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Journal May 7, 2018 - Phalaenopsis seed starting dry vs. green pod
The first Phalaenopsis seeds started were from a pod that had split. When the pod has split the seeds are referred to as dry. As the seeds must be sterilized there is more chance of damage, or...
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Journal May 9, 2018 - Vanilla planfolia arrived.
A new orchid arrived today, Vanilla planfolia, which is the plant that we get vanilla flavoring from. Well, artificial vanilla comes from chemicals, I mean the real stuff.It is a climbing vine so I...
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Journal May 12, 2018 - Getting into hydroponics for literally peanuts.
My wife has this thing for fresh basil, she loves basil on pretty much anything. She has been buying hydroponic basil, spending about five dollars for a few stems growing from a horticube. The...
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Journal May 16. 2018 - Phalaenopsis seed starting progress
Today I noticed a tiny spot of what I thought was mold in one of the flasks. Already I had discarded one flask because of mold, and both flasks contained the seeds from the dry pod. That appears to...
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Journal May 22, 2018 - Phalaenopsis seed starting, continued
It has only been six days since I transferred some of the forming protocorms into the experimental media that I prepared using the M&S nutrients but already I can see a difference.The transferred...
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Journal June 1, 2018 - Growing hydroponically cheap, really cheap.
My wife brought home hydroponic basil from the supermarket recently. It was bare root in a horticube, two stalks for about six dollars. In just a day or so it turned black and was tossed into the...
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Journal June 2, 2018
Today I "replated" almost all of the seedlings, selecting the largest darkest green seedlings for replating. Replating is literally scooping them out of the vessel and placing them on a plate then...
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Journal June 10, 2018 - Lighting change
I look forward to checking on the progress of this project each day, it is kind of like watching an old Saturday serial movie; things are happening, but happening slowly. Thinking that the major...
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Journal July 8, 2018 - Phalaenopsis protocorm developeing leaves.
The process is so complicated I really did not expect to pull it off, but I wanted to learn something by trying.I made a lot of mistakes, like putting way too many seeds in the media. They germinated...
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Journal July 9, 2018 - Phalaenopsis orchid from seed in a test tube.
No matter what happens going forward I am going to call this a success!There is definitely a new orchid growing from this protocorm.What a fun project!
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Journal July 15, 2018 - Phalaenopsis protocorms starting to look like plants.
Real progress is being made now, the protocorms are developing into plants.
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Journal July 28, 2018 - Phalaenopsis - seed starting success!!
Several of the more vigorous protocorms have been placed in individual vessels, while others remain grouped common vessels. As I have experience in deflasking orchid seedlings I am now certain that...
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Journal August 3, 2018 - Kapia peppers are ready.
Someone and I do not recall who gave me seeds for Kapia Hungarian peppers last season. There were only a few seeds in the packet so I did not have many to plant, perhaps six or so. Two plants were...
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Journal August 9, 2108 - Sweet Pepper Bonanza
We are picking a lot of sweet peppers both from the greenhouse and garden. And, for whatever reason this season we have picked more tomatoes than ever before.That said, the recent bouts of heavy rain...
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Journal August 15, 2018 Carnations in a can.
Winters in upstate New York tend to be pretty dismal, so I was casting around looking for a fragrant flower to grow hydroponically to dispel some of the winter gloom. I was looking for something that...
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Journal September 2, 2018 - Phalaenopsis in vitro
The results of this project have been much better than I ever expected!
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Journal September 11, 2018 - Dendrobium faux pas
Early in 2017, we had a speaker at the orchid society meeting and as is customary the speaker brought plants for sale. The speaker receives no fee but member plant sales are suspended if the speaker is...
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Journal - October 30, 2018 - Phalaenopsis from seed success
One of the seedlings has been deflasked and planted in moist sphagnum moss to determine if they can survive out of flasks.The seedling has been placed in a domed growing container under a small T5...
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Journal November 11, 2018 - Phaelenopsis from seed, the final post
As my test plant was doing nicely I decided to deflask one more plant. Then, I saw another promising plant I just could not throw away, then another, and another and so on, until at eight I decided...
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Journal December 7, 2018 - Dispel the winter gloom, grow a flower.
Winter has descended on upstate New York with a vengence! The National Weather Service said the winter would be warmer than normal, and I say: Bring it on, soon!Just to have a single flower this...
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Journal December 9, 2018 - Great Plugin
I would like to digress from gardening to do a post about something I found and would like to share with fellow photographers.Recently I read something about a plugin called the Nik Collection being...
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Journal December 11, 2018 - Follow-up to pervious post
I thought I would post examples of a photo that had been modified with the Nik Collection plugin HDR Efex Pro 2.The photo above is the original photo as taken on September 30, 2018.Below is the photo...
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Journal December 31, 2018 - Killing time, waiting for spring
Seeing as there is not much gardening to do this time of year it gives me a great excuse to get outdoors and do some photography. Recent surgery on both eyes has returned my vision to where it was...
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Journal January 6, 2019 - Just for fun
Just because it is winter it does not mean you have to discontinue gardening, you can always find something to grow, and somehow to grow, in the great indoors. As for myself, I am growing zinnias,...
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Journal January 16, 2019 - Just killing time till spring.
The above photo is of Spicy Greek Basil being grown hydroponically in a mason jar that was painted gray to inhibit algae. This is a no brainer method of growing, as it requires hardly any...
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