Time Lapse Part 2

A lapse in time indeed. Most of these plants came down months ago. It seems that the PlantCam does everything it said it would.  You only get six full resolution shots on the internal memory and no SD card is included, so anybody purchasing this should have a SD available to slot in.

GO LADYBUGS !

The PlantCam came on an hour early and caught a flash of the Good Morning Far Red LED supplemental growlight.

Time Lapse Lion's Tail

I am a huge fan of Lion's Tail. I like the sturdy way it grows. I like the feel of its leaves. It attracts butterflies and hummingbirds.  I have tried for years to force flower it indoors and all I had to show for it were monstrous plants with no signs of flowers. Until now.

I think I have cracked the Lion's code and am set to document this first with another first... Time Lapse Photography. The shop was given a Plant Cam to try out and here we are, trying it out.

Every other day the Plant Cam takes a pic every six hours while the lights are on. Since it seems to be working I will install a memory card because I lose a few days of photos when I have to take it home to clear its feeble internal memory.

Here is the photo set from its first ten days vegetating in the tent.

I turned the lights to the flower cycle 2 weeks ago and the flowers are starting to show up. Woo Hoo.

I will update with more pics as we grow along.

Setting up Nicely

This is one of three clusters setting up nicely on my lone Tomato. It's in the brightest spot I can give it, but the temps have remained cool and they are not swelling all that quick. The mammals of the house don't seem to mind our cool corner as much as some of the plants.

They look due for some Calcium, so I am gonna give them some on their next feeding.

Persistent is, as persistent does.

I can imagine very few things more critical to the sovereign nature of a nation than Farming and the Military. Over Memorial Day we remember those who gave their lives serving their country. This Memorial Day I spent time thinking about how, even for those that are home, they are still under assault.

We have reached the first generations of Chemical death and the early stages of reproductive follow-though to the next generation that were spoken of in the book Our Stolen Future. Farmers, Soldiers and others suffer from their exposure to toxic chemicals. It seems that we and they have known this the whole time. This exposure was part of the risks that they take to provide for our country. This exposure is necessary?

We can limit the damage in discreet instances and exposures, but when a chemical is persistent in nature should we ever release it?

Can any persistent chemicals be used on Organic Food Crops?

I didn't get in this Memorial Day Mindset on my own. I was gently guided there by the photo below:

We live along the Alameda Creek and the Water District was/is spraying the roads on either side over the next week. Along the creek there are several of these signs with different dates letting people know that the road will be closed.  There was no info telling us how long to stay off the road, so I looked up the MSDS on the treatments used. Here they are:

Milestone by Dow Agro Sciences.

Aquamaster by Monsanto Company

In-Place and Competitor by Wilbur-Ellis

In-Place and Competitor are rather innocuous oil based agents that help the Milestone and Aquamaster stay where they're sprayed. I found no real need to look into those two.

Not knowing much about Milestone or Aquamaster I dug a bit:

So my pasture raised beef might be killing my garden? Awesome!

Same Story more Science.

Wait, what, Aquamaster is just Round-Up that is safe to use near water? I guess I am OK with that even though Monsanto is paying Farmers to lay off the Round-Up already.

So it was through that process that I got stuck on the persistent notion that persistent chemicals persist persistently and pervasively and in most cases are not even "called" persistent.

Is a Potted Plant Money in the Bank?

Much praise can/should be given to farmers of all scales for the work their plantings do sequestering carbon. It seems a shame that more than half of that sequestered carbon is given back to the atmosphere when the earth those plants grow in is tilled up.

I am an urban farmer, as such I have a long list of reasons why I prefer container gardening. Add to that list: Long Term Carbon Sink. With the emerging Carbon Economy these potted plants may be generating revenue with what we harvest and with what we never harvest. Compress your rootmasses and media into carbon coins and whatever you do... don't burn them.

The container above uses features to improve rootmass by air-pruning. This technique of air-pruning is also the goal for the black poly-fabric pots that are now being made in sizes under 20 gallons. Air-pruning advocates claim that a 5 gal air-pruning pot is equivalent to a 10 gal standard nursery pot as far as root mass generated and nutrients accessed by similar sized plants.

From untilled earth comes untold wealth? I am willing to carbon bank on it.

A New Exposure

Having recently moved, I am now set with the task of creating a new plantscape that is suitable for our new light exposure. We left behind a scorching South-West exposure for the cooler confines of a North-East exposure. I bid farewell to large fruits and welcome an influx of veritable greens.

Come grow with me Spinach!

I had to leave a few things behind: some gifted, some gorilla'd into irrigated spots here and there, planted things were left in the ground. Of the few outdoor plants that made the move, this Peppermint Geranium above is loving its new digs the most. Its life before was hidden from most, potted and settled beneath a monster of a grape vine, barely noticeable in winter invisible in summer. No longer a shrinking violet (I mean Geranium) it now lives on an shelf, in full view of all that pass by.