Root Awakening: Butternut pumpkin turns beige when ready to harvest

Elevate pumpkin to prevent pest access

My butternut pumpkin is some 20cm long. How do I know when it is ready to harvest?

Thomas Lee

Depending on the variety, your butternut pumpkin should be ready for harvest when its skin turns a uniform beige colour. The skin should be hard and not easily scratched. The stalk should be dry and woody.

Try to lift your pumpkin off the ground to prevent snails and slugs, which are active at night and during wet weather, from eating it.

Medicinal and edible plants

What is this creeping plant? Also, should I remove the plant with red stalks near my rosemary plant?

Elena Chan

The creeping plant with hairy leaves is Belosynapsis ciliata. It is a medicinal plant and is often erroneously named Tradescantia zebrina.

The plant with red leaves next to your rosemary could be the red version of the Chinese spinach, also known as bayam. You may have sown the seeds of this leafy vegetable at some point. It can be harvested and cooked.

It will grow much larger and block sunlight from the rosemary, which needs direct sunlight to thrive.

Snake plant needs direct sunlight

I water my snake plant once every three weeks. I keep it indoors. Are there ways to help it mature faster? Its leaves are small and do not seem to have changed much in size and appearance.

Amos Loh

Snake plants are generally slow growers. They thrive when they get filtered sunlight for at least four hours a day.

As such, do not grow it indoors in deep shade or its leaves will stretch and become floppy. The soft leaf tissues will also become prone to damage and rot easily.

Philodendron needs support to climb

Is this plant a Philodendron species and will it flower? Also, how do I prune it?

Adrian Ling

Your plant is a Philodendron cultivar. It is a vine whose aerial roots will grow onto moist wooden supports or even a concrete surface.

It is a large plant and should be allowed to grow if you want it to flower. Frequent pruning to control its spread may promote vegetative growth, as the plant strives to replace what has been removed.

To keep it tidy, you may want to guide and train the vining stems as they grow and extend.

White mass could be fungus

What is the white substance on my plant’s soil? Is it harmful?

Lim Yang Soon

Is the white mass a network of filaments or does it consist of spheres? If so, it could be a fungus that colonises wood-based compost, which is often added to garden beds as mulch or a soil amendment.

They generally do not harm large garden plants and will disappear when the organic material in the compost has completely broken down.