Sunday, January 21, 2007

Trees for Life project - phase 5

Thinning and replanting.

While most of the tubes had good germination of each seed, and have three to four seedlings each, there were some (not many) tubes where there was no germination at all. It is now time to consider thinning and replanting, as there needs to be only one seedling in each tube.

Am probably a little late with this, but the weather has been very hot (41C or 105F) until last Wednesday, so have been deferring the transplanting. Rain and cooler weather began Friday morning – in fact, has been gently falling continuously since. Much welcome relief.

While my “day job” requires the occasional planting out, tending and growing of plants and flowers, this is the first time that have tried anything like this. Am very excited and fascinated by the germination of so many, and am reluctant to be “ruthless” and cull out the little ones.


Allocasuarina verticillata (Drooping She-oak) next

Acacia rupicola (Rock Wattle) next.

A couple of "ring-ins". Have no idea what they are, but will let them grow.

7 comments:

BBC said...

It's warmed up here and the snow is gone. Now it is the typical January for this area running in the 40's during the day. The kind of winter I can tolerate.

Good luck with the trees, I love trees.

JahTeh said...

Can't you have a sort of 'runt of the litter' box?

I have a new research site for you, http://www.bookrags.com

Davoh said...

Yup, have a "rotl" box, but only 12 or so tubes spare. The "book of instructions" says "Don't feel bad .. you are growing far more than would survive in the wild .. ".

Am still fascinated by the fact that one part of the seed grows "up" and turns green, and the other part grows "down" and becomes the roots.

Davoh said...

Jeepers, JT, have you seen the "most popular research topics" on that site? Wot the hell's wrong with kids today.

BBC said...

Umm, what isn't wrong with them?

JahTeh said...

That's what fascinated me about bookrags. A good place to look into the dark recesses of the teenage mind.

word verification was geees.

Vincent said...

I really like the idea of changing this world by planting trees. But I have no land . . . There was a novel about a peasant woman who spent forty years going around the hilly areas of France with a pocketful of acorns and from her efforts forests resulted.

I like the idea of not doing things in order to save the planet but simply because it is in your primitive nature to do so.