Good Morning Sleepy Head!

I never thought I'd manage to get this far, especially considering the fact I've had to throw out about 3 avocado nuts now. But Keith has actually woken up after all this time.... it's not a lot yet, but it's actually something!!!! I never suceeded with getting to see the roots in a jam jar, but at least there's a stalk now.

Why will this stupid website not upload photos the right way around....????







On other news, a third clemtine has hatched!

Seriously.... none of my photos want to come through correctly. Perhaps the website is sleeping at the moment and needs all the photos on their sides so it can look at them properly.

Come in number two

With most things, nothing has happened. However, there is action in the clementine pot. A second germination has appeared after all this time!

A continuation of not a lot

Due to a mixture of forgetfulness, trying out a new strategy and pure bone idleness, the 48 hour warm water soak to start off an avocado stone lasted a bit longer. I took Charlie and Ronnie out of the water today and suspended them with hair pins over the tops of jam jars full of water. Charlie has taken over Keith's old jam jar, and Ronnie is over a new little jam jar. There's no change in either Mick or Keith. I know plants take a long time to grow, but oh this is infuriating.

The clementine is growing... well, the leaves are probably a bit bigger but that's about all. Which is about all that can be said for the lemon babies as well.

I "pruned" my goji berry plants this morning. Goji berries didn't seem to be around when Keith Mossman was writing his book, so I have no advice on how to care for them. I am just muddling along.

It's cold outside...

It's covered with snow outside today and it's generally cold. Feels like nothing is growing or wanting to do very much, so there has not been a lot of action with my pip growing.

As far as the clementine piplets go, only one has germinated, so I guess it's just Clementine the clementine now. One of her seedling leaves had been knocked off by the plastic bag greenhouse so I've decided to bring her out into the open air and put her on a window sill.

Again this silly website insists on putting my photo on its side and I have no idea how to rotate it around.









 On the avocado front, Mick is starting to crack... ever so slowly. He really is a late developer. Keith is a nut of two halves, and is growing... but nothing has grown beyond the safety of the nut area, so it's not really like he's speeding away either.

New Year, New Shoots

After the Christmas festivities and so on, I took a look in my plastic bag greenhouses - things are starting to happen! So far it appears that the lemons are more successful than the piplets (clementines). I have four lemon shoots - one from each lemon pip seemingly, so I'm still not sure about Keith's comment that you can get several plants from one pip.... in the meantime on the piplet/clementine front there is only one shoot so far.

On non-pip growing news, my lemon tree has had a proper wobbly over Christmas. It has one leaf left. I suspect its days are numbered now. Sadly.

Nothing much to report

Not a lot has been happening. The lemon and clementine pips have done nothing. Keith is growing a root and it has almost emerged from the stone. Mick hasn't really cracked up anymore since the last photo I took. He seems to be a late developer.

The Piplets

Spurred on by exciting possibilties - none of which have sprouted as of yet - I have started off my next project. The Piplets. The piplets were four pips out of a clementine orange I was eating at work yesterday. I've not tried oranges of any description before so I thought hey, why not.

Thankfully there is no recommendation to suspend them above water to get them to root - no idea how I would have done that considering how tiny they are. So I've gone for the more traditional method of a little pot of compost with a plastic bag over the top. For now I'm keeping them on top of the radiator to keep them warm, but when (I'm being positive, when, not if) they germinate, I'll move them to a windowsill so they get more light.

For some reason this website insists on uploading this photo on its side and I can't figure out how to rotate it.

Anyway, interesting fact about pips extra from Keith Mossman. When growing plants from pips of things you have eaten, you are often not going to get a plant of the same species as the fruit you ate. This has a lot to do with the cultivation of fruit trees. I know a little as I do have some wee apple trees in the back garden - they're all grown on one type of root stock, but then the apple varieties are grafted on to the trunk. Also, a lot of the pips turn out to be duds in the sense that they will never become fruiting plants themselves. And now a particularly interesting fact about citrus pips... whereas with other pips, it's one seedling per pip, with citrus, you can sometimes get two or three seedlings a pip. One of these may become a great fruiting tree, the other two might be duds. But you'll never know until a few years in, so you've got to try and grown on them all to edge your bets. In the case of the clementines, there are only four pips in there. So it will be interesting to see what I get.