December 18, 2012

Two days after their first watering the specimens still have moist soil and noticeable new green growth.

Repurposing a blog

This blog was originally purposed for informing the small clientele of the even smaller plant nursery, Plant Diversity, I owned and operated from 2009-2012. You can tell I wasn't very interested in updating it.

I will be devoting the next few months of blogging to a science experiment. The science experiment in question is this one that has been floating around on Facebook for a while now. http://usahitman.com/microwave-test/

I do have a preconceived notion that filtered watered would benefit a plant just as much as microwaved water; however, my experiment will not be trying to prove this. My experiment will be to see what happens when I grow plants of identical species using water "harvested" in different methods. Sadly, I have no access to filtered water. This instantly changes my experiment from the experiment being passed around on Facebook. 

The water being used in my experiment will be harvested in the following manners.

-Well water from the tap I drink from allowed to sit at room temperature for 15-60 minutes.

-Well water from the tap I drink from boiled in an electric kettle, then allowed to sit at room temperature for 15-60 minutes.

-Well water from the tap I drink from boiled in the microwave, then allowed to sit at room temperature for 15-60 minutes.

-Rain, snow, creek or river water collected from what looks to be an untainted source that is then allowed to sit at room temperature for 15-60 minutes

I will water the four specimens with a 1/2 cup of water for the start of the experiment. The quantity and frequency will fluctuate in the following days and weeks due to atmospheric and vitality differentials of the four specimens. The alloted time for the water to acclimate to room temperature will vary as well, yet all waterings will still be done at the same time to ensure all specimens get water at the same temperature.

The species I have chosen as my four specimens is the common green onion. I bought these plants at the grocery store and used them culinarily. Once they were cut down close to the white bulb I saved them until I was ready to start my experiment. I decided on using this monocot as opposed to the dicot in the original experiment for its ability to withstand the cold and dark situations that will occur in my house.

HYPOTHESIS

I believe there will be no noticeable differences in plant growth or health among the different forms of watering.

PROBLEMS I PLAN ON ENCOUNTERING

-I live in a small cabin rural Norway. It is winter time and my house is heated by a wood stove. I plan on encountering an occasional cold house. 

-I may live south of the Artic Circle, but I still have very short days and the winter solstice is still five days away.

-Lack of uniformity of the drainage in the makeshift pots I am using to contain the specimens. This would be unavoidable even with traditional factory made liners due to how the soil settles. Watching the watering will be key to correcting this problem.

HOW WILL I CALCULATE MY RESULTS?

I do not plan on measuring plant growth to determine which watering method is best. Since all of my specimens are currently at different stages of growth I think  they should be evaluated on a three point scale. These points will be...

-Healthy

-Unhealthy/sick

-Dead

It should be noted that in the first two to three weeks of experimentation we should not attempt to calculate any data on the viability of the plants. Even under uniform settings any of the seven specimens have the potential of not growing roots and possibly dying. In the event of a death I will replace the specimen with a fresh one and attempt its method of watering once more.

The pots I am using-

The onions I am using-

The soil I am using-

The drainage holes-

The potted specimens (I purposely put the single crappy specimen in the container with percipitation. The other six were chosen at random)-

December 16,2013

The first collection site for percipitation-

Close to one hour after water collection-

It's been ten minutes since watering. No observable changes to report.

Peppers, Eggplant, new herbs & MORE Tomaters!

Finally! It's been quite the wait. This week we will be bringing the first round of peppers and eggplants to market! The just couldn't resist growing after almost two weeks in the 70's and many days of sun. I think I may have grown as well.
Some of the new plant varieties I will be bringing to market Thursday the 31'st will be
Long Thin Cayanne, Ancho Magnifico, Golden Star Bell Pepper, Black Beauty Eggplant and culinary Sage to name a few off the top of my head. Round 2 of Creole & Cherokee Purple tomatoes will be there as well.
It has been perfect weather for gardening & my garden is reaping the benefits.
These are pictures of two stunners in my garden.
Mayapple Podophyllum peltatum
Yellow Columbine Aquilegia chrysantha

Tomatoes

It's been a bit too long. We had and are still having an unusually cold south Louisiana winter. That hasn't stopped me from going nuts with the Spring vegetables! We are growing a mother load of tomatoes, peppers, squash, eggplant, gourds & pumpkins! For now we only have tomatoes ready for sale. If the sun would poke its head out & the temperature would rise to 60+ we would be able to bring peppers quickly. Till that day, this is what we are looking at...
TOMATOES
-Anna Russian 70 days Ox heart variety dark red -purple hue 1 pound tomatoes indeterminate habit
-Black Krim 75 days Beefsteak. Dark hue. Indeterminate habit.
-Brown Berry 72 days cherry tomato indeterminate habit.
-Caspian Pink 80 days Beefsteak. Indeterminate habit.
-Cherokee Purple 80 days Beefsteak. Purple hue. Indeterminate habit.
-Creole Tomato 78 days Beefsteak. Indeterminate habit.
-Fuzzy Black 70 days a sport of Anna Russian that may have a slightly fuzzy flesh.
-Martino’s Roma 75 days 4oz. Roma meaty. Determinate habit.
-Principe Borghese 80 days Grape Sauce/Drying Tomato. Determinate habit.
-Purple Russian 80 days Large Roma great for sauce & salad. Purple hue. Indeterminate habit.
-Stick Tomato 65 days small globe tomato. Bizarre form. Indeterminate habit.
-Viva Italia 85-90 days Sauce Tomato. Firm and juicy fruits ripen uniformly and store well for 2-3 weeks. Determinate habit.

These are all the varieties I have started. Principe Borghese, Viva Italia & stick tomatoes will not be available for another week or three. Everyone else is ready to take home!

CACTUS AND SUCCULENT SHOW AND SALE!

I had a great idea at last Thursday's market. For some reason there was a lack of interest at my table and a great interest at others. I decided a great way to gain interest is to bring some interesting plants from my succulent collection and make it BIG! I plan on bringing some of my show plants, large mother plants (not for sale) and quite a few smaller plants (for sale). The sale will probably take place on December 17th at the Mid-City Green Market from 2:30 to 7:00. The plants I will be selling will most certainly be a limited quantity. If you are a serious collector or would like to give an unusual plant as a Christmas gift try and get to the Can Company early! Feel free to drop by even if you are not interested in a purchase. Keep checking back for updated info.
Thanks!
Mammillaria threase & assorted cacti
Astrophytum myriostigma
Mammillaria ritteriana

Cripplers!

I finally got motivated to start all of my fall veggies...again. I probably sewed 10,000 seeds since the last day in July & I had every single one of them die on me about 2 weeks ago. Thank goodness for cool weather! I just got back from a trip to the Texas Hill Country! While I was there I received a large load of Horse Crippler Cactus (Echinocactus texensis). I will be bringing five specimens to market on Thursday. Four are in one gallon pots & one is in a five inch. These are some superb looking cacti. They are very hardy & easy bloomers in spring. They also grow exponentially faster with Louisiana's rain fall than central Texas'. Next Spring I hope to bring some of the larger specimens. When I say large I mean LARGE! Some of these plants are having trouble fitting in a five gallon pot!
In other news...Last week at the market I brought a small collection of seeds for sale. They are all seeds I harvested from plants I grew then packaged them myself. They have been stored properly for the last year & germination rates should be high. This Thursday I plan on bringing seeds to California poppies, Liatris, Texas Bluebonnet, Love in a mist and Red buckeye. The buckeye seeds were collected in the last few days. They are ready to be sewn immediately! Hope to see you at market.
Jesse

bushy germanders!

WILL THIS RAIN STOP?! It has been unseasonably warm even by south Louisiana standards as of late. It is becoming near impossible to grow cool weather crops successfully without a green house. Not to mention every time we get these monsoon style rain storms it washes all the soil and seeds out of my seed flats. I'm giving up until we get some cooler dryer weather. On the positive side...I am going to be selling loads of beautiful one gallon bush germanders (Teucrium fruitcans) this week! I will also be pushing some thin but still stunning Gulf Mulhy grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris) along with some three gallon Tulip Poplars (Liriodendron tulipifera) Not much else to report. I have made a few trips to the other location this week. All my one gallon Echinacea, Rudbeckia and Penstemon cobeas will be over wintering there. Hope they like it! I don't know if I have made a rant about the huge cache of buckeye nuts I've come across. Well, they are germinating like mad right now & I am half way pleased to announce that I have a good handful of albinos!!!!!!!!!! I have a feeling they will die do to a lack of chloraphil though. I'll share pictures.