Hungry Trees – Benches

They may fancy metal signs, but trees also have a taste for nearby benches.

Hungry Tree in Lazio, Italy (Photo by karstensfotos)

Hungry Tree in North Dublin (Credit: Shellonious)

Qubit’s First Anniversary on Hunter Street!

A year ago today, Ryan taught the final class for the Computer Literacy Program and a little black kitten showed up on our deck afterwards. Despite our claims of taking him to the SPCA, the kitten ended up part of our household.

So happy one year anniversary to the egg-nog drinking, Christmas ornament batting, grapefruit chasing, dog food stealing, adoreably forgivable Qubit!

I wanted this post to be accompanied by never before seen (on the blog) Qubit pictures. It turns out that was harder than I thought. It seems I don’t take a lot of pictures of Qubit, but I managed to scrounge some shots up. Luckily there is no relationship between the quantity of pictures and the magnitude of my affection for the cat. He’s one of my favorites. : )

Qubit Yawning (Photo by Vic L)

Qubit Modeling a Crochet Hat for Henry’s Bark for Life

Qubit’s First Snow

Qubit and Tyrek

Interview with Ryan at Extreme Biology!

Last year at Science Online 2010, Ryan and I were struck by a session called “Blogging the Future – The Use of Online Media in the Next Generation of Scientists”. In that session, high school teacher Stacy Baker brought a number of her students to showcase their projects on social media and online resources. As I wrote last year, the session was quite powerful and one couldn’t help but be impressed (and humbled!) by the students.

This January, Ryan and I will be attending Science Online 2011. Stacy Baker and more of her high school students will be attending as well. As part of their preparation for the conference, the students are interviewing conference organizers, presenters and attendees and posting them on their Extreme Biology! site.

Yesterday student Paul published an interview with Ryan Somma on computer science. Be sure to check it out!

P.S. The image of Ryan was taken with WireGoogles, an Android app written by one of my bestest best friends, Brian Nenninger. It’s available on Android Market.

Google Earth Compare: McAfee Knob and Angel’s Rest

I recently downloaded version 6 of Google Earth so I could check out some of the new 3D trees they added to locales such as San Francisco, Chicago and Tokyo. While I was flying around, I took a quick detour by one of the most photographed points of the Appalachian Trail – McAfee’s Knob (also featured in the Virginia Appalachian Trail license plate). The knob itself appears a little more green in Google Earth than in real life, but I was quite impressed by the view of Tinker Cliffs. It made me instantly nostalgic. The ridgeline was perfect!

Vicky, Jimmie and Henry at McAfee’s Knob in 2003

Google Earth’s View of Tinker Cliffs from McAfee’s Knob
Credit: Commonwealth of Virginia via Google Earth

I also found the view of the New River, Pearisburg and Butt Mountain from Angel’s Rest to be accurate enough to make me smile and wish I was there.

Jimmie at Angel’s Rest View of Pearisburg and Butt Mountain – November 2002

Google Earth’s View of Pearisburg and Butt Mountain from McAfee’s Knob
Credit: Commonwealth of Virginia via Google Earth

I would still prefer the real thing, of course, but I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed visiting my favorite hiking spots in Google Earth!

Hungry Trees – Metal Signs

Apparently, trees tend crave metal signs the way I crave popcorn. Some more examples thanks to Flickr and Creative Commons. Enjoy!

Yosemite National Park (Photo by justinsomnia)

Indiana (Photo by cindy47452

Philadelphia (Photo by misskoco)

Austria (Photo by Rafael Peñaloza)

Science Fair Season on Hunter Street

It’s Science Fair season again! Last year, Ryan and I helped Shadonna with her project– “How Does Humidity Effect Plants?” We took four babies off my spider plant (which was once a baby itself on my paternal grandmother’s plant), grew two in “normal Vicky & Ryan Kitchen Air” and two in humid, ziplock bags. The plants grown in the ziplocks ended up so much greener and happier! That experiment definitely left an impression on me. This summer when I started some new baby spider plants for myself– I started them off in a ziplock bag as well. : )

Flash Back to Shadonna’s Experiment.
The Plant on the Right was Grown in a Ziplock Bag

This year another one of my house plants gets to contribute! 4th grader Tyrek decided to do an experiment on “The Effect of Salt on Plants”. He’s going to give three plants fresh water, three plants brackish water and three plants salt water. This time it’s my Philodendron who’s up to bat. This Philodendron wasn’t originally mine. I inherited it in the late 90’s from the CEO of a company I used to work for! To get the nine plants we planted cuttings off that Philodendron. Here’s Tyrek in action:

Tyrek Getting Philodendron Cuttings

Tyrek Planting the Cuttings

Labeled Plants

Tyrek Taking Initial Measurements

Tyrek Recording Notes

Tyrek Pours Salt (Good Thing We Had Extra!)

Tyrek Preparing Brackish and Salt Water Mixtures

It’s been 16 days so far since the cuttings were planted. I haven’t been taking the detailed measurements Tyrek has, but just from what I noticed when I’m waiting for my morning coffee, it does appear that all the fresh water and brackish water plants are doing well, but two of the salt water plants are starting to wilt.

We’ll see how it goes. Either way, I’m thrilled my humble, silent houseplants have managed to participate two years in a row. : )

Craft Week with the Neighborhood Kids – Christmas Parade Float #relayforlife

Saturday night, the Elizabeth City Jaycees hosted their annual Christmas Parade which includes a float competition. I believe there were roughly 90 floats participating, including one sponsored by our Pasquotank/Camden Relay for Life. The week proceeding the parade, our Event Chair organized a series of decorating sessions to get the float ready. The theme this year was “Supporting Our Troops”. So we made our float the “Let Freedom Ring” float. One of those freedoms ringing would be freedom from cancer.

The neighborhood kids proved to be very worthy helpers as Ryan and I prepared for the wedding. I checked and they were more than willing to help with the Relay for Life float as well.

Monday
Monday night, Ryan and I were accompanied by Vick and Risha. We had a hearty, but not exactly healthy, supper at Taco Bell then we met up with everyone and worked on the float!

Vick, Event Chair Debbie, and Kids Walk Chair Deanna Cover the Front of the Float

Risha Spray Paints Magnolia Leaves for the Float

Float Coming Together on Monday Night

Thursday
Thursday Ryan had a late conference call, but that didn’t mean I went alone. Khalif, Terrance, Jacal and young Malena all came to help. Our primary focus was lining the bottom of the float with little silver bells to compliment our “Let Freedom Ring” theme. The most difficult part of this operation seemed to be untangling the bells, though reloading the staple gun was a doozie as well.

Khalif Untangles Bells

Vicky and Terrance Hang Bells

Vicky, Jacal and Malena Hang Bells

Malena Sweeps

There was plenty of time for play too. We posed for pictures and the kids had a chance to play some football.

Khalif, Terrance and Jacal with Santa’s List

Terrance with the Football

Jacal, Vicky and Malena Pose for Pictures

Afterwards I treated everyone to supper at their favorite Chinese restaurant.

Friday
Friday, my helpers were Vick and Risha. Only when we showed up, the float was already done! : ) So we decided to go out to eat and then took in Christmas lights before heading home.

Results
The neighborhood kids, Ryan and I were far from the only helpers on the float. Thanks to everyone’s efforts, I thought we ended up with a great float. Despite some very chilly weather, a number of people showed up to ride the float. Two survivors were particularly determined to walk instead of ride, which was super cool because that is what I wanted to do! The people who rode on the float rang purple bells. The walkers (that’s me!) got to hand out candy to bystanders.

Float Waiting for Dark

Our Tree and Santa’s Wish List

Back of the Float – The Flags and Wreath Were Mounted By Ryan!

Float on the Move

Float Turns on Main Street

The judges apparently liked our float as well. Thanks to everyone’s efforts, including the neighborhood kids, our float won 1st Place in the Civic category!!!

More pictures of our float and the Elizabeth City Christmas Parade are available on my Flickr site.

P.S. Touched by the efforts of neighborhood kids? With 2010 coming to a close, you still have time to make a tax-deductible donation to one of their Relay for Life donation pages:

Vick’s Donation Page
Risha’s Donation Page
Khalif’s Donation Page

A Lesson from the American Chestnut

There’s a common misconception that the American chestnut is extinct. That’s not the case. The large trees may have been decimated by the blight, but you can see plenty of little trees in the Appalachians. Alas, those small trees will eventually succumb to the blight as well before they can reach the large sizes of yesteryear.

But here’s the thing about the American chestnut. It’s incredibly optimistic.  The American chestnut is not afraid to try again. The blight will take its the branches. The blight will take its trunk, but when the tree “dies”, the roots send up another shoot to give life another whirl. It’s almost as if the tree shrugs and thinks, “Well, that sucked.” and then moves on.

Chestnuts Aren’t Afraid to Try Again – With the larger trunk blighted, new shoots give it another go.

The weeks following our wedding was an exciting time in the chestnut arena. We got to watch as our seeds germinated. I was amazed at how from the get-go the tiniest baby leaf already looked like an American chestnut. It had itty bitty curved teeth!

Baby D4-28-30, 16 days After Planting – Aww… It’s Baby Leaves Already Have Teeth!!!

We slowly exposed our baby trees to full sun and full wind. We watched them peek out of the top of their pots and continue to grow. I remember how giddy I was when I realized I could clearly make out the chestnuts when we drove down Dawson Street before we reached our road! In June, we celebrated one of the chestnuts reaching 12″ tall.

Then disaster.

Leaving for a trip, I gave the trees extra water. It turned out to be an unnecessary gesture. It rained the whole time we were gone. Worse– the holes in the bottom of our pots were obstructed so all that water queued up. This was not good– American chestnuts are sensitive to overwatering. When we returned home, our formerly happy chestnuts were far from happy. And just like that, they died.

I felt… horrible! The American Chestnut Foundation had put so much work and research into those nuts and I turned around and killed them.  I literally lost sleep over it, a fact I couldn’t hide from my mother thanks to Mark Zuckerberg (“Why were you on Facebook at 4 AM?!?”).

After a few days, I realized there was only one thing I could do to feel better. I needed to confess! I called up The American Chestnut Foundation and apologized to the poor employee who happened to answer the phone. She had a scientist call me back to gather up some data about my potting mix, my fertilizer and pot sizes. All I wanted from the conversation was a means to appease my guilt. I ended up with a lot more. At the end of our phone call, the scientist surprised me, an established tree killer, by offering me more seed.

And here’s another confession. I’m not as brave as the American chestnuts in the Appalachians. I didn’t want to try again.  I was timid and scared and had to be talked into it! Luckily, I gave in and in mid-June Ryan and I received another package marked “Refrigerate Upon Opening”

Take II
Our second wave of chestnuts aren’t from the “Restoration generation” (B₃F₃). They are still 15/16 American, but are members of the earlier B₂F₃ generation.

Pots
Ryan and I didn’t have enough pots to accomodate all of our newcomers, so we bought cheapy biodegradable peat moss pots to get some of the seedlings started. They were shorter than the recommended size, but they did have a surprise side benefit. Those pots dried out super fast, helping me avoid the overwatering mistake from my past. Later in the summer we invested in real pots for all the seedlings! This time, we verified each and every hole in the bottom and in a couple of cases, poked extra holes. : )

On the surface, it looked like the small peat moss pots did the trick, but I will note that all of our tallest seedlings were ones that were planted in the bigger pots from Day One.

The Temporary Homes

Germination Stats
With the help of Jacal, we planted 48 nuts. Some of them had crazy long radicals. We cut the radical down to 1/2″ for 11 of the nuts. The remaining seed we left the radicals completely in tact. Two nuts were moldy and didn’t have radicals. One nut’s radical broke. Out of those 48 nuts, we had 45 germinate. Yup– the moldy nuts and the one with the broken radical were the ones that did not make an appearence.

Jacal Planting Seed

Potting Mixture
Our soil mixture was the recommended 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 perlite and 1/3 vermiculite. Jacal helped me mix it up.

Jacal Prepares our Soiless Potting Mix

Germination Time
Germination was substantially faster this time. In March, it took our seeds roughly 13 days to poke up out of the soil. The June wave, took just 4 days before baby chestnuts made their above soil debut.

Fertilizer
Chestnuts like slightly acidic soil with a pH between 4.5 to 6.5. For fertilization, I used MiracleGro for Azaleas, Camellia, Rhododendron (it’s geared for “All Acid-Loving Plants”). It was recommended that I fertilize them every other week. Once the hurricanes and tropical storms started coming our way and the plants were getting watered frequently from nature, they were only fertilized once a month (the fertilizer was mixed in water and I was fearful of overwatering).

Pest Control (Or lack thereof)
I did not use any kind of pesticide this summer, but it probably would have been welcomed by the chestnuts. A couple of them were deemed tasty by insects and I did find two cankerworm squatters.

A Baby Chestnut with a Partially Devoured Leaf

Size
Of the twenty-two chestnuts I kept here in Elizabeth City, I did have three casualties. Of the survivors, some have done better than others. My tallest right now was planted on June 17, 2010 and on November 29th, it was 29″ tall.

Jimmie with Chestnuts – September 9th

Planting Date	Size on 11/29/2010
June 17, 2010*	24″
June 17, 2010*	29″
June 17, 2010*	15″
June 17, 2010*	11″
June 17, 2010*	24″
June 17, 2010*	16″
June 18, 2010	9″
June 18, 2010	10″
June 18, 2010	6″
June 18, 2010	12″
June 18, 2010	7″
June 18, 2010	12″
June 18, 2010	6 1/2″
June 18, 2010	12″
June 18, 2010	18″
June 18, 2010	11″
June 18, 2010	9″
June 18, 2010	10″
June 18, 2010	7 1/2″

*Originally Planted in Larger Pots

Fall Colors
I may have planted these guys late, but apparently they got to grow a little longer here in warm North Carolina. On Facebook, I saw someone’s Restoration chestnuts in Traverse City, Michigan yellowing in early October. Our chestnuts didn’t start to yellow until nearly a month later.  I first spotted changing leaves on November 17th.

Yellowing Chestnuts – November 18th

The chestnuts got their first glimpse of snow of December 5, 2010. As you can see, some of them are STILL sporting green leaves!

Chestnuts’ First Snow – 12/5/2010

Chestnuts’ First Snow – 12/5/2010

The Neighborhood Kids
As with many of our endeavors, the neighborhood kids were involved. Above you saw that Jacal helped with the soil mixing and the planting. When Ryan and I traveled to Cape Cod this summer, the chestnuts stayed healthy under the watchful eye of Dada, Vick and Risha. But here is my favorite American Chestnut/Neighborhood Kid story (so far):

Over the summer, 4th grader Tyrek came over for a visit. We talked on the back deck surrounded by all the little baby chestnuts and all the little baby pawpaws. Tyrek was telling me a story when he suddenly stopped in mid-sentence. He looked at his surroundings and said, “Vicky, these trees make me happy!”

My reply— “They make me happy too.” : )

And there you go! Sometimes trying again can be terrifying. Sometimes trying again seems hopeless. But sometimes… sometimes trying again will bring you something to smile about.

Additional Resources
Please note– this post is just a discussion of my experience and I am far, far, far from an expert and am still learning myself. If you are interested in growing American chestnuts, I recommend the following references:

TACF Fact Sheet – How To Grow Your Chestnuts
Growing Chestnuts From Seed – Long Instructions from Meadowview Research Farm
Growing Chestnuts From Seed – Quick Instructions from Meadowview Research Farm
The Chestnut Growers Mailing List (Great resource for questions and answers)

For more information of donating to or becoming a member of The American Chestnut Foundation, visit: http://www.acf.org

Behind Michael Nichols’ Redwood Pictures

The October 2009 Issue of National Geographic featured “The Tallest Trees” with wonderful Redwood photographs by Michael “Nick” Nichols. Yan view a slide show of the photographs (and order prints just in time for the holidays!) here.

One of the most dramatic images is actually a mosaic of 84 photographs meticulously stitched together to capture a 1500 year old, 300 foot tree in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. It wasn’t a simple venture. In a thick forest, you can’t just back up until everything is in frame. Nichols worked with a team of photographers and scientists and ultimately they rigged up a dollies to get the photographs. You can view the final image online here or in person at Annenberg Space for Photography in the Extreme Exposure exhibit.

I write about this now because earlier this week, the photographer posted a behind the scenes account of the process on The Huffington Post. A couple of names familiar to me from The Wild Trees make appearances. You can also see snippets of their process in the following video from National Geographic. Enjoy!

Hungry Trees – Fences

I’ve shared my fair share of trees eating fences in the past. Here are a few more courtesy of Creative Commons and Flickr users!

Tree Eating Fence (Photo by plays4mee)

And another one from overseas:

Hungry tree in Herfordshire, UK (Photo by anemoneprojectors)