Episode two of the Two Gays in the Garden Podcast talks about leggy Romanesco seedlings and the science behind dirt. We discover Isa's complete lack of spatial awareness when it comes to measurements and Ro knows better than to argue.
Why does dirt make us happy?
In addition to the fun of just being dirty - soil is inhabited by Mycobacterium Vaccae, a bacteria that interacts with the serotonin receptors in our brains a.k.a. this is a happy little thing which shares it's good feeling when we touch it. This is now even scientifically proven. Studies show that mice injected with M. Vaccae experienced fewer physical symptoms of stress when placed in a stressful environment than those given a placebo.
Studies and Articles:
In our garden, seedlings are growing! Some of them however are too tall too fast. The Romanesco is presented as our leggy problem child. The question is,
How do you fix a leggy plant?
There are a few options.
First is - take it off the heat mat.
Second - bring the light source closer or make it stronger.
Third - set it deeper into the soil when replanting. Beware: Do not do this too early! The sensitive little baby stems can rot if put into the soil too early.
There is also the options of simply cutting the plant down a bit. Now, we did not choose this option for the vast majority of the seedlings. It is a terrifying option as this is not typically what we do. However, we did a test cut-down on two of the Romanesco seedlings and will report on it later.
Other topics include cord management in the greenhouse, vertical gardening and discussion of greenhouse fire safety.
To listen to the episode, click HERE! Don't forget to rate and tell us about your plant experiments.
Happy Gardening!