Production and care of your plants

Page 1


PRODUCTION AND CARE OF YOUR PLANTS INCREASE THE PRODUCTION OF YOUR OLIVES If you follow these four tips that I will now give you, you will see that the production of your olives will increase by at least 20-30%. The first piece of advice I give you to increase production in your olive grove is to not work the soil under the foliage of the plant, do not go near whith the hoes that clean the soil, it will become hard and dry, instead of fine and fluffy. You just have to pass with the sickle and leave the grass there so that it can repair and fertilize. If we work the soil under the foliage we destroy all those small capillaries that the plant also has on the surface. When a nice dew will come on a very foggy August night, the humidity will fall and the soil will be able to take it up through those small capillaries that the plant also has on the surface, which will transmit it to the plant, this will make it suffer less thirst. If you suffer less thirst, the olives will also be larger, there will even be more oil. When the grass starts to grow 15-20 centimeters, cut it a little and leave it under the olive tree. As it dries it will rot and become an excellent fertilizer for the plant, creating, even in summer, a soft soil, which will stay fresh. The second piece of advice I give you is on the fertilization the plant. A plant that produces every year, clearly takes energy and nutrients from the soil, removes them and we will have to integrate them again. The best fertilization for the olive tree is a ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, 3 1 3, which means that, compared to phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium must be triple. This is what the olive tree wants. Always fertilize with organic material, only use chemical material to integrate the


missing substances. If, however, you use mineral granular fertilizers, for example nitrogenous ones, and you exaggerate with the dose it becomes very dangerous, you could burn the grass and the plant. Mineral fertilizers are fast-release so the plant, since it continually needs to be nourished, will take everything at once and then run out; it therefore requires an organic fertilizer such as an excellent mature manure, because it will slowly release the nutritional elements over time, because it will release the nutritional elements slowly over time and the plant will absorb them when it needs them and will never be left without these important energies for its growth, that of flowers, olives and twigs. It's very simple, do two fertilizations a year, the first after harvesting the olives and you'll be at the end of November/December, you will do the second one after pruning in April, you will cut the grass and leave it there under the olive tree, before fertilizing again. The following year's production will certainly be a guaranteed harvest. The third piece of advice I give you is: do not work the soil under the foliage of the plant. Don't go with hoes to clear the soil, because it will then become dry, we talked about it before. Do not let the grass grow more than 15/20 cm. otherwise, she will be the one that will take away energy, nutrients and water to the plant. Under the soil it will create a layer that will always be fresh, soft and fluffy in summer. The fourth suggestion I give you is to do production pruning every year. Production pruning is done at the end of February, beginning of March. It's about trying to eliminate all the branches that have now grown and been produced, which have also broken during harvesting and the diseased ones. Also eliminate the internal suckers, so that from March/April onwards the plant will have vegetation, which will remain on the plant and then produce flowers and olives. It is clear that if we have freed the plant from all those branches, in useless quotation marks, it will have a lighter foliage, more slender and more air will arrive, more light on the leaves and these will activate the chlorophyll synthesis, they will transform the raw


sap taken from the roots and it will become processed sap, to be distributed again to the branches and future olives.

ENDLESS BASIL In summer, we very often use basil, a fragrant plant that we use for our dishes. But where do we get this basil? We usually buy it in packets at the supermarket, or we take in plastic vase which then inevitably cause it to wither, if not treated in the correct way. For this reason we must say that basil, once bought in a plastic vase, must be divided, plant by plant, and plant them in a large earthenware pot, or in the ground, spacing them about five centimeters apart, so you will be able to make it grow large, and take advantage of its leaves. But can basil be multiplied at no cost? The answer is yes. There are three methods to do this, let's start with the first


method: as a cutting. We need to detach a sprig from a large basil plant to then reproduce it, but how do we do this operation? We take some scissors and a branch of the basil plant, now we see that on the branch at the top, there are some leaves, but immediately below, there is a node with other smaller leaves, we will have to cut on the bias, about three centimeters below that knot. Once this cutting has been created, we will have to eliminate the leaves and leaflets on the node, and leave those at the top. Now we have the perfect cutting, and we are going to place it in a glass with four centimeters of water, which we will then place in a place with lots of light, but not with direct sunlight. After a few days you will notice that small white rootlets will have been created at the base of the cut, then, we put everything back in the glass, and after a week the root system will have fully formed. We take a ten centimeter earthenware pot, fill it with peat, and make a hole in the middle of about eight centimeters, where we will insert the roots, delicately, then closing the earth around, and watering abundantly with a spray bottle. From there other leaves will grow and all the basil you will need. Second method: from a leaf. This method is the least invasive for the plant. We choose a leaf from a basil plant that is adult and does not have any type of spot or dot, but is beautiful green and healthy. Detach it from the root of the branch, with your hands, or with a pair of scissors, better with your hands if you can, and if a thread of the branch remains attached when it comes off, even better, it will be used to make the roots grow later. Take a glass glass, put two centimeters of water, and immerse the leaflet from the stem side, which must be completely covered by the water. In a glass, at most, you can put four of these leaves. Place the glass in a place with lots of light, but not in direct sunlight. After two weeks we remove the leaflet from the water and check if the roots have developed, if so, you will see white roots of at least five centimeters coming out of the stem of the leaf. We take a ten centimeter pot, fill it with peat, make a four centimeter hole, and insert the roots in such a way that they are placed under the earth, only the roots, not the leaf. Then we will place the jar, which will be wetted abundantly, away from the sun's rays, but in a bright place. After about three weeks, you will see some small leaves growing next to our leaf, that will mean that the basil will have started to grow, and before long the plant will grow, and you will have basil all summer long. In the case of multiple


leaves detached from the branch, you will need to have a pot for each one, not all in the same pot. Third method: from seeds. Surely this is the method that will give you more plants at the same time, but it will take more days. Let's take the usual ten centimeter earthenware pot, filled with good peat, and this will serve as sowing soil, then you will see why. We spread the basil seeds in the soil so as to occupy the entire circumference of the pot, then with the tines of a fork, gently move the soil a little, so that the seeds, falling under the ground, let's vaporize abundantly. Let's take the earthenware vase and close it inside a cellophane bag, for example: the freezer bag, which we will close hermetically, so a humid environment will form inside, with a constant temperature, which will help the growth of the seedlings. After ten days you will see the first seedlings emerge, two millimeters high, and after two days, they will have grown from all the seeds planted. After two weeks they will have enlarged and will have filled the entire vase. Now we have to transplant each of the seedlings into another pot, let's see how: you need to make a square cut in the ground, around the seedlings. Once the clod of earth with the seedlings has been extracted, we must divide them one by one, with their own clod of earth, it is very important to do this, and not leave the roots of the seedling without soil, otherwise it will die. Once we have obtained the plant with its lump, we place it in a ten centimeter earthenware pot filled with peat, digging a central hole, where we will insert it, we close the earth around it, and leave the twig outside with the leaf on top, this whole operation must be done with absolute delicacy and for each plant. In the end you will have endless basil, and you can use it for many recipes, even to make pesto, which you will put in glass jars in the freezer, as well as a reserve for the whole winter. These are three simple methods for reproduce the basil.


HOW TO GROW MUSHROOMS AT HOME You will wonder how it is possible to grow mushrooms at home, now we will explain how to do it, and after seeing the result, you will be surprised and happy. Take a mushroom that you like, and that you would like to grow, it must be ripe. What does it mean? That the top of the mushroom must be opened completely, so that the spores are ready to generate other mushrooms. You will also need a two-liter empty plastic bottle and some thatch. Let's now take the chosen mushroom and cut it into pieces. Once cut, we will insert it into a blender, add two or three inches of water, in order to allow the mushroom to be chopped. Blend until a very liquid and homogeneous paste is obtained. At this point we take some straw, or hay, and cut it into small pieces of three to ten centimeters maximum, place it in a tall pan, fill it with water, up to above the straw, and light the fire. Once


the water starts to boil, cook for about half an hour, in this way the straw will sterilize, creating the ideal environment for the mushrooms to grow. Once half an hour has passed, we turn off the heat and wait for it to cool, then we drain it and leave it there, to lose all the excess liquids. Once the necessary time has passed, we transfer the thatch to another container; the pot where we boiled it will also be fine. Now we pour the mixture we have blended into the thatch and mix it well together with the thatch. The better you mix it, the easier it will be to have the harvest. Now we take the empty bottle, cut it from the mouth downwards, ten centimeters. In the end we obtain two pieces: the bottle, which we fill with thatch, pressing it well, up to ten centimeters from the edge, and the part above. Make sure there are no spaces in the thatch, otherwise the mycelium will not be able to develop. Now we close the bottle, using the piece above, turning it upwards. Insert cotton into the neck of the bottle to prevent air from entering. To keep the lid down, we can place two pieces of adhesive tape crossed. At this point, we take the bottle and its contents to a place in the house where there is light, but not direct sun. The ideal temperature for growing mushrooms is between twenty-two and twenty-eight degrees. After a few days, looking at the bottle, we can notice that the thatch inside has become a little darker and if we observe carefully, some clear spots will also begin to form, there is the mycelium forming there, from where the mushrooms will then arise. We let another ten days pass, and we see that the white patch has enlarged a lot, it is the mycelium that is getting bigger. When all the mycelium has covered the thatch in the bottle, you can proceed with the next step. The mushrooms will grow on the top of the bottle, but they can also grow on the sides; so, we create side holes so that the mushroom can come out. With a cutter we are going to make windows of maximum ten by ten centimeters, placed in the two parts of the bottle, at the same level. We also remove the lid, and on top of the thatch, we place about two centimeters of universal soil, we compress it slightly, and with a spray bottle we wet abundantly, to make the soil moist, but not soaked. What is obtained a bottle completely full of white mycelium. After a few days, we see a small mushroom peeking out under the ground, and after about ten days the mushroom will have been born. The mushroom that you decided to put in the initial compost will then be the one that grew above the ground, and once it is an adult, you can harvest it. This is


the first mushroom grown by you. Then in the lateral parts, other mushrooms will grow, just let them grow well, and collect them by giving a tear at the base of the mushroom. If you want to increase production, you can take some little plastic barrels and redo everything as explained above, with the difference that, for the lid, you do not use the upper part of the barrel, but the transparent film, where you then make about ten holes with the tip of a knife. With this method, you can create a mushroom farm at home.

HOW TO REVIVE A DRIED ORCHID When we have an orchid that you see as dead, don't throw it away! You can revive it with this method, let's describe it. Then extract the root part from the jar, see if there are still any green ones, and if there are, clean them well from the earth. Prendi una cesoia, delle forbici da giardinaggio, e inizia a tagliare tutte le radici che sono secche, poi taglia le due sommità del tronco centrale. Light a candle, and drop the melted wax onto the two


tops of the trunk, to prevent water from entering. Place two full teaspoons of cinnamon in a large jar, which can contain a liter of water, into which you will pour a liter of boiling water. Close with the lid and leave to cool. When it has cooled, take a strainer, with a sponge cloth on top, and filter the contents, you will have a brownish liquid, which you will pour into a transparent plastic jar, in which you will completely immerse the orchid for thirty minutes. Meanwhile, you can spray the rest of the water, with a spray bottle, on other orchids, to protect them from insects and fungal diseases. I recommend that you spray well on all the surfaces of the leaves and the earth. Let's go back to our orchid immersed in filtered cinnamon water. Now that the time has passed, we can plant it in a semi-open pot, for an orchid, placing pieces of pumice stone inside, and then some pine bark, this will help absorb the humidity of the roots, ensuring that it does not they rot. We add some dry moss on top, until the entire orchid is covered. We put in a cool, well-lit place for seven days. After seven days, we will spray the orchid above, and the roots below, to keep it moist. We will cover the jar with a plastic container, where you have created some holes, to ventilate the plant, then we will wait for it to recover. After three weeks, you will see the first sprout appear, spray water once every five days, to keep the sprouts moist, then always cover with the container. After three months, you will see the orchid full of green leaves and it will be alive again, you will continue to spray it and keep it green, the flowers will also arrive.


HOW TO GRAFT A YOUNG WILD APPLE PLANT


Now we will address the topic of grafting. In fact, the plant, after a year of life, will have to be grafted in order to produce flowers and fruit, because as soon as we have grown it, it will turn out to be a wild apple tree. Grafting can be carried out in the months of January or February, therefore winter. To be able to graft it, we will have to take a branch, called a young branch, from another plant, an adult apple tree. This young branch must be of medium size, and we will take it in the middle part of the plant, that is, in the middle, and it must be of medium vigor. What it means: that it will be a not too thick branch, therefore quite young. The young branch must have been born a year earlier. Now let's see how the grafting will take place. We will go to the rootstock, that is, the apple tree that we have grown from the seed, where we will graft the young branch. In the lower part of the plant, where there will be no buds, we will make a clean cut with a hacksaw and remove everything above; therefore, only this straight trunk will remain of the plant. Now we will have to open exactly in two, a small piece of this trunk at the top, using a grafting knife, on sale in specialized shops, and positioning it in the center of the cut plant. With a wooden mallet, we will hit the knife on it, making a clean cut of about four centimeters in the trunk, trying not to split the bark. We will then take the entire young branch and cut a part of it, which will be grafted into the crack in the trunk. The cut on the young branch must not be on the bud, but halfway between one and the other. The young branch must be around fifteen centimeters in total. Before grafting, however, it will be necessary to cut, always with the grafting knife, from the last bud towards the end of the scion, creating a clean cut, on both sides, one close to the other, which will result a wedge; this operation must be done, trying to tilt the knife well to make it slide. The wedge will be used to graft the young branch into the rootstock. We will place the wedge-shaped part of the young branch, in the part between the bark and that greener circle, in the center of the trunk, keeping the buds towards the outside. Now we will be able to push the wedge inside, into the wound in the trunk, always with the mallet, and lightly. We can also, at a later time, shorten the young branch, cutting it a little, always between one bud and another, so that we can push it better, until we reach the end of the cut. If there is space, on the other side of the trunk, we will do the same thing, with another young branch. Once the grafting has been done, we will have these small twigs that will protrude


from the trunk, and which we will have to cover with grafting tape, to close all the cracks. Of these grafting tapes, there are very good ones on the market, biodegradable and elastic. We begin to cover the trunk, from two centimeters below the cut, going up, passing through the young branches. Be careful, the cut must be made with the log positioned opposite to the gem. If the gem goes up, you will cut with the blade downwards. This is very important. Once everything has been sealed well, you will need to put some grafting mastic, also on sale in special shops, on the apex of the young branches, to prevent moisture from escaping, which would cause them to dry out. Now we will have our apple tree plant, which after some time will begin to bear succulent fruit, which you will taste and think: a wonderful plant, I made these and I contributed to giving them birth.



TAKE CARE OF YOUR MONEY TREE The money tree, also called the jade tree, is a popular plant that many grow. According to the ancient oriental art of Feng Shui, it is a succulent plant, capable of attracting economic prosperity. Its botanical name is: cràssula ovàta, and it is a very easy plant to keep. The cràssula ovata is considered a symbol of good luck in China and is a perfect gift for the home: it is believed to bring prosperity, luck and wealth. It is commonly called: money tree, precisely because it is considered capable of bringing economic well-being to the house that hosts it. It is suitable to be given as a gift on all those occasions in which a wish for prosperity is very welcome. Ideal therefore, to congratulate someone on a new job or a wedding. It is an evergreen plant, and its leaves grow very quickly, and to make it grow quickly, you should not water it too much. Too much humidity, in fact, can damage the plant. To stimulate flowering, you don't need to do anything: simply place the plant in a place where it can enjoy sunlight. A northern exposure would be preferable. As for the temperature, it should be between five and fifteen degrees. To give this plant a good hand we can use a compound as fertilizer, we can assemble it ourselves: just dissolve two grams of phosphate in three liters of water, mix well and then we can simply use this solution to water the plant. To stimulate flowering we can dissolve a couple of hundred milligram tablets of succinic acid in a liter of warm water, then we will also spray this mix on the leaves, so we will have very green leaves, and buds that will be born and develop into beautiful flowers... then , if it's money, it will flourish!



WE CONCLUDE WITH: “RENEWABLE ENERGY PRODUCED FROM THE TREES” The invention that allows us to produce energy from trees is called "Plantmicrobial fuel cell" or "Plant-e", and is inspired by chlorophyll photosynthesis, a chemical process thanks to which trees produce organic substances, starting from carbon dioxide atmospheric, and metabolic water, in the presence of sunlight. With photosynthesis, trees grow and flower: they generate protons and electrons which create electricity, in this way, a lamp can be lit thanks to a tree, which generates the energy necessary to make it work. Clean and sustainable energy, without batteries and without electricity, in this case it is called Living light, in fact, it is the plant inserted in a transparent vase, with a wire at the base in which the electrons separate from the protons and then flow into this wire, lighting up the plants when someone touches it. It's incredible how nature has always acted as a source of inspiration for innovation. For example, some research centers are recreating photosynthesis in the laboratory, to produce hydrogen. It is an innovative system for creating bio-energy, sustainable, renewable, efficient. In practice, in the not too distant future, we will be able to recharge our electric car on our lawn, or recharge our mobile devices on the green roof of our homes, or even see entire wetlands or rice paddies transformed into power plants. So let's thank the trees and Nature for everything they are giving us and will give us.


Sommario INCREASE THE PRODUCTION OF YOUR OLIVES ENDLESS BASIL HOW TO GROW MUSHROOMS AT HOME HOW TO REVIVE A DRIED ORCHID HOW TO GRAFT A YOUNG WILD APPLE PLANT TAKE CARE OF YOUR MONEY TREE WE CONCLUDE WITH: “RENEWABLE ENERGY PRODUCED FROM THE TREES” PLANT, CARE, PRODUCTION, ENERGY, SUSTAINABLE, GRAFTING


Front cover image by NOWO. Book design by NOWO. NOWO snc Via Gen. Guisan 4 6833 Vacallo Switzerland


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.