Motivator !!!

 Monday greens!! Pleasantly surprised on my return, as the first thing that Shankar informed me of, was not just that the plants were doing good but also that his eight year old son drew inspiration from our little project ; and over the weekend, did this...

"Heart Rending!!!" my fingers itch to key-in but I've got hawks in friends who turn gracious editors. So, all I'd say is, it feels so good to be reason to fire a child's' imagination. The only thing the child and me probably would never know is, which of us two takes on the role of a motivator.

It's a month since I started my-bit-in-the-place. And I've learnt a few lessons. 

--Plants need sunlight, especially when they've just germinated. Else they end up with long stalks. The delay in transplanting of the raft systems' present occupants (because of the absence of the green house then) seems to have robbed them of the initial requirements of abundant sunlight. So they grew up to be tall guys. The present lot of the just germinated CLS (Swiss Chard, Lettuce, Spinach) however, have been brought out in the diffused sunlight of the green house right in the beginning. It appears that their stalks would know when to stop growing and instead concentrate on bringing forth the true leaves at the earliest.

--Lettuce is more sensitive a plant to bring up than, both Swiss Chard and Spinach. It also takes a bit longer to germinate. Incidentally the germination score for the 8 plants each- of CLS  was 8-5-8; then the survival score of the 8 was 8-3-8 (though I'm not sure of this, as out of the 5 germinated lettuce seedlings, two have mysteriously disappeared. I suspect the moths/ insects that get attracted to the light inside at night. I'm no longer switching on the light at night, unless required). (The left to right order of the rows is CLS)

--The Parsley has finally germinated!!! So the seed that went in on 07 Jul 14, has witnessed the outside world resting on a tentative stalk on 04 Aug 14. Almost a month!!!

 I'm grateful though. And as I'd mentioned in the previous post, this week I intend to carry out a little experiment for stubborn seeds.

--Even a green-house can have its share of bugs and insects (but that's possibly on account of the light inside), that like to nibble on leaves.

So, it makes sense for me to invest in neem-oil on an immediate basis and to keep the light turned off.

--Zucchini takes up a lot of space. So smaller plants get to grow in its shadow. That's unfair and I won't repeat it.

--The Oregano though seemingly healthy, (nestled comfortably in its spot on the raft system) doesn't seem to grow at all. Really, it's almost as big as it started since ever.

--And the Kratky system ROCKS!!! (so far i.e.)