Really? Is that TRUE?
What? Design an experiment to find out what will happen when you change ONE aspect of growing your plants.
Why? To see if some of the “standard advice” about growing violets - what we’ve always heard - is really TRUE. To learn about something that interests YOU.
When? Starting now in the summer or early fall so that we can all report back to the club about our results at future meetings this year.
Where? You’ll do this in your own growing environment at home.
Who? Everyone in the club is asked to try at least one simple experiment of your choice so that we might all learn something new.
How? By taking two of the same plant or two or more leaves of the same variety and choosing some aspect of growing those plants to see if what you’ve always heard is really true. For example: rooting a leaf in water is faster than rooting a leaf in soil.
Ideas: Which grows larger and faster, plants watered with Superthrive added to your usual routine or plants watered with what you usually use?
Do young leaves produce babies faster than old leaves?
Do Episcias grow better in warmer conditions or cooler ones?
Does pollinating a strep on the first day the bloom is open make more seeds/pods than pollinating the flower 5 days after it is open?
Do Grow-Lux bulbs make plants grow better than regular cool white fluorescents?
Do Kohleria rhizomes store better in moist sphagnum or in plastic bags in the refrigerator?
Does watering with cold water stunt the plant as opposed to room temperature water?
Does water on a violet leaf REALLY cause a spot?
Here is the shortened write-up of the club's next proposed project. We'd like everyone to participate and try to experiment on some aspect of horticulture. Let's be creative, let's really try to find out something interesting. I would love to put pictures in the blog following the progress of the experiments!!! You may send an email attachment or an actual photo in and we'll get it into the blog.
The topic you choose can be something elaborate or simple, but every piece of information is valuable. Who would have thought that upsetting or wiggling the roots of strep babies would make them grow faster? But, Dale Martens tried this and showed all us strep lovers something extremely useful for getting streps to grow quickly and thusly allowing the grower to see what the babies look like months ahead of the old "tried and true" way. Let's find another really cool result like that one!
