Thursday Morning in November

We've had a couple of light frosts here and have cut down most of the Brugs. We like to cut them prior to a frost or freeze so we can get as many rooted cuttings as possible. Ken has over 1,100 cuttings started in the little greenhouse.

Ken went out and dug up all his Bananas and Plumerias and put them in storage for the winter. He's storing them in the Brooder House this year, it's small, well insulated and dry. He's leaving a light on for some heat. The plants have all the soil knocked off the roots and are in paper feed sacks. Oh, he also dug and stored some Alocasias, he likes to do that so he can get bigger plants the following year. We leave a few in the ground but they never seem to get as big as the stored ones do.

We had lots of seed pods on the Brugs this year, all Mother Nature's crosses, so we cut the stalks and put those with pods in buckets of water which I have to change out every few days. I'll get a couple of aquarium air pumps to set up in the buckets to provide aeration, then I won't have to change the water so often.

The buckets of Brug stalks and the potted Brugs are in the hoophouse we finally set up a few weeks ago. I traded 2 pair of Call Ducks for the hoophouse frame last Spring. Ken cut and attached wood strips to both sides of the metal hoops, then attached the plastic skin on both the inside and outside, leaving about a 3" space between the two 'walls'. It stays toasty warm in there. I have 2 recirculating oil heaters in the HH along with a 30" fan for air circulation when needed.

I have a recipe for a plant 'elixir' that I mix up and spray on all the plants in both the HH and the little GH every day. Well, I try to do it every day. It has done wonderful things for the cuttings Ken has in the GH, we have never had Brug cuttings look so good and root so well. Our friend Nadine lives in Zone 9, she loads the elixir in her hose end sprayer and uses it on her garden, I think I'll do that next growing season here. The mixture seems to discourage bugs as well. Here's the recipe:

Plant Elixir, 'The Recipe', whatever you call it, it WORKS!

2 cups water
1 12 oz can of beer
1/2 cup household ammonia
1 cup Epsom salt
2 drops Tea Tree oil
2 drops Super Thrive
1/4 cup molasses

MIX all ingredients. Add ONE tablespoon to a gallon of water and spray on plants. Family Dollar has a one liter pump sprayer for $2.50 that works well for this.

STORE unused recipe in refrigerator, shake before using.

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A couple of the Brug seedpods were compromised during the cutting down process, so I have started test germination on them, just to see if they are viable. I soaked some green moss in 'the recipe', squeezed out the excess and layered it into some rotisserie chicken containers (clean) and am testing the seeds in them. The lids snap down and keep everything moist, I set them on top of the TV for a little bottom heat.

My friend Nadine introduced me to 'Orchid Moss' from Lowes. I have soaked it and am using it to start some Palm and Banana seeds I got in a trade on the Bananas.org forum. The orchid moss is different from the usual dried green moss, it's a lot cleaner and has a fresh smell to it.

I have some Purple Sugar Cane cuttings rooting the the orchid moss, it's working great.

The Turquoise Puya (and the Teal Puya) seedlings are growing by leaps and bounds. I think I need to put shadecloth over the little GH though, the seedlings are getting too much direct sun. I had to move them to the upper shelf in the little GH because they need to stay on the dry side.

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