PHOTOPERIOD AND PLANTS

SHORT DAY LENGTH PLANT = long night plant
Needs a long night to start flowering

In the wilds of southern Mexico
In the wet and dry tropical forests
The rainy season is May through October
During the hurricane season

With all that moisture, and Mexican sun
It is a good time to grow leaves and stems
Grow vegetatively

Around November, the dry season begins
Poinsettia starts to flower, it keeps flowering onwards into the spring
It flowers as the day length becomes shorter and shorter
Nights longer and longer
And insects are flying around looking for flowers, nectar and pollen

“If the days are long, and the sun is shining, I’m gonna get big and grow all the leaves I can.
When the days start getting shorter, its time to bloom; time to make fruit and seeds for dispersal and survival.”

LONG DAY LENGTH PLANT = short night plant
Needs a short night to start flowering

Its late fall and early winter in California
November December and onwards
Its the rainy season
Storms outa the northwest and Aleuts
Nights are on the long side, about 13, 14 hours of night
Days are short, about 11, 10 hours of daylight
California poppy sprouts with the rains
It grows those thin dissected leaves, and a juicy taproot

It is March, April and May in Cali
Its spring time
The length of a day goes from 11 to 12 to 13 hours a day
The nights shorten from 13 to 12 to 11 hours a day
And the California poppy blooms
Cause its done with its vegetative stage
The earth is warming up
And the insects are going crazy
Its a perfect time to showcase colorful petals
If you want to make some seeds, you better do so before the summer dry spell hits
And reserves run low
This is a short night plant

DAY NEUTRAL PLANTS
Don’t care much either way
They don’t care about long days long nights
They don’t care about short days short nights
They gonna do their thing, no matters what
As soon as they have enough energy stored up to go, they go
They bloom, makes seeds, then bloom some more
Just go!
Until they run out or run dry
Hopefully they finish in time before winter snow, or the summer drought
Humble dandelion comes to mind
As does that dinky cannabis with the name ruderalis

As a nursery person or greenhouse grower
You can manipulate day length with lights, or with curtains that keep it dark
You can make it seem like the darkness of winter is coming,
and force a chrysanthemum to start blooming
You can force a plant to grow grow grow like crazy
By turning on the lights for sixteen, eighteen, twenty hours a day
As if the plant was growing in Alaska
Super short growing season, super intense
Grow like your life depends on it
As the grower, you control light and photosynthesis
This way you can
Ramp up production all year round
Supply pretty plants when nature cannot
And have plant merchandise in the stores just in time for Christmas

Postscript
I am always reminded by growers
That a poinsettia blooms because of the changes in DAY LENGTH
It does not bloom because of water needs or the dry seasons arrival
I agree, but don’t actually see how the two can be divorced from one another –
Light and water
Just try growing the poinsettia crop without water, and see what happens to the blooms or lack thereof
My guess is that in nature
If the rains stop early, and it goes dry, say in July or August
Theres gonna be a few individuals that just go for it
Irregardless of the day length, even if the nights are still short
You are stressed, you may die, you may try to bloom, even a little bit
Evolution of these plants in a particular habitat is not a discrete entity based only on light
It is a combination of factors that work together to create the patterns that we observe
Light, water, soils, wind
Elevation, temperature, humidity
Fungus, bacteria, and so on
The basics for planetary survival

CALIFORNIA COUNTIES

County Meaning or gist and origin

Where the Spaniards rode their horses along the coast to establish missions, lots of places received the names of saints:
San Francisco: Saint Francis
San Benito: Saint Benedict
Santa Clara: Saint Clare
San Mateo: Saint Matthew
San Luis Obispo: Saint Louis Bishop
Santa Barbara: Saint Barbara
San Bernardino: Saint Bernard
San Joaquin: Saint Joachim
San Diego: Saint Diego

Some counties got named for people:
Kern: Named for Edward Kern, artist, explorer and map maker
Lassen: Named for Peter Lassen, rancher and prospector
Humboldt: Named for Alexander Von Humboldt, epic scientist
Glenn: Named for Hugh J. Glenn, big time wheat farmer
Stanislaus: Named for the baptized name of native chief Estanislao
Marin: Named for the baptized name of Chief Huicmuse – of the sea
Mendocino: Named for Antonio de Mendoza, first ruler of New Spain colony
Solano: Named for the Catholic Father Francisco Solano and the native
chief who was baptized with the same name

A bunch of counties got names of objects; words in Spanish, English, Galician, or native languages:
Santa Cruz: Holy cross
Nevada: Snow capped
Mariposa: Butterfly
El Dorado: Gold
Sacramento: Sacrament or Lord’s Supper
Calaveras: Skull
Plumas: Feathers
Orange: Orange
Monterey: Mountain king
Trinity: The Christian Godhead of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Madera: Wood
Imperial: The empire, relating to
Los Angeles: Angels
Ventura: Good luck and fortune
Kings: Kings
Placer: Deposit of precious minerals
Inyo: Place of great spirits
Tulare: Sedge and reeds
Alameda: Public walkway and promenade
Fresno: Ash tree
Merced: Mercy and grace
Amador: Lover
Sutter: Shoe maker or cobbler
Napa: Fairy valley
Yuba: Maidu village named by the Spanish for the abundant grapes ubas

These counties are named for their geography:
Contra Costa: Opposite coast
Lake: Lake
Alpine: Of the high mountains
Riverside: By the river
Del Norte: Of the north
Sierra: Chain of mountains, like a saw
Butte: A hill with a flat top and steep sides off by itself

A few counties are the names of native peoples who inhabit the area:
Modoc: Folks from Northwest California and Southwest Oregon
Shasta: Folks from Northern California by the big tall volcanic mountain
Colusa: Colus is the name of a native tribe living on the west side of the
Sacramento River, of the Wintun peoples
Mono: Native Paiute people who live by Mono to Owen Lake

Lastly, some county names are ultimately mystery and lost to history:
Tehama: Land of shallow rivers, salmon and floods?
Siskiyou: Bob-tailed horse or six stones???
Sonoma: Moon or nose???
Tuolumne: Many stone houses or straight up steep or ???
Yolo: Full of rushes or the name of a chief???

Well got tapped to do a talk out at San Francisco Botanical Garden

they wanted to hear about the ethnobotany of old time peoples before there was a california

a time when there was just a bunch of mountains and deserts and winding rivers through swampy grasslands

what plants did people eat?

how did they get by without metal tools and lighters?

what was their relationship with the land and all them animals?

To be honest, I really dont know much about the subject

so gonna just wing it

hopefully you do better than me –

Go on a walkabout on the plateau

come easy off the mesa scooting on rocky slides

do this for a dozen years or more and the earth will come alive and you can talk to her

ask her yourself what it means to be native and grounded

by this time, the plants will all want to chime in also

they a talkative bunch

and you can listen to their sunlit chatter giggles too

just dont get kingfisher and mockingbird started,

otherwise you’ll be there day and night day and night

While you are present and in active observation

take some notes, write a scientific paper for posterity

then twist a basket full of agave rope

and play a billowy tune on the elderberry flute

Wish I could tell you more but like I said

I’m a beginner too

still learning the difference between a tar weed and a gum weed

still making uneven splits of back and forth roots

sigh

this is as far as I’ve got, enjoy!

This is the pictorial part of the OH53 Maintenance class ‘tool, equipment and supplies final’ for the spring semester. It is grouped by the topics we covered in class. Please refer to the written exam questions in order to answer with correct responses. Thank you.

1. Two kinds of hedgers:

2. Pruning and hedging hand tools:

3. Polypropylene line and posts

4. Sean and power tool

5. Ulu-like hand tool:

6. Turf and sidewalk

7. Lawn care tool

8. Mower

9. Weeding tool

10. cleaning tool

11. Cutting implement under the mower

12. Tools to collect grass clippings

13. Symbol next to broken fuel cap

14. An orange switch and some symbols

15 Battery

16. Three kinds of hand tools for digging

17. A rectangular and a round plastic container

18. A large plastic rectangular bucket

19. A green plastic can with a spout

20 Fertilizer

21 Fertilizer

22 Fertilizer amendment

23 Fertilizer amendment

24. The round white piece inside one end of the hose

25. The connection between plastic parts

26. A hose bib with multiple connections

27 Material covering the ground around the cactus

28 Material between the pavers and the ground/soil

29 Connecting two different kinds of metals

30. The two white PVC pipes underneath the remote control valve

31 The valve

32. The brass piece threaded onto the hose bib

33. The valve inside an irrigation box

34. The nut with a green circle on the left and the square lil box

35 The round knob with the cross hatch markings on the side and a line through it

36. The pipe and the hose bib

37. The plastic pipe connected to the hose bib

38. Remote control valves in a series

39. Hose bib

40 TImer controller

41 Timer controller

42 wires

43 connector

44. Connection

45. A sprinkler

46. Some valves in a cage

47. A metal T shaped tool and a box that says SFPUC

48. Two irrigation boxes

49. The white bucket at the upper left corner mounted on the electric power pole

50. A broke piece of plastic inside a brass hose bib

51. The brass pieces between the hose bib and the hose

52. A meter /gauge

53. A white fitting

54. A green trap made of metal

55. Metal mesh wire on the ground

56. Rat and mouse poison

57. Rat trap

58. Round plastic container with tubing

59. Herbicide

60. Herbicide

61. Herbicide

62. Weed killer

63. Sarai the working supervisor doing weed control

64. Two kinds of loppers

65. P265/70R16

66. DOT M3JC KC9X 4614

67. Rectangular metal pieces stuck in the top of the hardwood handle of the ball peen hammer

68. Two kinds of handles

69. A hunk of steel bolted to the metal table

70. Sideview of two metal hand tools

71. Trees at the nursery

72. Three kinds of shovels

73. Two kinds of ladders

74. Pole pruners

75 Vine

76 Pot/container

77. The white curvy lines

78. Chalk board drawings

79. More chalkboard drawings

80 Hormone and neurotransmitter

81. Map of San Francisco, personal protective equipment, mink oil

82. T shaped metal tool

83. Students’ favorite tool

This is a visual snap shot of our field trip to see Filoli Garden in Woodside, California. Thank you to Kate Nowell, Horticulture Production Manager, for hosting us. Thank you to Jim Salyards, Director of Horticulture, for welcoming us, and also thank you to all the field horticulture staff who shared their knowledge of the gardens with us.

Filoli is a historic estate garden that is now a public garden managed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. There are many distinct gardens and styles within. If you were to classify it, you could call it something like European formal meets oak woodlands, weathered in the California-casual rancho grassland heat.

Geometry and symmetry are primary in a formal garden. You want to acknowledge that the universe is ordered and structured and as such, the garden and its shapes are a reflection of this.

An important element in this world built with squares, rectangles and crosses are the axis of view lines that stretch straight across the entire garden. You want to be in a high place, survey and see the distant edge of your territories. As if you were the sun that traversed the sky.

From one garden room to the next, there is the transition that is a portal to the next mystery. The gates, the arches, the vines and steps all serve to ornament and shroud the junction. The doorways and walls bridge distinct and disparate spaces into a whole.

The lines and colors are simple and minimal. Clean, not fuzzy. This is exemplified in flat expanses of mowed green lawn coupled with well-trimmed upright point-to-the-sky yew trees, framed with horizontal hedges laser cut in their perfection.

The borders are accentuated and patterned. The edges divide the walking path from the beds; the low fences separate the humans from the plants. Again, there is the emphasis on where different elements meet and come together.

Inside the boxwood frames, roses and annual colors are featured at Filoli. Their care and maintenance encompass ground preparation, planting, weeding, pruning, and pest control. Plus, there is the switching out of blooms for spring summer and fall as hyacinth leaves fade to yellow and tulip petals drop and start to form fruits.

The formal garden of intricately winding hedges comes to us from the elaborate and embellished worlds of sixteen seventeen eighteen century Italy France England and thereabouts. Its as if you are touring a manor or a castle or the palace grounds and all of a sudden you get woven into a renaissance tapestry.

At the center of a formal garden, there is often a water feature. This can be a pond or a fountain. Water is the source of life. No water – no garden, no people.

Age and antiquity are a part of this garden. Truth be told it is hard to find well cared for old plants in California gardens. Filoli has some wonderful old oaks, as well as thick and nicely pruned wisterias that have been trained up the brick walls. Patience, time and commitment is what makes a great garden.

There is a woodland garden that is a respite from the heat. Here you will find the understory plants of ferns and mosses, as well as the larger woody plants that were brought from China Japan and India to Scotland Wales and Ireland at the turn of the 19th century by explorers named George Forrest and Ernest Wilson. The plants are rhododendrons, camellias, maples, and azaleas.

As a nod and hark to the agricultural past, Filoli is not only about formal ornamentals. The staff also do cut flowers, and are working on a vegetable garden. In a sense, we have come full circle. For a while there, the attitude was – ‘Who wants to see a bunch of potatoes and cabbages? I just want a pretty display’. Now, the attitude is – ‘Lets showcase and appreciate all of it!’. This encompasses food crops, as well as lessor known native plants and sometimes forgotten pollinator plants.

A number of perennials are featured, providing plentiful nectar and pollen for the local bumble, solitary, and honey bee. They add diversity and charm to an already over the top garden scene.

A nice mediterranean crop is olives, for oil and for fruit. These trees are hard pruned; and in this process will slowly return to being a production orchard. Sun drenched and well cared for trees will make good fruit, not gangly trees that are shading each other out.

For space consideration, it is useful to make the most of whatever space you got. Hence espaliered fruit trees running along a fence or a wire. This is an old old idea that goes back to the time of pharaohs and Sumerian dynasties. The apples and pears were barely forming on the day of our visit, but that is another reason to come back again in the summer and fall!

Well, thats about all for a quick look. This ain’t nothing compared to actually seeing the garden in person. If you get the chance to visit, GO!!! Pay attention to the work involved, and all of the details in the designs.

Some stats: Sixteen acres of formal gardens, twelve horticulture staff. High maintenance. Most plant production is all done onsite – growing annuals from seeds, potting up and dividing, making floral arrangements, composting, etc. Theres opportunities for summer internships and jobs. Check their website! Get involved!

And in the fenced orchard on the side was this lil fellow, going into a hole. ( It is a gopher snake). Until the next trip!

Hanging out in the duff beneath a yew tree, doing push ups at the edge of the pasture. A garden is bliss.