WEATHER EFFECTS

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It might just be me but has anyone noticed your garden behaving strange from the weather lately?

This Christmas Cactus is blooming in March. It seems a little confused. My local temperatures have gone from the mid 80's to the mid 40's as each successive cold front rolls through.

Usually the cold fronts don't make it this far South at this time of year.

The difference in weather here in Florida this year is due to El Nino. It is a natural cycle occurrence every two to five years due to periodic warming of the
central and eastern pacific waters. El Nino usually lasts about 12 months and the one we are in now was announced July 9th 2009.

It effects the subtropical jet stream allowing for cooler and wetter weather in reach down in Florida.

Researchers predicted for Florida that the Winter temperatures would decrease 40% from normal and that we would get 50% more rain during the dry months here.

For Central and South Florida El Nino significantly increases the chances for tornado and for severe weather.

So the extra long January freeze and the rolling cold fronts were predicted and can be attributed to El Nino conditions.

The good news is that the El Nino going on now helped from us getting slammed by a hurricane last season. Also the wetter conditions reduced the number of wildfires that we have been getting in the past few years during the dry season.

So for a few more months we can expect unusual weather for Florida.

That was no consolation for my Black Flamingo plant.

This is how it looked in early December when the temperatures here were still warm and toasty.

This plant is Chrysothemus pulchella if you like.

It likes the shade and has leathery coppery green leaves.

I found out while it likes the heat and being in the shade it doesn't like the cold fronts we have been getting.

And here is the proof. This is my Black Flamingo now.

Below 50 degree's apparently it didn't like.

The upside is that when consistant summer weather arrives it is supposed to come back again.

Anyway I still have the Orchid's blooming to cheer things up.

This one is soaking up some late afternoon sun.

It is a Phalaenopsis type named Chien Xen Pearl.

And some more progress toward my 2010 challenge .

For this week I started six more seeds in the yogurt cups.

They include:

2-Butterfly flower [Asclepias Tuberosa]

2- Sunflower

1- Jubilee heirloom Tomato

1-super beefsteak Tomato

------Sanddune----

DESERT ROSE SEED TRIAL PART 2

For the seed trial I decided to try four seeds and see what happens. The old standby yogurt cups with drain holes cut in the bottom will once again come in to use. They are plastic and hold up well to be used over and over to start seeds in. Four of the cups were filled with commercial seed starting mix. I have found the seed starting mix to be invaluable because it is finely ground and much lighter than regular soil to start seed with.

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Once the cups were filled with the potting soil they were put into an old plastic greenhouse tray. The soil was then wet down until it was moist with some collected rainwater. As per the advice from the Internet I cut off the fuzzy part of the Desert Rose seeds on both ends. Then the seeds were sprayed with a fungicide. I found spray Daconil and used it as the fungicide . I don't know if that is required but it was suggested to dust the seeds with fungicide so I did.
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The seeds were then placed on
top of the moist soil and covered with a very shallow topcoat of the soil mix.

You can see in this picture the seeds at the tip of the yellow arrows just prior to being covered over with soil.




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The clear plastic top of the mini greenhouse tray was put into place . It is supposed to keep the moisture inside and not let the cups dry out to fast.

It is not required but I had it and figured might as well use it for something.

So that's it . Now we wait to see if we get any results from the harvested seeds and the planting methods used. --------sanddune-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OLD SEEDS

Today is turning out to be a spectacular South Florida day with a clear azure blue sky and a warm tropical breeze blowing. The sun is out and it is just a day you want to plant something.

I started looking at my seeds saved from 2007 and 2008 and decided to start some for the garden. I had saved up a stack of plastic yogurt cups so today presented the perfect opportunity to put them to use.
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First thing was to cut out four drainage holes in the bottom of the empty yogurt cups.



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The dogs were close by during the production line of drain hole cutting. They give me weird looks as if to say,"what are you doing now"?


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Seed starting mix is now put in the cups and water added until the whole mixture is wet. The seeds are added and marked with homemade labels with the seed name and date started.


This morning we started :
4- Park's bell peppers Whopper improved hybrid.
2- Park's Pepper Thai Hot.
2-Burpee Zinnia Highlight
4- Evelyn's Yellow Beauty Marigold ( very old seeds from my Mom's Marigold plants )
2- Yellow Bush ( unknown seeds I had saved from the blooms of a apparently Yellow bush back
in 2007 and put in an envelope. I have no clue as to what they are but I did
mark the envelope Yellow Bush 06- 20-07).
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Now we just have to wait and see what sprouts if anything. ... sanddune...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------NOTE: COMMENTS , IDEAS OR SUGGESTIONS ARE ALWAYS APPRECIATED, THANKS.
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