Ann's Air Gardens

I Am So Proud of This

It is the first nasturtium I've been able to sprout since I've been doing soil-free growing.  After four unsuccessful attempts to get nasturtium seeds to sprout in the AeroGarden, I sprouted this one in the Sproutman's hemp bag instead, after nicking the sides of a handful of seeds and soaking them for a few hours.   All of the seeds sprouted in just a few days in the hemp bag.    

In this experiment, I have put one seedling in the MiracleGro Moisture Control potting mix and the other in open-cell foam in the AeroGarden.  

Although I gave up on trying to sprout these in the AG, I'm still interested to see if the seedlings will grow in one.  However, if memory serves, these do not like a lot of feeding, so I should grow them alongside herbs rather than other flowers.  

 

The lantana clones I blogged about recently looked like they were ready to be transferred from soil-less medium into dirt today, too.  Here is one that I grew from an end cutting with just two leaves on it, rooted in water.

At the right are the two original leaves, which I cut off and set aside, all of those still on the plant being new growth.

It took about one month for this plant to take root and then begin to flourish. It seems to me that most new plants I grow either from seeds or cuttings have a little growth spurt after about three weeks.

A Penny for your Thoughts

An unabashed plug for my favorite (and only) social networking program:

Are you a gardening fan? Then join other gardening fans on myLot! Whether you're looking for a friendly conversation or a heated debate, you can find it on myLot.

Minimum payout is $10 a month by PayPal. Although most of us network there just for the fun of it, the pennies do add up. In fact, among other things, I paid for the WaterMark Factory software I use to copy protect photos I post online with myLot earnings.

Fastest Fig in the West?

Ever since my cousin gave me a taste of the figs that grow in her back yard, I've been hooked on the idea of reproducing that tree, as they are the best figs I've ever had.  So I've been searching for tips of propagating fig plants in the forums and apparently what I want to do is very far out on a limb.  Everyone says to take leafless wood cuttings when the trees are dormant and root them in the ground. 

The only discussion I've yet to find about hydroponic fig plants was rather negative.   But I still wanted to try putting new growth from the end of a branch into water just to see what would happen, and five days later it would appear that I have healthy roots, pictured in the insert at the top left:
So now I'm wondering where are all the articles about figs being grown as decorative houseplants.  Am I missing something?  Of course the first thought that came to mind was who might have a fruit-bearing bonsai fig?  I had to go all the way to Brazil for the answer:

This is no Banyan 

By now I am of course thinking I should Google up the keywords "hydroponic bonsai" and this is what came up:

Hydroponics and Bonsai

Very cool, and germane to this discussion because my purpose in wanting to try the soft cuttings was to see how fast one could propagate a fig.  If you read the closing quote from Dickens on the Hutchins page, then you'll understand what I mean when I say that I want to sit in the shade now.  

All this should lead soon to another topic:  is the notion that water/air roots differ in a significant way from soil roots really a fact or just another wide spread myth waiting to be debunked? 

 Cutting started 8/6.

 Roots showing 8/11.

 Moved to soil 8/14.

 For this experiment I am using Scott's    MiracleGro Moisture Control Potting Mix, which contains coconut fibers (coir) and a 3-month supply of plant food.  

The container is a trimmed down milk bottle.  I will poke holes in the bottom for drainage and set it inside a decorative pot until it is ready to be cut loose and put into something bigger. 

Cloned in the AeroGarden: A Million Bells

This is what became of the stem cutting I put in the AeroGarden 3 to root on June 23:
  It took root in approximately 3 weeks and then went on to open up 3 lovely flowers.  It is a good thing too that it is thriving, as the parent plant has just about succumbed to the desert heat and is no longer flowering.  It is not doing well at all out on the porch, so if I'm to be sure of saving it, I'd better take some more cuttings fast. 

I had cut all the buds off before cloning in order to give strength to the new roots, so I wondered how long it would take to bloom again.   Here is a shot of the Million Bells roots:
These roots are very fragile at the top and break off easily if the foam insert is moved.

Of course, the basil cutting in the back dwarfs the others.  The spiderette "cutting" was taken about the same time and it has formed an amazing root structure:

 
The new spider plant and basil are ready to be moved into passive containers. 

Please Do Eat the Campanula

I bought this perennial at Trader Joe's:

If it looks good enough to eat, go ahead and have some.  The Bellflower blossoms and leaves are both edible. 

This one is called Campanula Get Mee, and I'll have to admit that it got me.  The species is portenschlagiana and it beats me why we don't see more of these plants for sale on the sites that wire flowers as gifts. 

I've had it less than a week, but so far it is holding up beautifully, and being a perennial, I should be able to root cuttings in an AeroGarden mini and have lots more after this one conks out. 

I'll try it and if it works, I'll post the results on my Bellflower Page: 

Blissful Bellflowers

The Million Bells rooted; this should too. 

SOMETHING ELSE:  Red Icculus, who comments below, writes a fine blog which recently contained the following interesting statement: 

"If the pH goes up, she’s thirsty.  If the pH goes down, she’s hungry."  For the rest of the story, go here:  A Great Hydroponic Tip

Verbenaceae

Just when I fall in love with a plant, it usually turns out to be on somebody's list of invasive species, ie, hated weeds.   OK, so it is prickly and tends to get out of control, but down here in the desert, there aren't too many prolific bloomers that can make it on their own, and surely I have mentioned before that I am decidedly NOT a dirt gardener.  So now that I've moved to a place where we have a little patch of soil, I needed something that can grow on its own. 

Lantana would seem to fit the bill, and after doing some exhaustive research online and deciding that Lantana would be perfect, I did what I probably should have done in the first place and took a walk around the neighborhood to see what everybody else was growing.  Sure enough...red and orange and blue and yellow ones doing great all over the place.   I didn't waste any time asking permission to take cuttings to root, and so my first Lantana experiment is underway:

  Most people whose comments I have read suggest taking stem cuttings from the woodier part of the branches, but there are several reasons why I prefer to try this first since I'm wanting to get some plants established indoors in water before transferring them to the dirt outside and I want to see how fast I can root them in an AeroGarden.  Typically the softer cuttings at the tip of the plant root faster, so we'll see if this is an exception.

I made a bouquet out of the flower heads that I had to trim off, as cuttings root best when the plant can devote itself to growing instead of blooming:

As time goes on, I will add photos to my Lantana page:  HERE

A New Use for Milk Jugs

Having grown up on a dairy farm, I am pretty fussy about my milk.  Where we are currently staying the stores do not carry cream-top milk in the glass bottles, but they do have a 99 Cents Only Store, which sells milk that I consider delicious for under a dollar a quart.  So, being frugal, I was naturally looking at those cute plastic containers and wondering what they might be good for.

Then I got this idea: 

I'm growing scallions, basil, and this tomato cutting in the converted milk bottles, and wrote articles about the latter two here:

Cloning a Tomato Plant

Basil in a Milk Jug

As described in the basil article, I cut the top off the jugs and inverted them in the base, with the cap screwed on and drain holes punched beneath the handle.  This works just as well as the containers I was making out of Figi water and Juice bottles, but the milk jug containers, although shallower, have a larger diameter.  

Chlorophytum comosum

It has been a long time since I had a spider plant, and I have yet to try growing one in water.  But thanks to a neighbor who is moving away, I now have a huge parent plant with lots of little spiderettes.  Searching online to learn more about this plant, I stumbled upon what looks like the mother of all Q&A sessions on this much admired plant, from whether it is poisonous to cats to how one can grow it underwater, such as in a fish tank.  Fascinating! 

Answers to Spider Plant Questions 

I should have fun dividing this up.

More on this gorgeous plant here:  My Other Blog

Million Bells

I learned a new phrase today:  Herbaceous Stem Cuttings.  That should go in my glossary.    My mission today was to find some petunias to put in the one AeroGarden mini that I was able to bring when we moved yet again, as I haven't had time to sow any seedlings, and needed a plant fix.  

Apparently, petunias are not in season here in the Palm Desert, but I did invest $3.50 in a beautiful pot of Calibrachoa:

I didn't recognize the name Calibrachoa, and have never grown this kind of plant before,  so I wasn't sure if it would root from cuttings until I got home to check up on it online.  Missouri Botanical Garden has a web page stating that it ""must be vegetatively propagated."  Bingo!   Herbacious (aka soft-stem or vegetative) cuttings are what we used to call "slips" back on the farm. 

So I put them in a glass of water next to some basil and grape tomato cuttings, both of which should be well rooted inside of 5 days.  It will be interesting to see how long the Million Bells cuttings will take to root.  A few comments on different gardening forums discouraged trying to root them in water, but as I am interested in knowing if they can be grown hydroponically, we shall see.

Here is the MBG page: Missouri Botanical Garden

Denver Plants has a good page on Million Bells too:  Denver Plants

They point out that it is illegal to propagate Millions Bells, saying that they are "patented hybrid plants."   A note on the proprietary stuff is here. 

Jacaranda Trees

I posted my first photo of the Jacaranda Trees on my other blog if you would like to take a look: Exam Trees

They are commonly called "exam trees" in some parts of the world because of the belief, depending on where you are, that if a flower falls from one of these trees and hits your head you will either pass your exams...or NOT!  According to Wikipedia, in Pretoria it is believed you will, but in Queensland, you will not.  I'm not worried, as I passed all my exams a long time ago.  I'll bet that somewhere, though, there is also a superstition that if a young man presses the blossoms and mails them to his love, they will bring her to wherever he is.  If not, there should be. 

In this shot, the pods are more apparent:  

Detail of pods: