...and they say it's going to rain today

Warm ocean air blowing in fairly firm this morning. The leaves are rustling. It's supposed to rain. Currently, there is a 40% cloud cover, which still has some peach left in it from the sunrise.

Noticed some scales on bamboo culms which I sprayed with a light bleach / water mix.

I'm loving my new soil mix. It's still holding some moisture from Monday's watering, but it is not compacted from the moisture. Again, that's roughly a 1/3 (x3) perlite, peat, and pool sand. The peat here is the MiracleGro moisture control potting soil which by itself has way too much peat in it. I did not find it to be 'controlled' in the way it held (or didn't hold) moisture. The rather course pool sand balances out the sponginess of the peat and the coarseness of the perlite. It drains almost immediately and retains moisture--  though, again, my mix is fairly fast to dry in hopes of beating out rot from my efforts to raise rhizomatous begonias in this humid land.

Here is the same plant 7 days later

The dragon fruit has begun to send up new shoots. They seem to be able to sprout from any edge of the branch.  One large piece that I put in with the orange rotted, or was otherwise killed as it's turning to pulp. I have enough other pieces to hopefully get my masonry partially covered with this interesting plant. The dragon fruit are climbing cacti of the genus Hylocereus and are native to Mexico, Central and South America.

Not in the tropical garden. But check out the cosistency of the 333 mix.

I've included this picture of a cactus bowl to give you an idea of the consistency of my 333 soil mix. Cactus are not tropical looking and really should be used very cleverly if at all in the tropical garden. I'm trying out a few just for fun.