Worms

I cleared out the bunch of lilies today into separate containers.  The big container had 8 shoots, plus a little tiny one popping up, so I was a little surprised to realize that there were 14 total bulbs crammed in there.  Interestingly enough, I had noticed that all the water had been sucked dry from the container since I planted the bulbs a little over one week ago.  It really made me think about the watering needs of these plants.  Usually when you think of tropical plants, you think about the heat, but they are also acclimatized to sucking up as much water as they can get.

When I pulled one of the plants out to transplant it, I noticed there was some riff-raff.

A few worms hanging out in the soil.  Bad picture because of all the moisture affecting the flash.

Better picture once I dropped the bulb into a tote of dry peat.

As soon as I saw the worms, I suddenly remembered that when I was planting the bulbs originally into the big container, one of them had a lot of soil clumped around it and I had spotted a worm digging around in there.  I figured I would leave it be, it is only going to help my plant with nutrient-rich vermicompost.  So when I spotted at least a handful of worms in the soil, I have to say I was pretty impressed with the rate of reproduction.  I've read a little about worms and needless to say, those 5 worms are now breeding an army large enough to kill us all.  Until they get uppity and start trying to escape their container, I'll leave them be.  Maybe I'll start a worm bin for them; I decided to throw a few brussel sprout leaves and peanut shells on top of the soil in the two containers where most of those worms ended up.  They should poke up some night to pull them down to munch on. 

While I was at it, I couldn't resist snapping a couple more photos of some of these roots.

Those roots are massive, no wonder the water was all gone in the container!

This is a different bulb, with a handful of impressive roots.  It's not only the length, but these are firm, tough, thick roots compared to what I was seeing when I first planted them.  Also, I wanted a picture of this bulb because it shows a brand new part of the bulb that has expanded from the main section and a new shoot that is just beginning to break through the soil and emerge toward the sun.

As I said, it was 14 bulbs, 14 containers.  I'm a little concerned about how to make room in front of the window for all of them.  It looks like the "bathroom lilies" will be getting at least one roommate, and maybe I'll get a shelf up in my office at the window.  And thankfully, I took a quick glance through the Home Depot flyer this morning, where I spotted shoebox containers for only $0.67 each, so I picked up 20.  I may just go back tomorrow to snatch up 20 more while they're on sale.

UPDATE:  The large bathroom lily has already, in just 36 hours, taken up half the space left to the ceiling.  It grew about 2-3" and has maybe 2" left until it hits the ceiling.  Actually, because it was bleak weather on Saturday, and beyond bleak today, the leaves haven't really gotten as much sun as they would like and are a little wilted and slumping.  I wouldn't be surprised if an hour or so of good sunlight has the big lily pressing the ceiling tomorrow morning--that is, assuming we get a little sun.

Cool stuff happening

In the pasty week, the 6-8" cannas have either opened up leaves from the shoots, opened up a second leaf, or are in the process of multiple leaves.

"The bathroom lilies":  last week, the big one was just a 6" shoot with a little leaf on the top.  For most of the week, I watched the shoot climb about 1" every day, then it opened up on Friday when it was a warm, sunny day.  Also, the smaller ones on the right are improving.

I thought I would include this just to get a good image of the containers.

These lilies are also improving from the 6-8" that they were last week.  you can see the one in the middle is really pushing forward with the second leaf, as is the one in front of it and the one off to the side.  Kind of hidden is one in the back corner that is also opening up another leaf, and there are little shoots advancing from some of the roots that were not there last week.  

You might notice I have no pictures of the big blue tote bins that also had bulbs.  I finally decided to get rid of the totes and move those lilies into the shoebox-sized clear containers like the others.  I was just worried the totes were too tall to allow the proper amount of sunlight in.  I picked up two dozen containers last night to transplant them this morning.  Getting a look at the roots was very interesting.

This is one of the tote plants that I transplanted.  I wanted to get a picture of the root system.  Believe me, when I pulled these out of the ground, they looked nothing like this! 

I was getting the bulbs from heavy, damp clay soil and the little roots were mostly snapped or sheared off the bulb when I brought them home.  Typically, the plants would have 1-2 little roots, only 2-3" long at best.  The roots here are about 4-5" long and you can also see little tiny thin strands of rootlets that are growing extensive structures from the bulb.  (You can click on the pictures to enlarge).

In fact, I wish I hadn't run out of memory on my camera, because after this plant, I transplanted 2 or 3 that had roots extending between 12-18", multiple roots each.  With most of the bulbs, little shoots were forming and starting to sprout upward.  They were not pressing through the soil yet in the totes, but I suspect they will be shooting upwards from their new containers within the week.  The way the roots had grown, I'm a little skeptical now that I ever needed to abandon my tote bins at all, but I do find the clear shoebox bins to be much easier to handle and observe.

Speaking of transplanting, I'll divulge my planting method here:

First, I pour a little bit of water along the bottom of the container.  Usually a bit less than 1" is plenty.

Now I cover the water with 1-3" of soil.  The shape of the root and the root structure will determine how much soil is required.  I am using peat moss here, which is very light.  It will allow the roots to spread easily through it.  Peat is very interesting because it doesn't readily absorb water, so it kind of floats on top.  I check to make sure I have the right amount of peat down before putting the bulb in, so I push down on the peat, and it feels like I'm pressing against a tiny waterbed.  On the other hand, once peat absorbs water, it retains it for a long, long time.  The easiest way to wet peat, and the method I use to water the plants and seeds, is to just spray the containers with mist

Now that the peat is ready, I plop the bulb on top.  You can see some lengthy roots here; I'm going to press those into the peat, down to the water.  The bulb itself I want to remain pretty dry sitting on top of the peat.  The final step is to cover it with peat.  This is kind of a tricky science to know exactly how much you want to cover the bulb.  Generally, bring the soil level even with the top of the bulb, then brush the bulb clean and leave only the thinnest layer over top of the bulb.  Cannas typically grow right along the surface of the soil.  With other plants, I would probably be applying a thicker cover.

As for a few final notes:

The frame for the greenhouse should be completed today.  I then need to check measurements and then order the covering.  Coming from Manitoba, hopefully I will have it next week.

My seeds are not sprouting as of yet.  Hopefully I see some action soon.

I need to go pick up another dozen containers.  The container with the bunch of lilies sprouting is getting way too crowded for my liking.  I'm kind of surprised this day has come so soon, but I always knew I would need to transplant them.  I am probably going to keep the biggest bulb in the container and see if, through the course of the full winter, the canna will expand enough to take up the whole space.  As for those totes, I hope they will become useful for the same purpose.  I would really like to have a few gigantic roots.

Some seeds while I'm at it

I figured since I was doing all this work with the lilies indoors I might start up a tray of various seeds I have amassed this fall, just as a small experiment before the hard work comes later.

I have hostas, canna lilies, ricinus/castor oil plant, daylilies and asiatic lilies.

In the case of some of the seeds, the shells are very hard.  Canna lily seeds are used for jewelry as beads in some cultures.  They are round, shiny, black and tough as any seed I've ever handled, and I didn't have the patience to try sanding down the edge.  So with that in mind, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes 2-3 weeks to see sprouting from some of these cells.  With the hostas, which are easy to rupture and split, I am hoping to see progress in much less time.

Speaking of seeds, I have also been browsing the catalogs in preparation for making a big order.  Not many tough decisions as far as the vegetables go, but I am on the fence about a number of annuals that I may or may not wish to grow.  Until the greenhouse is up and I am able to determine the amount of planting space I will actually have, I cannot proceed with any orders.  The angle of the sun vs. the angle of refraction of the light will determine how high and how deep I can plant.  Looking forward to solving that riddle.

Wow!

These lilies are bursting out and soaking up the sun and water! 

I wish I had taken a picture when I transplanted a number of the bulbs today from inferior pots to the newer shoebox containers I picked up this weekend.  When I originally planted the bulbs, the little offshoot roots were few and far between in most cases, and were not sending out little rootlets of their own into the soil.  This may have been partly due to the fact that smaller, weaker roots would have been damaged when the lilies were initially pulled from the soil, or because these plants were pulled from a garden with heavy clay soil where small roots might have a tougher time establishing themselves to begin with.  In any case, I was blown away with the vibrant root systems I saw when I was getting the new containers prepared.

The picture is a little fuzzy, but you can see significant growth out of the stalks, 6" for most, up to 12" for one.

These ones started out in my kitchen, sitting in the corner near an east-facing window that doesn't catch direct light, and across the room from a north-facing window that catches ambient light from outside.  They were also in pots that were very tall and shrouded them away from a lot of light as well.  I was pleasantly surprised to see how they thrived in those substandard conditions for about one week.  Now they sit next to a south-facing window in better containers.

You can spot a few little ones popping up from roots where I had completely removed the stalk. 

I added some fertilizer to the water today, so the plants that are crammed into the big containers may need to be moved soon into larger single pots at the rate they are going.  I'm already adjusting the shelving unit to allow for more height, so I look forward to what they might look like in another week.

(416)679-8465   |   ParadiseLawnAndSnow@yahoo.ca

In the meantime...

I'm preoccupied with other things, like wrapping up our summer season and preparing for the winter, so I haven't gotten my materials ordered or picked up.  In the meantime, there is some work to do for the greenhouse project.

I am still cleaning and storing some seeds away, but most importantly I am caring for tropical plants indoors until the greenhouse is ready.  Having collected a number of canna lily bulbs, I have started the plants indoors before they move into their new home.  Ideally, I would have preferred to have just stored the bulbs until I was ready to plant in the greenhouse, but I was worried about making a mistake when it comes to proper moisture, aeration, etc. when storing them.  But my house could use some lively colour anyways, and it's nice to get something started with the greenhouse project right away.

All I did was grab some old shelving units, peat moss and planting pots from the shed, pick up some storage boxes to act as the containers, and get the lilies planted and placed on the shelves sitting against the south-facing window in the extra bedroom in the house.

The lilies are planted into pots.  The pots sit inside the bins, which are filled with about one inch of water.

I'm not expecting many of the stalks to necessarily survive.  Some of the lilies are growing by extending new shoots up through the middle of the old stalks, but most of them seem to be closing off where they were cut, and will probably send up new sprouts.  This might actually help the plant to grow a thicker, larger root structure, which will allow it to grow more shoots, and thus give me more plants.  We'll have to wait to find out.

(416)670-8465   |   ParadiseLawnAndSnow@yahoo.ca

Starting a greenhouse

Last year, I studied up on the basics of harvesting and propagating seeds with the idea of maybe growing a few plants to source some of our landscaping projects.  Once I dipped my toe into the water, I quickly decided it would be more fun to dive right in and look into a greenhouse operation.  After many blueprints and cost estimates, I have finally committed to moving forward with the idea.

This will serve as a journal of my greenhouse activities as I look to expand my business, learn the ropes of plant production, and surely make countless stupid mistakes as I go.

(416)670-8465   |   ParadiseLawnAndSnow@yahoo.ca