Tag: gardening

THEY LIIIIIIIIIIVE.

Most of the liveliest of the greenhouse residents right now. (not listed in order of the pics) Betula

alleghaniensis, Betula

populifolia, Thuja occidentalis, Catalpa sp., Picea glauca, Geum triflorum, Clemtatis tangutica, and Penstemon hirsutus.

These guys are also on the list of “gonna see if I can sell them this year” crops. Especially the Birches, cause they big and they are a pain in my butt lmao.

Photographed May 13th 2018

The Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) that are under lights rn are survivors of the starving birds and mice (during that spring snow out we had a few weeks ago) that were scavenging the tray in the greenhouse. So, we see why these trees are so expensive; it’s not just that they grow slow as balls, it’s the fact that even at seed/seedling stage EVERY FUCKING THING WANTS TO EAT THEM. It’s not just us humans who find Sugar Maple deliciously enticing.

However due to the fact that autumn 2017 I had a lot of sugar maple seeds on hand thanks to our neighbour John, I had a lot of seedtrays of them, and consequently experimented stratifying them in different locations. One of said locations being the new experimental outdoor seedbed. It flooded and had severe freeze/thaw late winter / early spring so I thought pretty much every seed would’ve croaked. However as you can see here not only are they doing splendidly but the birds/mice couldn’t get their grubby mouths into them.

So to the Birds/mice that were total dicks to one of my most valuable future plant crops;

Photographed May 13th 2018

Alright since the previous seedling post didn’t get much reception HERE’S SOMETHING TO RECEPTION ABOUT!

Cornus kousa, Cercidiphyllum japonicum, Asmina triloba, Magnolia macrophylla, Cercis canadensis, and Liriodendron tulipifera seedlings oh my (also Acer saccharum in the group shot but shhh we’ll get to that).

I severely underestimated the seed viability of the majority of this year’s indoor stratified seeds. Due to this a lot of sprouting seeds of Cercis, Magnolia, and Cornus had to be discarded due to very limited growlight space. Pawpaw in the future definitely is going to be indoor stratified like this despite it being a space hog, as I have gotten far more seedlings from this over outdoor style. For some unusual reason several of the pawpaw seedlings sprouted out in a twisted form (which unfortunately kills them for sellability which sucks ass). Now from here I chew my nails as I wait for space to be made in the greenhouse to move some of these guys out of the lights cause jfc they’re getting too big too fast for such a cramped space.

Photographed May 13th 2018

Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) seed sown into a Windowbox planter, Photographed January 7th 2018

Have I mentioned that I’m surprised I got any seeds at all from stratford cause of how late in the season the harvest was? Cause I’m still floored I even got so many seeds. Little behind schedule again with seed sowing (I was gonna sow these guys back at the start of 2017 Christmas holidays) but nonetheless in the window of time I’d still prefer to get them their kickstart. Katsura are reputably tender to winter freezes/frosts when young so getting them started now will give them a better chance of survival for the next winter. Window boxes to put it bluntly have very poor drainage for seedlings so most window boxes I’ve been using I’ve been drilling holes into them like patterned swiss cheese to give lots of consistent drainage for when I start watering the trays more routinely. Ngl I’ve been doing the “is there sprouts yet?” checking ever since I sowed these up.

If my memory serves me right within the 20th+ days of this month onwards a lot more seeds are gonna be started from the fridge stratification and it’s gonna definitely fill up my growlights and probably spend through the majority of my currently prepped potting soil <A< sooo good thing I have these lights moved to their new place and already re-set up for the work that’s to come.