Sunday, February 26, 2012

Baobab Monday


I repotted Mad' 1 this weekend. I was going to anyway, as it was tall enough and I was just waiting for my paycheque to buy a new planter. Then on Friday morning as I was setting it on the kitchen counter to water it, I turned my head to look for the watering cup, missed the counter, and dropped my baobab on the floor.

Gasp!!!

The baobab is ok, but the whole dirt ball got dumped out of the pot, showing that its roots were indeed at the bottom already, so it was definitely time to repot.

So, I hie me to the store, where the model of planter I was after was, luckily, on sale. I bought the four pleasant-coloured ones and left only one headache-green one for the next sucker. Booya! Anyway. Round up soil, perlite, tubing. Bake dung and soil. The dung was fine, the soil got up to 200 degrees and though I stabilised it there, I couldn't get the temperature down, so finally after 20 minutes I stirred it, and then the temperature dropped to 140. So on the one hand, it was too high, and on the other, it was high enough long enough. Great, I messed up both criteria of pasteurising soil.

Whatever. I doubt it did any harm. Scoop into planter, add perlite, mix, add bone meal, insert baobab, voila. Now I have two baobabs with nice roots in "permanent" planters. Groovy! Accordingly, I've decided that they seem likely to live a while, and therefore I gave them names. Za 7 is now Zadok, and Mad' 1 is now Ahimelek.

The current measurements are: Zadok (on the right in the picture), 8 1/2 tall and 7 1/2 wide; Ahimelek (left), 7 tall and 3 3/4 wide.

Bansai!

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