Yesterday I was back in the greenhouse installing more drip irrigation to the redwoods and other plants. In the photos you can see that I have some Aesculus or “Buckeye” coming up from the seeds that I planted earlier this winter (This looks a bit like marijuana but it’s not!) Aesculus Californica is a California native that drops seed capsules or “balls” at the end of each growing season that can be collected and planted as I have done. The “balls” are planted into the lower third of a gallon can with soil 1/3 soil below and 2/3 soil to cover. With a little bit of patience they sprout in a few months. The other plant with a small leaf is a “Ligularia” that my uncle divided from a larger plant and planted into gallon cans. Some plants that have a clumping root mass such as this can be propagated by division; this simply means the plant is divided up and replanted to get more plants. This is a good way to propagate for homeowners as it is free and is very easy to do. I installed drip emitters to these plants as well yesterday. The emitters I used are a different type this time. In the photo you can see this; the emitters that are green and black are 2 GPH. Different colors indicate different rates of irrigation, and the green 2GPH means that the emitter will let 2 gallons of water flow through it per hour of operation. These types of emitters are good because you can calculate exactly how much water you are using to irrigate your plants. The downside of this type of emitter is that they can be prone to clogging if you have sediment in your water supply (which I do.) This means that I will have to periodically check to see that they are working properly and are not clogged. In the other photos you can see how I ran the drip tubing from table to table underneath the black plastic in the aisle. I dug a small trench and ran the tubing through a “sleeve”, which is just a piece of pvc pipe that protects it when its stepped on. After running the tubing through the sleeve I filled the trench with a little bit of soil to level it and then tacked the black plastic back in place. This is also a good idea because it keeps the tubing out of sight under the table so that there is not a huge mess of tubing to contend with when working among the plants in the greenhouse. You can see that I have also moved a few of the trees outdoors to see how well they do (sort of a test to see how much faster the trees in the greenhouse will grow as opposed to those growing outdoors.) I will be back in the middle of next week to check up on everything and make sure the system is operating properly. Questions are welcome. Happy gardening!
Plantman
