Bubbling Maples

So I was walking home from school today, passing through the park, and I looked over at a tree, and I noticed that there were bubbles on it. It has been raining here all day, so I figured it had something to do with that.




Plus, it wasn't just in one spot. Looking at the next photo, notice the patches of white bubbles above the hollow as well as down by the ground. What could be causing this? I think it might be something to do with it being a maple tree?

It's not just the one tree, either. I kept walking through the park and came across another tree I know to be a maple, and it was bubbling at the bark as well.

Anyone know what this may be caused from? I'm going to search for answers online now!

In the meantime, have a video!
(I apologize for the terrible video quality!!)

Until next time, 

Jess

Growing Red Onions From Scraps

I picked up some red onions that had sprouted from the kitchen at my internship because I would rather grow them than see them sit there and rot and eventually get thrown away. It is my namesake, after all! 

Here I am holding one of them in my kitchen. It's skinny right now because I peeled off all the fleshy layers and ate them! This is actually a few days since I snatched it up, so its roots have been growing like crazy. I've had it sitting in a cup with some damp paper towels.

The paper towel in a cup thing is what I did to transport it from my internship, through a busy day of classes, and back home. I would have put it in plain water if there wasn't a risk of me spilling it all over. Plus I imagine having a substrate help keep things aerated down there. 

What do I plan to do with this onion? 

Well, it turns out that if I plant it, I can grow a whole new onion! All I have to do is split the sets apart like in the next photo, pop them in some dirt, and follow the same water and sunlight regimen as if I had bought sets from the garden store! 

Because I don't have a lot of space, I may or may not grow them myself. I'll probably end up planting them at the garden I intern for. They have Egyptian walking onions there, but I don't think they have any reds. And they are all about biodiversity! 

That's all I've got to show with the onions for now! If you have and questions or comments feel free to comment below. 

Until next time, 

Jess

Air Plants

Just photos today, folks! 

Pretty in pink!

Sisters chillin next to each other

Mama with her pups

Sprouting Pitaya Seeds (Dragon Fruit)

Today I discovered that my dragon fruit seeds I collected last fall started germinating! I actually tried sprouting them a couple times when I got them, but I didn't do it right (they kept drying out) so I set them aside for a few months and decided a couple weeks ago to try again.

Baby pitaya getting cozy in their new home!

So what did I do differently this time around? I used an empty salad container as a mini-greenhouse! My boyfriend and I have been trying to eat more salads, which means buying more lettuce, but we're not ambitious enough to buy a head of romaine and cut it ourselves, so we buy the pre-washed stuff. Typically I'd feel bad about being wasteful, but since I'm using three of these containers to sprout seeds at the moment, I don't feel quite so bad.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of these little babies until after they sprouted, but I do have some of my starfruit (carambola) seeds I'm waiting on:

Carambola seeds in a mini-greenhouse for germination. 

For the starfruit I just used damp paper towels as a bed, spaced the seeds evenly, and put another layer of paper on top. Then I closed up the container, put it in the basement (it's out of the way but I also visit frequently to do laundry), and waited. Like I said, I'm still waiting on the starfruit, but the other day when I went to do laundry this is what I saw: 

Baby pitaya poking through a paper towel! 

I was so excited they finally sprouted! 

You may notice the paper towel for my dragon fruit is a lot darker than the one for star fruit. That's because there's actually some soil underneath. In my previous attempt to germinate the seeds, I mixed them in with potting soil. I didn't feel like trying to separate them from the dirt since that would take forever. I probably could have foregone the paper towel altogether since in the end it made repotting the babies a little difficult. But whatever, you live and you learn. 

I ended up using a pair of tweezers to transfer the seedlings into a proper pot, then put some cling wrap over top to keep it nice and humid. I can't wait to see how they do as time goes on! 

Until next time, 

Jess