Home Depot

I may reward myself with a trip to a nearby Home Depot garden shop this evening to buy pots, planters, and/or seeds. My family would like to plant basil, cilantro, and jalapeno seeds. I will thank you to refrain from drawing negative or incorrect conclusions about my family based on what we would like to plant.

I will not be buying dirt or potting mixes. I have enough of that stuff. I once worked at a garden shop at a Kmart. That experience strengthened, but did not create my desire to plant things. That experience also strengthened my desire to not work at Kmart. My observations of that store was that it was poorly run and poorly staffed, present company excluded, of course. I once owned stock in Kmart. That was as foolish as planting money! I should have known better.

You might say, metaphorically, that stocks are like plants; they can grow or die. If you said this I would think you are incorrect (stocks really are not very much like plants), and that you (or anyone else) speaking metaphorically is generally a waste of everyone's time.

There was a Star Trek episode once where Piccard was stranded on some inhospitable planet with a hostile companion who spoke a language entirely comprised of metaphor. There was very little worthwhile plant life on this planet. In my opinion the captain should have stayed aboard Enterprise. That episode was a waste of time. Owning stock in Kmart, for me, turned out to be a waste of money and also time, but primarily money.

Avocado & Bamboo

If you have read this blog before, then you would know that I once had an avocado plant. If you are good or even only fair at deducing facts and forming conclusions, then you would know that I was both proud and fond of said avocado plant.

My wife just told me of a technique to use to get an avocado pit to sprout into an avocado plant. It is done by taking an avocado pit, like the one pictured above, and half submerging it in water, as pictured above. Then, it is to be placed in sunlight.

You may, or may not, be interested to learn that in the background is a picture of bamboo shoots that my wife planted/submerged in water about two years ago. When she got them from the store they had but only one or two small leaves on each shoot. Now look at them. They are pictured on this blog because they are related to plants, although they are not something I planted.

You can expect to see things related to plants on this blog, even if I did not myself plant the plants or plant-related items. You cannot realistically expect to see things totally unrelated to plants on this blog, unless I planted those things. But that is unlikely to happen. True, members of my family have planted things that were not and could not become plants (Grandpa and Otto planting money, for example). Still, the chances of me planting something that is not a plant and putting it on this blog are small. Also, keep in mind that just because I plant something, like a flag, for example, does not mean that I automatically have to make a blog post about it.

Stupid Tuber

Here is a picture of a sweet potato that began to sprout in our cupboard. Rather than throw it out or eat it I dumped it in an old plastic pot and made a half-hearted effort to cover it with dirt. Sometimes I even water it, if there is water left over in the watering can after I water the other plants on the balcony. I much prefer the pineapple I planted, and plan to devote the majority of my time and energy to nuturing it, not this stupid tuber. I hope that when I am a parent I do not pick favorites of my children like I do with my plants. My wife probably hopes the same thing.

Pride and Joy

Pictured above is my pride and joy right now with respect to things I have planted. It is a pineapple plant. My wife and I ate the vast majority of this pineapple before I planted it. I planted only the top of the pineapple, which was comprised of the top six inches worth of leaves and perhaps half an inch of pineapple flesh. That was roughly two years ago.

A pineapple is a terrestrial bromelaid. It has a normal root system, as opposed to bromelaids that grow as epiphytes (meaning they live on tree branches and tree trunks, instead of on the ground). Bromelaids usually bloom when they reach their mature size. This can take several years. In order to trigger blooming, it is suggested that a ripe apple be place in the plant's pot, and then the plant is to be covered by a plastic bag for a few days. The ethlene gas released from the apple is supposed to initiate flower buds. (Complete Guide to Houseplants, Meredith Books 1st Ed., pp. 82-83, The Scott Company, Des Moines, IA 2004.)

I worry that in order for my pineapple plant to grow a pineapple, it must be pollinated by another pineapple plant, perhaps by bees acting as an intermediary. I have seen few bees and no other pineapple plants on my balcony. This troubles me. I plan on doing more research to see what, if anything, I can do to induce a pineapple to grow. I will try the apple and bag technique, described above. I might also purchase a few other pineapples from the store, and place them around my planted pineapple. Maybe bees will come and do what is necessary to pollinate my pineapple. It is easy to plant things, but not so easy to get your plants to bear fruit.

One time my grandpa received a branch from a pear tree through the mail. He attached it to a different kind of pear tree growing in his back yard, and, in time, that one pear tree bore him two different kinds of pears. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Right now I am using a piece of curvy black particle board to stabilize the plant, as you can see. The particle board was once part of a display that held some of my swords. I will not post a picture of swords on this blog because this blog is about things I plant.

Planting Things Runs in the Family

It is not uncommon for members of my family to plants things. Both of my grandfathers grew up on farms. One of these grandfathers hated it though. The other one really enjoyed farm life. One time he and his brother, Otto, planted money in hopes that even more money would grow. Not everything you plant will grow.

My mother once planted an avocado and gave it to me. It grew quite fast and looked really nice. It grew so large, however, that it needed to be transplanted. I transplanted it, but it was never the same. I wonder if I waited too long to transplant it or if I transplanted it poorly. I put it outside in the summertime in hopes that it would get more sunlight, which it craved. One day I came home from work to find a squirrel nibbling on it. My good friend was kind enough to loan me a relatively high powered pellet gun to deal with the squirrel. I just did not have the heart to shoot him or her though, not even to protect my beloved plant. It was pretty much dead by that time anyway. The avocado plant died, but the squirrel presumably lived on, although that was about six years ago so maybe the squirrel is dead by now too.