Gardening on Cloud 9 » Magic Bean

Magic Bean Day 102 – Enough Training for My Climbing Beans

Sandy — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:04:50 +0000

Since my magic beans have been climbing and wrapping around the water pipe pretty well, I decided to take away the training poles. I just love the leaves. It is awseome to see how my climbing beans have added more greens on the wall, creating a little vertical element in my balcony.

Magic Bean Day 54 – Training and Supporting My Climbing Beans

Sandy — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:02:47 +0000

It was really windy last week. The wind was blowing fiercely that my two pots of magic beans kept toppling so often that I finally gave up getting out to the balcony and trying to keep them straight. It was then I knew I should find a more suitable place for my climbing plants as soon as possible, somewhere with good support for the vines to grow, avoiding the plants from collapsing.

And I am happy that I have found a water pipe which I have never taken any notice of until now.

Haha! Anyways, I hope it works

To train the climbing plants, I had the vines wrapped around the water pipe, then gently tied the ends of the vines with a thread.

Here is where my magic beans used to be. As you can see, the balcony railings are covered with a transparent, banister guard (to avoid my playful yorkshire terrier from jumping out), which is too smooth for my climbing plants to hold on to for some support.

Magic Bean Day 33 – My Magic Beans Are Climbing!

Sandy — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 01:15:16 +0000

I didn’t pay much attention to my magic beans after I repotted my plants and put them in the balcony. And when I checked them out a few days later, I found that the “I Love You” bean and the “I Like You” bean had already grown so much.

It is not until later, after some quick research, did I learn that many climbing plants are actually fast growers. Hmm… may be my magic beans are ones of these fast growing climbers huh.

This is my first time growing climbing plants. In fact, I didn’t expect growing any climbing plant until now, when I saw the long tendrils of my magic beans twining with each other

Since I don’t want my magic beans to grow on the ground, I have added a pole next to each of my magic beans, and twined the plants around the poles. I don’t know how well will this work. In fact, I still haven’t yet decided where should I grow these magic beans. And what should I do if my magic beans outgrow the poles in another week? Hmm…

Magic Bean Day 26 – Repot to a New Home

Sandy — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:40:14 +0000

2 out of my 6 magic beans are growing very fast, and the crystal soil can no longer hold up these big and heavy plants stably anymore. It is definitely time for me to repot these magic beans into a bigger container. And instead of growing these plants indoor in crystal soil, I have let my magic beans grow in regular soil outside my balcony.

I didn’t check my magic beans for a few days after day 20. And when I did, I was surprised by how fast some of them had grown

It is so easy to repot house plants that are planted in crystal soil. It’s dirt-free, pest-free. And the soft, jello-like texture of the crystal soil beads makes cleaning the roots without breaking them a very simple task

I decided to keep only these 3 magic beans.

I have repotted my magic beans in plastic containers and put them outside my balcony.

Magic Bean Day 13 – Container Size Matters

Sandy — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:41:31 +0000

When planting magic beans with crystal soil during the beans’ seedling stage, it seems that the size and shape of the container matter much. I have grown my magic beans in four containers of different sizes and shapes. While three of these containers are smaller pots with a big flat bottom, one of them is a relatively bigger, fishbowl shaped one.

And from what I have observed so far, although the magic beans in the three smaller containers are thriving, those magic beans that are planted in the fishbowl shaped container are not doing well at all. Instead of growing their stems and first leaves, they spent their energy growing their roots, twisting around the seeds and getting all wild…

It appears that, when growing the magic beans with crystal soil, it is not suitable to use a big container. Unlike regular soil, crystal soil can be quite slippery and slide around quite freely.

In a big container, where the roots of the magic bean cannot easily find and grab onto a solid surface, the roots will keep on growing and growing, until the seed gets all exhausted one day and die in the soil…

Magic Bean Day 12 – First True Leaves

Sandy — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:36:13 +0000

My magic beans are growing fast. They grow so fast that I literally can see some differences within hours.

I checked the magic beans in the morning around 11:40am. Since the dried up seed coat on their tips were just loosely hanging there, I could easily take them away.

And when I checked my magic beans in less than 5 hours later, at 4:20pm, I could see their first true leaves already. It was so beautiful, like a butterfly spreading its wings for the first time when emerging from its cocoon.

Magic Bean Day 10 – My Magic Beans Are Growing!

Sandy — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:47:51 +0000

Finally, my magic beans have emerged from the crystal soil. And now I can see their faces No matter how many beautiful flowers and potted plants I have, somehow, I just feel very exciting and magical whenever I witness the process of a seed growing into a baby plant.

Some of my magic beans have emerged from the crystal soil since Day 7. This is the day right after I dug out my magic beans and planted them on the top layer of the crystal soil once I found that I might have planted the seeds too deep (check post: Magic Bean Day 6 – Some New Colors for My Crystal Soil). Lucky that I have done so early enough, else, my magic beans might have exhausted themselves and die in the crystal soil.

Apparently, the magic beans in this container are doing not as well as those in other containers. While pushing the seeds too deep into the crystal soil is a problem that causes some magic beans to grow better than others, I am suspecting that the size and shape of the container maybe another major factor of weak, unhealthy seedlings.

Magic Bean Day 6 – Some New Colors for My Crystal Soil

Sandy — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 08:20:12 +0000

Today when I checked my magic beans, I found that the crystal soil had turned even more brownish than before, despite that I had rinsed and cleaned them two days ago. So again, I took them out for another wash. And when I poured everything from the container into the drainer and saw my magic beans, I knew I had done something wrong.

All of my magic beans already have their roots emerged from their red seed coats. In fact, some of the roots have already grown very long and are getting quite wild – twisting and wrapping around the seeds. For the past two days, I probably had kept my magic beans too deep into the crystal soil. Even though, unlike normal soil, crystal soil allows sunlight to penetrate through, giving the magic beans a better condition for germination, the magic beans were too deep in the crystal soil that instead of spending their energy on pushing their seed leaves from the crystal soil, the magic beans had spent all their energy on growing roots.

Well, thinking in the positive side, at least I found this out soon enough that I could save a few of these magic beans just in time (hopefully). Thanks to the crystal soil. They make it easy for me to check on my magic beans. I can simply pick up a magic bean from the crystal soil, observe it, and stick it back into the crystal beads. It’s simple. It’s easy. And it’s dirt free too!

So now, I just put my magic beans on the very top layer of the crystal soil; let them partly covered with the crystal beads.

I am crossing my fingers now.

Magic Bean Day 4 – I See Some Roots!

Sandy — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:19:50 +0000

On Day 4, I finally could see some of the magic beans had their roots break-opened the red seed coat and got ready for more actions. And, the color of the crystal soil has changed. Some of these crystal beads have a brownish tone now. I am guessing that they are probably colored by the red seed coat of the magic beans.

Since the crystal soil was getting a bit cloudy anyways, I took out the magic beans and washed the crystal soil. However, I couldn’t wash away the brownish color on the beads. I guess the color will stay permanently. Well, this is fine with me.

I’ve Got Some Magic Beans!

Sandy — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:48:17 +0000

I bought some beans that have engraved words and pattern on the internet earlier. I think these beans are a great gift idea for kids, for parties, wedding favors, home decor, and such. While some call it the message bean, some others call it the magic bean. Anyways, beans are beans, and I just couldn’t wait to grow them when I got the beans in the mail a few days ago. And I wanted to try this with crystal soil too!

These beans are quite big, around 2-3 cm long and 1.5 cm wide, engraved with all kind of random messages from “I love you” to “Come on”, from “Happy” to a design of a patch of grass. Although it is not indicated in any of the websites that are selling the beans, I believe these are Canavalia gladiatas (aka sword bean or jack bean).

I am curious how well the beans can grow in crystal soil. So, instead of normal soil, I have planted the beans in four different containers with crystal soil instead.

Another thing that I really want to find out is the look of the beans when they break the surface. Will the message still be visible as the bean grows? Even though the online seller, whom I have bought the beans from, shows a photo of a bean that has grown a few inch from the soil with the message clearly shown, I am a bit doubtful since the beans I received have a red outer shell but the one in the photo does not.

I wonder whether the message on my beans will still be there as the beans grow and get lose from their red outer shell.

Anyways, I have planted the beans a few days ago. I will take photos and keep reporting the latest news of my magic beans. Cheers!