⛵️holly 🇺🇸➡️🇯🇵 @holly@v.st

@narF @blinry Unless it was a fungus that killed it. Peas are very susceptible to funguses, which make the lower leaves yellow and fall off. The problem is that it looks like underwatering, but it’s caused by overwatering (and warm soil). This has killed off all my attempts to grow peas indoors. But they grow great outside, so I’m only putting them outside from now on.

opens Washington Post app

closes Washington Post app

sets iPad on fire

(please hold while the administrator increases my upload quota…)

Here is the CW for my next toot

@eqe Arjen Lubach (the Jon Stewart of the Netherlands) suggested that with Britian gone the EU should make English the official EU language, since it would allow people to better follow the EU parliamentary procedings without favoring any particular member country. https://youtu.be/nDom5evPwSQ?t=219

@nastja @blinry Yeah for sprouting, I grow them until about this stage or a little later, then I shave them off the mesh with a knife. Nice in salads. You can also pull them and then snip the roots that were sitting in the water, but shaving is easier (you have to have a sharp knife, though). Since they have gel seeds they're also nice in salad dressing, and if you've ever had chia seed drinks and you like the texture, basil seeds in lemonade is really nice!

@phooky Just make sure they’re not carpenter bees, which look a lot like bumble bees but drill large destructive holes into anything wood like for instance window frames. And they come back every year to lay eggs in the same space. They leave tell tale piles of sawdust.

I got the Dutch vaccine, so I get to skip inburgering, right? 🇳🇱​💉​

@blinry According to this random internet person, vermiculite retains more water, perlite is better for drainage. I tend to get fungus gnats in my indoor plants, so I picked perlite to hopefully reduce the chance of standing water. And I'm using perlite for outdoor plants, as well, because with all the rain we get here drainage is a priority. https://www.gardenbetty.com/perlite-vs-vermiculite/

@nastja @blinry Here’s some okra, amaranth, papalo, and culantro sprouting in Mel’s Mix, with just a thin layer of extra coconut coir over the top to hold in moisture. So far I’m getting faster and more reliable germination compared to potting soil, and bonus - no mold.

@nastja @blinry I don’t think seeds that particular. Here’s some basil sprouting on metal mesh. To be fair they were being rinsed twice a day and covered in between. Sprouts will grow to the two-leaf stage with no nutrients, but for mature leaves to form they’ll need something.

@blinry I plan to use worm castings for the compost, but my worms died over the winter this year and the new ones are lazy, so my worm factory hasn't been very productive so far. I tried to mix pellet fertilizer with potting soil for the compost part, but it's really not the same -- whenever I do add a topdressing of worm casting to my plants they have a burst of growth, so clearly that's what they really want.

@blinry Sounds like my experiments right now! This mix sounds very close to "Mel's Mix" which is used for square foot gardening. 1:1:1 vermiculite : peat moss : compost. But you can switch the vermiculite with perlite for better drainage, and peat moss for coconut coir. I decided to try it when I found this post from someone who tested it against some others: https://journeywithjill.net/gardening/2020/03/09/3-raised-bed-soil-mixes-compared/

O.O #eurovision