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eager beaver experiments
This weekend was rather sunny and somewhat warm [50 degrees]. So I decided to "harden off" many of my plants and seedlings... In my quest this winter for something green, growing and not grey I started several veggies indoors and out of season. I've discovered that one of the hazards of growing plants indoors is that they become terribly fussy. All of the plant books that I've read always suggest a graduated return to the out of doors, and so the great experiment goes...
For some reason I figured that I should put the older [i.e. fussier] plants out before the newer seedlings. keep in mind please, that these plants have existed solely inside.
this is my cucumber "bush" in march on the kitchen counter:
so pretty and healthy!
these are pictures of it clinging to life on the ledge outside my 3rd floor window:
I also put my precious "eggplantlets" out to harden off. I personally love eggplant and cannot wait to eat homegrown ones! pictures from the past few months:
seedlings...
older...
and again, precariously hardening off on the infamous death ledge:
Shortly after putting the eggplant pot out, I noticed that it's leaves, which are normally quite sturdy and stout, turned into limp, floppy sheets. So the plants were quickly yanked back inside, and now my cucumber's leaves, which were once soft and velvety, are now crispy and crunchy. But that's not all, there is now a strange smell coming from the pot. It is almost sweet and orange blossom like, but on second whiff it smells like rotting garbage or perhaps... death. Which really sucks, because they were regular seedless cucumbers, which I pretty much buy by the 1/2 dozen in the summer time. I have started other cucumber seedlings but they are the true lemon heirloom type. I am sure they ill be tasty, but I really should start some other "regular" ones.The actual seedlings did fine:
you can actually see the limp eggplant leaves in this picture!
No crispities, no crunchies, or sheet like leaves. They seemed to enjoy the breeze, I think that the third floor gusts were to just too much for established plants. I hope this is not going to be a problem later on.
Sidebar: A few weeks ago I discovered that I had a small houseguest, a dirty little brown city mouse. Stuart Little it is not! Of course my overfed cat did nothing but chase it around, so my fear with this strange cucmber "death" smell was that the mouse finally ate the poisoned traps and crawled off somewhere and died. I searched hi and lo for a mouse carcass, but nothing was found. It escaped. Yet again.
I am now convinced that the smell is that of the cucmber bush letting me know, that it is strictly a houseplant and not to go outdoors till it is at least 75 degrees, which judging by this "spring" is still a long way off. If anyone else has any thought on this smell, I'd love to hear them.
posted at 12:00 PM
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