Tag: waratah

Daily Life

Minding My Peas, and Queues

by  • 

In my Aussie plant grow from seed experiment, desert peas moved outdoors today, with more budding plants queueing to join them.

Only three of 12 desert pea seeds germinated, but did so strongly.

Nonetheless, having struggled with clumsiness when repotting everlastings last month, I was better prepared this time.

By that, I mean Mrs. Kangaeroo stepped up to the plate.

She would handle the task of gently shifting the seedlings from humidity pod to pot.

As always (except in her choice of men), she was superb.

We used a potting mix containing soil for Australian native plants, starter soil from growing flowers, peat moss, sulphur, perlite and dead leaves.

Transplanting went smoothly, and we were aided by glorious sunny weather and warmth.

In addition to the desert peas, we also planted golden everlastings.

Some kangaroo paw in the humidity pods looked ready for repotting, but after Mrs. Kangaeroo cast her eye over them, we decided to give the kangaroo paws some more time in the sheltered environment to let them build up strength.

In the pods now are also native wisteria, honeysuckle banksia (maybe) and dwarf wattle.

Western Australian Christmas tree, waratah and heath banksia are yet to germinate.

I am worried, but they have yet to reach the longest estimated germination period, so we need to be patient.

Give them a few more weeks to grow is the situation now.

Otherwise, the garden, especially the lawn, looks great.

I got to weed the garden early this morning.

It looks positively resplendent, even though all the plants I really wanted to thrive have mostly failed.

Daily Life, Unknown Nichigo

A Seed Of An Idea

by  • 

As I touched on over the weekend, I’ve started trying to grow plants from seed and I completed the first round of the process this morning before heading off on my bike.

Blend of potting mix, peat moss and pearlite

Dwarf wattle seeds that I soaked in boiling water last night were the final group of seeds that can be planted in the winter.

Waratah seeds

I managed to spread the seeds over a tray and put them in the humidity pod.

Most of the work was finished yesterday after the ride.

Potting mix

The process so far started in September and October of last year (2022) when I collected Australian native plant seeds, mostly from Bunnings.

Native Australian plant seeds purchased from Oz

Managing to get the seeds through Customs in Oz and Japan, the next toughest step was stopping myself from getting over eager and trying to plant them before they were ready.

Plant starter kits

I did start preparing, mostly by buying plant starter kits, which are lit and heated humidifier pods. They came equipped with diggers, cards and a scoop, all of which I’ve put to use.

Tools

Just before Christmas, I put some waratah seeds in the fridge and kept them there for the subsequent six weeks, as advised by the growing instructions.

Some study revealed that I was on the back foot.

Pearlite

Australian native plants often need to be smoked or exposed to boiled water to replicate natural conditions before they germinate.

I didn’t study that until now, so I missed the opportunity to get starter granules or smoke water, either of which aids in the process, and I couldn’t find them for sale in Japan.

Vermiculite

But I did learn about pearlite and vermiculite, so I purchased a bag of both and got to work.

First, I sorted the seeds, setting aside those that could be planted in the winter.

Humidity pod covers with openings to let out the humid air

In addition to the waratah, the seeds were the dwarf wattle, Australian Christmas tree, red cap gum, honeysuckle banksia, orange banksia, everlastings and one of the two sets of kangaroo paw seeds that I have. I had kangaroo paw growing in Kangaeroo Corner from the outset, but I killed them through overwatering, so I am particularly keen to make a better fist of growing them this time around. Another set will go on a tray of their own in another month or so.

Labeled seeds

I took turns sowing each of the seeds in a blend of potting mix, pearlite and peat moss, then covered them with vermiculite.

Each time the seed was sown it got a card with the planting date added so I will be able to tell how long it takes to germinate: if they do, indeed, begin to sprout.

Humidity pods for growing seeds

They were then laid out in the humidity pods in the spare room.

The humidity pods are exposed to daylight (albeit north-facing), but get pumped up with artificial light overnight.

Lighting the humidity pods at night

I’ve never grown anything like this, but am having fun.

In the meantime, I’ll keep checking and updating.