Journal August 15, 2018 Carnations in a can.

Winters in upstate New York tend to be pretty dismal, so I was casting around looking for a fragrant flower to grow hydroponically to dispel some of the winter gloom.  I was looking for something that did not take up a lot of space and would grow well hydroponically.

In my seed cache, I came across a packet of Dwarf Fragrance mix carnations from Ed Hume Seeds that I purchased years ago.  I started some seeds in a used coffee container to grow deep water culture with a wick.  I found that the container was just the right diameter to support a 3" net pot.  The media is in the 3" net pot and consists of 80% agricultural perlite,  a thin layer of coco coir holding the seeds and a thin layer of activated charcoal covering the coir.  For nutrients, I am using the same mix and strength that I use for basil, except, I have been adding .5 ml of a potent phosphate to promote flowering. 

As the plants grew it was necessary to add a few skewers to support the plants as they tend to be top heavy.  My objective is to grow flowers, not to win an award for the most attractive plant.

As I recall I tried to grow these same seeds in the greenhouse but abandoned the idea because the plant was a magnet for spider mites.

In the meantime, I have purchased seeds for a similar variety that only grows to a height of six to eight inches, which would be ideal if the flowers are not tiny also.

The plants are easy to grow and take up hardly any space so I will be growing a lot more canned carnations this winter season.  

P.S. The flowers are opening and they smell fantastic!  I am going to start another batch to keep the supply going.

 

Journal August 9, 2108 - Sweet Pepper Bonanza

We are picking a lot of sweet peppers both from the greenhouse and garden.  And, for whatever reason this season we have picked more tomatoes than ever before.

That said, the recent bouts of heavy rain have caused some of the tomatoes to split in the last week or so.

The Phalaenopsis seed project is humming along nicely.  Translate that: I have nothing to do but watch them grow.

What I thought were single large corms and planted individually are turning out to be multiple corms fused together.  So, at some point in time, it will be necessary to separate the seedlings into individual plants.  That, however, is some ways off in the future.

In the meantime, I have crossed a large plant with a miniature plant and the cross has taken on the miniature plant.  There are so many buds on the large plant I am not sure that the cross has taken on that plant yet.

 

Journal August 3, 2018 - Kapia peppers are ready.

Someone and I do not recall who gave me seeds for Kapia Hungarian peppers last season.   There were only a few seeds in the packet so I did not have many to plant, perhaps six or so. 

Two plants were placed in the greenhouse and the remaining plants in the garden.  The greenhouse plants have ripe peppers and they are real beauties!

The seeds will be saved and next season I plan on planting just these peppers.  Yeah, they are that good.

"The Red Kapia is a small, tapered pepper with a brilliant lipstick-red color.

In the same family as the bell pepper, this mild 4-5 inch pepper has a distinctive sweetness. This pepper is a native of Eastern Europe and, in fact, the main flavor ingredient in Hungarian Paprika. It’s a great addition to salad, roasted or simply tossed in a quality olive oil with pasta."

Journal July 28, 2018 - Phalaenopsis - seed starting success!!

Several of the more vigorous protocorms have been placed in individual vessels, while others remain grouped common vessels.  As I have experience in deflasking orchid seedlings I am now certain that this project will be a success.

The parent plant is back in full bloom and is magnificent.  To think that I purchased this plant last year at Aldi's for about eight dollars still boggles my mind.

The large Phalaenopsis has been crossed with a small Phalaenopsis that is almost purple, and already I can see the flower stem getting thicker which indicated pollination has taken place.
 

Journal July 15, 2018 - Phalaenopsis protocorms starting to look like plants.

Real progress is being made now, the protocorms are developing into plants.

Journal July 9, 2018 - Phalaenopsis orchid from seed in a test tube.

No matter what happens going forward I am going to call this a success!

There is definitely a new orchid growing from this protocorm.

What a fun project!

Journal July 8, 2018 - Phalaenopsis protocorm developeing leaves.

The process is so complicated I really did not expect to pull it off, but I wanted to learn something by trying.

I made a lot of mistakes, like putting way too many seeds in the media. They germinated but used up all of the nutrients in the media in a short period of time. I did not replate soon enough, so many of the protocorms ran out of nutrients. Still, I have a few dozen corms that appear to be forming into plants. This time when I replated the corms I only put a few in each vessel, and isolated a few to a single vessel or test tube.

Since I replated and isolated them the corms have begun to develop rapidly. In just one day the one in the photo went from just a bump on top to what appears to be a tiny leaf. 

 
Actually, I am looking forward to crossing a full size plant with a miniture in the near future and repeating the process.

It was that much fun!