New Greenhouse!

Here's all the pieces to the new greenhouse, not including the base and the window panels.  It was on sale at harbor frieght.  It's the smaller 6'X8' greenhouse but it was all I could afford at $300. 

The foundation is resting on sand and was made out of four cement anchors with brackets cemented in them and four pressure treated 4X4 pressure treated wood.  The most difficult stage in this project was leveling the foundation. 

Below is the finished product.  The panels are made from polycarbonate sheets that are corrugulated and have spaces within the panels.  The panels were taped with reflective weatherproofing tape to keep moisture from seeping in the insides of the panels through these spaces.   The walkway was filled with cedar mulch and it smells so pleasant in there.  More to come on the greenhouse and cheap greenhouse DIY shelving. 

 



Seed update on Wolfberry, Arrowleaf Basalmroot, Rue, and Milkweed

So the camera was lost in one of my coat pockets for a while and I just found it today.  Now the seeds were kept a close eye on and all of them germinated.  The only one I've actually tried to grow before was the Lycium barbarum(wolfberry or matrimony vine) so I was quite pleased that the others came through.  The Milkweed was the first to sprout, a few days later a couple Balsamorhiza sagittata(arrowleaf basalmroot) had arrived along with the L. barbarum.  The rue was the very last to come up, but there are now about a half a dozen rue seedlings. 

The first shot is the milkweeds that were locally harvested.  The next picture is of the rue.  The third are the L. barbarum seedlings, these fruits were bought about two years ago and they still have high germination rates.  The B. sagittata are in the greenhouse that was just built and it's too dark to take a picture now, none of the unstratified ones have sprouted yet.















More seed starting Wolfberry, Arrowleaf Basalmroot, Rue, and Milkweed

Over the weekend I had a chance to start some more seeds.  I can't plant enough of Lycium barbarum, Matrimony Vine, goji berries, wolfberries, or whatever else people call them. USDA lists them as matrimony vine, which I like because other members of the boxthorn genus have wolfberry in their name.  I personally feel the seeds are more viable when they are scraped fresh from the fruit.  It can be very tedious to get them out.  Some people say to just soak them and the seeds will settle, but the pulp settles really well too and it takes a long time to seperate the pulp and seed. I personally like to scrape them out.  I rip them in half and then I dip them all in water to soften the bonds between the seed coat and the flesh of the fruit.  Then you can submerge them one by one in a cup of water and scrap the seeds, then discard the fruit.

I like being able to have a catalog of pictures of seeds.  So I'm going to continue that tradition here. The top picture is the fruit cut in half and dipped in water.  The next picture is all the seeds I got out of about 20 to 25 fruits. 

Rue is the next in this series of seeds.  They were picked in late fall and left in their pods until now.  I didn't have the patience to break into each small pod so I pretty much soaked everything but the stems and larger seed pods.

Here are the Arrowleaf Basalmroot Balsamorhiza sagittata.  One day they'll be beautiful Asteraceae, but for now they are just begining to germinate.  They were stratified in my fridge for 2 months with a wringed out wet napkin in a bag. After 12 hours of soaking in the cup they already began to germinate. I did a control group where the seeds were just left in a seed bin at around room temperature, and they didn't begin to germinating.

Finally here are some milkweeds that I gathered at a local garden. The beginning of a greenhouse project has begun at my house so soon there will be a post on that.

Admitting mistakes: Isopropyl Alcohol and Litchi Tomatos

Well we all make mistakes, and I believe it is a mistake to be ashamed and hide our wrongs.  So I've decided to let all of the evidence be exposed and let others learn.  There is an aphid problem in my young garden and I've tried to use chemicals that won't leach into the plants and soil to poison me.  So I occasionally have used a 3:1 rubbing alcohol to water solution to spray my plants.  After a couple minutes have passed I'll spray off any left over alcohol with plain water.  I used it in my mini-indoor greenhouse and neighboring plants. Well what happened was the greenhouse didn't get enough air circulation and it killed off a lot of the foliage. They survived, but the Litchi Tomato wasn't getting enough light on the shelf it was on and also stretched more than they should. Here's a side by side with a Litchi Tomato from the same batch that was also sprayed, but was outside of the greenhouse.  Be warned, circulate your plants air space after spraying.

The Physalis peruviana varieties Peruvian Goldenberry and Giant Cape Gooseberry

I was getting a little concerned about the Goldenberry, but yesterday morning a couple broke ground.  If you look back at the blog, that puts them at almost a week before coming up.  I noticed this one do this weird trick with its seed shell.  Usually a seedling will slough off the seed shell in the ground or it will grow it's leaves until the seed shell is wedged towards the leaf tips and finally is pushed off of the tips and falls away.  However look at these two Goldenberry pictures below and you can see that they have instead jutted out the tips of the leaves and so instead of being the last part of the leaf to be uncovered by the seed shell, it has become the first.

To the bottom right are some not so big Giant Cape Gooseberry seedlings that sprouted about 9 days ago. They are the same species, but seem as though they might be a different variety than the Goldenberry. It's just a teazer for now, but we'll see how their adult forms look.

This final one is the Litchi tomato seedling with its purple stem. The seeds were planted at the same time as the Giant Cape Gooseberry, but are a lot slower to sprout. 

Chenopodium capitatum, Beetberry Sprouted Yesterday!

Yes, I wanted to mention that the Beetberry has manifested itself to me yesterday and to the rest of you today. That means 3 1/2 days from the time it was soaked to the time it sprouted. They have a gorgeous tint of pink to them. 

I'm not sure how this Cucurbitaceae came about, but I didn't have the heart to kill it.  It has turned into a behemeth in the youthful indoor garden. Lets call it Galactus.

Wonderberry and Chichiquelite

Some preface is needed in discussing Wonderberry and Chichiquelite. Wonderberry or Sunberry is a plant whose classication is shrouded with controversy.  Basically, Luther Burbank was a famous botanist who claimed to have bred a hybrid variety named Solanum burbankii in which he sold to a seedsman back here in the states. Modern science has allowed us to look at the DNA of these plants, and it turns out by looking at the stabilization of the hybrid phenotype, and the ploidy of the chromosomes, it is likely to be a plant native to Africa called S. retroflexum.

Chichiquelite is a common name used for S. scabrum(originating from africa) and also possibly incorrectly named as S. nigrum(The Black Nightshade originating from Europe.)  Still others call S. scabrum a Garden Huckleberry, which others insist is actually S. melanocerasum. I purchased these seeds from a great online store called Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, check under their garden berries section.  They refer to the Chichiquelite as S. nigrum, but still refer to the Wonderberry as S. burbankii. More research is needed on the phenotypes to figure out which species my Chichiquelite really is.

This first picture is of the Wonderberry, followed by a picture of its thick root system.  The last picture is of the Chichiquelite, note the crinkled leaf which occurs on both the S nigrum and the S scabrum. It is easy to understand the confusion.

Act III: Sprouting of Absinthium and Glabra

 Yesterday I had to take the Absinthium and Glabra from the germination chamber.  As soon as they sprout it is important to provide light so that they can begin to provide their own energy when the seeds energy reserves are exhausted. The smaller more numerous ones are the Absinthium. The single large seedling is the Glabra. Since they were first presoaked on the night of 03/4 and they sprouted in the morning of 03/06, it took about 60hr. 

Seperating Passion Flower seedlings

When there are more than one precious seedling growing in one cup often people sacrifice all the others.  I keep getting more passion flowers germinating so I've got to do something about it.

As I've done with many plants, I take my tweezers and cut a hole around the plants of interest. Then I pry them up with the tweezers a little bit all the way around the plant.  I then grasp the plants and pull and pry them up and out. Then I gently wiggle them lose.

 Hover them in their new hole and while supporting the plant shake the pot so that some lose soil drops and suppots the length of the tap roots.  Then backfill the remainder of the hole with soil and water and press plant in place. Now there are 15. The white pots were the originals and all the others are transplants from the white pots, strangely two white pots did not sprout any seeds.

 

  

Act II: Sowing Time

It had been 24hr since the seeds were first presoaked so it was time to plant them.  The soil used was a 50/50 blend of some old potting soil and some new organic miracle grow soil.  The old soil was from some dead potted plants.  I threw the whole plant and soil into a storage container and mixed into it one tablespoon blood and bone meal per gallon of soil.   Then it was allowed to break down and rejuvinate until now, or about 5 months later.  The new soil didn't have any perlite in it so I added a few handfuls of that and some leaf litter.  In the fall it is a good idea to save some of your leaves.  This tends to lighten up the mix for seedlings, and I believe it helps to condition the soil. I like to use clear cups.  That way I can see what they are doing and how they are developing above and below the ground.  I only drill one hole in the bottom so I can plug it up if I need to, but also because fungus gnats like to live in them.  Some say the more holes, the more aeration the roots have, but as the soil dries it pulls away from the sides of the cup leaving behind air pockets and the soil is light so aeration is never an issue with a 16 ounce cup.

I add the seeds using tweezers for larger seeds, and a 1ml dropper for small seeds.  It's kind of cute watching the float around in there too.  The dropper is by far the most noninvasive procedures for planting soaked seeds that I am aware of. When using the tweezers I literally just push them into the ground(about three times their seed diameter) and then let go of them.  When using the dropper it can be difficult to spread the seeds thinly so I often stir them in. 

Make sure the soil is already somewhat wet before you add the seeds.  There needs to be a good deep soaking to make sure the seeds aren't being dried from the bottom up.  After the seeds are planted, again water the soil and pat gently to insure good contact between the soil and seeds.  If the soil was already really moist, not so much water will be used that you run the risk of washing away the seeds. I ran out of plastic trays so I used some pizza boxes I save for drying seed balls.  Look at this space saving germination tower.

I've made sure to cover my seeds so I don't have to spray the surface all the time.  The heater mat from the earlier photos was thrown in for extra warmth.  The temperature in the morning was 72°F.

Act I: Presoaking Seeds

Many sources suggest soaking most seeds before sowing.  Some suggest near boiling water temperatures, which can be met with sporadic results and kill offs.  Most seeds don't need boiling water, and I find that patience is better than trying to force them out of germination with risky temperatures. 

I prefer to heat my water to 105-109°F and to let them soak for 12 to 24hr.  I feel quite comfortable with this amount of heat and it seems to give a synchronized and high germination rate.

I usually just set them in a warm room somewhere, but it's winter and I decided to put them on a mild heating pad. Notice the thermometer beneath the pad reads about 84°F and by feel it is a lot warmer underneath than on top of the pad.  I will check the water tomorrow to see how the heating pad has affected water temperature.

-Physalis peruviana or Peruvian Goldenberry is a member of the family Solanaceae and with a hardiness zone of 10a this perennial will need some attention in my 5a/b climate.  I have heard that they can handle light freezes, but that is yet to be seen.

-Chenopodium capitatum, Beetberry, or strawberry spinach is native to many parts of North America. It has edible leaves and its red flowers look like strawberries and are used to make a dye. This annual beautiful species of the family Amaranthaceae.

-Glycyrrhiza glabra I've already started some of these licorice plants, but I love licorice root and they say on the package to harvest the second fall.  I figure if it takes that long I need to get going as many as I'm going to want of this perennial. It's a member of the family Fabaceae and is native to the Mediterranean.

-Artemisia absinthium or wormwood is a cold hardy perennial membe of the family Asteraceae. Made popular for its use in absinthe its actually a herb with many uses.  Sometimes it is planted in gardens, because it's said to repel insects. I just germinated some of these so I know they are a fast to germinate.  They were sitting in my fridge in a completely dry ziploc bag for 1 week before now. Almost all of them are floaters.  I've never been one to discard any seed that floats, except for maybe when used to look for seeds that have been bored into like with some nuts.  It's in a lot of plant seeds design to have some that will float and be carried away by water to new locations and it's good to maintain the versatility and diversity of your plants. 

Garden Unusuals: Licorice, absinthium, and marshmallow?

Let's start with the eldest in this post, the Licorice plants. Glycyrrhiza glabra is a member of the legume family, Fabaceae.  it germinated in about a weeks time under a low power heating pad.  Treated the same way as the rest of the plants except for a little heat. Once it germinated it didn't hesitate putting on a thick white tap root and has a large cotyledon to back it up.

 The marshmallow Althaea officinalis was the flavoring used before the modern marshmallows you buy in the store. They were bursting at the seams after a 12hr soaking.  I always make sure I check my water with my kitchen thermometer so that I don't scald the seeds.  I heat the water in a tea kettle or in the microwave and then add the water and seeds in a cup. I try and plant them before they send out their fragile roots.

Artemisia absinthium had seeds as small as poppy seeds. I used a dropper to suck them up and aliquot them into their pots.  They germinated 2 days after being planted in soil. It seems like both absinthium and marshmallow are easy and quick too germinate.

The garden edibles: Wonderberry and Passion vine.

I'll begin with the wonderberry or sunberry, since it's the largest. These seeds were similar to, but much smaller than tomato seeds. They were soaked in 105°F for 24hr.  After theat they were planted in the organic soil/peat/leaf litter seed starting mix.  After a week they sprouted and were fast growing.  I also am growing some ground cherries which are much smaller than the wonderberry. and some litchi tomatos which look like tomato seedlings.

These next little ones are passion flowers, passion vines, maypop, or Passiflora edulis. These plants should one day have beautiful flowers and I hope some day they will fruit.  Passion vines can be very temperamental when starting and it is important that they are treated in such a way that they awake from their dormancy.  I bored away a little of the seed coat with the tip of my pocket knife. Then I soaked them like I do all my small seeds and planted 1/2in. deep.  They sat covered in a cool part of my home for 4 1/2 weeks and then were moved to a heating pad.  After 3 days on the heating pad nothing germinated so I gave them a deep soaking.  The next night 70% of them germinated and most have germinated since then!  I kept seperating them into new pots as they germinate and so now I have 12 P. edulis growing.

Rocky Mountain Columbine and Palmers Penstemon

Here are some native plants to my area.  These seeds were planted in the same organic soil/peat/leaf litter seed starting mix I used for the goji plants.  They were planted the same way and kept moist and covered in a cool part of my house for three weeks until they finally started to germinate.  Here is a Rocky Mountain Columbine it's scientific name is Aquilegia caerulea. I enjoy it's large compound leaves and long slender petioles.

To the left are the Palmer Penstemons. These were the slowest to germinate of all the wildflowers, except for the passion flowers, taking four weeks to germinate. Don't give up prematurely on these seeds. They grow well in much cooler soils than most of the other plants.