I lost count of what trial # we were on, but it worked! I think the weather getting warmer help. The last batch of seedlings sprouted in early April and are growing great! They are currently almost a foot tall, and growing daily. One of these days spring will be here to stay and they'll slowly be able to transition to outside and eventually be planted in the garden. I had originally planned to direct sow a few seeds in the garden this spring, but it's already the middle of May and we are still having cold and rainy days. Even my tulips don't want to bloom yet! Everyday that passes our growing season gets shorter. So I think we are going to hope these seedlings are able to handle the transition to outside and grow well!
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This blog post might be a little all over the place. I wanted a place to write down a few memories. Yesterday we lost a very 4-legged member of our family. A member of our family that had been around longer then myself. Bull turn 4 shortly after I was born. My mom rode him through most of her pregnancy with me, so I really did start riding him very early on. Growing up I learned to ride on him and his mom. Most of my more vivid memories of bull are a little later on in my childhood. He was my babysitter growing up. He and my dog, Montanna. Growing up on a farm and homeschooled I remember spending a lot of time in the barn and riding. I was so thrilled when my mom would finally allow me to go ride Bull without direct supervision. I had a very very vivid imagination grow up, and still do. Ride in the arena and out in the fields, Bull and I lived out a lot of what went on in my head. We went on cattle drives across the Montana plains. We competed and won countless competitions, from barrels to jumping. Even though in real life Bull would rather walk through jumps and poles and knock over barrels, (there's a reason one of his many nicknames was Bulldozer). Or we'd just spend our time wandering aimlessly while my brain drifted off to other things. I probably talked to Bull about anything and everything in my life more then most people combined. I had a sense of freedom when I rode Bull and I trusted him with my life. Yes, there were days that his bull headedness drove me insane, days that he would have rather just ate grass then actually go anywhere. But those aren't the days I remember. I didn't realize until yesterday how long it had really been since I'd been on a horse. When I was about 13 I got a filly, I did her ground training and ponied her around on Bull for two years. When I got bucked off of her the first time I tried to ride her I realized just how safe Bull made me feel. To this day I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've ridden her. It was never as fun to me. I didn't enjoy the technical training that my mom does. I was much happier to aimlessly ride around on Bull in my own little world. It's been years since I last rode Bull. As he got older he got stiffer and I decided if it was no longer easy for him, it was no longer fun for me. This past summer was the first time I'd been back on a horse, who just happened to also be a paint. A little paint mare named Penny at the camp I was working at. She too was a horse I felt comfortable and safe on. But no one can replace my big equine brother, the time we spent together or the secrets we shared. You will forever be missed. ❤️
Our first baby goats of 2019 have arrived! Our Nigerian Dwarf doe, Dakota, had quads out of Kia a little over a week ago. 3 bucks and a doe. All 4 are doing well and are finding the springs in their feet. We have one more Nigerian doe due in about a month.
Well you win some, you lose some. I knew this project wasn't going to be as simple as putting seeds in dirt and watching them grow. Of the 4 original plants only one is left alive. So time to look over the data from this one and start round 2.
Things that went wrong the first time around. 1. Too cold in our house for seeds to sprout. 2. Our house is really dry and its hard to keep soil wet. 3. These plants don't like to be disturbed and will shrivel up and die if extreme care is not taken when transplanting. So, how do I remedy these problems for Round 2? 1. Keeping plants near sunlight, near a heat source and away from drafts. This is also getting easier because it is almost 70 - 80 degrees warmer outside then when I started these first seeds back in January. 2. Keep seeds and young plants in a plastic shoebox until they are well established or outgrow it. Then move them into an old fish tank. The first time I did this transition the plants dried out very quickly. So to help with the humidity in the tank I filled the bottom with water and set the pots up out of the water on a rack. What I'm using currently is actually an old bottom to a under gravel fish tank filter. You could also use racks such as cooling racks. 3. Do transplant these plants into a bigger pot they will go directly into a larger biodegradable pot without disrupting any of the roots that are already developed. I started 2 more seeds about a week and a half ago that are starting to sprout. I will also be starting another 2 seeds as back ups. I would rather have too many plants in the end then none at all. And starting them 2 weeks apart at a time allows me to make adjustments as we good to better the chances with the younger plants. After the Loofah plants had outgrown the plastic shoebox that they were in I moved them into the fish tank. At the same time I also moved the watermelon plants that were growing as well. One of the 4 loofah plants looked to be struggling a little, so I was extra careful with that one. Next step was to cut apart the seed starting pots. Once I separated the 4 pots I planted each in it's own pot. The biggest thing that I think I should have done differently and may still do before they fully root into this pots is to put them in biodegradable pots instead of these old plastic ones I had on hand. These will require taking the plants out of before planting outside in the spring, which loofahs can be very sensitive to. Did you know loofahs grow on a vine and not in the ocean? I didn't. I have a passion for always wanting a new challenge when it comes to growing plants. I've grown and propagated African Violets since I was about 10. I've grown a small avocado tree from an avocado pit and a wide variety of other house plants. Growing up we always had a large vegetable garden. So when I learned that loofahs grow on a vine and that they can be a challenge to grow, I just had to try it. Problem number one about growing loofahs is that they need a long growing season. Here in snowy Minnesota we have anything but a long growing season. So my solution to this problem was to start them indoors. Photo Source: https://www.reneesgarden.com/products/gourd-bath-loofah Step one was to soak the seeds in water. I did this by placing 4 seeds into a glass jar with a small amount of water. Every day or so I would change the water in the jar, rinsing the seeds before adding fresh water. I left them like this for over a week. I expected to start to see the seeds sprout but that never happened. I finally decided to just plant them and see what happened. The biggest problem I ran into is that I tried to start these while it was -33 F here in Minnesota at the end of January and our house was anything but warm. Averaging 60 F in our kitchen where the seeds were sitting in the jar it was just too cold for them to want to sprout. My normal plant shelf that holds the repurposed fish tank I was going to use as a green house is next to a large glass door that also happens to be very drafty. I looked into getting a seed starting heating pad, but being the thrifty person I am, didn't want to spend the $20 on one. So I took a plastic shoebox, the kind you can get at Walmart or the Dollar Store for $1, set the seed pots inside and set the box next to our wood stove. This helped incredibly fast! Within 2 weeks 3 of the 4 seeds I started had sprouted and are growing fast! And not long after the others the 4th and final one did pop up. Seeds I bought: https://www.burpee.com/vegetables/gourds/squash-gourd-ornamental-luffa-prod000721.html These are heirloom seeds, so I plan to save seeds this fall from the loofahs I harvest to plant next year. After shipping my total for 25 seeds was just over $6.
The seed starting pot I am using I found at our local Goodwill for $0.99 I love houseplants. Maybe because I live in MN where we can go 6 months or more without seeing green. My house plants always add a splash of color. I have both flowering and non-flowering plants. My main interests tend to be more tropical plants that flower. Defiantly a challenge in the winter months when the winter air is so dry, but I'm always up for a good challenge. I also love if I can experiment with propagating them. At this moment my collection of plants includes African Violets, Amaryllis, a sad looking Aloe plant, a Peace Lilly, Jade Plants, Devils Ivy and a Majesty Palm tree... yes.. a palm tree. But my interests don't stop with propagating plants I already have, I have a tendency to try starting random seeds (or anything that might grow and produce something), weather or not they will grow in our area, case in point, at the moment I have 3 avocado pits sitting in water. I had sprouted one avocado pit last fall but then accidentally froze it. I have also wanted to try things like peach pits. I'm planning on
At Christmas time I received 3 amaryllis plants, adding to my collection of house plants that were all suffering greatly from the very dry air in our house. (I'll do another post on the rest of my plants.) I knew nothing about these plants but followed the directions and planted then and boy did they grow fast. I got 3 varieties, Apple Blossom, Red Lion and Minerva The Red Lion had formed a flower sprout while in the box and it ended up drying out and dying but the leaves are huge, the apple Blossom has been slower to grow with no sign of a flower shoot and the leaves haven't looked great from the start, I'm just hoping to get that one through the summer and hope it will bloom next year. On the other hand the Minerva Grew a huge flower stalk and bloomed and was gorgeous. So I started researching the plant and learning as much as I could about it. I love growing new things so when I found out that I could pollinate the flower and grow new plants from the seeds, of course I had to try it. One big disadvantage to growing Amaryllis from seeds is it takes 2 to 3 years for them to mature enough to flower, I think a lot of people don't have that amount of patience, and surprisingly when it comes to plants, I do. So I found a small paint brush and pollinated two of the 5 flowers on my Minerva plant. I'm hoping that next year more then one of them will flower so I can cross pollinate two variates. It has now been about 3 weeks since I pollinated the flowers, the flowers have all dried up and I have two very nice seed pods developing. Now just waiting for the pods to finish developing and then let the seeds dry for a few days before planting them.
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Tri DouglasAnimal lover, flower enthusiast, nature lover, 4-H leader and Young Living Distributor. Archives
April 2019
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