Meaty plants DIY -- skills about setting

New bottles and old bottles, you can choose both of them to make your plants more interesting and have richer texture.

Mix and match skillfully! It's always a good way to relax yourself by taking care of your plants on your balcony or on your garden. Mix of wooden box and delicate plants have more rural feelings.

Rough wooden saucer and cute green tea set cast beautiful connection and make it so enjoyable to view your courtyard with the fragrance of candles.

 Delicate leaves just balance the thick feeling of the old brick wall and the wooden desk. When adding lively green into the space, the environment beside the window becomes more smart.

No matter how bad is the air outside, meaty plants will always grow leaves and bloom and they look so cute and graceful all the time. One of the reasons why meaty plants are so popular is, it's very easy to look after them. 

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How to decorate your house with plants? (1)

I just want give you some inspiration!!! Let's have a look at it!

bedroom

 living room

study room or bathroom

balcony or living room

You can just give it a try! You will love it~

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Just for your reference~

Some ideas！！！

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How to keep the preserved fresh flowers?

First. Preserved fresh flowers keep fresh through high-tech means. They doesn't need watering. It is advisable to put them indoor.

Second. Avoid putting them in an environment which is too wet or too dry.

Third. They don't do photosynthesis so remember to avoid direct sunlight.

Fourth. If there is any dust, you can use a soft dry brush to brush it gently or use a blower with soft and cold wind.

Fifth. Don't water it and don't touch it frequently. Remenber not to put them outdoor.

Sixth. In any case, do not make it upside-down.

Seventh. It is normal if the flowers have slight odor, just open the lid and place them somewhere, the odor will be completely eliminated in a few days.

Eighth. Avoid direct contact with water, steam and water mist.

Ninth. Avoid placing them in strong air vents such as air conditioner and fan.

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Do you have green plants in your house?

Do you know what you will miss if you don't have green plants in your house? Green plants will help you relax, improve your concentration and give you very fresh air indoor. They also release anions. Green plants, as is known, can bring you good luck and keep misfortune away from you. It helps you keep healthy to some degree.

So, what to choose?
First. Fix single hydroponic plant in cups, bottles with stones. You can plant this in your living room, toilet or sill. In winter, you especially need this plant to give you fresh air.

Second. Scindapsus, super suitable for toilet! Hang it over your toilet or put it by the window. You can also put it on the cabinet in your study.

Third. Cautus. Compared with other small green plants, it looks more strong and it's more suitable for men.

Fourth. Plants like spathiphylum. They can suppress exhale fumes such as ammonia and acetone. At the same time, they can filter benzene,formaldehyde and trichloroethylene in the air, too. Its high evaporation speed can prevent nasal mucous dry, it greatly reduce the possibility of being sick.

Fifth. You may need a mini garden indoor. It's actually a small shelf with many potted plants. It will certainly make the room alive.  

Ok, just go get your own favourite green plants!

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Lindsayana -- cute meaty plant!

Lindsayana, a very cute meaty plant of Echeveria, looks like chihuahuaensis. It has white powder on its leaves. The color of the leaves is pink blue or pink green, very cute. The apex and edge of leaves are a little bit red. Lindsayana blooms in the middle of the spring. Flowers are bell-shaped with the peduncle 20 to 50 centimeters long. The flowers are yellow and orange.

Lindsayana loves light and is also tolerant to shade. However, it grows better

under sun. It needs enough sunlight.Its leaves will be pink blue with more obvious red apexes and edges. Or, the color will be more pink green. The suitable temperature for Lindsayana to grow is 10 degrees to 25 degrees. It is dormant in summer, so special attention must be paid to ventilation, shade and water control.

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Planting Methods of Potted Blueberry

Blueberry fruits contain rich nutrients. They not only have health care function, but also can prevent brain aging, strong your heart, anti-cancer and soften your blood vessels. It enjoys the reputation of "queen of the fruit". Price of artificial planting blueberry is very high now, many families begin to plant potted blueberry themselves. You can watch the beautiful flowers and taste the yummy fruits at one time. So, how to grow? Let me tell you.

First. time of purchasing blueberry seedling and management

The best time to plant blueberry is from autumn to the bud period in the spring. In this period, transportation, management and planting are simpler. If you plant in the autumn, there will be a little flowering next year and they can fruit normally in the third year. The full productive age is more than 5 years. For family potted planting blueberry, the fruit bearing period can be 35 years if they are well-managed.

Second. species selection

You'd better choose species which do not need pollination tree to bear fruit. Lowbush blueberry is only suitable for outdoor planting in cold areas. Other species are almost suitable for potted planting.

Third. soil requirements

Blueberry likes acid, soft, breathable soil. It's better when the soil contains organic matters. Generally, the soil PH value should be 4.5~5.5, the organic matter content is 8%~12%. You can buy common humus soil and add rotten moss or peat, 

saw dust, the rotten pine broken skin according to your condition. Sulfur should be added once a month until the leaves have minor burns. Remember to apply acid fertilizer, too.

Fourth. the container

Good air permeability clay pot is suggested, the second is litter pot, after that is plastic pot. It's better not to choose ceramic and porcelain pot.

Fifth. climate

Very important factor to ensure the blueberry can bear fruit! The blueberry must suffer 7.2 degrees low temperature dormancy. The lowest temperature varies depending on the species. If you plant it only for flower watching, they do not need to suffer the low temperature.

Sixth.water management

Root system distribution is very shallow and is very sensitive of lacking of water. You should keep the soil moist but not having hydrops. It differs in differnt growing seasons. In the vegetation growth phase, maintaining the optimum moisture can help the plants grow. You should reduce the water supply before and in the fruit growth phase. Otherwise, excessive vegetation growth will take the nutrients for fruit growth. After harvasting, go back to the optimum moisture to promote vegetation growth. In order to enter the dormancy period, you should reduce the water supply.

Seventh. fertilization

Blueberry is oligotropic plant. Compared with other fruit trees, it has low content of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calsium and magnesium. Due to this characteristic, remember to prevent excessive fertilization in order to avoid damage. Here, the fertilization refers to the additional fertilization.

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Plants for summer(3)

White Butterfly Orchid: Butterfly orchid has large and broad leaf shape. Several flower stalks look like an arch and flowers are so big and are like butterflies. It has beautiful appearance and it's a treasure of tropical orchids. It enjoys a good reputation as "queen of the orchid". There are many different colors of orchids but for summer, white is the most suitable one. It looks cool, refreshing , elegant and quiet.

Key points of maintenance: You'd better not give it too much light. Ensure the temperature indoor is not too high. Butterfly orchid enjoys an environment with good ventilation and suitable humidity. It is requested to keep the air humidity in 60 percent to 80 percent. Remember to avoid dry-hot wind and make sure there isn't too much water in the  basin.

Tips: When choosing butterfly orchid in summer, there two points you may focus on:
First.the bud.The more, the better.
Second.the thickness of the petal. The flowers can last longer if the petals are thicker.



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Plants for summer(2)

Lavender: Shape of flower is very similar to a wheatear. Narrow leaves are like fluff. Violet flowers grow on the slender stem. Lavender grows best in August and September. It has a unique herbal flavor. It was quite common to plant lavender since Roman times, known as "queen of vanilla". Its aroma can refreshing brain and brighten your eyes, making you comfortable. It also helps to relieve anxiety and drive off the flies.

Key points of maintenance: Lavender needs to grow in an environment with enough sunlight and moderate humidity. It's better to grow it under full sunlight. It is half heat resistance and it likes cool environment which means to keep it warm in winter, cool in summer. In summer, you should cover at least 50 percent of the sunlight and increse ventilation to reduce environment temperature. Lavender doesn't like root water retention. After you drench it, you should water again until the soil is dry. The perfect time for you to water is when the surface of the soil is dry while the internal of the soil is moist and the leaves should be slightly wilted.

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Plants for summer (1)

Which plants are suitable for summer and how to look after them? There’s something to learn. Bright-colored plants tend to give strong impact to your eyes and make you hot and bothered, it’s better to choose plants which are light colored and have a long flowering period. You can also choose some simple and elegant green plants to decorate your house.

Mint: Leaves of mint are opposite in the stems and usually they’re oval in shape. The color of the leaves can be green, dark green, greyish green,etc. Mint has a fresh but a little bit spicy flavor and it can remove indoor humidity and malaria. It’s refreshing and can keep the  mosquitoes and flies away.

Maintenance points: Mint likes bright light but not make it directly exposed to the sunlight. You need to give mint enough water to grow. Watering recommendation: “see dry see wet”( a frequently used term in planting which means watering until the soil is drenched and water again when the soil is about to dry. It helps to prevent rotted root and insect pests caused by too much water. ).

Another tip: You’d better not eat the mint bought from the flower market for that you are not sure whether it has been treated with pesticide or not.  

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Classification of tomatoes

There are so many kinds of tomatoes and most people plant ordinary tomatoes now. According to the growth habit of plants, ordinary tomatoes can be divided into two categories, indeterminate growth type and determinate growth type.

Indeterminate growth type: As long as the environmental conditions are appropriate, the main stem can grow up all the time. As for this type, the apical bud is leaf bud, the first inflorescence is higher and it's usually above the ninth leaf, the interval of inflorescences is about 3 leaves which is more than the other type. As a result, indeterminate kind of tomatoes are often late-maturing.

Determinate growth type:Which is also called the cap type. After two to six inflorescences grow from the main stem, growing point turns into inflorescence and stops growing up. It begins to depend on the auxiliary buds at the bottom of leaves to produce new branches. It will stop growing up again when there are two to six inflorescences in the new branch. The process of producing new branches from the auxiliary buds repeats and repeats. As a result, determinate kind of tomatoes are often short and small and they are early middle maturing. Normally, there is a inflorescence every one to two leaves. Among them, some varieties cap after two to three inflorescences occur which is called low cap type while some other varieties cap after four to six inflorescences occur, they are known as high cap type.

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How to plant tomatoes on your balcony?

First step: sowing and seedling raising

You can either directly sow seeds in your planters or sow them after they’re soaked in the warm water whose temperature is 50 degrees to 55 degrees for 10 to 12 hours. Before sowing, you need to put the nutrient soil into the planter and keep it 3 to 4 centimeters away from the edge of the planter. Water the soil until it’s all wet, you can sow when the soil is a little dry. If you want to plant more than one tomato in a planter, you can sow 1 to 2 seeds every 10 to 15 centimeters. Use 0.5 centimeters of seeding matrix to cover the seeds evenly and a piece of plastic film should be applied, too. The plastic film should be removed after sprouting. After sowing, the temperature should be controlled, for the daytime, it’s 20 to 28 degrees while for the nighttime it should be above 10 degrees. Few days before transplant, you should control the watering appropriately. 

Second step:transplanting

When the young seedlings have 3 to 4 leaves, you can transplant them. Before transplanting, wash the planter and put tile or nylon yarn at the bottom of the planter. After that, you should put soil into the planter. Use a gardening shovel to dig young seedlings out from the original planter from 8 centimeters from the surface of the soil and it should be around 5 centimeters away from the root system . Put them into the new planter and keep them upright, shake the planter lightly. You should immediately water the seedlings until water oozes from the hole of the planter. 

Third step: Daily management

Water management: After transplanting, wet out the soil. Then, water every 3 to 5 days. Control the watering quantity before fruit setting and keep the soil wet in the fruit swelling period.

Fertilization management: Pour 200mg/kg efficient composite liquid fertilizer every 10 days or apply matured chicken manure before blossoming. 

Pruning: Which means to remove the axillary buds. Normally, remove them when they are around 5 to 6 centimeters.

Training: Single stem training and double stem training are frequently used. Single stem training: Remain the bough and remove all the lateral branches successively. It leads to less but larger fruit. This method is suitable for premature varieties dwarf and close planted and indeterminate varieties. Double stem training: Keep the bough and the first branch of the first inflorescence and make them grow and the same time. It leads to more fruit and increase individual yield. It is suitable for varieties with good soil fertility and strong growth vigor. 

Topping: Which means to remove apical growing point. When the plant is 80 centimeters high, leave 1 to 2 leaves and remove the growing point. 

Flower thinning and fruit thinning: When there are too many fruit, you need to do this in order to keep the quality and shape of the fruit.

Moreover, basal yellow old leaves and branches should be removed in time for better ventilation and light and reduce the consumption of nutrition. 

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Row cover removal

Row covers are often applied three to four weeks before crops are normally planted to encourage growth enhancement or for frost prevention. Row covers must be removed at bloom for fruiting crops to encourage bee or wind pollination. Higher temperature later in the season may reduce quality for cool-season crops, necessitating the removal of the row covers. Extremely high temperatures that develop later in the season under row covers can also reduce production of crops like tomatoes and peppers.

Above words are cited from George W. Dickerson's essay in October 2004

Some pictures for reference:

 (Pictures are from gardeners.com)



Now, you know so much things about row cover, wanna try? It will certainly help with your cultivation. Just go for it!

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Row cover types

The three most popular row cover techniques are plastic-covered trenches, floating row covers and hoop-supported row covers or low tunnels. Row covers are generally made of polyethylene(poly), polyester or polypropylene. Polyethylene may be clear or pigmented and either stretched across a trench or supported by wire hoops. It may also be vented or unvented. Fabric-like polyester or polypropylene materials are generally spunbonded or nonwoven. Both may be left to float on the surface of soil or supported by wire hoops.

Plastic-covered trench:
Plastic-covered trenches permit early seeding, early plant growth and some frost protection. Polyethylene is generally strentched across a trench about 7 inches deep. A mechanical mulch layer can be used to apply the plastics, mounding soil along the edges of the bed to keep the plastic taut.The application of a pre-emergence herbicide is important to control weeds. Periodic holes can be made in the plastic as temperatures rise in the trench. The plastic should be removed when plants first come in contact with the bottom of the row cover.

Floating row covers:
Floating row covers are often used to protect both cool season and warm season crops. Made of spunbonded polyester or polypropylene, covers may range from 5 to 50ft and up to 800ft long. In the manufacturing process, the polyester or polypropylene is extruded or spun in a web onto a collection belt. The small-diameter filaments are then heated and pressure treated to form a thin, whitish sheet of porous fabric. Covers may range in weight from 0.3 to 2.0 oz/sq.yd. Row covers from 0.5 to 1.25 oz/sq.yd will give 2 degrees to 6 degrees F frost protection in the spring. More protection can be realized during the fall due to warmer soils. Row covers weighing 1.25 oz/sq.yd will generally transmit enough light(70 percent) for optimum plant growth with good frost protection. Lighter-weight materials, that provide minimal frost protection, are generally used to protect crops from insects and birds.
Floating row covers are generally applied loosely over the top of the crop and secured along the edges with fabric pins and/or soil. Insect control is more effective when the sides are completely sealed with soil. Covers should be applied when there is minimum wind. Allow the cover to drape over the crop, leaving room for crop expansion. Floating row covers should not be applied over one-stemmed crops like peppers, tomatoes, eggplant or even squash, since stems can be broken on windy days.
Spunbonded polyester and polypropylene have the advantage over polyethylene in that they don't usually have to be vented. Air and water will pass relatively freely through spunbonded covers.

Hoop-supported row covers:
Unlike floating row covers, hoop-supported row covers or low tunnels are supported by wire hoops, eliminating abrasive damage to the crop associated with floating row covers. Hoops are generally made from 9- ro 10-gauge galvanized wire, 48 to 60in long, spaced 4 to 5ft apart in the row. Wires are generally shaped to form an arch. Wider tunnels will generally result in greater warming but are more vulnerable to wind damage. Crops are often irrigated with drip irrigation to help conserve moisture and reduce weed populations.
  California system:The California system of hoop-supported row covers involves two sheets of 36in wide, 1.5ml clear polyethylene supported by wire hoops spaced 5 to 7ft apart. Edges of the plastic are secured with soil. Wooden stakes approximately 30in long and one inch in diameter are spaced at 10- to 25-ft intervals in the bed. A 16- gauge wire is stapled to the top of the stakes and edges of the plastic are clipped together at the wire with clothespins. Covers are closed and opened manually. Hoops are generally attached to the wooden stakes and wire for greater stability under windy conditions. A second set of wire hoops may be placed over the top of the tunnel allowing the plastic to slide down between the hoops when venting.

  Perforated plastic tunnels:Solid plastic tunnels must be vented in some way to prevent heat damage to plants. Venting can be very time consuming and a major problem in windy weather. Perforated plastic allows for ventilation without removing the plastic and reduces damage from wind. Perforations are generally 3/8-inch in diameter but may vary with manufacturer. Slit row covers have the same effect. Very little water condensation occurs under perforated plastic covers.There is generally less frost protection under perforated and slitted row covers than under a solid cover.

  Spunbonded fabric tunnels:Spunbonded polyester and spunbonded polypropylene fabric tunnels are two of the more popular row cover tunnels since they don't have to be vented and don't tear as easily as polyethylene. Edges are secured with fabric pins and/or with soil.


Above words are cited from George W. Dickerson's essay in October 2004

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Row cover(2)

Disadvantage of row cover:
Cost:Cost associated with growing crops under row covers are dependent on the type of crop, row spacing and type of row cover. Crops requiring a supported row cover will incur greater costs associated with wire hoops required for support versus using a floating row cover. Rows with closer spacing will require more material for support tunnels. There is also a big difference in the cost of materials.Heavier materials tend to be more expensive. Additional labor costs can also be very siginificant. Costs can be reduced with the use of protective coatings and ultraviolet light inhibitors incorporated into the row cover so that such materials can be reused.

Pests:Although row covers are often used to exclude insects, any insects that do enter the covered area can multiply very quickly in such a favorable environment. Weeds can also flourish, especially if the area has not be treated with herbicide or covered with a plastic mulch. The row cover may also have to be pulled back during bloom(cucurbits, strawberries) to allow bees to pollinate the plants.

Labor:Use of row covers, especially the supported tunnels, require considerably more labor in put earlier in the season than traditional production techniques. This is particularly true if the row cover has to be occasionally removed to weed, apply insecticides or allow for pollination. Machines are available for establishing hoop-supported row covers.

Above words are cited from George W. Dickerson's essay in October 2004

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Row cover (1)

Row cover is one of the most popular techniques used by commercial growers to extend the growing season. Row covers are generally made of flexible transparent to semitransparent materials. By increasing both air and soil temperatures, they enhance the growth and production of crops.

Advantages of row cover:

Early yield:The greenhouse effect of row covers will not only warm air surroun-ding the plants but will also result in warmer soil temperatures,enhancing seed germination, root growth and maturity. Early production generally result in higher prices at local markets.

Increased yield:Many cucurbits(squash,cucumbers,melons) respond well under row covers with increased yields of as much as 25 percent. Earlier production of cool season crops like spinach and leaf lettuce will also increase total yields. Other crops that have responded well to row covers include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cauliflower, strawberries, sweet corn, cole corps and peas.

Frost protection:Generally the heavier materials give greater frost protection but tend to exclude more light. Row covers can also be used with some crops in the fall for late frost protection.

Wind protection:Row covers supproted with hoops will protect crops from wind and blowing sand. This will result in less plant stress and reduce desiccation of delicate early growth. Row covers will also protect crops from hail and pounding rain. Unsupported floating row covers can, however rub on plants, damaging leaves, stems or flowers.

Pest protection:Lightweight floating row covers are often used to cover some crops in spring to protect them from insects. Edges of row covers must be covered with soil to ensure exclusion of insects. This will result in less use of insecticides and less frequency insect-borne diseases. Floating and supported row covers can also be used to protect plants from birds.

Water Conservation:Less irrigation may be required under row covers since water collects as condensation on the inside of the cover and returns to the soil. Less crusting occurs since wind movement and water evaporation is reduced. Overall water use, however, may increase since crop growth is greater, earlier and over a longer period of time.

Above words are cited from George W. Dickerson's essay in October 2004

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