First Signs of LIFE! A Lithops Journey (or saga?)
Christina Bay Area
6 years ago
I decided to suck it up and get over my fear of failure this past Sunday afternoon to sow ~100 Lithops seeds (L.fulviceps f. aurea C363). People weren't joking about the seeds being the size of fine pepper flakes......
I used a takeout container - clear, round, plastic w/a lid. Poked holes in the bottom, and laid a window mesh in the pot to prevent fallout. I'm a bit worried I used too much fungicide or not enough, and if I used too little sand on the surface to help the seedlings stand upright. Guess we'll see how I do... :)
This is the blog I followed for instructions: https://lithopsblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/06/growing-lithops-from-seed/
Here is what I found after opening the takeout container today, after keeping it sealed since Sunday (WOOHOO!!):
Look closely for light green blobs among the particles...First signs of life!
I used a takeout container - clear, round, plastic w/a lid. Poked holes in the bottom, and laid a window mesh in the pot to prevent fallout. I'm a bit worried I used too much fungicide or not enough, and if I used too little sand on the surface to help the seedlings stand upright. Guess we'll see how I do... :)
This is the blog I followed for instructions: https://lithopsblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/06/growing-lithops-from-seed/
Here is what I found after opening the takeout container today, after keeping it sealed since Sunday (WOOHOO!!):
Look closely for light green blobs among the particles...First signs of life!
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Jeff (5b)
6 years agoRelated Discussions
TJ's saga continues
Comments (45)Well it has been a while since I updated everyone on my personal journey through hell. It means a lot that when I go places and bump into any of you guys that you ask how the situation is going. First off, you Care! and second of all - you read what I write! It means a lot. Dad has declined further. He just now got transfered back the acute care facility where I believe a lot of the past postings took place. He begs to go home. He is finally paying attention to the bad news details. They say that patients focus on the sugar coating and ignore the uncomfortable stuff until it is way late in the game and then they act like it is all new to them. On the one hand I am dang glad I ain't the one there holding his hand, but on the other I am sad for my brother and sister who are there - more than likely answering the same questions over and over every day to both my dad and my mom. They are looking into Hospice care since it is paid for by insurance. As I understand it, all you need to qualify is a 6 month life expectancy. Once that is granted, you can recieve care at home even if it means round the clock nursing care (which is what he needs) and it doesn't matter what happens at six months, people have been in the system for years. The current dispute is over where to be buried. My dad is from this teeny tiny dustbowl town in western Oklahoma. A place that just screams 'prairie', surrounded by wheat fields and cattle with an occasional oil derrick. A place so flat you can sit on your front porch and watch your dog run away, run away clear to the next county!! I don't want to live there but I sure do like to visit it. So I would enjoy that drive once a year. Evidentally this place doesn't have the same appeal to my mother. She would rather have him buried in the town where they live now. Odd how we attach ourselves to places. Our family has lived in five states (and that's just the ones I remember! Lord knows how many there were before the kids were born), and two prefectures in Japan where I grew up. Guess this makes a good case for cremation. The only way you can possibly sprinkle yourself from one end of the country to the other. Since he seems to be one of those long lingering death sorta guys, nobody knows how long this could go on. The doctors are baffled that he persists today. He isn't uncomfortable, he isn't in pain, for part of the day he is alert and talkative. My brother is exhausted and wants someone else to swoop in and make all the decisions. He doesn't want anything blame-able to be tied to something he said or did. My sister is a realist. She sees that this isn't going to end well or soon. She just wants my dad to go home while he can participate in the house and activities there. Once he gets further diminished she won't care if he is placed in an institution. Right now, none of us can give him the medical care and cleaning that he needs. The only option would be to hire a live in 24 hour nurse. They only have the money to do that for a few months but by then he may qualify for hospice care. He is concerned about spending all his money instead of leaving any of it to us kids. Our answer is to ask him once again to draw us a map to the buried treasure in the backyard. We know its out there, somewhere, or maybe it was the yard in Fort Worth?...See MoreFinished kitchen! Lots of pics and saga to share...
Comments (37)Your kind comments are making it all worthwhile! Thank you!! mtnfever - thank you for the link to soft close - I almost wish I didn't have it on the appliance depot drawer -then no one would know how nice it is! motodetroit - I inherited the piece on the side cabinet from DH's mother (I couldn't believe his sister didn't want it!). She got it in Norway in the '50s, and it's a great piece of vintage kitchen ware that sat on her counter for years and always makes me think of her. It has glass compartments (some are broken now) that I assume were used for sugar, flour, spices, etc. We fill it with M&Ms, almonds, popcorn kernals, tea bags and Emergen-C. Here's a better picture: Madeline616 - do you know how long I've tried to get my dog and cat to pose for pictures? Forget about it. And then they just wander into the photo shoot... I'm glad I got a picture of Zelda, our airedale. She's old now, and she doesn't like having her picture taken. taggie - comments like yours remind me that we did the right thing keeping the old cabinets. Two KDs I talked to, but didn't hire, immediately wanted to rip them out and I couldn't understand why, they were classic, worked fine (I realized later that both KDs work for cabinet makers; I don't know, maybe they all do). And keeping them saved me from making all those thorny layout decisions everyone struggles with here. I really had it easy, but thank you for your compliments. dilly ny - I wish I could take credit for the range hood, but it was the only one that would fit our specs. My ceilings are low and, if you notice, the ceiling above the cooktop is lowered even further (there is an upstairs bath above, but no one seems to know why the ceiling descends seven inches above the cooktop) - it narrowed our options in range hoods to this one - sorry, I should have ID'd it - Electrolux 36". dianalo - you are a better man than I. Actually, I know you aren't a man. I have followed many of your comments on the forum. You always have the best attitude. I have to say - cranky and demanding as I am - one of the things I love about reading GW commenters is how MELLOW you all are. In the midst of hair-curling disasters! How do you do it? I want what you're having! westsider40 - "Something's Gotta Give" was on TV in our area today! I ran in and said to DH (who loves that movie) - there it is! What I've been telling you about! The OTK! I had to explain the whole thing to him. But honestly, that kitchen is so completely SWOON-worthy. The whole house. Diane Keaton's turtlenecks. I wish!!! At least we have our easy-care induction, right? liriodendron - here are some pictures of the built-in drawers. I don't think they're anything special, but I'm sure if I were replacing the the cabs, I would have had to pay quite a bit extra to have a set of drawers like these installed. Helped us decide to keep the cabs we had. We keep container lids in the first drawer, the matching containers in the second, napkins in the third and table cloths in the bottom. Great storage. Keeps everything nice and tidy....See Morehouse from hell...new home purchase saga
Comments (26)It does sound like you have had more than your share of problems with your house. It is not always first houses where this happens, either. We were not in our first house very long before exDH was transferred out of state, but our second house had a few problems. I was giving the dog a bath in the front bathroom when I heard water running under the house. Turns out the drain pipe from this tub emptied into the crawlspace through a big hole in the trap! We later learned that the huge floor furnaces were still hooked up to the gas lines - even though the floor furnaces were now under carpet and padding and we had central heat. My next house was a fixer-upper. I knew that going in. I was single by then. I had an inspection done on the house and some of the faults were pointed out to me - the rotten windowsills and bad gutters, the original gravity furnace with asbestos ducts. I had the furnace replaced before moving in. In cleaning the bathroom, I learned that the shower enclosure was not firmly attached to the walls, and behind it it was very moldy. I pulled it down myself and then had to hire someone to sister new boards into rotten wall framing, kill the mold, and put new walls in the tub surround. I used a cheap wall board as a finish product there because I could not afford ceramic tile at the time. This was all before I moved in. Some of the more obvious problems were noted in the city inspection done before the sale, and the sellers were required to have them fixed. The drip-edge molding where the sill met the foundation was gone, and the fascia boards at the foundation were rotten. They were replaced before the sale. My home inspector said the roof was new. He was right. The shingles were all new, but they were laid on top of the bare roof deck on the back side of the house and on top of two older layers of shingles on the front side of the house. The flashing in the back leaked. We did not find out about that for a few years. I knew the gutters were bad, but not until it rained did I learn that the holes in the gutter were mostly above the front porch. The original concrete porch had been removed at some point and a big wooden porch put on. I did not realize that the old concrete porch was not under the wooden one, or that the concrete porch had been the roof of the root cellar. So when it rained, the gutters leaked onto the porch, where the rain flowed down into the root cellar in the basement, across the basement floor, and into the basement drain! I think it was two years before we (I had remarried) had the money for a new porch. Next we got windows and doors, the year after the porch. The back door going from the garage to the back yard had a crack in it big enough to let the snow in. The window sills on one side of the home were rotted (which I knew going in), and when the new windows were installed, we were able to have the contractor fix the rotted wood in the outer walls there, too. I had some boric acid put into the wall before he closed it up, to kill the carpenter ants there. It helped, but we still saw occasional ants for years. Once the old dying apple tree out back was removed, the ants were gone on that side of the house. I had to replace some rotting wood on the garage before they left for good. I went into this house knowing about some of these problems. My home inspector was really pretty useless in finding these other problems. I have never had a home inspector be THAT helpful with a house. We took about five years to get the house structurally sound, watertight, and comfortable. Our house was 50 years old, though, and I know you did not expect your problems with your newer house. The thing I learned hanging out at the Building a Home and Buying and Selling forums is that the building industry hires people who do not know what they are doing. A ten year-old house should not have the problems yours did, but sometimes they do. If the guy who installed your door knew nothing about proper flashing, it would all rot out, just as you saw. Housekeeping is right in the reply above about not having to fix everything right away. I was up nights worried about the proper sequence for fixing things. It is no fun at all to have more projects to do on your house than you can do or can afford. Eventually, though, you get things done and you begin to like the house. Keep focused on what you liked about it in the first place. Even buyers of new houses have some of these problems. There is one poster on Building a Home who had to have her unfinished home demolished because it rotted to the point of being unfix-able before she even moved in. Just looking at things, no one would ever know to expect these problems. And the home inspectors really don't do enough to ferret them out. You CAN't see some of these problems without tearing off molding or getting into walls. Talk to a lawyer if you want to think about suing. Watch DYI network and subscribe to Handyman magazine. You will learn a lot, I did. We ended up loving our house. I hope you get that back with yours, too....See MoreOur Kitchen Remodel Journey
Comments (94)@raee - We removed all of the drawers first and put them in another room. It helps to number these, if you have a lot of them, so you can later figure out what cabinet they go to. Then we cut pieces of drop cloth and taped them over the drawer glide rails inside of the cabinets. After the granite was installed, we removed the plastic but still made sure to vacuum the glide rails and the insides of the cabinet before putting the drawers back in. If your sink cabinet has doors on it, you might want to remove them so they don't get granite dust inside of them when the installers drill holes for your faucet, air switch, soap dispenser, etc. Sorry, but no on auto racing. The name comes from Awana Grand Prix races (like Cub Scout Pinewood Derbies). The kids called me that, since I was the "Grand Prix Race Man". The guy who ran the races and build workshops. I've been helping out with Awana and Cub Scout races for over 15 years now. This post was edited by gpraceman on Sat, Nov 16, 13 at 18:36...See MoreChristina Bay Area
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoThanks, Jeff! I definitely want to post more pictures. I just hope I make it far enough to post some truly significant pics. I didn't sow all my seeds either. I have another packet of 100 seeds... :P
@Kevin Agreed, I like saga better. According to Google: "a long story of heroic achievement". :D
I read that some people mist the seedlings everyday- haven't been doing that. I misted the surface of the pot yesterday for the first time, but the rest of the soil in the take-out container is still pretty wet. I think most of my excitement comes from the simple fact that they're NOT alfalfa seeds or other imposters!!
Thursday picture:
a lot can happen over night!
Kara 9b SF Bay Area CA
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoJeff (5b)
6 years agoKara 9b SF Bay Area CA
6 years agoJeff (5b)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoKara 9b SF Bay Area CA
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoChristina Bay Area
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoSorry folks, been a very busy month with quarter-end...
@Kara - About that rootless mesemb... the largest portion of the plant died. ): I have a smaller piece of the plant left, but I haven't touched it. It is currently growing new leaves. I am a bit concerned it'll die soon after, as I have no idea how to force it to grow roots. yikes!!
Where did you get lophophora seeds, if you don't mind me asking? I've been dying to have some lophophora plants...! Not for the "medicinal" properties fyi- it's purely superficial. I find them to be very cute buttons. :)@Jeff - I have horticultural sand on top! It is this exact bag and the particles look like below.
I have play sand too and I'm thinking I actually need to add more of it on top. I found that the poor little seedlings don't handle aggressive misting very well when they are supported by mostly a layer of horticultural sand. They are easily disturbed by over-the-top watering as you'll see in the update picture... I made a small ditch in the soil when I tried to water from the top! lol. Newbie mistake which I'll not be doing again.
I am still keeping the container closed right now. I only open it to mist every few days or so. However, the take-out lid does have a very small hole at the top. It might be helping with ventilation but I can't be sure.
Seedlings seem to be enjoying my care. :DPicture taken last night, 4/25/18 (3 weeks since last picture)
Jeff (5b)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoChristina Bay Area
6 years agoChristina Bay Area
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago3 Month post-sowing update....! I wish I had a nicer camera.
I went away for 2 weeks at the end of May/beginning June. Spent days worrying about the lithops seedlings drying out...only to come home and realize I over compensated by thinking leaving the seedlings in a tray of water was a good idea. Too much moisture killed a few of them.
At this time, I also leave the lid off for 24 hrs or so after I water. I no longer keep the lid tightly on either. I just set it on top.
I no longer mist them either.
Nancy Tomazin
5 years agoChristina Bay Area
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
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