Experimenting for Optimal Results March 2, 2007

I was back in the greenhouse yesterday afternoon planting more Aesculus californica (California hawthorn) and a few more redwood ‘burlwood’ cuttings.  Today I’d like to talk about the importance of experimentation if you are looking for optimum results from your plants or trees (especially if you have many plants/trees of the same variety).  I have all of the hawthorn seeds together in gallon cans in one section of the greenhouse, and those I planted about a month ago are already sprouting and looking very healthy, with the others close behind.  Since I do have over 200 redwoods now, I have switched up a few of the variables in growing to find out what they like best.  This is a great way to gather information so when I do more planting in the future I have a good idea of what to do to get the best results.  For example, I have one valve watering 3 days a week for 12 minutes (I started with 20 and it was a bit too much), while the other waters just 2 days a week for 8 minutes, and still another section outside the greenhouse that only gets water from rain and the occasional hand watering I do in between rains.  As for fertilizer, a cross section of the redwoods have gotten a full handful of 4-4-4 organic fertilizer with mycorhizzae and another cross section has gotten about half that amount; the same for the redwoods outside.  As for aeration (roots do need air too!), I have lightly mixed the soil in some of the cans after planting and left others a bit more heavy and compacted.  As for sunlight, the redwoods toward the center of the greenhouse do get a little bit more because of the shade of a large oak tree in the afternoon.  It seems so far that the more fertilized, more aerated, less watered, more “sunny” cuttings are rooting the fastest (especially the ones that got the rooting hormone treatment before planting).  This does not mean that these are the best conditions yet as I have found that things can change with time.  As soon as the oaks and Aesculus are large enough and I have enough specimens of each, I will be doing the same sort of experimentation on them as well.  One more quick note.  I have been practicing the guitar inside the greenhouse, playing mostly country type songs as the acoustics are really good inside.  I have no idea what the reaction will be as I have read that plants and trees enjoy melodic tunes like classical music as well as those that are very earth and land oriented such as country.  I’ll leave the electric guitar at home as they supposedly do not like the vibrations of heavy metal or rock music.  This has been documented as experiments have been made where plants tend to grow toward a source of music that they like and grow away from music they dislike.  Interesting food for thought.  Until next time, happy gardening!

Plantman