Journal May 31, 2013

Although they are pretty much the same varieties, and were started on the same day, the greenhouse tomatoes are at least three times as large as the tomatoes in the garden.  In my opinion this is a perfect example of the advantages of protected growing.

Looking closely at the photo you will see the time lapse camera strapped to one of the vertical supports.  The camera is being used to try and capture the cucumber plants on the opposite side of the greenhouse as they climb the trellis.  

With a lot of shaded space still unoccupied, I am going to attempt to grow something else tropical; and slightly more challenging than olives.   The olives are doing amazingly well growing hydroponically, so I thought I would try to dwarf, and grow hydroponically, another type of  tree.  

The tropical tree I am going to attempt to grow from seed is michelia champaca, which is one of the most coveted of tropical trees.  It is a woody ornamental tree grown in India and Indonesia; the flowers of which are used to make one of most expensive perfumes in the world.

The posted instructions for starting the seeds are kind of daunting, to say the least, but I have decided to use my normal method using coffee filters, with a few modifications.  The difference being I nicked one seed and slightly sanded the coat of another before placing them in a bowl of hot water to soak for 24 hours.  Following the soaking, I plan on using moist coffee filters, moistened with my seed starting mixture, and lightly spraying the seeds with a fungicide as an extra precaution.  Below is a photo that I found online of a bloom from the michelia champaca.

Along with the seeds for the michelia champaca I received seeds for reseda odorata, another flowering tropical plant, which I will start as well.