Journal May 24, 2013

Federal Express delivered the new LED grow light that I recently won on eBay today, so I placed it into service immediately; it is being used for Ava's cantaloupe plant in one of the grow tents. The light, as most of the larger LED growlights do, has switches to select vegetative, flowering or both growing cycles.  As the cantaloupe is in the vegetative stage, the above photo shows the light using only the vegetative stage.  I was kind of surprised when I saw the digital photo above, as when you look at the light it appears to be blue; however there are a few other colors and IR that are making the photo appear sort of purple.

The weather has turned nasty, cool and damp with lots of rain for the last three days, with more on the way.  Lacking much else to do, I thought I would use time lapse photography to try to record the tendrils of the cucumber plants attaching themselves to the trellis, and if I am successful I will post the video.

While surfing a garden site I came across a source for unusual seeds that I decided to visit.  There is still room in the greenhouse for a few plants that will tolerate partial shade, so I was looking for something really unusual, and I lucked out.   I placed an order for seeds for this plant:

BURBIDGEA SCHIZOCHEILA - Voodoo Flame Ginger
"Flame Ginger is native to Borneo's evergreen rainforests.  It's utterly spectacular and equally rare, with golden blossoms bursting out of red upright stems.  Individual flowers opening successively over two weeks, heaviest in summer and again in winter, with intermitant blooms throughout the year.   The foliage is slightly succulent, very attractive.

This is a collector's plant.  It demands the constantly warm temperatures and humidity of a greenhouse and very good drainage.  If you grow tropicals, you know how to replicate a rainforest.  It is hardy in zones 9-11 and needs tropical conditions - great for a greenhouse. This rare plant is spectacular!"

These types of plants, along with the olives,  make owing a greenhouse much more interesting.

If anyone is interested in unusual seeds the site that I found is: Smart Seeds.