It’s a cold
and blustery day here, with a little snow flying in the wind. I did take a
quick walk outside to check on things. I
dislike the way my gardens look this time of year, heck, I dislike the way the
whole state looks this time of year. Not enough snow to be pretty, just browns
and blacks and grays. It’s the dying time of the year. Just 11 days until the
natural year ends though, and we will start climbing toward spring.
The deer have
become bold, walking right up the path close to the barn to nibble on a lilac. At
least most of my plants can no longer be harmed that much by them. I guess the
hunters didn’t do a good job this year. No, I do not think deer make it look Christmassy.
Santa can take all of them.
Inside the
plants have slowed their blooming a bit. Even with lights they sense it’s the
resting time of the year. I still have hibiscus and holiday cacti in bloom. The
gerbera daisy quit blooming and I am wondering if it’s just resting or if it’s
nearing the end of its life span. The leaves still look good. The pomegranate,
diplodenia, and fuchsia are resting. There are still a few penta blooms and a
sporadic bloom or two on the lemon tree.
And of course, the geraniums continue to bloom.
I decorated
my 5 feet tall Norfolk pine as a substitute Christmas tree. No sense having two
evergreens in the house. I used tiny gold balls and red velvet bows and some
tiny red and gold tinsel. I have a little light set ran by batteries which I
put on the tree but haven’t bothered to turn on yet. I’m still looking for
something cute and light to use as a tree topper, maybe I’ll decide on something
before Christmas, maybe not.
Sometimes I
wish I lived where I could garden all year around, but then there is a benefit
to a season of rest. Time for planning
and dreaming, building up anticipation for the best garden I’ll ever have this
year. And spring would never be such a happy time if there was no winter.
Seventy-one new species discovered in 2019
We are still,
after thousands of years, discovering new plants and animals on our world. Many
times, these species are identified dozens of years after they were collected
and stored in a museum somewhere. DNA
sequencing has led to some discoveries, identifying animals and plants that may
look like another species. But some new species were identified simply because
it was just the first time a specimen in the backlog was studied.
There were 17
new fish species, 15 geckos, eight flowering plants, six sea slugs, five
arachnids, four eels, three ants, three skinks, two skates, two wasps, two
mosses, two corals, and two lizards identified as new species this year.
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| Trembleya altoparaisensis |
When researchers
identify new species, they often try to find the species still living in the
wild where the specimen was collected. Frank Almeda, Curator of Botany at the
California Academy of Sciences, tried to find a white-flowered plant named
Trembleya altoparaisensis that was identified this year. The
identification of this species was based on several specimens collected over
100 years ago by the famous 19th-century botanist Auguste Francois Marie
Glaziou.
 |
| Gravesia serratifolia |
I haven’t
found any information about whether the other 5 new species of flowering plants
have known living specimens. (Many of the fish and reptile species discovered
have living members of the species). No
common names were given for the new plant species. But one thing is certain,
many of the new species discovered are endangered and must be protected.
It should be important
to study the new plant species to see if there are medicinal or other uses of
the plant, although this is unlikely.
Generally, plants that have medicinal and other uses have been known and
used for centuries, although you never know.
None of the
plants seems like a likely candidate for ornamental use, although their rare
and endangered status might preclude that anyway. Gravesia serratifolia is a shrubby
plant found in high altitude rain forest conditions, with moderately pretty
flowers. Currently about a thousand living specimens are known. It’s possible
if seeds or cuttings from the plant could be obtained that a new flowering
shrub for warmer areas might be developed from it.
I do believe
that with the rapid pace of extinctions in the last few decades, we should
speed up the identification and classification of all the specimens collected many
years ago and stored in dusty museum rooms. It’s a sad thing to identify
something and find it’s no longer living on earth.
 |
| Justicia alanae |
Safety concerns with holiday plants and plant products
While we
often think of gift plants and plant-based decorations as a source of plant
poisoning around the holidays we need to consider a few other plants and
products from them, that might poison children and pets during the hectic
holiday season. The poison control hotline reports a big increase in calls concerning
cannabis, and plants like kratom and “magic mushrooms, but common holiday
plants used for decorations and gifts also contribute to hotline calls.
With the
legalization of cannabis in many states, cannabis products are becoming more
widespread and people are getting more relaxed about storing the products.
Cannabis edibles ( brownies, cookies, candies, smoothies and so on) can be a
major problem with children and pets and even with inexperienced or uninformed
adults. Dried whole cannabis buds or leaves outside of edibles, are seldom
eaten in large quantity and don’t pose the same risk.
Despite some
tabloid news stories and the usual guff spread around the internet, no deaths
can be directly related to cannabis overdose according to medical and
scientific sources. Even in small children no deaths can be directly attributed
to cannabis overdose. However, that does
not mean that ingesting them is harmless for small children and pets. It is
extremely important to keep children and pets from eating cannabis edibles,
which can be very tempting.
There has
been some evidence that cannabis overdose may exacerbate existing, undiagnosed
heart problems in children when large doses are consumed. Overdose might also
require hospitalization to monitor breathing and keep the child safe from
hallucinatory effects. And a child would not understand what is happening to
him or her and may become very scared.
Pets may also
require hospitalization after consuming edibles and could harm themselves when
under the influence of cannabis. And
people who did not know they were consuming cannabis edibles and inexperienced
users of cannabis edibles can have a very scary experience if they overdose,
even though they will not die or be permanently harmed. They may even go to an
emergency room with symptoms. They could drive under the influence, especially
since the effects of edible cannabis products don’t present right away.
Therefore, if
you have edible cannabis products around be very, very, careful to store them
in a way that children and pets can’t get to them, at any time of the year.
Make sure that adults who consume them know what they are consuming and that
inexperienced users start with small amounts. Since the effects of edible
cannabis don’t begin right away, inexperienced people often consume more than
they should.
Two other
plant products used to get “high”, kratom and “magic mushrooms”, can cause death. These products are also illegal in most places. They
should never be around children or pets. If they are consumed by them the
children or pets should receive immediate medical attention.
Plant decorations
Plants have
been brought into the home to decorate it around the winter solstice for
hundreds of years. They have become part
of the tradition and lore of the holidays and the practice persists even today.
But not all holiday plants are safe for children and pets and knowing which
ones are poisonous is important for a happy holiday.
The poinsettia has long been listed as a poisonous
plant, but as toxic plants go, it’s probably not that harmful. Yes, if someone ate a lot of poinsettia there
could be serious consequences, but that scenario is unlikely. The sticky white
sap of the poinsettia is unpleasant tasting enough that even the naughtiest dog
probably wouldn’t eat enough to get more than a stomachache. It would take
eating several large plants to be lethal to a pet or child.
Mistletoe on the other hand is extremely
poisonous and just a few of the berries dropped on the floor and eaten by a pet
or child could cause death. All parts of the plant are toxic, dried or fresh.
Mistletoe is a plant that does not belong in homes where children and pets are
present.
Holly is often used in decorating for the holidays, but all parts of the plant
are poisonous. The leathery leaves would
be unlikely to be eaten but the bright red berries that some holly has would be
attractive to children and pets.
Another very
poisonous plant that is sold around the holidays as a potted plant is the Jerusalem
Cherry (Solanum pseudocapsicum). The plant is a compact bush-like house plant with glossy green leaves and
bright orange-red berries. All parts of this plant are poisonous.
In fact,
around the holidays many plants with red or orange berries are sold. Some of these are new to the trade and little
is known about their toxicity - whether they are poisonous or harmless. It’s a
good idea to place any of these attractive plants out of the reach of children
and pets. Always keep a plant label with a plant so if any part is ingested you
can tell poison control what it is.
Amaryllis bulbs are often sold around the
holidays either in bloom or as kits that you add water to and watch it grow. They
have long strap-like leaves which appear after the bloom stalk. The amaryllis bloom is trumpet shaped; there
may be one or several blooms on each tall stalk. It comes in red, white, pink
and other pastel shades. All parts of the plant are poisonous.
 |
| Amaryllis |
Another bulb
often given as a gift is the narcissus or daffodil bulb. The common one
sold is called paper white narcissus. They are often set in gravel and water to
grow roots and bloom. They have flat, grass like leaves, and the typical
daffodil flower of a “cup” surrounded by a ring of petals. They are white or yellow and have a strong
fragrance. All parts of the plant are
quite poisonous as is the water surrounding the bulb, or if the blooms are cut
and put in a vase of water, that water is also toxic. Narcissus and daffodils should never be put
where children or pets might taste them or drink the water they are in.
Yews are not used as often as some evergreens for holiday decorating, but
they are sometimes used in floral arrangements and unsuspecting homeowners may
bring branches inside for decorating. They have soft, flat dark green needles
and are often sheared into hedges around a home. The yew is an extremely toxic
plant with only a bite of the plant causing death to a pet. It sometimes has
fleshy red berries with a hard seed inside that attract children and pets. The soft part of the berry is harmless, but a
few swallowed seeds can be deadly. A mouthful of the plant can kill a grown
cow. It is not a plant that should be
brought into the home.
Sweet Annie or other kinds of wormwood (artemisia)
are often used in wreaths and other dried arrangements. While unlikely to be
eaten in quantity, these plants are also poisonous, and munching should be
discouraged. Since wreaths, dried arrangements and fresh floral arrangements
can have all sorts of exotic plants tucked in them and might be sprayed with
chemicals, it’s a good idea to keep them out of the reach of children and pets.
Are probiotics for plants and soil useful?
You may have
heard of people taking probiotics for various reasons and people giving
probiotics to pets. My vet prescribed a
very expensive probiotic for my elderly dog when she was having digestive
difficulties. (I didn’t think it did
much good, but a tiny bit of cannabis in vanilla ice cream perked her appetite
right back up.) But what about
probiotics for plants or your soil?
On the market
right now are a number of usually expensive products sold as plant “probiotic supplements”.
There are miraculous claims attached to these products. They are said to make
plants grow faster, live longer, produce more, make the soil better, cure plant
disease and kill plant pests. Don’t waste your money on them.
Probiotic
simply means good biological creatures. These can be bacteria, viruses, yeasts
or fungi. Probiotics that are useful to plants can come in two basic types,
those that work in the soil or on the surface of the plant to provide benefits
or those that must be inside plant tissues to be of benefit. While there are some species of organisms
that might be beneficial to plants in general, many other beneficial probiotic species
are narrowly targeted to one species, one area of the plant, one type of soil,
one set of environmental conditions and so on.
It is these
narrowly defined probiotics that are probably going to be the miracle plant
fertilizers and pesticides in the future. Once we learn to identify and grow
these organisms in quantity, how to keep them alive in storage, and know
exactly how and when to apply them we’ll finally have good biological control
for plant problems.
There is lots
of research being done on these probiotic organisms and indeed, we know they
are vital to life here on earth. Our research has probably identified only a
small portion of the organisms that exist. There are good and scientifically
proven “probiotic” products being used in human medicine and even in
agriculture. The problem is that the vast majority of products on the market
aren’t scientifically tested and approved, they are hocus pocus, magical
potions that don’t do much but take your hard earned money.
Every month
we hear about some new research involving probiotics. The University of
California Berkley just released a study about the benefits of probiotics for
tomatoes, a very specific probiotic mixture applied in a precise manner to
tomatoes made them more robust and produce better. It took years of research to develop the
mixture and so far, it is too complex and expensive to replicate and sell to
consumers. That is the reason this research is being done, however, to develop
commercial products that might one day replace fertilizers and pesticides. But that day isn’t here yet.
This valid
and important research is one reason hucksters are better able to sell people
the dust in a cannister “probiotic” mixtures so readily. People are hearing and
reading about the research being done, but not quite understanding how that
research applies to home garden conditions. It sounds good, and if someone mumbles
a bit of scientific jargon in a cute video or prints it on the bag, viola, the
claims must be true, right?
There’s no
regulations or inspection of these products being done. So, when you buy a
probiotic product there’s no way you can even know what you got isn’t just the
dust from someone’s vacuum cleaner bag. No one is forcing the sellers to prove
the claims they put on the boxes and bags are true. All these sellers have
their own theories and ideas, most of them not proven by any rigorous trials or
research.
Probiotics
must be alive to do any good. And
keeping tiny biological organisms alive in suspended animation while they wait
for you to buy them or take them off the shelf in the shed and use them, is a
very tricky process. Then there is the
collection or growing and identification of those organisms, which is also very
difficult. It takes a lot of skill and good equipment to positively identify good
organisms and ensure no bad organisms are present in the mixture.
This is also
why those recipes for home made probiotic products, the fermented seaweed,
compost tea, manure coffee, banana peel water, and other inventive little
concoctions also don’t work. You never know what you are growing if anything at
all. These recipes can even be harmful to you and your plants, when instead of
helpful organisms you brew up a batch of E.coli or salmonella, which is very
possible.
There are a
few biological products on the market which have been proven to be effective
and which if you store and use correctly, will be helpful. These include Bt products for mosquito
control and those targeted to other specific insects, milky spore disease for
grubs (sometimes works) and products that inoculate pea and bean seeds with
nitrogen fixing bacteria.
Anything that
is sold as a general garden or soil conditioner, a miracle product for this
plant or that, or that boasts it works on everything, that makes claims that it
is a fertilizer, plus it kills diseases and pests, is just voodoo dust. When
you put these products on your soil or plants, if there is anything alive there
at all, it probably won’t be harmful, but it won’t be helpful either. You could
burn a few $20 dollar bills (or ferment them) and use the dust on your soil
with the same results.
If you are
tempted by claims of scientific evidence, clever upbeat videos, and user
testimonials (often fake) ask your local Extension office if the product is science
based, reliable and worth buying. (Note; Don’t ask a Master Gardener, ask
someone with an actual science degree, an Extension educator. Master Gardeners
vary tremendously in how well they are trained and how educated they are.)
Instead of
buying probiotics for plants buy some wood mulch, fertilizer if the soil needs
it, compost or more plants. Compost and wood mulch are full of probiotics. Also,
if you want to encourage good organisms in the soil don’t rototill it or
disturb it more than necessary for planting. Every time you rototill you
disturb the soil microorganisms, which grow in specific layers of soil. Rototilling
stirs them into environments they can’t exist in and the remaining organisms in
any layer have to slowly build up their population again. Just add your mulch
and compost to the surface and let nature work.
Probiotics
show promise for future solutions to our gardening problems, but the promise has
not yet materialized for the average gardener. In short most probiotic plant products currently
sold for gardens are not helpful and your money is best spent elsewhere.
More reading
“From December to March, there are for many of us three gardens —
the garden outdoors,
the garden of pots and bowls in the house,
and the garden of the
mind’s eye.”
— Katherine S. White, from Onward and Upward in the Garden
Kim Willis
All parts of this blog are copyrighted and may not be used without
permission.
And So On….
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