Spider plant vs Mother-in-Law's Tongue: Day vs Night
dert17
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
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spider plant adventures
Comments (11)Thanks all for your wisdom. =) It has been a wild adventure but I feel so bad that all those little spiderlings died in the process. More to come, eventually. The survivors are doing well in a mix of perlite, potting soil, and bark chips. There's a little floor-dry in there, too, but emphasis on the little. They'd be doing even better if my cats didn't keep breaking into their grow space. I do have a few looking very happy in plain perlite, so yes, that works. One of the cats gnawed off a couple babies without much for roots that I could see. To see what would happen I put them on a plate tucked under some moist moss from the yard (frog moss maybe) and they grew roots! They're healthy and look neat with the moss, too. Back when this began, I had so many that keeping them outdoors was the best option. It was warm then, at first. The egg cartons were the recycled paper kind. I set them so that the base of one sat in the lid of another. I watered them enough to moisten the whole thing and then waited for it to dry before watering again, about every other day. As the roots grew they pushed the crowns up rather than growing much into the paper. Transplanted the tallest ones first. They did great until nights got cooler, and the floor-dry, and then the frost... Towards the end of the egg-carton stage, the cartons got spotty with a little mold. Expected mold earlier than it happened, though. While floor-dry seems alright as a mix-in, I think you're right about it not letting the roots breathe. The feel of it seemed gravelly enough but it stayed too damp and probably compacted more than I thought. Purpleinopp - Whenever my grandmother gives me a tour of her garden she shows off the bucket she uses to collect condensation from her wall-mounted AC unit. The water definitely makes a difference....See MoreOff topic - Florida vs NY Orchid Growing??
Comments (37)Born and raised in northern IL, currently residing in central IL... we did pick up one gardening zone moving south a bit. I'd give anything to live in central coastal Cali, but I'd never get my husband to agree to moving. He claims to like the winters, and does have a good reason... the cold kills off a lot of bad things, and keeps nature genetically strong. I'll buy that, but I still don't enjoy the bone-chilling cold! I get chilled in fall and don't thaw until spring! And the older I get, the more the cold bothers me physically... I'm old enough to dislike winter! The only way we'd ever move to warmer climes would be if our children moved their families there first... only then would my husband agree to a move. So, it looks like I'm stuck gardening in IL... where I must emulate a warm climate to grow orchids and other tropicals, dragging them out for summer and back in for winter... but I do get to enjoy lilacs, peonies, tulips and other bulbs and plants that are deciduous or require a chill in order to bloom. I guess it's not so bad... we have white Christmases, germ killing cold, and can enjoy plants that need the lower temps... and summer brings all the warmth and humidity that makes the garden bloom so beautifully... It may make orchid growing a challenge... but real gardeners aren't afraid of a challenge, and in fact, we welcome the chance to prove our prowess! What the hey, my Epi is still alive... I must be doing something right! :-)...See MoreWhat is worth it?! Canning vs. Freezing
Comments (20)I think it's all a matter of personal preferences. First, if you don't have a pressure canner you are pretty much limited to canning fruit, pickles, relishes, jams and spreads. Low acid vegetables, dried beans, meats, those all need a pressure canner. I can a lot of things, including some beef, because I just don't have freezer space. I have two freezers and I'm not going to buy another one! I grow my own organic and grass fed beef and my own pork. I have free range chickens for eggs and have a huge organic garden, so I harvest a lot of different things. Some things I just don't like canned, like asparagus. That gets frozen. So does corn, blueberries, strawberries, sweet cherries and rhubarb. Pretty much everything else gets canned because the freezer space is precious and when I get a power outage here in the great white north, I won't lose the canned stuff. It's also very convenient to grab a jar of soup off the shelf to take to work for my lunch (yes, I have a full time job in addition to the farming and gardening, LOL). Canned beef with a jar of canned potatoes and carrots makes a "quick and dirty" stew by just thickening the broth from the beef, dumping everything into the gravy and heating it. I also dehydrate things and they take a lot less storage space. I put my dehydrator in the garage and dry hot peppers, I learned the hard way not to do that in the kitchen! I dried apples, zucchini chips for soup, shelled beans and beef jerky last year. There are several options for everything and one has to figure out how they use their finished product and what they like before deciding which processing method is best for any given item. As for "worth it", that's subjective also. I grow that big organic garden and can my harvest because I wanted to know what I was putting in my kids' mouths. Now I have grandkids and I still want to know what they are eating and what I'm eating, so the work and time and expense is "worth it" to me. Peaches now, that's something else. My peach tree is only three years old and has about a dozen peaches, the first time it's borne fruit. Peaches are $12 a half bushel here, usually, and I'll get a quarter bushel for the freezer for pies, but that's about it. Dad used to want peaches to can, even at $24 a bushel. He got between 36 and 38 pints from a bushel, so that makes the cost 63 cents a pint, plus 16 cents for a lid/flat to seal it and a few cents for sugar, gas to run the stove for the canner, water and electricity to run the pump, etc. Add several hours worth of time and those peaches are 80 or 85 cents per pint plus your time. Definitely not worth it for me because I don't LOVE peaches. Definitely worth it for Dad because he did and he found the commercially produced peaches stayed "too hard", he liked the softer consistency of home canned. It's all in your perspective.... Annie...See MoreBetter Boy vs Brandy Boy
Comments (55)My first year growing Brandy boys. I am more than willing to overlook the catfacing and cracking on these lovely beefsteaks. Most have been just under 1b. Tonight's dinner was just shy of the 2lb mark and really hit the spot in terms of flavor and texture. I like them sliced with unrefined sea salt. My daughter ate 1/4 slices like a pizza. This Whopper has been harvested shortly after summer solstice, which may help explain the size. Growing in Israel where climate is similar to zone 10. I like these way better than the famous and excellent sungold cherry tomatoes in the same row. Thin skin, refined flavor and beefy interior....See Moredert17
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