Everyone wants the harvest to last as long as possible. In a good root cellar, many vegetables easily will keep 5 or 6 months. You don’t have to process vegetables going into the root cellar. It’s a true low-energy food preservation system. A steady cool temperature (35°-45° F.) is the main requirement. Read the rest of this entry »

The temperature in a root cellar is always a compromise. It’s never equal in all parts of the cellar. Most vegetables never get the perfect temperature.

The temperature near the ceiling of many root cellars can sometimes be 10° F. or so higher than near the floor. This variance creates temperature zones in the root cellar. Your vegetables will keep better if you understand the temperature zones of your root cellar and store crops accordingly. Read the rest of this entry »

Phalaenopsis are extremely beautiful orchids, with species to be found in India, down through Borneo and Malaysia to New Guinea, with the largest concentrations in the Philippines. They grow mainly in the steamy lowland forests where there is a constant moist atmosphere and very little direct sunlight. The plants grow upon host trees as epiphytes and often grow downwards.

Phalaenopsis do not produce pseudo bulbs but their leaves are extremely thick and fleshy and grow from the base of the plant. Usually one or two new leaves are produced from the centre of the plant in a season. An average sized plant in cultivation may have between three and six leaves at any one time and in some species they can grow to over 1 m (3 ft) in length. They may be plain dark green, or beautifully mottled and barred in silvery grey. The roots of the Phalaenopsis are the most attractive of any orchids; in the wild they attach themselves firmly to the bark of their tree, and run along its surface for some distance. These very fleshy roots are flat, silvery grey with a green or purple growing tip. In cultivation they will adhere to anything with which they come into contact. The flower spikes appear from the base of one of the younger leaves and can carry from just a few, to many, well rounded flat blooms. Read the rest of this entry »

Kitchen

The next most popular room in the house for growing plants is the kitchen. Since it is a working area in common use it is natural that the room should be at a comfortable temperature and the steam created by cooking provides a good supply of humidity. However where gas is installed for cooking, as with heating, there may be trouble from the fumes. Unfortunately, because it is a’ working area, space is often limited in the kitchen but a room divider in a combined kitchen/dining room can be turned into a real and interesting feature of the room with a little indoor gardening. Here orchids can be used successfully with other plants to great advantage. Read the rest of this entry »

Water quality

The quality of domestic water supply varies tremendously from area to area and this is an important consideration when it is to be used for watering orchids. The pH is particularly important and should ideally be on the acidic side at a value of about pH 5. Very hard water is not good for orchids but beware of chemical water softeners; these introduce chemicals just as injurious to your plants as the hardness. The householder can collect rain water from the roof if this is preferred to the domestic supply, but if you live in an upstairs flat you will have no choice other than to use water from the tap. In this case, if you find that the water is hard and alkaline, a harmless method of softening is to suspend a nylon mesh bag full of peat in a bucket of the water for a few days. This will absorb much of the lime content and lower the pH. Whatever the source of the water, it should always be given to the plants at room temperature. It is always a good idea to fill the watering can the day before it is to be used, to allow the temperature to adjust and unwanted chemicals to settle. Read the rest of this entry »