[Prev][Next][Index]
Re: Crypts, tubs, mud, sunlight, jars for winter
>The same idea could be applied to Crypts to over winter them
>couldn't it? Paul, did you ever apply this technique to Crypts?
>How did it work out?
Yes I have. I even have one species in a two pint jar, and it has been
there for at least 4 years. Others are in gallon jars with about 1/4 to
1/2 inch of water over about 2 inches of topsoil. They don't do much, but
stay alive. They keep indefinitely. It seems that my collector's zeal has
gotten ahead of my experimentor's zeal, and I have so many species that I
spend most of my time trying to figure out where to put them all.
>
>My mental image of Paul Krombholz's house is getting quite refined now.
>I see a kitchen with a couple of bins of composting soil with an
>aromatic, earthy odor! There is a large tub of soil soup and various
>pots of mud and window screens. All the walls of the living room
>have large fish tanks filled with tropical green aquatic plants.
>Every window of his house is crammed with canning jars with a wild
>array of green things growing out of them. The bookshelves of his
>rooms abound with stacks of musty old books and periodicals upon
>which are piled yet more pickle jars and glass containers of all
>descriptions. And here is Paul looking a bit like the absent minded
>professor puttering about in a tweed jacket with elbow patches. ;-)
Most of my plants are at school. Other than that, your discription is
uncomfortably close, and my colleagues are starting to complain. The lab
outside my office, which is supposed to be a teaching lab, has jars of
on-the-shelf plants along the windows from wall to wall. Four fifteen
gallon aquariums and a five gallon are here and there on the benches, along
with miscellaneous jars, shoeboxes, etc. Since the space along the windows
is just about filled up, I have been trying out two liter plastic soda
bottles as culture vessels. They seem to work pretty well. With a knife,
I cut off the top about two inches down from where the cap screws on, put
in soil, water, and the plant, and then tape the top portion back on with
clear two inch packing tape. These bottle cultures are smaller and
lighter. I can get two of them in the space occupied by one pickle jar.
At home, I just have a 75 gallon tank, a 55 gal, and a 29 high. The
composting bins are large plastic storage boxes under the table in my
workroom. No odor, You wouldn't know they were there if you didn't look.
I have many plastic soda bottles of nutrient soulution, extracted from
compost under my 75 gallon tank, but I am currently trying to reduce the
number by concentrating the extracts by drying them in photographic
solution trays. I have found that they can be concentrated 10 times or
more without anything crystalizing out. We live in an old house, and the
windows are no good for growing anything. The windowsills are about 4.5
feet from the floor and only about 3 inches wide. Otherwise, they would be
cluttered with stuff.
Oh, no tweedy jacket with elbow patches. Not in steamy Mississippi with
not so perfect 33C weather, forcast to go to 35 or 36 next week!
>Steve in Vancouver with perfect 23C weather!
Paul Krombholz Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, MS 39174
In steamy Mississippi.