Seedy Sunday

Mom got her mini greenhouse the other day. She’s started a little trial to see if it’s possible to grow a few greens in there in winter. Since the chilies are the only plants we need to start this early most of the space is unused, so it’s worth a shot anyways.

Here are the seeds that sprouted today

Radish “Red Flesh”

How it’s supposed to look if it ever matures:

Salad

We didn’t get this online, so don’t have a picture for it.

Pak Choi “Santoh”
If it ever matures this is what we’ll get:

“Kailaan” stem broccoli
It could turn out looking something like this:

And finally “Tsoi Sim”

Now time will show if it works! We’ve started a few herbs and onions, too, but they haven’t waken up yet.

Now if she’d only get those meatables started…

Kisses
B

Glyoxylate Friday

Okay – so first you need to follow this link to get the required soundrack:
http://www.csulb.edu/%7Ecohlberg/Songs/glyoxylate.mp3 It’s nothing scary, just another song from the Biochemist’s Songbook.

So – what is this Glyoxylate Cycle thingy, some of you might ask? Well, it’s one of those neat things that plants can do and we cannot. They can take the fats stored in their seeds and turn it into carbohydrates. Us animals can only take carbohydrates and make fats, but not the other way around. In other words – this is what happens in the tiny (and not so tiny depending on the species) seed when it germinates. It takes fats and makes carbohydrates of it, since carbohydrates (and water) are the main components on the roots and stems of the baby (and adult) plant.

We are, of course, playing the Glyoxylate song for our little chili seeds. And guess what? A few tiny roots have appeared in at least 3 of our seeds. We can’t see the rest of them, so we don’t know if they’re growing yet. They’re too tiny to get a good picture of yet – but they look a little like these sprouting mung beans (just smaller).

We thank you for all the well wishes for Mom. She’s feeling a whole lot better today, just a little tired. And waking up to see that the chili seeds had sprouted made for an extra happy start to the day. She checked them before bedtime last night and they hadn’t and during the night they grew little 2mm “worms”. But don’t worry. There’s plenty of time for her to kill them yet. BOL!

Happy Friday everyone!

Kisses,
B

Sowing Chilis

I picked up the seeds from the UK this morning on my way to school. I’ll introduce the different varieties later.

I stopped by a garden center on my way home to get some supplies. What I had was mainly good for regular potted plants.

I chose the lazy version, so I didn’t get dirt all over the apartment this time. Good thing, really. I was cleaning out the kitty litter pan and Hyssing jumped into it and emptied the ENTIRE thing all over the livingroom.. Had to run and get out the vacuum to prevent the kitties from deciding the entire livingroom was their new bathroom while I was away. Why do these things always happen when you are on your way out?
All nicely soaked with hot water, seeds are in and they’ve been lightly covered and placed in a cupboard on the bathroom floor. I hope the heated floor underneath will provide the necessary temperature to germinate these seeds. I had only 8 seeds of the Lemon Drop and Nepalese Bells varieties, so I’ve sown all of those, and half or less of the Jalapeno and Filius Blue. So at least I have something to fall back on if these fail.

Oh.. and here’s another pretty winter sky picture! 🙂

Ane

Seedy… Monday?

This was going to be a “Seedy Sunday” post, but a weekend at work got me a little delayed.. But:

Yahoo! My first seed packs arrived today. These arrived from a site in Sweden – Rara Växter.

Bonus seeds – a frilly sort of poppy, Papaver laciniatum “Venus”.I’m not very into double/frilly flowers, but these are actually rather cute.

So to the stuff I’ve actually ordered – 3 kinds of chilis and some cherry tomatoes.

These are “Filius Blue”
“Napalese Bells”
“Lemon Drops”
I might not manage to grow (all) the chilis, but it’s fun to try something a little different. And if I do manage they’re pretty cool looking. I’ll also be growing/trying to grow jalapenos.

So to the tomatoes – these are called “Houndreds and Thousands” and have popped up in several kinds of taste tests and have been mentioned as favorites on several blogs and websites I’ve visited, so why not try them?!
My order from the Real Seed Catalogue have arrived, too, but I haven’t been down at the post office to pick them up yet. They only use insured registred post, so I have to go down to the post office to sign for it.

So.. now I’m dreaming of a mini greenhouse with lighting to give me a chance to actually get some live plants this summer. My birthday is coming up, so perhaps I can wish for donations for one of these. Might work well to grow micro greens and keep herbs alive in winter, too!

The boys, on the other hand, prefer to sleep. They might actually change their mind once they have a yard of their own, though!

Ane