The End of a Bean Plant

I had started my Northern Bean experiment with pretty high hopes, they had sprouted without trying.  But alas my miniscule efforts were for naught.  While away for the week they began to wither and when I returned all the water in the world wasn't going to save them. Maybe next time...

New Edition to the Apartment Jungle

 A very large chunk of the year I live where I can only by plants at Wal-mart or Lowes, and while I can find some plants I like at those places (I have my eye on a white bird of paradise currently stocked at Wal-mart), there are very few plants that I find captivating, that I don't already have.  So when I go to visit my parents (who live where there are actual greenhouses) I like to stop by and see if there's anything that I absolutely must have.

To my surprise the greenhouse that I stopped at had a plant that I had been thinking about for a while, a vanilla orchid.  I had been researching how to keep my orchid happy (it's still working on its flower stalk) and I stumbled upon vanilla orchids.  I researched them and decided that I would like to try to grow one if I ever had the luck to find one.

The vine is still quite small and therefore it wont bloom for a couple years at least, but it seems to be pretty happy with me so far (its had several inches of new growth).  I am definitely looking forward to having some homegrown vanilla beans :)

An Avocado Tree's New Home

I finally decided (okay, got around to) planting my avocado tree in a real pot.

I think he looks happy in his new home. I know the pot is a little bit big for him, but I needed a very deep pot in order to have room for his incredibly long tap root.  And this way I figure that he'll have plenty of room to grow for a while.

I also should let you know that I didn't pinch off his baby leaves, I left for about a week and when I came back his leaves were huge and I just couldn't do it.  Many of the things I read online say that's its important to prune an indoor avocado tree, but with this being my first attempt I'll just see how it goes.

Avocado land

My avocado plant's shoot is growing all the time and there are even two little leaves at the top.  Knowing that I will be able to plant it soon, I've started to ponder my pot options.  But as it turns out the avocado's taproot has grown very long, too long for most standard pots.  I'm not sure what that means, but it makes finding an appropriately sized pot difficult.

 I'm glad that my gnome keeps a good watch over my indoor garden.

A lot of the stuff I'm reading about growing and avocado plant like this say to prune the 1st leaves off of the shoot so it will put more energy into root growth.  I'm not sure that I'll be able to cut off those cute little leaves :(

Yay another update blog!

My great northern beans are growing fast and getting tall.  The beans sprouted within a couple of days and they just shot up.  They'll need some support soon so I purchased three wooden dowels from a craft store, but now I'm thinking that they might not be long enough.

Bean plants on Aug 12th

Bean plants on Aug 14th

Bean plants Aug 17th

New Little Experiment

I have never had good luck with buying the dried beans, soaking them and then cooking with them.  For whatever reason it just never works out.  My most recent attempt is no exception.  I did soak more beans than I used (and ultimately threw away) and so a few beans sat in the colander for a day or so after I'd soaked them.  Then today when I went to throw them away I noticed that more than half the beans had started to sprout.  So I did what any normal person with a plant obsession would do...I planted them.  I took five small plastic pots and planted about a dozen of the best looking beans.

And so begins my scientific exploration of the best methods for food production and viable seed collection that will be necessary for the upcoming apocalypse or at least my inevitable poverty.

Updates to follow...of course.

Update: Avocado land

My avocado pit is now sprouting and looking good.

 I've been trying to figure out when to plant it some dirt.  Everything I read seems to say something different, but I guess I'll wait until it has leaves. 

I'm really excited about this, its probably because I've been trying to get this to work for so long and now it finally is.