Bulb Log 04 – 28/01/2015

[YT]

Nice Eranthis pinnatifida pink form on the last page, Ian

How many times and much do you feed the seedlings? What kind of fertilizer do you use? It usually takes at least 4 years from seeds to flowers by my way to grow them.

[Ian Y]

Thank you Tatsuo,
I have bone meal in my potting medium that I sowed the seeds into, then while they are in leaf I apply a very dilute, about 1/4 strength liquid tomatoe type fertiliser and a sprinkle of potassium in the late growing period.
The seedlings stay outside all year except I move them into a cold bulb house when growth first appears.
Most of the other seeds sown at the same time have some flowers, I will show them when they open a bit more.
In our climate I suspect that they get a much longer growing season than they do with you Tatsuo which could account for them flowering sooner from seed here- if only we could combine your light levels and resulting compact stems with our long cooler growing seasons.
I have often speculated that the ideal way would be to buy an old boat and place the bulb houses on the deck - then we could sail around selecting the optimum weather for the seasonal needs of the plants.

[Chris Johnson]

Another interesting log, Ian. I love the back-lighting to the moss fruitbodies.

I can't name your fungus to species but it's one of the jelly fungi, in the genera Exidia and Tremella. Many are parasitic on corticioide fungi in the genus Peniophora, which are wood rotters.

Chris

[Ian Y]

Thanks Chris

What a fascinating life form the fungi are, I would love to learn more about them, mosses too, but too many plants and too little time means I have to be selective in what I can read up about.

Lack of detailed knowledge will never stop me observing and enjoying them.

[Tim Ingram]

Ian, my knowledge of fungi is probably similar to yours - a mix of the frustrations they can cause to growing plants and a fascination about them as a life form. I have an old book of my father's - a great classic - 'The Advance of the Fungi' by E.C.Large, which I once started to read but never finished but which which I remember as being beautifully and profoundly written. It is not up to date of course in modern scientific detail but it is in its real understanding of fungi. I can recommend this as a good place to learn about them, and must re-read it myself. (The picture of Hamamelis 'Jelena' is rather marvellous too, as you scroll down and discover the flowers in close-up!)

[Maggi Young]

Thanks to Phil Gates, via twitter, for the info that the fruiting moss is probably Tortula muralis - this link give interesting info as to why this moss  has its name:
http://beyondthehumaneye.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/twister.html 

[Chris Johnson]

Thanks Chris

What a fascinating life form the fungi are, I would love to learn more about them, mosses too, but too many plants and too little time means I have to be selective in what I can read up about.

Lack of detailed knowledge will never stop me observing and enjoying them.

Absolutely the right attitude, Ian.

Not sure I should be admitting it on this forum but my main interest in fungi, and byophytes if I have time. (Having read an earlier thread recently on mosses, it was suggested that grovelling around looking at such taxa was a bit nurdish, so I have to put my hand up.)

I've been a life-long gardener from growing fruit and vegetables, and maintaining an ornamental garden (the current one annually wind-blasted). Alpines are a renewed challenge which excites me. These gardening interests are shared by my wife.

[YT]

Thank you for your further reply, Ian Looking forward to see pictures of the other flowers!

In our climate I suspect that they get a much longer growing season than they do with you Tatsuo which could account for them flowering sooner from seed here- if only we could combine your light levels and resulting compact stems with our long cooler growing seasons.
I have often speculated that the ideal way would be to buy an old boat and place the bulb houses on the deck - then we could sail around selecting the optimum weather for the seasonal needs of the plants.

Yes, its indeed. Climate is always the matter. Then, does 'boat' have enough space for your bulb collection? I think you must need a larger 'ship'

[Chris Johnson]

Ian, my knowledge of fungi is probably similar to yours - a mix of the frustrations they can cause to growing plants and a fascination about them as a life form. I have an old book of my father's - a great classic - 'The Advance of the Fungi' by E.C.Large, which I once started to read but never finished but which which I remember as being beautifully and profoundly written. It is not up to date of course in modern scientific detail but it is in its real understanding of fungi. I can recommend this as a good place to learn about them, and must re-read it myself. (The picture of Hamamelis 'Jelena' is rather marvellous too, as you scroll down and discover the flowers in close-up!)

Tim, that's not a work I'm familiar with - must look it up.

A modern work which is informative and entertainingly written is Mushrooms - The natural and human world of British fungi by Peter Marren, British Wildlife Publishing, 2012.

[Tim Ingram]

Chris - 'The Advance of the Fungi' begins with chapters on the potato blight of the 1840's and the slow realisation and demonstration that this was a result of a fungal parasite, and then moves on to mildew ('Oidium') and rust ('Erysiphe') on vines (which is as far as I have got at the moment). But here is a wonderful sentence to illustrate the writing about the Tulasne brothers who examined the latter closely on vine and showed that they were the same fungus developing at different stages:

Louis Tulasne at first studied for the Law, a vocation which his retiring disposition and pellucid, natural honesty rendered him entirely unfitted; by 1842 he had found his place, and was working as an assistant naturalist at the Jardin des Plantes.

E.C.Large also emphasises how important John Lindley was in publicising, discussing, criticising and experimenting with plants along with others who examined these fungi closely. It really brings to life something that often just gets detailed in textbooks without any sense of the practical (and human) cost that these fungi caused and cause. It shows how much detail and knowledge lies behind growing plants.

[Chris Johnson]

Tim

I'm such a sucker for book but decided I can live without this volume as I have snippets on the subject in other tomes. Then you come back with more information and a wonderful line of text. I have just ordered a copy.

To go with the oidium section, you may be interested in a wonderful book - Phylloxera: How Wine was Saved for the World by Christy Campbell. Published in 2004, I believe there is a more recent paperback edition.

In the 1860s, a tiny aphid was eventually discovered as the culprit and named Phylloxera vastatrix - 'the dry leaf devastator'. The plague spread across Europe as far as the Crimea with the social misery that came with it.

[Maggi Young]

I'm such a sucker for book but decided I can live without this volume as I have snippets on the subject in other tomes. Then you come back with more information and a wonderful line of text. I have just ordered a copy.

So funny!

[Chris Johnson]

So funny!

Any excuse, Maggi.

I thought you were joining in to shift this to the book section a we are well off-topic.