My Great Discovery of KANGKONG

Dear Greensters,

A 'trumpet' shaped white flower of Kangkong. So cute!

It's PATRICIA. Nice to see you all here!

Well, it's been two months since I left my Kangkong without harvesting it. It has taken over almost my entire small patch of garden. It can grow longer and make some segments. Each segment grows another stem and leaf. In every new segment, grows another root. The more roots they have, the more water it can absorb.

One day, I found a little, white flower blooming from the bud and the shape resembles a trumpet. It was the first time I ever actually saw a flower blooming from a Kangkong plant. This flower blooms in the morning and turns into a flower bud in the afternoon till the next morning. 

The flower buds of Kangkong

From the flower, I just knew that it was a Land Kangkong. So, is there another type of Kangkong? Yes, there is. Actually, there are two types of Kangkong: 

• Land Kangkong or 'kangkung darat' in Indonesian language. The scientific name is Ipomoea Reptans. 
• Water Kangkong or Water Spinach or 'kangkung air' in Indonesian language. The scientific name is Ipomoea aquatica. 

How can we tell the differences between two types of Kangkong?

• Land Kangkong: the color of the flower is white and it has long and pointed leaves.
• Water Kangkong: the color of the flower is reddish white and it has bigger leaves than Land Kangkong. 

  

  Each segment of the stem grows roots

There will be a "fruit of Kangkong" appearing pretty soon since it has flowers already. Inside the fruit, there will be three seeds. The small fruit is only 10 mm long and the shape is like an oval. I can't wait to see my Kangkong have fruits!

Can you see the Grasshopper family here?

After a couple of days, I was shocked because my Kangkong plant was dry and just torn off here and there. After observing it for a while longer, I realized there's a family of grasshoppers. There's a mom, a dad and 5 little grasshoppers. It took me a while to realize that there were grasshoppers there on the leaves (they are eating the leaves!) because they camouflage with the color of the plant which is green. I didn't kill the grasshoppers because if I kill them, they will all die. But if I let them eat my plant, my plant could grow again. I heard that I should plant some garlic as a natural pesticide because the grasshoppers do not like it. Let's try it one day. :) 

Thanks for reading. 

Sincerely,

Patricia TGTI