More orchids are killed by over watering than for any other reason. It begs the question, how much water do they really need? How long can an orchid go without water?
I know they grow slowly and react slowly to their environment. They also die slowly. I decided to see if an orchid needs to be watered regularly.
Orchids are one of the easiest house plants to grow, but they remain a mystery for many people. In this post I will provide complete orchid care instructions that are foolproof. I have grown several thousand orchids, and this method works every time. My focus here will be on the phalaenopsis orchid, but the same orchid care methods will work on most of the orchids found in homes.
Insecticidal soap can be used to get rid of certain insect pests on plants, and it is one of the most non-toxic pesticides available. However, it is still a pesticide and needs to be treated as one. Many people use insecticidal soaps incorrectly, or for the wrong type of insect. In this post I will review how it works, which insects it controls and how to use it correctly. I’ll then review the problems with home made insecticidal soap.
As winter approaches, we worry about our poor plants making it through the cold. All manor of wrapping devices are used to protect them and Styrofoam cones, also called rose cones, have become popular in recent years. Do these contraptions work? If they do, how much warmer do they keep your plants?
There is a lot of talk on the internet about Styrofoam cones. Many extension offices recommend them, and suppliers certainly tell you they work, but I was unable to find a single source of information that actually provided data to support the idea that Styrofoam cones keep plants warmer in winter.
So I decided to do some testing of my own.
In a previous post, Seed Dormancy – Are Seeds Really Dormant?, I discussed Seed Dormancy and presented a new way for gardeners to look at seed development and seed dormancy. Today I would like continue the discussion by looking at double dormancy and ask the question, does it really exist?
If you plant some peony or trillium seed in the fall you won’t see any green growth until the second spring – if you’re lucky. This is routinely described as an example of double dormancy – the seed needs two cold periods before they germinate. The two stratification (cold) periods overcome two dormancies, hence the name, double dormancy.
But is this really true? Do seeds like peony and trillium have have double dormancy? Does any seed have a double dormancy?
I have always been fascinated with seed germination and seed dormancy. The idea that a complete plant can be grown from a small hard nugget of cells has to be one of natures best creations. As you become familiar with seeds you soon realize that the germination process is not as straight forward as you might think. For many plants you just can’t take seed, plant them, and have germination in a few days.
Every seed seems to require its own process for germinating. Some need to be stratified, some scarified, and some need cold-warm cycles. There are many options for getting seed to germinate and I’ll discuss these in a future post.
The term ‘dormancy’ is used to describe a seeds reluctance to germinate; or more correctly seed dormancy to distinguish it from plant dormancy. The seed lies dormant until environmental conditions are favorable for it to germinate – or at least that is the impression you are left with. But is the seed really dormant? What does dormancy really mean? Good questions that I’ll try to answer in this post.
Fall is coming to a close and I have been collecting plant seeds from the garden for several months. In a few cases I want the seed so that I can grow more plants, but most of the plant seed I collect will be donated to a couple organizations that operate seed exchanges. Other people around the world are doing exactly the same thing. In December, members of these organizations are allowed to order these seeds. That is where my fun starts.
I will have access to thousands of different types of seed. Anything from perennials and grasses to shrubs and trees. The groups I belong to don’t distribute vegetable seed or house plant seed, but I am sure organizations also exist for these kind of seeds.
Over the next month or two I plan to write a number of posts to tell you everything there is to know about growing plants from seed. Well, almost everything. After 40 years I am still learning.
In my post Fertilizer: Selecting the Right NPK Ratio, I explained that you don’t feed plants – you feed the soil. Your job as a gardener is to add missing nutrients to the soil. If the soil contains all the nutrients plants need to live – the plants will do well.
The answer to the question, what fertilizer do plants need, is very simple. They need any nutrient that is deficient in the soil. If your soil is not deficient of nutrients – you do NOT need to fertilize.
But how do we know which nutrient(s) is deficient in the soil? I’ll try to answer this question in this post. In order to do that, we need to better understand what nutrients do in the soil.
We eat 3 times a day and the food we eat provides all of the nutrients we need to live. The chemicals in food are used by our bodies to grow and maintain our body parts. The protein you eat helps build muscles. Carbohydrates provide energy that is used for all kinds of things such as moving, breathing, thinking and eating more food.
Most of the food we eat is in the form of large molecules such as protein, carbohydrates, DNA, and fats. Our digestive system takes these large molecules and breaks them down into smaller molecules like simple sugars and nitrates. Our bodies then use these small molecules as building blocks to build new large molecules. Our bodies are actually a very efficient recycling plant. We take food in, break it down into basic building blocks, and then use these building blocks to create complex body parts.
Plants differ from humans and other animals in that they do not have a digestive system. Therefore, they are not able to break down large molecules. Plants must start with small molecules like nitrate and phosphate and build the large molecules they need.
It is fall and some gardeners are getting tired of their gardens. So what do they do? They go out and buy bulbs for spring flowers. For a true gardener there is always next year.
This post will walk you through the steps of how to buy bulbs and how to plant bulbs for a great spring garden.
Planting zones, also called hardiness zones and gardening zones, help you select plants that will grow in your climate. In this blog, I will answer the following questions:
Many of you think orchids are difficult plants to keep in the home – they are not! The correct amount of water is critical, and to try and simplify watering someone came up with the bright idea that if you put an ice cube in the pot once a week, the orchid would prosper. The intent here was good. Make the watering procedure as simple as possible, so people can follow it. Unfortunately, it is a really stupid idea!
I’ll show you a much better way to water your plants – a method that keeps my orchids blooming all year long.
