Bombay trip

 

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del.icio.us Tags: Hyderabad,Green,Growing,Gardening

In one of my previous posts, I had outlined the experiments I am conducting with coco peat, which is supposed to be tropic's equivalent of Peat Moss. I chose, basil, lavender and cucumber seeds. I have also selected some other flowering plant seed which I do not remember at this point. The biggest mistake happened was, the seeds have got mixed up.

I got lots of seeds and bulbs from Holland. That was in January. But because of some problems and uncertainty of we continuing to be in Hyderabad, I took a look at the package only in March. by then some of the bulbs had rotten and spoilt the packages of some other seeds too. At least the paper part of the seed packages were gone and the seeds were intact in their plastic bags. So, some of the seeds I can not identify and label them when I am planting. Pretty dumb isn't it. But I could compare with the un-spoilt seed packages and could identify. But still not 100% sure of everything.

Also, I need to come up with some mechanism of name tags. I am in India, and some times, things which are very simple to do in some other country, will be extremely difficult here. So far, in Hyderabad, gardening stores I have not seen name tags that are used for identifying seedlings. Any way that's not a big thing. I could use some thing else instead. May be I will check out some places in Bombay.

Any way, coming back to the seedlings, I remember reading that raising Lavender from seeds is very difficult. Wait let me tell you, it was no April 10 and today is 18 April and I see them germinating and they are about few millimeters in length and beautiful pale green leaves. I could not take pictures because the whole day preparing for my travel in the night. I will see those beauties only on 23rd. They are under foster care till then with my neighbor.

One problem I have noticed with coco peat, is that the porosity is very high and seedlings are not firmly positioned in the growing medium. I do not know how to correct this problem yet.

April 20, 2009. Bandra Railway Terminus, Bandra, Mumbai.

Tomorrow I have to be in Valsad, and from Bombay or Mumbai, the best way to travel to Valsad is by train. At 6.50 am from Bandra Terminus. Surat intercity express. I have come here to book the ticket and its about 2 hours wait I think. Nothing to do, as having a wait-listed ticket is better than not booking and buying a current booking tomorrow. The booking/reservation counter is about 1km from the actual terminus. So I can save about 30 minutes in the morning.

Today, I gave some photography tips to Ravi, who has to shoot some products and he is not very versed with the camera ( a Polaroid 8 M pixel point and shoot). He is a good artist who has learnt, layouts etc, without any formal training. I showed him how using a stand with self timer mode drastically increases the image quality. Need to show him some simple post processing techniques to increase the image value.

I think coral and Photoshop will have similar features.

More updates later.

Radio Ad. Safe Sex.

 

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del.icio.us Tags: Radio,Andhra Pradesh,Telugu,Condom,Safe Sex,family,humorous.

Today, I was sitting and waiting for my turn at a local barber saloon, and I heard an interesting advertisement on the radio which was going on there.

In India and many oriental countries, pre-marital sex is a taboo. Its good as well as bad. Society looks down on this. It might be very difficult for western societies to understand this concept, but in India, its considered as a virtue. If you think the positive side of this taboo, and Indian society is still family oriented, albeit its slowly changing, you will find lot of good things in this taboo. You need to see the effect it has on the family structure, love etc etc. That’s a different topic altogether.

The advertisement I heard was about Safe Sex. Pre-marital or post-marital, that’s the secondary issue here.

Picturise this: “An young adult, living with his parents, his married brother and his family, as most of the Indians still live with their families till they marry, many times even after their marriages, the do. The sister-in-law is the new “woman” of the house, slowly taking over all the responsibility of the family. What the mother of the young man was doing for him, now his sister-in-law does. Its a common practice in India.

The young man stammers and tells his sister-in-law, not to take his jeans for a wash, as he has a condom in the pockets, which his sister-in-law to know as it will indicate that he has been having pre-marital sex. The maid, is pointing the sister-in-law towards the condom, where as sister-in-law is affectionately admonishing, the young man, about the Motor Bike keys she has found in the pockets of his jeans, as she thinks, its dangerous for him to take the bike out.

Finally sister-in-law says: Its better to have a safer pre-marital sex using condom than having unsafe one without it. And she doesn’t have problem with her young brother-in-law having pre-marital sex as long as he uses condom. “

I really can not convey the whole mood, feeling of hearing a beautifully done, well delivered radio ad which is socially relevant.

Quote of the Day:
Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.
--Terry Pratchett

Planting Seeds.

 

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del.icio.us Tags: coco peat,peat moss,perlite,seeds,germination,compost,seedling,planting,gardening

For the last one year or more, I have taken great interest in gardening as I have space to plant a few. I have grown honeysuckles, bougainvillea, paw-paw or papaya , Spanish cherry or sapota, green chilies, spinach, coreopsis, night queen, frangipani, Cana, lilies, gazania, tube roses, red roses, roses, chrysanthemums, Indian lavender like fragrant foliage called “davana” and “moraga” etc etc. I have few vegetables growing in the garden too. Tomatoes, spinach, green chilies both wild varieties as well as commercial. More coming on the way.

Gardening is an immensely pleasurable, albeit back braking hobby. Since I have chronic back ache, its even more taxing for me. But, believe me, the pleasure of plants growing and bringing color to your surroundings is unimaginable. It attracts colors in the form of birds, butterflies and squirrels .

This time, when I was ready to plant few seeds, both flowering as well as vegetables, I wanted to take pictures and do a write up so that I can share my experience.

I soaked up seeds for 24 hours prior to planting them. Nature has provided excellent protection to seeds in the form seed coats for extended period of shelf life. It’s discovered that some seeds can survive thousands and thousands of years and still can germinate. Seeds wait for right environmental conditions to start germinating. The three important factors which determine the germination are :

1. Physical.

2. Chemical.

3. Light.

Physical: The environment like soil, density of the soil, temperature of the soil, moisture etc play the primary role in determining the germination.

Chemical: The chemical composition of the medium in which seeds are sowed or dispersed plays equally important role in the germination process.

finally;

Light: Once the germination has taken place, the roots go down towards the soil and leaves and shoots go up towards the light source.

Soaking in water or any other liquid nutrient (I actually do not know if some thing else can be used instead of plain tap water, I am assuming that some other solution can also be used), rubbing the seed coat, scoring with a razor blade, all help to soften the tough coat the seeds have been provided with by mother nature. Soaking them is good enough and easiest. No sweat. And, also, smaller seeds can not be scored or rubbed as its difficult because of their size.

Soaking is like: “Hey seed, wake up, its time to start growing. Enough of sleeping. Conditions are quite right and I assure you, I will provide all those things you need to start growing. I promise. “

Ok enough of that philosophy :)

This time, I did some thing different than previous occasions when I used mixture of sand and compost to plant the seedlings. I have been reading a lot on gardening websites about some thing called peat moss. Peat moss is a naturally formed compost which is used along with perlite as the growing medium for seeds. Peat moss is a non renewable resource, you can read more about that at the Wikipedia link. And, the biggest problem is Peat moss is not available in India easily, may be in some fancy gardening supplies shop (I haven’t come across so far).

During one of my routine shopping at Basheerbagh in Hyderabad (where there are a bunch of Gardening supplies shops), I had seen a brick like thing. When I asked about it, I got the information that its compressed coconut dust, used by gardeners as planting media. It is supposed to retain moisture, light, airy, just like peat moss. So I bought 2 bricks. Actually, after working with the coco-peat, I know realize that one brick is sufficient. When soaked, it really becomes huge quantity.

Rest of my planting activity can be explained with pictures. So here they are with occasional meddling by me with a few sentences here and there. :)

 

 Coco-peat. Once the broken pieces of the brick is sprinkled with water, it swells enormously. You can see that it has over flown and spilled out.

 

 Take paper cups, not those with plastic, non permeable not so environmentally friendly Styrofoam cups. Plain paper cups. actually you can make your own too with magazines and news papers.

 

 I took my Swiss Army Knife to make holes in the bottom of the paper. They provide drainage if the watering is not done very carefully.

 

 a thin layer of compost

 

seeds soaked for 24 hours

 

 compost layer topped with another thin layer of coco peat

 

Swollen seed

Hole made with a plastic spoon

Plastic Tray Carrier for Cups.

After planting the seeds, give a good spray of water.

 

Remember, don't forget to spray water every day. See to it that the growing medium is moist and airy. Too much water will displace air and that's not good too. You have promised them that you will take care of them. And do take care, they will give you immense happiness when they grow up. Just like children. Actually better than children. Plants do not bring sorrow, like most of us do (to our parents, and to the world).