Went Fishing and Ended up Crabby

Fishing is fun but catching is better.

Ok so the surf fishing was bad. The water was the color of chocolate soup so the chance of catching anything was remote. Did catch 2 small bonnethead sharks though.

So quit the surf before noon and went inshore to the lagoon boatramp where we used to put our boat in. It is a nice relaxing parking lot from where you can sit on a bench and fish in the quieter water of the lagoon.

Then it occurred to me that I had brought along this crab catching gismo ($25 - all fishing gismos cost at least that much) that you attach to your fishing line and cast out like a real heavy bait. My surf poles are perfect for this since they like to throw, or pull heavy things. It has a wire post that a chicken drumstick can be attached to.

First cast when about 30 feet into a stiff head wind. After 10 minutes or so I pulled in a nice blue crab. That was good – the crazy thing seems to work. On the next cast there were 2 crabs (one fell out when lifted out of the water). Just lucky I thought. The third cast made me a believer – 4 blue crabs. They were the kind that I had paid 75 cents for just 5 hours earlier. So plantdaddy was real happy now. That saved the day. Didn’t get greedy as I was tired and had 6 crabs in the cooler.

Took the crabs home and prepped them for bait for my next trip. I think even mosaic mom was impressed. So ended up being crabby and that is a good thing.

Happy PlantDaddy with some of his aroids. 

Reasons to be Happy Today

It's such a pretty day today -- with many reasons to be happy.  I have time to just list a few since it is almost quitting time.

1.  I am going fishing tomorrow for the first time in months - surf is up.
2.  The aroids are growing great and new mutants are popping up.
3.  My 'Bay' series of Aglaonema hybrids received a big plug at a national horticultural show in Ohio last week.
4.  Mosaic Mom seemingly has recovered from getting her hair worked over.. 
5.  I am going fishing tomorrow -- real early.
6.  I have 30 selections of crape myrtle that are not setting seeds - hoo.. hoo.. ( that is exciting to me anyway (see previous post).
7.  The Okra live - and so do I (another previous post).
8.  Hamburger patties await for supper.
9.  Fishing tomorrow - get to test new pole and reel.
10. Helen is Ok and that is great.......

A crape myrtle that does not set seed. 

Crape Myrtle no longer in bloom but with many seed heads. 

Back at it but not on it….

Back at work after a week in the outer world.  It is tough to get started again.  But not too tough since mutant after mutant keeps popping up on my irradiated tropical foliage plants.  It is almost like picking fruit.   Just hope to find one that is really tasty and then it is off to the races - i.e. the propagators.  Even mosaic mom was impressed and you can’t beat that.
 
On the side, we work with crape myrtle.  Saw lots of nice ones in north Florida this past week.  However all of them will eventually be covered with large seed heads (see photo).  We now have some that do not set seed and are currently selecting the best ones.  One of the original seedless ones is also shown.  No seed heads to remove from this one.  We are studying to see how this affects reblooming.  Ultimate goal:  produce crape myrtles that do not set seed and rebloom naturally instead of seeding out.  I think it is going to happen.

OKRA REQUIUM REBUTTLE…

The following is due to a Mosiac Mom's recent blog. The attacks are in single quotes. They are followed by the facts as viewed by the unbiased PlantDaddy.

1. ‘Plant Daddy is in BIG TROUBLE’ --- No, NO, PlantDaddy is a victim.
He is victim of poor manufacturing. The thing is this here. He has purchased 3 backpack sprayers in the last 2 years. None are worth a crap. They don’t pump, they have lousy pressure or there is a gallon of spray left in the bottom of the tank that cannot be removed other than by dumping the tank. Boy is that fun. He used to have great sprayers (one for weeds and one for bugs) that were a joy to use but they wore out after 10 years of hard use and the new ones are pathetic.

2. ‘Mosaic Mom’s Okra is dying’ --- No NO, it is just a little yellow and distorted. Kind of like my sence of humor. In a few weeks they will be fine (if my prayers have any effect). If not, this could be Plantdaddy’s last blog. The good news is that I am now off the spray crew.

3. ‘Mr. Plant Daddy used the same sprayer to apply aphid spray that he used for Round-up weed killer’. Yes, YES that is true. It was rinsed but I guess not good enough. Back to number 1. I refuse to buy another damn $100 sprayer that doesn’t work --- Grrrrr is right.

4. ‘I still love Plant Daddy’ --- See all is not lost it Plantdaddyville. Gosh I sure got lucky this time.

5. ‘Maybe we should change the name of his blog to Plant Reaper’. I like that --- as in reaper of the great benefits of plantbreeding.

6. And finally --- Plantdaddy doesn’t even like OKRA.

Plantdaddy's reseach house. 

Oh God It’s Wednesday…

Vacation holidays are a pain - the week is over before you realize it. Here it is Wednesday afternoon and there is too much to get done before the week is over. No fishing trips this week for sure. Bummer……….

Here is another photo of plantdaddy’s research house to fill the void. Enjoy. These tropical plants may be growing fast but they suffer in the heat like the rest of us.

Plantdaddy's hobby greenhouse. 

Back in Control….

I took back control of my 2 hobby breeding greenhouses today by throwing out an entire dumpster of adenium and mandevilla hybrids. Man that felt good. After 2 years of observing and pondering, no more spraying, weeding, pruning or repotting of those babies is needed. The best have been kept and now can be propagated, loved and studied intently. They will produce for sure as undoubtedly they noticed the parade of garbage cans to the dumpster too.

Mosiac Mom thought I was crazy to toss all those plants. That was until she saw that my clippers had run amuck on her precious basil plant. No one appreciates an artist and his clippers.!!!! Oh well, I fertilized and repotted it and it will be triple the size in a week or two or so I promised. I over prune all the time (not in my opinion let it be known), the only other thing worse is me and 3 gallons of Roundup, which I secretly sprayed this morning.

A difficult activity in breeding is discarding the undesirable hybrids. Otherwise we become overpopulated with meaningless varieties. Besides it is nice to be able to actually see the tops of benches for a change. Tossing is costly and painful but must be done. Of course I am glad my mother and father never had such an option with me.

The propagation bench is humming now after quite a rest and in 2 months the greenhouse will be stuffed once again with plants (and pests). Most of my most recent mandevilla pollinations are not setting seed – probably due to excessive heat. Will try a few more, and if unsuccessful, will wait until October. The same problems occur with dieffenbachia and anthurium in Florida. The heat just takes the poop out of everyone and everything. Me pooped too so will stop now. Happy 4th………………………

A Surf Dream Come True 

Surf Dreams in July.

PlantDaddy has been busy the past week with visitors and a lot of greenhouse work so did not get to blog. More on the specifics of these activities at a later date, but some really exciting things are happening in my plant world.

Damn, if hot isn’t bad enough, I have the ever growing urge to hit the beach to surf fish. It has been 6 weeks since the last trip – and I used to think I had my priorities in order. No more of this work crap. This trip has to happen and that is that. To soothe my needs I just secretly ordered a CRABHAWK. For only $25 and a chicken drumstick I can catch all the blue crabs for bait I need - for free. What a deal….and, I only need to catch 50 crabs to break even compared to the cost of buying them (does not include cost of chicken). Yea, but you can’t put a price on being self sufficient. Of course what price does stupid sell for these days (I know, I know, around $25). Hey, even that is a deal!!!!!