Thursday, April 8, 2010

Cashew

In case you're wondering what a cashew fruit looks like on the tree, here are some photos shot by my son while he was in India. According to him, the smell of cashew flowers is very sweet and fragrant. I can imagine...

This is the fruit of the cashew tree which will expand into a bulbous cashew apple which has a sweet smell and taste. The cashew nut, which is actually a seed, will grow at the end of the apple.

12 comments:

  1. Your son snapped these pictures? Very good shots! I must not miss the smell next time if I see one cashew tree.

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  2. I've never seen cashew fruit before! Amazing how different our food looks after it's been processed and all...

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  3. Yup, I think 90% of the population have eaten cashew nuts without knowing how they grow!

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  4. Interesting to see how cashew nuts grow on tree. I would love to smell its fragrant too!

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  5. Hi! Love your blog. I don't have any experience with gardening, but am deciding to try to plant some veg / flowers from seeds as a project with my little ones. How do you recommend planting tomatoes and bell peppers? Is there a particular type of soil I should use? Also, which one flower would be easy to grow from seeds? As I am a complete novice,
    any tips would be most welcome!

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  6. Stephanie - I always thought the cashew tree is pretty tall. Do you have any growing in Malaysia?

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  7. Hi Penny, thanks for reading my blog. Tomatoes are quite difficult to grow here. They tend to grow well in the beginning and then suddenly die when they start flowering. You will have better success growing cherry tomatoes.

    Sow some seeds in loose soil (you can get top soil or burnt soil mixed with compost). Don't sow too deep, just cover with a thin layer of soil on top. The seeds will germinate within a week. They are very delicate, so be very careful while watering. Once they are stronger, let them get more sun.

    You can grow bell pepper the same way too but the fruit will not be very big due to our tropical climate.

    Watch out for disease underneath the leaves of tomato and capsicum plants. Remove white flies or mites before they infect the entire garden.

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  8. Thanks for your reply! Your tips are really helpful. What is the best way to remove the white flies / mites? I am going to plant these new plants in a separate standalone trough, so hopefully they won't infect the rest of the little garden (if they get infected)!

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  9. Dear Penny
    You can use cotton bud to remove the pest. Try using a garlic spray on the plants to ward off more pests. Mash several cloves of garlic and soak them in water overnight. Strain out hte garlic the next day and pour the mixture into a sprayer. Spray on the leaves of your vegetables.

    If you don't want to use garlic, you can also make a spray using 3 tablespoon dishwashing detergent with 1/3 cup vegetable oil. Put a couple of spoonful into your spray, add water and shake. Then spray.

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  10. Thanks so much! We are going to the nursery today to get the stuff. Hope it works out.

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  11. I saw one in Ipoh before. But that was long long time ago. And I only recalled the fruit but not the flower ;-) So, this post was a good flashback for me and to see a cashew tree again. Thanks.

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