Week 14 - More Hole Digging

Tuesday

Time in: 8:30am

Time out: 12pm

and

Thursday

Time in: 8:30am

Time out: 4pm

This week, we focused on digging more holes and planting fruit trees all around the front area of the Ranch. I didn't have my camera with me so I must come back to post more pictures. The Ranch is really shaping up! It's amazing to be a part of its development. And boy, it sure is really giving me some muscles!

Other tasks included:

• Organizing the tool shed
• Helping to plant more vegetables in the newly dug patches
• Assisting with the irrigation for the vegetable patches
• Weeding

Week 13 - Building a Burm

Time in: 8:30am
Time out: 4pm


More rows of citrus have been planted which frames the front area of the Ranch quite nicely. This row will continue much further, but for now I was assigned to build a burm for these trees. This task had 3 steps:

Step 1) After digging the holes for the citrus trees (which also included surrounding the trees with an underground cage to prevent gophers from root chewing), I filled in the area in between the trees with an even level of dirt.

Step 2) I then covered the dirt with about 1 1/2 inches of compost and watered it in.

Step 3) I covered the compost with a layer of mulch and watered that in.


Last week, we tilled in a very thick layer of compost into the vegetable beds. This week, I am happy to see that several our tomato seedlings have been planted into the ground!

Week 12 - First Trees

Tuesday:
Time in: 8:30am
Time out: 4pm


Today, I watched as a new volunteer and the head coordinator, Scott, put in the first citrus trees in the front area of the Ranch. There are many more to come, but it is fun to watch as the area becomes more defined.

Other duties of the day included:

• Transplanting more vegetables into the shaded coldframes
• Helping to unload a very large truck of plants for the upcoming plant sale
• Continue to mulch the Orchard
• Compost the vegetable beds

Thursday
Time in: 8:30am
Time out: 4pm


Most of the day included continuing the same tasks that Tuesday provided. The last couple hours of the day, however, I was assigned to pulling the unknown weed (pictured above) in the food forest. This weed has has very sharp-ended seeds that easily stick to skin and clothing.

Week 11 - Transplanting & Digging

Tuesday:
Time in: 7:30am
Time out: 3:45pm


Much of the morning involved wheelbarrowing large piles of mulch into the orchard. Shown above is most, but not all, of the 120 plus tomato plants that we transplanted into 4 inch pots. They are kept, for now, in a make-shift cold frame to harden off. Soon, they will be planted in both the food forest and the front area of the Ranch...


Thursday:
Time in: 7:35am
Time out: 3:45pm

It took 1 deep spader, 2 hoers, 2 pitchforkers and about 3 days to till the 100 square foot plot shown above. First, a person with the deep spade plunges and lifts up the ground 16 inches below. Next, a couple people, with hoes in hand, come in and break up the large clods the deep spade left behind. After that, the forks help to break up the dirt clumps even further.

Below shows the 50 square foot plot at the very far end, the 100 square foot plot in the middle and the soon-to-be-tilled circular mandala plot in the front.

Week 10 - Internship: My First Day

Time in: 8:50am
Time out: 3:20pm

Today is Earthday, a perfect day to start my internship at The Huntington's Ranch. I started the morning by reseeding some of the vegetable flats in the hothouse. Because the hothouse is mainly tailored for orchids, the temperature and humidity are a bit too high for some of the tomato and pepper seeds to germinate correctly. For the most part, however, many of them seem to be surviving quite healthily.

Most of my day consisted of carrying wheelbarrows of mulch to the main orchard. We were able blanket a good 15-20 square feet about 8 inches in depth before the rain started to come down.

Week 9 - Preparing

Time in: 10am
Time out: 12pm

The Ranch has some 50+ citrus trees in addition to other fruit trees that are ready to be transplanted into the ground. Pictured above is an abundantly fruiting Semi-dwarf Improved Meyer Lemon that I picked immature fruits off of to help preserve its growing power for establishing roots.

I also helped to mulch some of the fruit trees I assisted in pruning last winter. They all look healthy and well..

Week 9 - Desmoncus chinantlensis Mart.

Time in: 8:25am
Time out: 9:25 am

"Mexico: Chiapas: Mun. Palengue ca. km 60-61, 1.3 mi S of turnoff to Agua Azul 1950'.
Rainforest with yucca lacondonica."

Collected by: J. Bauml, M. Kimnach & H. Sanchez-Mejorada 10 Feb 1981

(Detail of specimen)

Week 8 - Planting more seeds

(Urban Harvest Edible Gardens)

Time in: 10am

Time out: 12:30pm

This week I planted several varieties of:

• Marigolds
• Sweet bell peppers
• Chili peppers
• Eggplants
• Tomatoes

We then placed the flats in the hothouse with the several varieties of tomatoes from last week.

Week 7 - Planting tomato seeds/Internship

(www.tomatocasual.com)

Time in: 10am
Time out: 11:35am

It's that time again to get ready for the spring and summer seasons. Today, I helped plant a large variety of tomatoes, from cherry orange ones to bi-color beefsteaks, all in flats that are labeled, dated and sent to the hothouse to germinate and sprout.

One interesting thing I didn't know about tomato seed coats: at least most of those I planted are hairy (or pubescent). This increases its surface to volume ratio for water imbibition and uptake.

Personally, I think tomato seeds are one of the most beautiful seeds I've ever seen!

On another note, I was offered an internship position at the Ranch! I will start this new position in a couple weeks. I will be working 2 full days a week until November (date is approximate). This will be a great and valuable experience, one that I'm very honored to have and very excited about.

More details to come! ...

Week 7 - Chamaedorea tepejilote Liebm. ex Mart.

Time in: 8:45am
Time out: 10am

Location collected: Belize, Toledo District, Maya Mtns., Abraham Camp

Male; to 20'. Multiple stems, 3-6. Leaf rib with creamy stripe. 5 fronds. Male flowers musty green. Anthers cream.


Term of the Week

Anthers: The part of the flower, on the stamen, that contains pollen. (Source)

Week 5 - Food Forest

Time in: 10am
Time out: 11:15

Today I worked on adding a tray of Giant Goosefoot to the Food Forest in hopes that it will perpetually reseed itself for winter harvests to come. The Food Forest is the Ranch's large wild vegetable garden that stretches a number of acres. Patches of cleared and mulched land are dotted amidst sloping ground covered in oxalis. I planted them near the newly pruned fig trees, passed another large framed tree and stopped at a small grove of Guava trees, trying to be careful not to accidentally plant my foot or bucket of fertilizer down on a head of lettuce (believe me, its harder than it sounds)!

Week 5 - Chamaedorea Phochutlensis

Time in: 8:45am
Time out: 10am

Collectors: F. Boutin & M. Kimnach on 2/April/1970
Mexico, Jalisco: Sierra de Parnaso SW of La Cumbre. Elevation 5600'
To 8' tall, stoloniferous.


Terms:

Stoloniferous: Having stolons (source)
Stolon: A horizontal shoot that grows from the ground which creates roots at each node (source)

Week 4 - Repotting Herbs

Time in: 10am
Time out: 1:15pm

Today we transplanted several types of herbs (thyme, oregano, lavender, etc) from their gallon containers to 5 gallon containers. This is to keep them from becoming root-bound. Once Spring has officially arrived, the herbs will then be transplanted into the ground at the Ranch. For now, they will stay protected in the Huntington's main greenhouse.

Week 3 - Planting Sunflowers

Time in: 10am
Time out: 11:40

Today we planted different kinds of sunflower seeds in various places at the Ranch. We embedded them among the wild-growing oxalis, fava bean and mustard plants, between a grove of guava trees, up a few sunny slopes and along the dirt road. I saw many interesting species of mushrooms, including this copper colored one.

Week 3 - Chamaedorea linearis

Time in: 8:30am
Time out: 10am

Collected in Peru, Jujin in the Satipo Province. 31 March 1984

"Tree, 3m tall, 5cm DBH; bark smooth; 5 extrafoliar, pendant inflorescences; fruit matures red with orange pulp; cs 30 cm, green, ca. 6 leaves, 1.7 m long and ca. 23 leaflets each side"


Terms of the week:

Decumbent: A trailing plant that has rising stems. (Source)

"Pendent infloresences": A budding of flowers that is hanging downward. (Source)

"Inflorescence infrafoliar": A budding of flowers that is positioned underneath the leaves. (Source)

Week 1 - The Last of the Winter Pruning

Time in: 10am
Time out: 12pm

Today we finished up the last of the winter pruning. I feel that I gained lot of valuable hands-on experience in the past couple months, especially since some of the trees were very much overgrown and quite a bit of heavy lopping and cutting was involved.

I'm also happy to report that last November's crop of various winter greens have grown in quite beautifully. Here they are shown growing in inexpensive plastic bins that can be found at any retail store. This project is part of an experiment at the Ranch that has to do with gardening economically in small spaces.

Week 1 - Chamaedorea geonomiformis

Time in - 8:50am
Time out - 10am




I am entering metadata in BG-BASE about each specimen in such a way that ensures accuracy at the Huntington Herbarium. Through this experience, I get to have a close look at specimens such as this Necklace Palm which was collected on March 22, 1977 in Belize.

In addition to the metadata fields location and date of the collected specimen, details of the plant are also entered. (ie: "Fl. axis +/- erect. Fr. and seed ellipsoid to slightly lunate")

I am still learning much of the language that comes with the territory. Through this experience, I'll get to build up my plant science vocabulary. This blog will be a useful tool for noting down and looking up new words and concepts.

I'll start with the basics:


Marly-limestone - A combination of sand, clay and limestone, resulting in very soft and loose ground (source)

Fronds - In this particular case, it would mean the compound leaf of a palm (source)

Basal leaflets - Bottom or base growing leaves. They do not particularly look like the leaves on the top of the plant (source)

Objectives for Spring 2010

This week is the first week of the Spring semester. I enrolled in my third and final Horticultural Projects class. It is my intention to earn a second horticultural certificate by the end of this semester.

My objectives for this semester are to continue my volunteer education at The Ranch and the Herbarium at the Huntington. Of course, I intend to take pictures and document my experience along the way.

As a personal project, I'll be continuing my experiments in the 8x8 foot lot in my parents backyard. I've created a separate blog, as this one, I've decided, will continue to document my horticultural experiences in more of a professional setting.

Check it out: http://fromrootstosprouts.blogspot.com/

Ok, its time to get to work!