Petunia Haircut

Last summer's petunia was threating to break out of its assigned space by the window and overtake the garage, so it got a haircut today. The last trim was in mid-November when it was moved from the greenhouse to the garage. Most of the foliage in the first image is new since then. The second image shows the pot trimmed back to about where it was 10 weeks ago. After the carnage, I was able to verify that there are three plants in the pot.

I had great hopes for the hormone-treated petunia cutting I took Dec. 31, but it was obviously fading away in the past week. I pulled it and there were no roots. So I'm officially 1-for-2 using rooting hormone on petunias, vs. 0-for-9 without. It's too soon to say on the cutting taken Jan. 26. But the first treated cutting taken Nov. 15 is a roaring success.

It's three more months until I can move these to the greenhouse so I don't believe the two thriving pots need any fertilizer. Based on what has happened so far this winter, the big pot probably will need another haircut in early April, at which time I will hit it with fertilizer. The smaller pot is so lush and green that it might get its first haircut around the same time if not before. I might even repot it.

Before

After

New cuttings. I used plastic cups so I can see if roots develop.

Nov. 15 cutting, growing like crazy. It hasn't produced many blooms lately but is packing on the leaves.

Succulent Review

Although I am trying to sprout some things in the garage, this is the slow time of the year for greenhouse activities. It seemed like a good time to add to my succulent collection. I had just four before going on a buying binge: Aloe Vera and Cuban Oregano which I have had for 30 years or more, a spiked aloe-like plant acquired from my brother a few years ago, and a Thanksgiving Cactus given by my sister last summer. The succulent expansion started two weeks ago with acquisition of a Jade, then mushroomed quickly with the addition of an Echeveria Elfstone, a Mammillaria Elegans Cactus, a Graptosedum California Sunset, and the lovely and talented Echeveria Lola. These first five came from Walmart. Yesterday I received a six-pack of Sempervivums with no ID tags from Plants for Pets via Amazon. I believe one of them is an Arachnoideum type with webbing over the leaves like a spider's web, and the others will go unidentified for now.

Walmart has an interesting way to display succulents. They unpack the box from Costa Farms or wherever, put the trays on the darkest shelf they can find, and forget about them. Succulents need lots of light and a little bit of water, and they get very little of either at Walmart. I feel like I'm the rescuer of the five plants that I have bought there. The local places I have investigated in Billings, Gainan's and Roots, both have some nice-looking plants but cost a bit more than Walmart. I particularly had my eye on a Haworthia Zebra at Gainan's, but didn't pull the trigger. Among the big box stores, Lowe's and Home Depot's have a few succulents and probably will have a better selection in the spring. These places have a lot of conventional house plants, but green leaves with no promise of flowers doesn't interest me.

Most of the succulents came in tiny 2-inch pots, but the Echeveria Lola came in a slightly larger 3-inch, and I thought it was big enough to put in a 6-inch terra cotta rather than the 4-inch which most of the rest of them received. The Sempervivum Arachnoideum also got a bigger pot. After I potted everything, I happened to Google "succulent pot size" and several so-called experts said a plant in a 2-inch pot should be repotted into a 2.5-inch or 3-inch, and anything bigger will kill the plant AND ALL OTHER LIFE ON EARTH. As explained by one source, "Too much space can actually prevent a succulent from growing much larger, because the roots spread out before the succulent has time to catch up. If you buy a two-inch succulent, a 2.5-inch pot is generally a good choice if you're planting it by itself." Got it, roots are bad. It makes no sense to me, but I'm not an "expert." I'm just going to be careful not to overwater and leave it at that.

We begin our photo tour with Lola and Arachnoideum in their lethal 6-inch pots.

Echeveria Lola will need bright sunlight to develop its rosy colors and keep its compact form. It will develop peach-colored, bell-shaped flowers. Like sempervivums, Lola can reproduce by producing new offsets around the base of the plant.

Sempervivum Arachnoideum has fine web-like hairs covering the leaves. There was a little dead-looking ball floating around in the box that I believe came with this one. I have a sprouting bowl with various leaves and cuttings, so I added the ball to that just in case there is still some life in it. I'm designating this as Sempervivum #1.

Mammillaria Elegans Cactus will develop a ring of flowers. You can see one little spot of purple a bit left of center.

The Jade that started it all. It originally had three stems, but one was rotted. I cut off the stem above the rotted part and am trying to root it and a stray leaf in the aforementioned sprouting bowl.

Echeveria Elfstone has red-tipped leaves, which aren't real apparent right now. It will produce orange flowers in the spring.

Graptosedum California Sunset is a hybrid of Graptopetalum and Sedum. Its pink coloration is most vibrant when under stress (bright sunlight, infrequent watering, cool temperatures). In spring it will have clusters of white, star-shaped blossoms.

Sempervivum #2 has five distinct rosettes. I tried to blow the dirt off after I repotted, but looks like I need to try again. Sempervivums have fine hairs on the leaves that make it difficult to dislodge the dirt. Canned air sends the soil flying without dislodging the dirt on the leaves so I might try a little brush.

Sempervivum #3. Two rosettes, purple-tipped leaves.

Sempervivum #4. Extensive purple in the leaves. Second rosette starting to appear. I didn't notice it when I was taking the portrait, but it is barely visible on the left.

Sempervivum #5. A perfect little rosette but no distinguishing features.

Sempervivum #6. Purple-tipped leaves.

Sempervivums are native to the mountains of Europe and are cold hardy, so should be able to handle Red Lodge Zone 5a. #6 (shown below) went into the plastic-covered mini greenhouse inside the main greenhouse. It has not gotten below zero inside the greenhouse yet this season, and the plastic cover on the mini adds a few more degrees of protection. It was a balmy 57.6 inside when I dropped it off today, and the 10-day forecast doesn't show anything colder than the low 20s. Good luck, little unknown plant, see you in the spring.

Feb. 3 update: With the weather lately, the danger inside the greenhouse is the heat, not the cold. Outside on Jan. 30 it was 45, but the sun boosted the temperature inside the greenhouse to 82, and inside the mini with the cover zipped to 107! #6 seems to have survived this ordeal. I decided to move all six semps (can I call you semps?) to the greenhouse, and they are on the bench, not in the mini. The overhead automatic vents still open as temperatures rise, and I also (1) set the main fan to come on at 75 degrees rather than 80, and (2) hooked up the heater to blow air (not heated) on the plants when it gets above 70. Part of the reason to move them all there is because I need the space in the garage. I'm moving most of the other succulents into the garage for a more seasonal temperature (garage temperature lowered from 55 to 50) and new grow lights which were installed today. I just put in another plant order, this time at Mountain Crest Gardens. Four new semps will go to the greenhouse and eight other types will go into the garage. Hopefully all will get enough light to bring out their best colors.

Moving on to the plant with many names that definitely is not cold hardy. After 25 years or so of calling this Greek Oregano, I identified it recently as Cuban Oregano, but it is neither Cuban nor an oregano. It from eastern Africa and is related to mint. It goes by a number of other names as well (Indian borage, country borage, French thyme, Indian mint, Mexican mint, broad leaf thyme, soup mint, Spanish thyme, Comfort Plant), and even has two Latin names, Plectranthus Amboinicus and Coleus Amboinicus. Whoever is in charge of such things have proclaimed that the latter name is the currently-accepted one. Apparently there is no dispute that the "Amboinicus" portion of the Latin names refers to Ambon Island in Indonesia, but as mentioned, it from Africa not Indonesia.

Anyway.... It has a distinctive aroma and can be used in cooking and in concocting home remedies, although I have tried neither. I just appreciate the smell from time to time. This is my best copy from last summer although it has gotten a bit leggy under the winter light. These are very easy to propogate; just cut a stem and stick it in soil. About 15 years ago, I stuck a cutting in the ground and it developed into a perfect mound about 18 inches across before an autumn frost killed it. Since then I haven't been able to to reproduce that success, but with access to the greenhouse for the entire growing season this year, I'm hoping to have at least four excellent examples in 8-inch pots by September.

Same goes for the Aloe Vera. I have four pots struggling through the winter, but I will repot the sprouts in a few months and come summer they should be thriving in the greenhouse.

Thermometer

I got a temperature and humidity data logger recently and have had it running outside the greenhouse for the past two weeks. The model is Elitech LogEt8THE, which does not have Bluetooth, so it needs to be plugged into a USB port to download the data. Although it will export to an Excel file, for some reason the data cells in the exported sheet are text, not numbers. Since I've been developing spreadsheets since before Excel even existed (Lotus 1-2-3 was the market leader when I started in 1986), it's not a tremendous task to convert to numbers, but it is an odd choice on their part.

With the heat off in the greenhouse, what I am most interested in is how much difference there is in low temperatures inside vs. outside. The answer (so far) is 5 to 6 degrees. The average difference using the new thermometer has been 5.2 degrees, ranging from 12.6 to 0.1. When I was using National Weather Service data starting Dec. 1, the average was 5.5 degrees, ranging from 14.0 to -0.8. (For some reason, apparently it was colder inside than outside on Dec. 11.)

The difference in daytime highs is less useful and it depends greatly on whether the sun is shining. There was a 42.3 degree difference on Jan. 22, obviously a sunny day. The smallest difference was 2.1 degrees on Jan. 13, obviously a cloudy day. With the new thermometer, the average daytime difference has been 27.4 degrees, just slightly more than when I was using NWS data.

On sunny days in winter, the greenhouse will get warm enough for the automatic roof vents to open. If it gets above 80, as it has four times this month of January, the ventilation fan will come on. Interesting, but it's just trivia. The important takeaway is, on average, the greenhouse will cool down at night to 5 to 6 degrees above the outside temperature. Officially, the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone for Red Lodge is 5a. With this incremental protection from the cold and complete protection from the wind, inside the greenhouse it is at least Zone 6a. This is in line with what the interweb says about greenhouses. There are four plant varieties trying to stay alive in the greenhouse this winter: Garlic and allium in the soil, mum pots buried whole, and chive pots sitting on the ground. I think they are all doing fine. Sage is supposed to be hardy, but what is above ground in the planter right now looks dead. We'll see if it springs to life in a few months. Next year is the big test. I will be trying to overwinter strawberries in the planters and in baskets. Supposedly strawberries are hardy enough for Zone 5a, but surely 6a is better.

That's next winter. Before then, sometime in April, I will turn the heat back on and get ready for petunias, which are hardy to Zone 9.

Greenhouse from Space

When we moved to our Montana house, Google got our address wrong for about three years. Anyone mapping to us ended up three houses too far north. Fedex was utterly confused by this for quite a while even though we have a large legible number on our house, but eventually they figured it out. Google finally took care of it after I sent in a correction. But some mapping apps still have it wrong.

So I was a little surprised to see that Google is on the ball regarding the greenhouse. I was looking at the satellite photo today and there it is. They must have updated the image within a few months after it was moved there in late July.

Ruth Stout Method

Ruth Stout (1884-1980) was a pioneering home gardener, an advocate of no-till. I heard of no-till for farming a long time ago, but didn't know what the advantages were. Simply put, they are reduced erosion, water conservation, reduced labor/fuel costs, and (here's the key) improved soil health. According to CropCare:

"Tilling destroys fungi and bacteria that would otherwise build communities in the soil and feed on its organic matter. Leaving the soil undisturbed lets the living things within it restore the nutrient levels that crops need to thrive."

Scale it down from a farm field to a garden, add a thick mulch of hay and leaves, and essentially you have the Ruth Stout Method which she started developing 100 years ago and started writing about 70 years ago. I first heard of her a few months ago when Kevin and Jacque of Epic Gardening demonstrated her method of raising potatoes — throw some seed potatoes on the ground and cover them with a mound of hay. No digging. Somehow it works, as proven in the Epic Gardening video.

Two of Ruth's books are on Kindle Unlimited now so I'm reading them for free. Without getting too deep in the weeds on the specifics of her method (read the books yourself), the following sentence from "The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book" (1971) summed up my feelings about the past 6-7 months of reading publications and watching videos about gardening in general and companion planting in particular:

"My quarrel with people who write about gardening (or any subject, for that matter) is that they often state as a fact something which they do not know to be a fact."

I'm going to plant marigolds, nasturtiums, basil and various herbs in and next to the greenhouse next year, plants which supposedly are helpful in the battle against harmful pests. But I don't know if any of this will do any good. At worst, I will have nice flowers and flavorful herbs scattered through the plantings of tomatoes and strawberries, and I will have to spray the pests with soap and Neem oil.

Her other book on Kindle Unlimited now is "Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, The Busy and the Indolent" (1963). Who can't get behind that? Since the two books are compilations of articles she wrote over the years, there is some duplication.

A prominent modern advocate of no-till (aka no-dig) gardening is Charles Dowding of Somerset, England. He has written a few dozen books, and one of them is now on Kindle Unlimited, "Charles Dowding's Veg Journal: Expert no-dig advice, month by month" (2014). (Note that Amazon frequently changes the titles which are free to read on Kindle Unlimited.)

Jade

Although I get to the greenhouse every few days to do off-season chores, in reality my greenhouse in winter is our garage, which currently is heated to 55 degrees. It has two south-facing windows and a closet with grow lights. With the door shut and the grow lights on, it gets up to the low 60s in the closet. With all of my garage space already crammed with garden and house plants at various stages of development, I decided now would be a good time to add more succulents to the collection.

The two plants I have had for decades are succulents (Aloe Vera and Cuban Oregano), and I do have a Thanksgiving cactus, but I decided to branch out and add a jade plant. I found a tiny one in a two-inch plastic pot at WalMart for $3.97. I potted it in a four-inch terra cotta pot using commercial cactus soil. Since this is going to be a slow-growing plant, I thought it would be a good idea to document the starting point so I can see if it is actually doing anything. The official height at the start is 2.25 inches.

My sister gave me the Thanksgiving Cactus last summer. I don't have a "before" picture to prove it, but I think it has grown quite a bit and is now six inches tall. It had been in a 4-inch pot with potting soil, and I repotted it in a 6-inch pot with catcus soil.

In all the reading I've done on succulents lately, rule #1 is "Don't overwater." I will try to abide by that, but the aloe and Cuban Oregano have always soaked up all the water I have dumped on them. I usually have four or five of each going at a time. Upon further reflection, perhaps it is no coincidence that my best examples of these two are in terra cotta pots which allow the soil to dry out, and the ugly-looking ones are in plastic pots which hold in the moisture.

Tunia Update

I watch too many YouTube videos. I see these garden influencers, or whatever they are called on YouTube, telling me that I need to get things started in January or IT WILL BE TOO LATE! Considering our official last frost date is June 20, it seems a bit alarmist.

But my date for planting in the greenhouse (with heat) is 6-10 weeks before that, so I have been starting a few things. I've been trying to get multiple pots of peppermint, rosemary, thyme and parsley started ever since mid-October because I want some now for houseplants in addition to some in the greenhouse next summer. The mint and rosemary are doing great. The thyme has one good plant (started Sept. 28) and one recent sprout that is still very tiny even though it came up almost three weeks ago. I have four parsley plants that are growing pretty well, but have been battling aphids. I've been spraying like crazy with soap, which takes care of them for a few days, but the few that survive start multiplying and I have to do it again. Fortunately none of the other plants seem to be hit with aphids. (Jan. 23: Ach! Aphids on some of the rosemary.)

I already have many of my seeds for next year. I planted three marigold and three zinnia in cells on Christmas Eve, and they started coming up just four days later. Some of them might be ready to move to 4-inch pots in a few days. I started three basil pots and one bee balm pot (with three seeds) two days ago and of course haven't seen anything yet. These are experimental starts, just so I have some idea what to expect when I do most of the seeding in March-April.

And then there are the petunias. As mentioned in the last post, Supertunias comprise the bulk of my order from Garden Crossings, and they are supposed to arrive in late April. But I've still got a pot of petunias that I didn't want to abandon to the cold in November because that was as good as it had looked all year. I gave it a trim and put it in my garage under a grow light. In the past two months, it has doubled in size and is flowering again. As mentioned in another previous post, I planted a cutting treated with rooting hormone Nov. 15. This is what it looks like today.

We have two south-facing garage windows, and I installed a shelf in front of one of them to manage the space more efficiently. It is working well enough that I have ordered another one for the second window. When I get that, I plan to move the main petunia pot to the window to get natural light all day, and I will move the cutting to the grow light location inside the very crowded closet. Here is a picture of the main pot, which I believe has three plants in it. As I said, it is probably twice as big as it was two months ago, and it needs a trim.

And finally, here is another cutting taken just eight days ago. It looks healthy. Based on the success of the last two cuttings I did which were treated with the rooting hormone (unlike the untreated nine failures), I feel confident in taking cuttings from the Tunias when they arrive.

This petunia is some sort of purple-veined, but I don't know what brand, if any. I bought a flat last spring, maybe at Home Depot, and stuck them in 14-inch baskets along with a few marigolds on our back patio. I thought I watered them often enough, but I never fertilized. When I got the greenhouse in late July, I decided to rescue the rough-looking petunias from the baskets and stick them in a big pot. They did pretty well, and when I started fertilizing them in October they really took off. I'm going to put the Supertunias in larger baskets, 16-inch, so hopefully I'll be able to get them to prosper. I'll find a place for a few of the legacy purple-veined petunias; where, I do not know.

Jan. 14: I received the new shelves and moved the big petunia pot to the window. This thing is huge. The #2 pot now gets the grow light.

Jan. 19: I gave the big petunia pot a spin and found this on the side that had been facing the sun. In the spots where there are no flowers, there are buds. I'm certain now that this petunia will not trail if I put it in a basket, so I have no plans to cancel my Supertunia order, but it does make quite a mound. I haven't fertilized lately and won't until April at the earliest. First, it needs a haircut.

My most recent petunia cutting treated with root hormone is giving me a bad feeling. It is developing a flower but the leaves seem a bit limp. I'll give it a few more weeks before taking it out of the pot to see if it has roots. The good news is if I want more cuttings, the big pot can supply hundreds.