ES Peasey House Plants

 Tillandsias!

If you are like me, you love many kinds of plants, including houseplants. One of the easiest groups of plants to care for are air plants, or tillandsias. Cool, aren't they?  These are easy care plants and, as a bonus, have no soil in which to breed fungus gnats or ants (this seems to be a recurring problem in my house: some ants find my potted houseplants and, voila, we have a colony. Or three).

Air plants are most often glued to a woody substrate, like a heat treated, kiln-dried grape vine or tree branch.  They can also be suspended on a wire, placed in a glass terrarium. or glued onto a novel surface (something that does not mind getting wet).  I use E-6000 glue, which is harmless to the plants and is waterproof, though it does take a day to fully cure. After they are set in place and secure, simply soak the plants and substrate monthly for an hour in warmish water, let drain, and mist every few days with distilled or filtered water. There are water-soluable fertilizers you can buy, but the plants require very little. In summer, they can live outdoors in a shady area, but I mostly keep mine inside.

Tillandsias produce cute little blooms. After blooming, the plant is spent, but will soon form an offset, or "daughter" plant (genetically the same as the "mother") to start the cycle anew. The plants themselves come in a variety of greens, reds, and purple.  

I order my tillandsias online, and have had good luck with the following nurseries:

 Air Plant Supply Co: https://www.airplantsupplyco.com/collections/air-plants-all

and

Air Plant City:  https://www.airplantcity.com/pages/our-story

but there are many other sources!

Seed Starting Setup

 

Sorry the photos are not great, it is hard to take backlit images with the camera I have.  A number of years ago, I ordered chrome steel shelving for my houseplants and use it to start seeds. I simply hung light fixtures that fit the skinny (T-5) light bulbs on chains, lowered to near the tops of the domes. T-5 bulbs produce more light than standard florescent tubes, but less than the new LED lights (I don't want to buy or retrofit my existing fixtures and the T-5's work well). I set the seed flats on heat mats, which are set on thick cardboard to insulate (the metal shelving would bleed away too much heat from the heat mats). I cover the flats with a dome, and put them in the sunniest part of the room. The lights are on a 16-hour ON cycle with a timer. Right now, I am starting ginger and turmeric plants for the summer garden.

What could I be doing better? Well, LED lights are stronger, so I could be using those. I intend to hang another light fixture above these flats to help.  I also could hang clear plastic sheeting around this shelf to keep in heat and will do that soon.

Happy gardening!

What I will Grow Again This Year: Turkish Eggplant

Isn't it cute? This is a fun "fruit" to grow to keep people guessing.  People think it is a pepper, tomato, or some sweet fruit, but it is an orange-skinned, green-fleshed,Turkish eggplant.  Partly I am growing it because it is pretty. It is also tasty, though small, and is great for stuffing! It seems as easy to grow as other eggplants.  Like all eggplants, I grow it under a row cover to keep flea beetles away-they can riddle the leaves of a plant with so many holes they kill it. As soon as the plant reaches flowering stage, I uncover it for pollination. The plant is typically large enough at this point to withstand the beetles, or they have completed their life cycle and are gone. 

What I Will GRow Again This Year: Red Russian Kale

 

The Red Russian Kale pictured above might seem a little ragged, but it was picked in January, after many freezes and thaws. Of all the greens I had overwintering under row covers (green wave mustard, daikon, red sails lettuce, arugula) this plant fared exceptionally well, and the others faded badly,  It was delicious, had a good crunch in the salad I made, and was not tough at all. It is a great "cut and come again green." I have been growing it for few years and will continue to do so, as long as it is available.

The mail might be slow, but many seed catalogs should come soon, and are available for online viewing!