gejala pokok | symptomatic trees

suffering from crisis of confidence. after transplanting the statice, they started dying. there was one left that i still had some hope (see below), but i think i have to accept that it’s really a lost case. it’s pretty much all dead by now. i don’t know what i did wrong, whether the hole i dug was too deep, or if they were weakened by the storm attack, or if i didn’t pack the soil around the seedlings enough after transplanting them, or i simply fucked up when i tried to separate the soil from the seedling when digging them out.

whatever it is, it’s dead.

and then the celosia. they germinated around 6th april, and it’s now 16 days later, and there’s no sign of true leaves showing.

i bought some schultz starter plus solution and misted some diluted amount on them a few days ago. i think i made it worse. some of the lower leaves started to yellow, and the stems are wriggly.

this is how it looks today. the pencil is to give a sense of its size (also works as a good dibber!)

this is how it looks like with the flash switched on.

tried thinning one of the pots tonight, by snipping the really tiny and almost dying ones as close to the earth as possible, and then picking them off with tweezers. i really hope it works. i don’t think i can handle another failed batch of seedlings.

i haven’t updated in awhile because nothing much has been happening.

last saturday, there was one of those freaky super crazy rainstorm. not only was george totally submerged in rainwater (forgot to drill holes under the window box), but my statice seedlings were also almost totally smashed up. i was going to propagate them on sunday, cause ‘true’ leaves was starting to sprout (inside blue circle below). but looking at their battered state, i thought it was best to hang on for awhile.

last night, i just couldn’t take it anymore. they looked so bad i just had to do something about it. the soil has turned soggy grey, they refused to stand up, so i thought, fuck it, just try. checked out this site which has really detailed instructions. and i swear, i followed it all to the minutest detail.

first of all, when i gently dug under the roots with a disposable yogurt spoon, i think i severed some of the roots. when i picked them by their leaves, some of them just broke in my fingers. when i gently dropped the clump of seedlings on the gardening mat, nothing happened. the soil didn’t break off, and i am still left with a soggy clump.

i tried my best. planted some of them that didn’t look like they were already dead. and today, most of them look like they are dead or dying. it’s very very very very very heartbreaking. i hate transplanting. NO MORE!!

on another note. spent saturday with mukaketupat & a best buddy who’s mad about plants shopping for ‘implements’. after discovering the horror of the thunderstorm, and doing some attempts at rescue missions to george and the seedlings, we planted.

we shared some of our seeds, and she planted sage, marjoram, curled parsley and balsam, while i planted the balsam, petunia, marjoram and sage. and the marjoram sprouted yesterday! the petunia is trying hard to today, and i can see some teeny tiny green spots, same with the balsam. though there might be some mold happening because of the dampness in the past few days. no no no no no no no…..

i think they might have come from the failed phlox & cosmos experiment i tried sometime last week. too big a bowl i think. dammit, need to do research.

• when to thin seedlings (for celosia later, and i’ve asked questions at dave’s garden also, but mukaketupat is taking the piss out of me =|)

i had to a cluster of the statice seedlings yesterday. it’s a very sad day indeed.

basically saw a bit in the soil near cluster number 1 that was wet and was slightly depressed (physically, not emotionally), and it was kinda glistening and moving. changed the direction and took a much closer look at it, also to check for ‘true’ leaves so that i can start transplanting.

turned out the movement wasn’t water, but a whole bunch of very very fine white coloured wriggly thingy that i can only call worms in my limited vocabulary. still unwilling to kill the seedlings, left them there and did some research. no luck, but there’s this thing called ‘wire worm‘ that kills crops. so to prevent the worms from going to the other clusters, with heart weighing like a big pot of tanah, i took out a chunk of the soil with the seedlings and dumped them.

now it’s just wait and see if the other clusters are okay. if ‘true’ leaves will emerge (basically, the cotyledons are usually a twin leaf that stores nutrients in the seeds, and when they germinate, real/regular/true leaves start to grow and changes function from storage to photosynthesis). and if they can survive the transplanting, which is apparently like what surgery is to humans.

crap.

some foto2 of development:

cluster number 2 of the statice, which is the healthiest so far, and has some ‘true’ leaves coming out in between the cotyledons. this was taken on 6 april, and they haven’t changed much since.

the cluster that i had to kill

but the celasio looks good! they’re like a small little forest but i’m going to have to start ‘thinning’ them soon, which means more murder!

this whole planting thing is bad for my karma i’m sure

this is going to get quite boring… but here are some new pictures of my seedlings!

this is the new cluster that managed to survive yesterday’s major rain. it’s looking very very good!

this is cluster number 1, which has the most tumbuhan so far. left is taken yesterday, and right is taken today (don’t judge the seedlings by the bad fotographer. it was raining yesterday and super sunny today, so left has flash and looks a bit zombie-ish).

my, my… healthy we are

okay. all my life i have wanted to plant a tree. it did not occur to me to start my ambitions small. *ahem*

but suddenly, small packets of seeds were introduced to me. in true geek fashion, went and bought the proper apparatus, planting tray and all. borrowed some soil, followed instructions, and they’re growing!

this is what i did:

day 01

• pour black soil secara rata on the tray, about 2 cm
• made very tiny holes, about 10 cm apart, about 6mm deep (i tried, but pakai taruh only)
• put in seeds. some i put in only one seed, and some i put a few. the packets didn’t say how many seeds per hole! i panicked! what if they’re not supposed to grow too close together? what if it’s a dud seed? what if??
• anyway. put the planting tray on another bigger but shallow tray.
• poured about 2 litres of water on bigger tray so that the soil will absorb the water from below and don’t move the seeds.
• panicked again because soil got super wet! images of drowning seeds flashed through my head.
• took up smaller tray and poured excess water from out of the balcony (nothing below except plants, don’t worry)
• put smaller tray back inside bigger tray.
• left it on balcony and made a little wish for them to grow ala totoro

day 02

they grew!! the packet said 14-28 days before it’ll start to germinate. but i’m not complaining

there are 2 clusters coming up. this is cluster number 2, on the first day of becoming a plant.

and on day 3. there’s leaves now!

this cluster just came out today. brave little things. heh.

but it rained really heavily, and i think i took them in too late. i can see big fat splotches of rain footsteps on the soil. please don’t die…..

how to grow statice website