The numbers are rising!

After less than four weeks our plant numbers are still rising and the trays are really starting to fill up!

Can you spot the carrots below? We now have seven total and germination continues!

Fiddlenecks are growing large and this ones happily covered in dew after a good rain from the greenhouse.

Identification part 1

The plants are still rather small and all only just over 2 weeks old or younger but already our great botanist Steve Jones has identified quiet a few!

The first one shown is still yet to be collected on the preserve, that makes 323 for our species count! tentatively of course :)

!Wild Carrot (Daucus pusillus)

Filaree (Erodium cicutarium)

Lupine (Lupinus sparsiflorus)

Hairy Bowlesia (Bowlesia incana)

Pygmy Weed (Crassula connata)

In order to spot these little guys (which happen to cover a large majority of the trays) you have get your eyes right on top of them as their leaves are only millimeters in length and their stems are hardly a centimeter!

Arizona fiesta flower (Pholistoma auritum var arizonicum)

 Phacelia (Phacelia distans)

Fiddle neck (Amsinckia menziesii)

Germination begins 11/4/2012

Only 2 days and already the soil is producing little seedlings galore! It is just always spring in a greenhouse.

First day wetting the soil! 11/2/2012

After all the hard work collecting and hauling samples from a total of 24 soil sites, finally the seeds have a chance to get wet and start their growing! ( Thanks to Steve, Melanie, Dan Gruber, Bernie, Joyce and Matt Crewse) 

Friday morning with the help of Steve and Bernie,  a thin layer of each sample was spread out between two trays over a well draining custom soil mix. The soils will now be kept in the optimal 80 degree greenhouse with a water regime of twice a day for five minutes. Once seedlings are better established and germination rate slows, water can be cut back to avoid damping off. Follow along and we will keep you posted on all the new plants germinating!

  

Bernie measured out the sterile soil into each tray, completing 156 individual trays in all!

Steve carefully spreads the seed bank soil on top of Bernie's layer and they are ready to be watered at last.

What a colorful display of the Preserves soil!