further stevia updates

Not much else going on here. In terms of plants. One of the cuttings under cloche started to mold, I tossed it. Of the others, one dried up, tossed. I planted the remaining three from the intial group started in the kitchen windowsill, into the pot.

Dramatic difference. The cutting started in rooting hormone and regular potting soil, had plenty of roots throughout its little pot confines, and new leaves growing. Success! (It's the one in the middle here). Second cutting, that was in seed starter mix with no rooting hormone, had barely any roots at all and only a few new leaves (background). I stuck it in the pot anyway.

more stevia cuttings

It looks like the one rooted in sand is dying, and the one in seed started mix struggling. Had to trim the parent plant to fit more plants in my space by the window (more coming inside as the weather gets colder) so I started a few more cuttings. These all dipped in rooting hormone, planted in regular potting soil.

I put small jar/bottle cloches over them to hold in some humidity, maybe it's helping their leaves are more upright than others had been.

33 update

Did another water change, pulled more sheets of cyanobacteria nastiness out of the tank, that same spot against the glass. I lifted out the bolbitis fern piece, and vacuumed thoroughly that whole area. Yeah, there was a lot of mulm. Tucker seems to be feeling better now- he's got a bit more color and looks more alert.

He hides when I clean in the tank- behind the rotala thicket or under a sponge filter in the corner. Whereas the white cloud minnows get all excited and dart around where I'm working, nipping at bits of stuff that gets disturbed into the water column. Caught an adult with the siphon accidentally- they just won't stay away from it! I netted him back into the tank, he's got a few scrapes but I think will be okay. 

Keeping background up to block some of the window light for a few more days, then I hope I've got the most of this problem beat. Another fulltank shot- I think this one came out a little better (click to view the whole thing larger)

window tank rescape

I redid some stuff in here, too. Full tank shot (a tad blurry, so hard to get a good photo of this):

On one end, I pulled some crypt moehlmannii that was growing into areas it wouldn't have space (into the anubias thicket, under the log). The original parent plant in center has lost all its leaves, but there's a row of younger plants off runners up against the glass now. Thinned out the vals too- mostly pulling out leaves that had decay. Added a small piece of hardscape with buces and subwassertang on it (just in front of the large anubias there)

Most of the work I did was central- pulling out crypts from the back wall and moving them into the center, shifting smaller crypts from the center to further back, and pulling up most of the dwarf sag (which didn't end up staying tank height after all) moving them to the foreground. They're doing okay after all- I found lots of new baby ones!

Tucker the paradise fish kept getting in the pictures

Also trimmed and replanted more rotalas to make a further wall of them against the rear glass. Which is hard to see as it's backlit from the window-

Moved a few more plants around on this side, too- but mostly noticable is just the addition of another buce clump from the angel tank.

The leaves on my madagascar lace come and go. Never seem to have more than two or three really healthy ones at a time- sigh.

Here's Tucker who kept getting in front of the camera, but never held still of course!

His tail fin has got short again, lost its filaments, and he's been kind of pale lately. So I'm concerned for his health, too. (White clouds look totally fine. In fact, they're still breeding. The first two fry I saw this year are half-grown already, swimming in the open with adults now. There's one smaller fry half their size- probably two months old, and another much smaller fry several weeks old I'm guessing. So at least four!)

Angle shot-

I do like seeing the sun come through the plant leaves, like here- but found it was too much this time. Or my faulty maintenance. Found some cyanobacteria (aka blue-green alage) behind the bolbitis driftwood, against the window side glass. Icky stuff. Dismayed because that means definitely my tank has too much mulm buildup, and I'm afraid it will be hard to get rid of.

I've done another water change, cleaned filter sponge (found the housing of one was cracked, so I did a little repair with fishing line) and temporarily blocked out some of the window light. Tomorrow going to do another water change with thorough gravel vac in that problem area. Felt like I was on my feet nearly all day working on this tank- far longer than I expected to!

So that's my big update for now.

shrimp jars!

Attempting to revive my élan for the tanks. Starting small: rescaped both shrimp jars. One on the left was quite hazy. I scraped algae off the glass and did two water changes after the rescape. Finally now it looks clearer. 

The one on the right I simplified, now it's just mermaid weed and parrot's feather in the center, with buces around the edge.

Trimmed the parrot's feather to multiply the stems- all short temporarily

Jar on the left, I kept most of the plants and tried to make a nicer arrangement. Removed some of the anubias, added baby java ferns (which immediately started growing! so maybe finally I found a place java ferns will be happy. They always die in winter in my window tank, and the leaves stayed small, then died off over and over, in my angel tank). From above:

The bowl still has two small anubias-

one on each side

There's two buces flanking the rock/wood the java ferns are on-

and corkscrew vals opposite side of that.

I'm a bit surprised the twisty vals are not only still here, but appear to be doing just fine! Also surprised that I kind of like them in here (never cared for them in the bigger aquariums).

Both jars also got a new addition- a few pieces of amazon frogbit, from somebody who bought anubias from me. Balance has changed in the jars- all my larger duckweed died off. Only some small duckweed left. Trying frogbit again-

Still have two shrimps in each jar!

my 55

Is faltering. I just don't feel able to keep up with it right now, and fear the angelfishes will suffer. Slacking off on water changes is not at all good for them. Disheartened still since the death of Miss Beautiful, I decided it would be best to rehome the golden sisters and sell this tank. So far have sold some of the plants- anubias and bolbitis that were in here, plus a half dozen hornwort stems. Moved some buces into my window tank. Still hoping the fish will go with the tank, or at least one of them will find a new home. I could keep the other in the 20H, frequent water changes on that would be much easier to do.

My ankle still gets stiff, sore and swollen with any work that requires me to be on my feet for much time, especially if I carry something heavy around (like gallons of water). I've done better of late with performing two five or ten gallon wc's on the tank per week, instead one 20 or 30 gal wc. But it's not enough.

moth

A greenish moth, on a window, seen from underside. Maybe the blackberry looper, I attempted looking up its identity.

remembered plants

Some pics from last year, that reflect this year. I lost one of my pink geraniums (it died) but the two looked so similar, I shrugged it off.

Never grew nasturtiums this year, so I look at this photo with nostalgia.

Right now my bay laurel (which comes indoors on the coldest nights) and basil (fading fast) look just like this. But what strikes me about this picture is the madagascar palm houseplant behind them on the other side of the window. Look how lovely the foliage! It's all dropped. The plant looks like a cactus stick now. It just barely started growing leaves back a week ago, but they're very small. I don't know if it's temperature not right for that plant in my house, or lack of direct sun.

I'm sad about my rosemary, too. It looked pretty good last year (this pic). Now thinner, needles anemic and yellowish. My first thought was: not enough sun, but I also suspect an insect pest might have gotten to it.

Sigh. Another plant I miss is the pretty, diminutive alyssum. I didn't grow any from seed this year- hoping a few might come up of their own accord in the front bed. Nope. Not a single one- or if they did, got choked out by the mock strawberry and sedums. This purple one was from the year before:

end summer blooms

Last week with the cold, hummingbird quit coming to visit. The cardinal climber flowers lingered a bit longer.

Sharing space on balcony railing with cowpea vines again

Around the mailbox I've started trimming off the heavy heads of celosia, I'm sure there's already an overload of seed on the ground there. They were pretty good this year!

Joe Pye I also cut down before it could scatter too much seed.

Sedums are starting to look their best

Rear side bed is pretty messy, but turtlehead still makes some color

My black-and-blue salvia did well again this year,

but the lilac next to it appears to be dying. One half has no leaves. Overshaded by the neighbor's tree? Crowded out by the salvia? I'm not sure. Maybe it's just sick or attacked by some insect pest.

Cranesbill is starting to falter in the cold, less flowers now- but it was great just a few weeks ago:

Not sure how the mums will do, I didn't pinch them more than once this year so maybe they will flop over. But lots of buds right now!

And there's not nearly as much of this blue sage as I would like- the color is so stunning when everything else is beginning to go drab.