Instant Soup Cups-Hack

I've found myself throwing away a lot of these instant soup cups lately because we have guests and they eat these like crazy. It's not unusual to throw away 10 or more of these cups in one day around here. The other day as I was taking out the garbage and they kept falling out of the bag and it dawned on me that these sturdy cups have a use for gardening.

Take a sharp pencil and poke holes in the bottom and you can use these to start your gardening seeds until they grow big enough to transplant into larger gardening pots or into your garden. If you're propagating plants fill it with your favorite brand of potting soil and stick your cuttings in these and cover them with a clear plastic bag to trap humidity. They're sturdy enough to use for starting seeds under grow lights if you have an indoor garden light set up.

If you're an indoor gardener and have small potted plants in a window that may be too cold in the winter place the potted plant inside (make sure you poke holes in the bottom) this cup. The Styrofoam will act as an insulator and keep the roots warmer as the temperature near your window drops at night

Amaryllis Seed Pods

In a previous entry about Amaryllis pollination I think I promised an update on what the seed pods would look like when the pollination was successful.

Notice how green and plump the seed pod on the right is compared to the one on the left. The one on the left didn't take even though it was self-pollinated just like the one on the right.

In both of them you can see how I've left the flower on to die off naturally instead of trimming it down. I didn't trim it down so you can see where the seed pods develop in relation to where the flower is.



Here's a video I made showing you how to pot an Amaryllis Bulb.



and one showing you how to pollinate an Amaryllis flower.

You can also visit my Amaryllis Bulbs blog where the content is exclusively about growing Amaryllis bulbs. 

Etiolation-Glossary Hack

If you spend any time on gardening forums you may come across the word etiolation from time to time. You'll particularly encounter the word in Cacti and Succulents forums where it is often discussed or seen in pictures of people who are having trouble with their plants.

Basically etiolation occurs when a plant does not receive enough light and produce weak up-right growth. Plants that should be globular in growth start to stretch and grow upward like the cacti in the photo attached to this entry.

You can provide your plant with higher amounts of light by placing them in south facing windows or by building plant light shelves to supplement the low lights that you get indoors during the winter months. Once your plant has etiolated there isn't really a cure and it will look deformed forever.