Lemon Seeds

Today I added water with plant fertilizer to moisten the paper towel the seeds are in. I do not think this is going to help but I figured it would not hurt. The two seeds that were growing mold, have been mold free after I removed the seed shell. I still need to buy seed starting soil for them.

Lemon Trees

Not sure what type of lemons we bough from the store, but I took the seeds out of some. My daughter and I are trying to grow them. I looked over many web sites and found that the tree might not produce fruit and if it does it will take years. Then the fruit may or may not look and taste like the lemon I took the seeds from. Not a big deal to me. This is only for fun and my daughter is learning how to journal with this project, so if nothing but that comes from this then I am happy. We started the seeds on the 11th of Feb. and on the 13th we looked at them because I found some mold on the paper towel. Most the seed shells have cracked. It was neat and my daughter was excited about that. I washed the seed that had mold and changed the paper towel. Then today I saw that two seeds are now growing the mold. I took all the shells off the seeds and washed the two seeds with mold. I separated the seeds growing mold into their own paper towel and hoping that has solved the problem. If that does not work I will try something else before tossing them in the trash. I also feel the house is not warm enough for the seeds to germinate. It is a constant 70 degrees Fahrenheit so we will see. I am keeping the seeds near the window during the day as the sun warms that area well.

(The first picture is of the 5 seeds with the shells still on them. The second picture is of the 6 th seed we added. I took of the shell of that one before I took the shell off the others.)

Christmas Cacti Schlumbergera Bridgesii

On January 11, 2010, I re-potted my Christmas Cacti. They had some bugs, white flies or fungus gnats. Not sure what but still had the pests. I even found a couple of baby spiders. They would not have been a problem but they were highly venomous and I had to get rid of them. The plants were looking bad and very unhappy. After I changed the soil and the pots I used insecticidal soap and washed all the leaves. Of course I used a different piece of cloth for each plant. I am going to reapply the insecticidal soap in a week as the instructions say to use if bi-weekly. My plants are starting to look very happy. The pictures are of one plant, the white one. I did this will all four of my plants. I lost most of the Yellow Christmas Cactus but with luck it will grow well now.

Plant in it's new pot.

Some of the pests


Before planting

Crassula argentea (Baby Jade)

My husband bought me this cute little plant yesterday. I have been wanting one for a long time because it reminds me of my best friend and her family. They live far from me so visiting is not easy. Anyway, I hope that I can keep this plant alive to grow as large as the one they had. I am looking for growing information on it now. I love that I have the scientific name as well as it's common name. It is so much easier to find information.

I am pretty sure I have fungus gnats in my plants. I am going to stop watering for 3 weeks as it is suggested on many websites. My Cacti have stopped flowering and I am giving them a rest period. After the rest I am going to transplant them. I am going to remove all the old soil and replace it with something more fluffy. The soil that they have gets as hard as a brick when it dries and I do not think this is helping the plants at all. I also noticed that my plants have what I think is shot whole. I posted a link on a garden website and that is what they suggested I look up. This fungus resembles what I have and so I picked off all the leaves that had the problem.

Chriatmas Cactus Cutting

Yesterday I planted a cutting from my yellow flowered Christmas Cactus. I hope it grows. I looked at a few different websites and did what majority of them said to do. The cutting looked healthy and had four segments, the sites asked for at least three. I used the only soil I have and that is a cactus and succulent soil, so I hope that was alright. For the container I reused a sour cream container. I watered the soil with filtered tap water and then placed a full segment and part of the second one. The plant went about half way down the container. Now it is placed where the temperature hardly falls and where bright light will not reach it. I read once I see new growth I can place it where it will get some bright light during the day.

For the cacti that I pollinated, it seems to have worked. I did not do many of them and I see about five plant that look like it has fruit. I hope I am right.

Not pollinated flower, notice the stem is skinny.

This one has been pollinated and it looks fat,

just like many websites said would happen.

Yellow Christmas Cactus

It seems that my yellow Christmas Cactus has some sort of bug infestation. It is logical to assume that my other ones are also infested. All the plants came from the same location and when they were brought home they were kept in close proximity. Also while I was cleaning the leaves one cracked at the base of the plant. When I lightly moved the plant to get a better look, the stem came out with ease and looked slimy and yellowish brown. It was nasty. I assume there is some root rot and I need to transplant and even cut off some roots. I am looking around to see what I can use to kill and eggs of these bugs. I hope I can save it as it is the only yellow Christmas Cactus I have.