Floridian Flowers

Disney World was great, particularly the Animal Kingdom. I wish I could take photos of all the plants and flowers there. I managed to nab a few, but we were constantly moving so I couldn't stop to take pictures of them all.

Old n' New

Yeah so we got a new plant and we don't know what it is. Its leaves spread out like a fern, it's tall and has thick stalks. Suggestions, anyone? Anyone?

That corn plant was too stunted/immature to produce anything right, so it's gone now. So are the onions, though they did make cute flowers for awhile. Matt bought new bamboo. The smaller shoots he cut off from the rotting bamboo plant ended up withering away but one of the much more bigger shoots is still growing green and strong. It's even taller than the new ones he bought.

Small, shriveled and missing.

Yesterday I passed by a small batch of corn stalks with full grown corn on them. They were obviously healthy and full sized whereas mine was the size of half my hand. GUESS THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR TRYING TO PLANT A NON-MICROWAVABLE POPCORN FROM JOLLYTIME. My guess in the end was right, although I had hoped that it would grow actual corn. It seems only one of the stalks were pollinated while others did not develop past the actual core of the husk itself.

Only one managed to grow kernels to a respectable size (no fruit on the seeds) and I picked them off and cured them. Now my next experiment: Will they actually pop?! Muahahah!

In other news, I'm pretty glad I took a botany class. I try to apply my knowledge from it into everyday stuff. Like when Sara painted a MAMESHIBA face onto a lychee seed. She was disappointed that it was really hot and the seed shriveled up, but I explained it was just inhibition and that the seed can swell up again through osmosis. SEE ARE YOU PROUD OF ME SCHWARTZ? :33

~_____~ If I could redo the class, I would. Also PS; I have no pictures because the memory card for my camera is still missing.

Corn update!

I'll post the picture later, but the corn is finally starting to bloom fruit. One of them even has silk now! :D The others are just budding. THIS IS SO EXCITING AKFJKAHFASKFJ

Petition to stop building incinerators

I signed up. Apparently there are going to be 8 or 9 more to be built in/around Boston to burn materials that could be recycled instead. Building incinerators promote pollution.

acacia trees

Some quick facts:

Have you ever heard of a plant that strongly relies on a bug to live, and vice versa? A strong symbiotic relationship such as this is the swollen/whistling thorn acacia tree (Acacia drepanolobium) and the acacia ant (there are a few species that protect, but the best bodyguard is Crematogaster mimosae).

Unlike the other acacia trees, "swollen" thorns have no alkaloids, which is what deters herbivores from eating the plant. As a result, this tree has no form of a self defense mechanism.

Instead, it provides protein lipids and nectars filled with carbohydrates that feed the acacia ants. The ants need the tree for this in order for its colony to thrive up to 100,000 times stronger, which is a LOT to be thankful about. The ants in turn support the tree by being its defense mechanism, aggressively chasing off destructive insects and animals who want to stop by for a bite. Maybe they give off pheromones that the animals can detect within a safe distance, I'm not really sure.

In the zoology section of Science News, it reported that efforts had been made to save the acacia trees for about.. I think, a decade? The trees were being tested by reducing the amount of ants and seeing if it would thrive better in order to provide more feed to the larger animals that are declining in Africa. I understand the intention, but what I don't understand is the method used for saving the trees.

I don't really care about the fact that the -importance- of this relationship was "recently discovered" after ten years. It was already noticed that the relationship between the two species is a key trait to its survival. You can even figure that out yourself within a year (with simple tests like comparing the chemicals that make up the leaves in this tree compared to other acacias that have no ants.) Fencing off animals from a tree defeats the purpose of the ants, so the ants turn to other acacia trees for their needs. As a result, the tree would adjust itself to producing LESS food in order to accomodate a smaller colony. The trees actually shrivel up and look pretty unhealthy quickly cause of this. Yeah, duh. Couldn't there have been a better strategy to this problem?

Or maybe I'm over simplifying this when it's really harder than it looks. Afterall, not all experiments are free of errors..

Unrelated

Matt and I got a new bunny. She likes being a neck pillow, and enjoys perching on your shoulder when you're at your desk.

Maturity, DEATH!

Fried Rice HAHA

YEAH GUESS WHERE THOSE PEAS CAME FROM.

Cooking!

Planted some onions, harvested quite a few peapods (but if split open, it's probably no more than 50 peas at most..).

The leaves on the pea plant are yellowing and wilting at this point of maturation, and I'm currently thinking of planting more peas or tomatoes. Maybe a bean plant.. haha. the corn got pretty tall but wow, its soft velvety leaves are so delicate and bend so easily. Well, I'm sure it was built to handle this.

I put all the peas into a fried rice dish by the way, HAHA. Yes it was very delicious. >:]

Pics later.

Pictures I didn't post before

There've been more flowers since. Still only two pods, but the peas inside them have gotten a lot bigger. Also wanted to put some lame text at the right of that plate of radish leaves, kind of like a Wes Anderson movie. But I am computerless, therefore photoshop-less. >:(

Also because I'm lazy.

Lots of new things

Those radishes are no longer! They weren't really growing anything anyway and it's been about a month (or more?) by now, so I just made a salad out of them. Yeah there are pictures, but I haven't felt like uploading them since my own laptop died.

Corn is getting pretty tall. I don't like how fragile its leaves are, though. One bend and it seems to wither away haha.

The pea plants are growing pods now, too! I knew that it needed to grow flowers before it grew pods, but I didn't know that it'd actually come out of the flower. Some of the petals are even on the other end of the pod. It's so cute, I want to photoshop smilies on it haha. There are two growing right now, but they both slipped my eye up until yesterday because of how well they blend in with the leaves. They're getting bigger, though! Again, I would post pictures but there's no gumption.. I just want my laptop fixed. umu;;

When it's fixed I'll upload it all.

On another note, I've been keeping the bamboo in the sun and they're still feeding on just water, though now it's filtered water and not tap water anymore. They seem to be doing great, but then again I'm not sure how fast lucky bamboo really grows. It just seems faster. It's in the dracaena family, so it must like sun, right? All that talk about it requiring moderate to low lighting must be rubbish I GUESS, because I see a lot of chinese restaurants do that and they tend to look yellowish. New restuarants tend to keep them out by the front windows and they look pretty green.

derpderpderp

Flowers! Well, flowe*r*.

Auuugh things have been so busy lately. haven't been updating much, so it seems as if these plants are growing super fast. Well, I guess in essence they actually are.

I'm excited that the flowers have finally started to bloom. I can see little buds around the plant, but here is the biggest one so far!

Also, radish leaves are so thick and green. I wonder if you could have a salad with their leaves, haha.

Getting much taller

Ahh I haven't checked in in awhile. They've gotten big since, I had to add another chopstick to each pot to support the peas. XD

Wish I had a braided wire thing on my wall..

Home Farming Movement

I'm in it. LOLOL SPONSORED BY TRISCUITS/KRAFT FOODS/NABISCO(?)

http://www.kraftbrands.com/homefarming/the-movement/pages/default.aspx?zipcode=02135#

Corn and Peas update

Preparing evacuation from the escape pod

The new homeland! A pot.

Peas and Radishes update

I'm finally getting a pot for those peas at the middle left, yessssssss. They're currently hanging over because I don't want them tangled before I put them into a bigger pot. For the other peas, I added a stake. It looks so much neater and more organized now.

Charles Christopher and friends are lounging around with their recent axillary growth. :)

I'm considering on adding ginger or potato to the collection hahaha. I do plan on growing tomatoes soon!

Bamboo update

We cut the tip of that yellowing stem off. It's growing on its own now.

See? Itty bitty roots~ :D

Roots of the bigger piece that was cut off the stem.

Yeah it ended up being cut up. I actually didn't know that lucky bamboo reproduces asexually. No wonder it's good to keep (if you have a bunch of them) separate..

I'm a bit confused. My mom grows her lucky bamboo with just water and gravel in full sun. Hers are super lush and green. Everywhere I look online says not to do that, but why? And yeah, hers IS lucky bamboo, not real bamboo.

Oh well.

In just two days

I want popcorn now! D:

HAHA I was right

From left to right: peas, corn, peas, radishes. The popcorn kernels DID grow. :D Yaaaay. Well, only three out of four, but even one is enough, really.

The plants are all hugging each other. It's already time to go get prop sticks.

I just thought that it was funny; this is the first time I've ever uploaded photos from during daytime.