ethin's doings

[ethin]

As far as I can tell the only reason the cats eat the cat food is all the oil and salt. I know one thing for sure cat food was not formulated for the human palate.

[steev]

And yet significant numbers of our aged are learning to subsist on it, as income inequity grows, it would appear. I am at a loss to see the difference between cat food and flake tuna (for human consumption).

[ethin]

A photo tour of the sun room, so far mostly just flower starts.

An experiment in growing some veg during the winter, started too late.

Some home made "air pots" with grapefruit trees.

An old poinsettia re-blooming.



So far I've massacred 4 fruit tree, still got about a dozen left to do.

[12540dumont]

One morning I was eating breakfast and feeding the cats. Phone rang and in the distraction, I put a bite of cat food in my mouth.

Eww! Phoeey! Spit! The cats rolled on the floor laughing at me. Now I know why they want the bacon. I had to brush my teeth 3x.

Ethin, wow, lots of flowers. I saw a cuke in there...or is that a melon?

In the rains, I forgot to water the sprout house and I lost a few peppers and eggplants. Tomorrow, I'll have to start them again. Like Flowerweaver I have about 800 sprouts going. I'd say about 700 of these are veges, and everything else is herbs or flowers.

I tried doing strawberries from seed. They aren't doing that great. Anyone got suggestions?

[steev]

When happy, Sanseveria, Snake plant, blooms and the flowers drip "honey" which is quite sweet.

[synergy]

I am going to copy your idea for air pots

[ethin]

Yeah that's a cumber, not working out too well, it's trying to strangle all its neighbors, the female flowers out number the male 5 to 1, and my attempts at pollination appear to be unsatisfactory.  

[ethin]

Feb 12, 2015 0:46:33 GMT -5 steev said:

When happy, Sanseveria, Snake plant, blooms and the flowers drip "honey" which is quite sweet.

...and they smell like perfumed smoke. At one point I had 14 separate pots of them, now down to 2 variegated and 1 plain.

[ethin]

Feb 12, 2015 1:56:38 GMT -5 synergy said:

I am going to copy your idea for air pots

I got the idea from some guy that had used a hole saw to make swiss cheese out off a bunch of utility buckets and then lined them with landscape fabric, he also used water wicks to keep them watered.





...Here you go, here is the vid. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptgJn15TmRM

[Al]

Sorry to put a damper on your DIY Air-Pot enthusiasm but punching holes in a bucket will not promote the air pruning which takes place in a real Air-Pot.
I just spent the day with the inventor of these pots & heard how they have spent 22 years developing the undulating profile through 6 generations to optimize the air pruning effect.
I tried a homemade pot using a studded plastic sheet intended for tanking cellars, even that profile was not able to direct roots to the holes & prevent root circling. So a simple bucket with holes will definitely still lead to the circling found in standard pot grown plants. All you will achieve is slightly better aerated growing medium, not the fibrous mass of finely branched roots created by a good air pruning pot. For some reason roots follow the smooth inner surface of a standard pot even with lots of holes, the inward & outward pointing cones are essential to direct roots towards the holes.

[ethin]

I thought as much, but figured I'd still give it a try, that's why I used the grapefruit in them instead of something more important.

From what you say that means half the air pruning pots on the market don't work, good to know.

Too bad egg cartons aren't made of plastic. lol

[steev]

Some egg cartons are expanded foam, but they're disappearing ( from the market, not the environment ), not being green.

Now I'm thinking about egg cartons made of corn starch ( bacon-flavored, of course ); I'm stuck on how to get coffee in there, so it's a complete breakfast; maybe feed the hens coffee beans.

[ethin]

Planted carrot, parsnip, and beet roots for seed this morning.
Processed a 30'lb Cinderella pumpkin, made half of it into soup and the other half will most likely turn into cookies or pie.
Turned compost.
Had a visit from Joseph, swapped some seed.
Turned my seed stash upside-down 4 times looking for something.
Decided witch watermelon seed from last year to plant, out of seed from 27 different fruit I narrowed it down to 6 definite and 4 undecided.
Planted TPS, thanks Joseph.


Got lots of flowers started, also peppers and tomatoes.
Some new things I'm trying this year are peanuts and rice, I got some of each from Baker Creek and the grocery store and started them indoors a week ago, the Baker Creek stuff is coming up nicely, but the grocery store stuff isn't, yet (yes the peanuts where raw and the rice was "brown").

[ethin]

Spent most the day chipping branches.
Took down the bean trellis and pulled up last years sun flowers in preparation for tilling.
Started a bunch of marigolds.

[ethin]

Moved the green onions from the garden to a more permanent and safe location.
Ran the mower over the garden to chop up what was left from last year and spread it out more, and then tilled.
Planted shelling and soup peas, lentils, and some chickpeas including some new ones from Joseph.
Worked till past sun set, tomorrow I'll see how well I did at covering things in the dark.

Also made a grapevine wreath yesterday, got enough vines to make a few more.