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Repotting, and preparing soil mix

Again I was able to cycle to the GH today, as the weather was lovely: partly cloudy, 66 degrees, with a fair breeze at my back.

On the ride to the GH, I passed the Huntington Bank stadium on the east bank campus. I was amazed to see 25 private coaches all lining the streets around the stadium. The near-by parking lot was full of a similar number of large semi trailers. Clearly something big was about to happen at the stadium, but what? On the ride home I recalled the singer Beyonce (Queen Bey) and her husband JayZ are in town for a couple of concerts. I had no idea they required such a large entourage of people and equipment. I strongly suspect, Beyonce and JayZ do not travel on the roads with the whole convoy. They’ll be jetting around in their private plane(s), 

On arriving at the greenhouse, B... was there to assign my first tasks: to repot some of the small bushy plants in C1 and C2. These particular plants had plastic pots which were bursting open at the bottom indicating the roots needed more room to grow.  B suggested using slightly larger plastic pots from the storage room of clean pots. I used #1 potting soil (mixture of coir, pumice, and sand, 3:2:1).

B... and I investigated a particularly sooty plant in room D2, covered in mealy bugs, scale, and spider mites - a veritable triple threat. We were about to agree to scrub the leaves of the pests, but then B noticed several beneficial larvae of the species Cryptolaemus montrouzieri (aka mealybug destroyer). The adult form of this larva looks a bit like a ladybug. I will never again buy the adult form, but I might try the larva since they stay on the plant leaves, and do not fly up to the windows (phototaxic).

B... also noted a small critter on one of the Australian plants in room D1. She brought a couple of the dead creatures into the workroom to examine under the microscope. At first, I thought it was some sort of insect since it had what appeared to be six legs. But, the outer carapace looked like an armadillo and the organism was curled into a near- circular shape. I heard B mention it to Curator J..., who said he’d look at it later, he also mentioned something about “roly-poly” bugs. When I got home, I searched on the image and found the family of organisms called Armadillidiidae, with 30 known genuses and colloquially known as pill bugs, roly-polys, and woodlice. They are a type of crustacean. They feed on rotting debris on the forest floor, but will feed on new growth of plants too - which is where B found them.

Having finished the repotting work, I volunteered to prepare another batch of soil mix #1 (mixture of coir, pumice, and sand, 3:2:1). It was a bit more work than I anticipated because the coconut coir was all in block form, none was available in the hydrated form - which is the usable form. I had to figure out how to quickly rehydrate one of the blocks. I used a mallet and a sharp weed puller to wedge apart the compressed layers of the block. Then, I separated the pieces into two large mixing trays, added a lot of water, and let them sit for several minutes to soak. Meanwhile, I prepped the other ingredients for the mix: pumice and sand. The pumice was also almost empty in its bag in the storage room. I found a new full bag in the basement, which I lugged up the stairs (pant, pant) and into the storage room. The box of sand, too, was quite low, so I refilled it to the level that its weight could be easily lifted off of the cart (quarter full). 

By the time I had everything ready, the coir was hydrated and ready to go in the mix. To the soil bin I added the pumice and the coir, I mixed them before adding the sand and mixing it in because the sand particles are small and heavy, they sink to the bottom of the bin, so add them last to keep them suspended in the mix. Finally, I used a spade to turn the new soil into the old soil at the bottom of the bin. It took a further several minutes to clean up my mess in the storage room and workroom.

 


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