Fear of Clowns

Here are sinicuichi and kratom sprouts from even tinier seeds,

The basil sprouted in just three days,

The tomatoes and melons are running wild,

Here's that first cucumber,

Labels: gardening, hydroponics

// posted by Erik @ 12/29/2007 11:56:00 AM
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Today my Christmas present to myself came - new and exciting seeds.

This evening, I seeded in rockwool cubes "Greek" oregano, "pesto" basil, rosemary, sage, intoxicating mint, kanna, and sinicuichi. Half of the cubes were soaked in plain reverse osmosis water, half in r/o water with 70 ppm B'cuzz root and 40 ppm gibberellin and pHed to 5.0. The sinicuichi seeds are as small as large specs of dust - I sprinkled these on a 1" thick slice of a large rockwool cube and tried to push some of the specks into the wool with a fork. I can't imagine such small seeds could grow to seedlings on such a minuscule endosperm, so I just used the weak B'cuzz/gibberellin nutrient solution.

I also started some larger non-herbaceous plants - wild dagga and kratom - again experimenting between plain reverse osmosis water and the weak nutrient solution pHed to 5.0. The kratom seeds are as large as the smallest wood sliver you could get under your skin.

The seeds with hard coats - the intoxicating mint and kanna - were soaked in near-boiling water for 2-3 minutes.

Kanna seeds naturally contain a germination inhibitor which gives the species the advantage of a generation of seeds germinating over time. The germination inhibitor can be overcome with gibberellin at a higher dose than I used this time, but as the plant's natural germination inhibitor is water soluble I'm soaking 15 seeds in r/o water. The high concentration of gibberellin required to overcome the germination inhibitor would possibly have unwanted side effects - such as elongation of roots and stems.

Labels: botany, gardening, hydroponics

// posted by Erik @ 12/20/2007 07:40:00 PM
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From the veracifier.

Q: Why did your firm do business with friends of Kim Jong Il?
Rudy: Tee hee hee!

Q: Why did your firm do business with a friend of the Sept 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad?
Rudy: Ga ha hee hee!

Labels: right wingers, terrorism

// posted by Erik @ 12/10/2007 03:59:00 PM
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This Winter's first produce: a baby cuke, 12/05/2007.

Labels: photos

// posted by Erik @ 12/06/2007 09:20:00 AM
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Here's my recirculating deep water culture hydroponic garden. It's called "deep water culture" because the roots are completely submerged in water and it's called "recirculating" because water constantly flows through each bucket (as opposed to aerating water in individual unconnected buckets). I spent $150 - 175 on the parts, less than half what one would pay for an equivalent pre-made system.

To emphasize that the system will grow garden-fresh winter produce I chose to "set out" my seedlings on Thanksgiving Day - our culture's harvest celebration.

1. 

   Rinsing landscape "lava rock". This will support the roots.

    

2. 

   Assembled buckets, tubes, pipes and grommets from Home Depot, Menard's and a hydroponic specialty store. Water comes in through 1/4" pipe, exits through a 1" grommet on the opposite side.

    

3. 

   The reservoir. A submersible pump pushes water out to buckets, gravity returns water to reservoir.

    

4. 

   Air wands from aquarium shop in the reservoir. The water must have a lot of dissolved oxygen in it it or the roots will drown.

    

5. 

   Can't have too many bubbles. The more oxygen in the water, the faster nutrients are absorbed through the roots.

    

6. 

   Covering the reservoir. If light hits the water algae will grow, wasting nutrients and looking scummy.

    

7. 

   Seedlings dropped into the contraption.

    

8. 

   Two weeks later.

    

Labels: gardening, hydroponics

// posted by Erik @ 12/06/2007 08:46:00 AM
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Official gets the rack for speaking ill of Intelligent Design Creationism.

Labels: intelligent design, right wingers

// posted by Erik @ 12/03/2007 01:19:00 PM
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