for many months already and ready to be moved out because it is already big and in competition with the oil palm tree's growth. However the iron wood tree can be rebagged and nursed further to be sold as an instant tree ( estimated price RM100/no). Earlier in the month, all the oil palm trees at our farm have their first line of leaf bases and first fruits removed to encourage better and bigger sizes for the next or later batches of fruits. Hopefully we can start selling the fresh fruit bunches by year's end.

Oil Palm cultural practice

The oil palm trees (Elaeis guineensis) at our eco-farm have been fruiting for about four months ago. However as is the cultural practice, it is advisable to remove the initial fruits to encorage more even and better( bigger) fruits later.  This week this exercise in abolishing the first batch of fruits has been completed. To do this the first ring of leaf bases (that hold the fruits) have been chiselled out as seen in the above picture. This is done once in the life of the palm tree. Note: Age of oil palm trees in our farm now is 20 months after planting.

A Panoramic View of Eco- Farm

On a Sunday morning ( 29 June), I thought I would take a stroll up the Vegetation Island No.1 hill top. I know from there I could get a good panorama of the eco- farm. These shots are taken using my camera hand phone N93i series.
Below is the view towards the west. In the foreground is the forested area I preserve as Vegetation Island No.1, where I was busy the whole of last week planting heliconias in the area as part of a wider landscaping project called Heliconia Valley Project.

View towards west:


View towards the south:
The vegetation island is on the left of the picture. The middle ground shows the valley section.

View towards the east:

The huge trees on the left of the picture have been there for more than 60 years ago. The foreground shows the leafy fronds of the oil palm trees, which are the main crop planted all over this eco-farm.

View towards the north:

The northern section of the farm has been cleared and is planned to be planted soon. The new planting area is about 4 acres in size.

A very misty morning

This is the scene at my eco-farm at about 7.00 am today (25 June) . The heavy mist disappeared around 8.00 am. Then throughout today, the weather was very heaty and had to find work under shade. For that reason we worked in the vegetation island no. 1 area, to continue the underbrushing works to the jungle footpaths in the Heliconia Valley project.

Heliconia collection

As part of the landscaping plan for my eco-farm, I have included a section for my collection of heliconias. It is envisaged that the area will ultimately develop into a 'heliconia valley' where one can enjoy the the stark beauty of heliconia colourful bracts.

Today I cleared the footsteps of a path in the valley area and trimmed the heliconia clumps along the way. Below is the scene of my morning workout. Despite being a Sunday, I enjoyed the morning hours clearing the undergrowth and overgrown grasses and sweeping off the fallen leaves.

The long string of pinkish bracts of heliconia 'sassy pink' below are a real treat. Some can be more than a meter long.

The deep red lipstick colours of the heliconia stricta below is very attractive. It is for their colourful bracts ( 'false flowers') that heliconias are better known.

And finally, before the day is done, I displayed four varieties of heliconias into this glass fish bowl.