Saturday, March 12, 2016

reactive/procavtive

i dug the early white mashua out of the vegetable crisper fearing the worst after what i had seen a few days ago...the white coating was, i assume, some sort of fungus ( the eastern gamagrass s and grape seeds i have stratifying in the crisper are in containers with moistened sphagnum moss..it has fungicidal properties...it was not recommended for storing the tubers however )...it rinsed off fairly easily under the kitchen faucet, leaving the tubers discolored but mostly solid...and when i cut off the soft spots i found solid flesh so i planted them in peat pots and put them under the lights in the plant room...with the reactive business done i turned proactive..spring is upon us in eight days whether we're ready or not and i decided it was high time to anticipate a teosinte season by doing some germinating...different variety this season..zea mays parvaglumis...a rarer variety that the folks at native seed search are working to preserve...i will attempt to expand its range farther north than arizona..i did the standard twenty minute soak in a 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide with eleven seeds...i will be planting seed outdoors as well and i put some in at the community garden last autumn so i will be attempting a larger population than last year's...after twenty minutes i put the seeds in to some unbleached paper towels moistened with distilled water ...and into a baggie which has been put in a dark place...with both the reactive and proactive sides of today's garden equation roughly in balance what we do now is wait...more as it comes up.

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