Results: Watering my blueberry bush less when it was beginning to turn red
BEFORE
Almost a month ago I was concerned about my baby blueberry bush which was, I noticed< turning red in color. After much research I found out that the red leaves were not normal for Summer although common for blueberry plants during Winter. On a very helpful blueberry site, Backyard Berry Plants, the question was posed:
Q: Why are my blueberries leaves turning red?
A: They do this for different reasons. They turn red in the fall of course (and orange/yellow), and that is expected. It if is spring or summer and this is happening, your pH could be too high and /or they are not getting enough nitrogen. I usually put a couple full shovels of peat moss around each plant in the spring, along with its annual spring fertilizer treatment, and I have never had this problem in my production bushes. I am more likely to see it in potted nursery plants, as pH and nitrogen can rapidly change given increased watering (leaching nitrogen and raising pH) and temperatures (increased plant growth with not enough nitrogen).
After reading this interesting information and realizing this might very well be the case for me (I was watering my blueberry bush every other day if not everyday) I decided to water my blueberry plant less.... way less, let's say roughly twice a week.
Now, over three weeks later my blueberry plant is looking more green and less red!
AFTER
Read the previous post, Backyard Berry Plants, Specializing in Organically grown blueberry, blackberry, and red raspberry plants
Caught In The Act: Chili Peppers short & stout
The currently little chili peppers are... quite little, short and stout to be exact, but soon enough they will grow to be about 7-8inches long.
The flowers of the chili pepper plant bloomed and from the blooms out came the chili peppers.
Today's Lesson: Getting acquainted with the bloom structure
Often we display flowers in vases as a way to beautify the home, or display them in wrappings as a gift (very popular for birthdays, dates and holidays), but have you stopped to think that flowers, the bloom that is so enchanting and beautiful with many a variety of colors that women like to stick their noses in and inhale deeply and say "how wonderful that smells" is actually the reproductive organ of the plant? < Yes, very much like the penis of a man and the vagina of a woman.
The bloom of a plant (or as many others like to call them, the flower) has but one intention, to reproduce, the beauty of flowers is a mere side affect of their endeavors to reproduce. As I've seen on a couple of my grows in the garden the bloom is often followed by the vegetables, the flowers often is pushed out. This lead me to a curiosity of the plant blooms themselves, the structure and the workings, it seemed pretty important to know the basics of especially as a grower.
Here is the interesting information I found on on Wikipedia...
The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs. Since the flowers are the reproductive organs of plant, they mediate the joining of the sperm, contained within pollen to the ovules - contained within the ovary. Pollination is the movement of pollen from the anthers to the stigma. The joining of the sperm to the ovules is called fertilization. Normally pollen is moved from one plant to another, but many plants are able to self pollinate.
A stereotypical flower consists of four kinds of structures attached to the tip of a short stalk. Each of these kinds of parts is arranged in a whorl [a circular arrangement of like parts, as leaves or flowers, around a point on an axis, shaped like a coil completing a full circle, Dictionary] on the receptacle. The four main whorls (starting from the base of the flower to lowest node and working upwards) are as follows:
- Calyx - the outermost whorl consisting of units called sepals; these are typically green and enclose the rest of the flower in the bud stage, however, they can be absent or prominent and petal-like in some species.
- Corolla - the next whorl toward the apex, composed of units called petals, which are typically thin, soft and colored to attract animals that help the process of pollination.
- Androecium (from Greek andros oikia: "man's house") - the next whorl (sometimes multiplied into several whorls), consisting of units called stamens. Stamens consist of two parts: a stalk called a filament, topped by an anther where pollen is produced by meiosis and eventually dispersed.
- Gynoecium (from Greek gynaikos oikia: "woman's house") - the innermost whorl of a flower, consisting of one or more units calls carpels. The carpel or multiple fused carpels form a hollow structure called an ovary, which produces ovules [plant part that contains the embryo sac, the female germ cell which after fertilization develops into a seed, Dictionary] internally. Ovules are megasporangia and they in turn produce megaspores by meiosis which develop into female gametophytes. These give rise to egg cells. The gynoecium of a flower is also described using an alternative terminology wherein the structure one sees in the innermost whorl (consisting of an ovary, style and stigma) is called a pistil. A pistil may consist of a single carpel or a number of carpels fused together. The sticky tip of the pistil, the stigma, is the receptor of pollen. The supportive stalk, the style, becomes the pathway for pollen tubes to grow from pollen grains adhering to the stigma.
Pollen may be transferred between plants via a number of 'vectors'. Some plants make use of abiotic vectors - namely wind or, much less commonly, water. Others use biotic vectors including insects, birds, bats, or other animals. Flowers of plants that make use of biotic pollen vectors commonly have glands called nectaries that act as an incentive for animals to visit the flower. Some flowers have patterns, called nectar guides, that show pollinators where to look for nectar. Flowers also attract pollinators by scent and color. Still other flowers use mimicry to attract pollinators. Some species of orchids, for example, produce flowers resembling female bees in color, shape and scent.
*Read the full article on flowers on Wikipedia
First Bloom: The chili pepper plant
The blooms of chili peppers are beautiful white flowers that is shaped similar to an aniseed star with five petals. The most prominent feature of the bloom aside from their charming looks are the anther connected to the tip of the filament (aka those little antenna-like things situated in the middle of the flower). The anther looks very much like the seeds found inside a chili peppers, not a coincidence- I'm sure.
First Bloom: Tomato cherry plant
Here is the first bloom of the Red and Yellow Pear Blend Cherry Tomatoes. The bloom(s) looks a bit odd as if it has two heads :/, consisting of layered, elongated, triangular shaped petals that will unfold slowly layer by layer to eventually open up completely.
Caught In The Act: Cucumbers Pushing Forth
First the beautiful yellow flowers bloom... only to be pushed out by tiny, spiky cucumbers- very much like the way slender beans formed on my bean bush. Aren't the baby cucumbers just darling?!
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