Plantarium Project – Day 41

The progress of the plantarium on Day 41.

If you ask me, I think they have been making little progress, which is like the clearest indication that I have some repotting to do.  I’m just too lazy to do it.

Plantarium Project – Day 26

The update on Day 26.  Help!  I think my plants are slowly withering.  From overcrowding, of course.

I can’t wait to remove them from the containers, but I re-read the instructions again and again after my folly of pouring too many seeds, and it said that I should only move them to the pots when they reach the top of the containers.  So, I am listening to the instructions this time.

I’m happy with how my tomatoes are growing.  Basil (in green gel) is not too bad, but the rucola arugula (in yellow gel) seems to be screaming ‘Help’ at me.

What should I do?  What should I do?  This is getting really funny.

Plantarium Project – Day 11

A minor accident happened the other day when I was transferring the containers from the dark spot to my writing table for their mandatory 10-hour exposure to white light.  I got clumsy and toppled two of the containers.  The basil and the rucola arugula look fine, but I am worried about the tomato because the roots seem to be growing the wrong way after I upsetted the seeds.

The roots have not grown deeply enough into the gel, so I can’t transplant them into the provided pots with soil.  It’s supposed to take about 3 weeks, according to the write-up.

We shall wait and see.

Plantarium Project – Day 8

Day 8 since I last sowed the seeds and made the irreversible mistake of placing too many of them in each container.

Some progress in terms of height, especially for the basil and rucola arugula.  I get it… tomatoes take longer to grow.

So tempted to use a tweezer to pluck out of the seedlings.  But well… I realised I amused a lot of you with that silly mistake so we shall see how far this mistake will go tolerated.

Plantarium Project – Day 5

Day 5 progress.  I am getting worried.  Too congested.  And it’s still a rather long way to go before I move them to the pots.

Dang. What should I do?

I’ve moved them away from the shade to the study room, where they will be under white fluorescent light for less than 10 hours a day.  This is the instruction after ‘sprouting stage’.  Where are the roots?

Plantarium Project – Day 3

After 3 days of apprehension, I finally took out the 3 containers from a dark and warm corner in the bathroom for a photoshoot.  Roots!  Did I see roots?

I was elated to see that the seeds have somewhat germinated.  It seemed like my tomato seeds are not growing too well but the basil seeds are happily growing in the gel.

Still think that the seeds are not growing in the most optimum conditions.  Sigh… why didn’t I read more carefully?

Going ‘Green’

I do not have a green thumb.  Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that if there is anyone furthest removed from botany, that person would be me.  Suffice it to say that plants, trees and flowers don’t interest me much.

That said, I’ve always wondered if I do have a green thumb because my late grandma obviously did.  She used to be known as the ‘orchid lady’ in the small neighbourhood we lived in when I was a child, and if you know orchids, they are some of the most temperamental plants around – finicky to grow and even more so to bring into bloom.  But somehow, every orchid pot of hers bloomed prettily for her.  She had the Midas touch.

But do I have it?  I’m about to find it.

I recently bought The Original Plantarium Garden Lab, where the ‘patented gel products enable plants to grow without watering, allowing visually stunning sub-ground observation’.  Clearly this is an activity and education toy for children but the colourful gel in the clear containers are too cute!  So I ended up buying 4 packages – 1 for the nephew, 1 for a friend’s daughter, 1 for ex-boss’ daughter (which I have not had the opportunity to pass it to) and the last for myself.

There were 4 types of seeds provided in the package – basil, tomato, cucumber and rucola arugula.  I’ve chosen to place the basil seeds in the green, tomato seeds in the red, and rucola arugula seeds in the yellow.

So, after reading the instructions a few times through, I scratched the surface of the gel and then excitedly poured all the seeds in.  Then I re-read the instructions and came across this – ‘Add more seeds as necessary to ensure germination’.

Urmm… I think I just poured in the whole capsule of seeds without saving any for future use.  My heart sank.  I stared hard at the seeds now settling down on the gel and despaired.  It did look like I poured in too many seeds.  Are they going to grow, amidst the congestion?

Only time could tell.

Interesting Project

I’ve embarked on a rather interesting project lately but have not blogged about it till I received some signs that it is not going to be a flop.  Yup, the ever pragmatic (read: discouraging) husband was back to his old self in no time, on top of messing up the living room again.

This is just a teaser.  You might already know what it is.  If you do not, you too, must be attracted to the colourful gel like I did.

Interesting, isn’t it?

More of it tomorrow.  Promise.