hqcreations:

tropicalhomestead:

Pineapple Princess 1.13.2018

I don’t know if this is good news or not. Baby pineapple turned yellow, but the stem was already smushy when I cut it.  It went through a hurricane and two cold snaps, so I’m not sure if it’s ripe or just gave up. 

It’s 42°F right now, so I’m just carrying it around the house smelling the lovely sent of pineapple and thinking tropical thoughts.

That pineapple has achieved divine enlightenment after going through all that…it’s earned that golden glow 😋

tropicalhomestead:

Winter Garden 2017

Cleaned up and re-planted. It’s going to be a great year. I can feel it.

  • Couldn’t bring myself to pull up the volunteer sunflowers, so I Just planted more around them.
  • Spearmint and sweet marjoram are already roaring back from a ruthless trimming
  • Love the colors of marigold coming up from last year tiger-eyes
  • Mustard greens and lima beans already sprouting!

Aloe Vera as a rooting agent Last chance experiment 3

tropicalhomestead:

tropicalhomestead:

I really, really want aloe to work as a rooting agent.  It’s disappointed me in two separate tests. So let’s try one last time.

So out to the pokey patch to cut a few leaves

I trimmed off the pokey parts and then used a knife to separate the outer layers,

then dumped  gooey innards into the blender.

A lot leaves, a lot of gooey stuff.

Now it’s frothy stuff.

After the bubbles settled down, I filled five jars with 12 ounces of filtered tap water.  I stirred in  4 tablespoons of  aloe to one jar, 3 tbsp  to the next, and so on, leaving the fifth just water.

Maybe some percentage of aloe is conducive to root growth.  I’ll find out in a few days.

Oh. And the leftover mint I used for mint and honey tea. Because I’m worth it.

Ok, I have exhausted all possiblities and enthusiasm for aloe as a rooting agent.

Special thanks to @theatomscombined for reminding me to post the results, I think I was trying to block it all out.

From left to right shows the mint that was in the 4 tbsp of aloe mixture, then 3 tbsp, etc. The right is the control. 

After SIXTEEN days, I stopped – as you can see, the stems started to get slimy.  Roots appeared only on the control, no aloe in the water. 

My findings: Aloe is not only ineffective as a rooting agent, it appears to actually be detrimental to rooting.

I welcome anyone with too much time on their hands to try and see if they get different results.