Glow In The Dark Planters

"Buy a flower pot that you really like and use Rustoleum's Glow-in-the-dark paint to paint the pot. During the day, the paint will absorb the sunlight and at night the pots will glow." 

I'm completely convinced  that people who pin and share these things on Facebook have never actually tried glow-in-the-dark paint. The first thing wrong about this image is that well, it's not night. At all. The second is the amazing glow the pots are putting off, enough to even illuminate the grass. Glow-in-the-dark paint won't do that. 

You see these aren't just painted pots, they are LED-lighted pots. I've been trying to track down the direct source of  this image, but haven't been able to. However I have found enough variously similar planters to show you, like these from Konstsmide, a German light manufacture:

And just like in other various "Glow-in-the-Dark" pins, people don't seem to take in account that glow in the dark paint is very green/yellow. In fact there is a great review and write up about two different popular glow-in-the-dark paints at Observation Blog. Here is his 2 examples of the paints, which even with 8 hours of charge were barely glowing, surely nothing strong enough to light up the grass around it. 

So once again, put down the paint, people. Sadly this isn't even near what the original image is. And please let me know if anyone knows the source of the original image! I'd love to email the photographer or landscapers who did this and give due credit. 

Epsom Salt to Remove Tree Stumps

"Tree Stump Removal - Get rid of tree stumps by drilling holes in the stump and filling them with 100% Epsom salt. Follow with water, and wait. Live stumps may take as long as a month to decay, and start to decompose all by themselves."

A fan sent me this and I was rather curious since I've done a Good Idea Friday in the past on how plants love epsom salt. It took me a bit but I found the source of the image. Guess what? It's for a chemical powder you add to stumps, not epsom salts. But would epsom salts work? 

I found quite a lot of websites that mention this method, but one thing stood out to me - a lot of them said ether rock salt or epsom salt. But as I address in the previous epsom salt post, epsom salt isn't like table/ rock salt. They have different chemical compositions, "salt" is a quite broad scientific term. I have no doubt that perhaps rock salt would work, but the minerals that make up epsom salt I don't see working as well. 

I walked along my lawn trying to find maybe an old stump I didn't know was there, but alas I had none to test this out on. I looked online assuming since it seems like such a popular idea that there would be people who have attempted this as well, but could only find one blog post that talked about actually using this method. Over at Lisa Earthgirl, she writes about trying this out. I asked how it was coming along but unfortunately due to a damp summer, she's going to have to try it again to see if it shows any results. Most other search results ether pulled up questionable commercial sites, or seemed to be along the lines of  "a friend of a friend tried this with success" 

So I'm not calling this a Bad Idea yet, but unproven to date. Personally I think you'd have far more success with something like rock salt which is known to kill plants. If you've tried this with conclusive results, please let us know! 

Penny to Preserve Flowers

"Add a penny with a pinch of sugar into the vase of cut flowers to have them last twice as long!" 

There are a lot of myths out there on what you can do to prolong the beauty of cut flowers. Everything from vodka, bleach, even aspirin is said to help. This one here is an old wives' tale that has been around for so long that I doubt anyone knows where it came from. I remember my grandmother doing this when she bought fresh flowers. But can a copper penny prolong the life of your flowers? No, not really.

Let's start with the water. Tap water is regulated quite strictly; all tap water must maintain a pH level between 6.5-8.5, which is round about the center of pH levels. I've spent quite some time trying to research if copper can alter the pH level of water at all, with no luck of finding any data on this I turned to a chemistry-knowledgeable friend of mine who informed me "Copper does not react with pure water, so it should not affect the pH. If you're talking about tap water, that's a lot more complicated and dependent on the particular contaminants. I'm sure there are side reactions with the other particles that could slightly affect pH, but nothing major since the contaminants are in low quantities."

Why does this matter? Because most cut flowers prefer a higher acidic water. According to a great page by the Horticulture Department of Minnesota - "An acidifier makes the pH of the water more near the acid pH of the cell sap. Most water supplies are alkaline and can reduce the life of cut flowers. The acidifier also stabilizes the pigment and the color of the flower." (source)

Commercial flower preservatives are made up of basically 3 things: sugar, an acidifier to prevent the growth of microorganisms, and a respiratory inhibitor. If copper does not affect the pH levels, perhaps it acts as an antimicrobial in another way, but the results of copper as an antimicrobial are largely debated (source). In large quantities it looks like it might help limit the growth of microbes, but the small amount of copper found on a penny isn't going to do that. It's important to point out that most pennies in circulation today were made after 1982, and are not pure copper. Instead, they are copper-plated zinc and only contain a thin coating of copper on the outside. However, adding a pinch of sugar to the water isn't a bad idea, but it won't get you the same results as a commercial cut flower food will. You're best bet if you don't have any plant food on hand is to just make sure you change the water daily, keep any leaves or foliage out of the water, and a pinch of sugar can't hurt (but leave the pennies in the change jar).

If you're looking on more information on myths of cut flowers, here is a great article by Terril A Nell, PhD, who was chairman of the flower research program at the University of Florida. He touches base on pretty much every flower myth and explains why they aren't true.

Good Idea Friday - Epsom Salt and Plants

I have spring fever, as I imagine a lot of you do. Gardening is by far my biggest hobby, so I'm always looking for quick and easy ways to get my plants and flowers to thrive. Little did I realize a huge helper was right at my feet - literally. 

You see I like to soak my feet in epsom salts and hot water in the evenings, especially in the summer, to help relax and keep my feet looking nice. Afterwards, I would take the water and just dump it over the railing of my porch onto the flower beds below, figuring the water was better recycled than just poured down the drain. To my surprise the roses I had planted there were doing remarkably better than the roses on the other side of the porch! I knew it couldn't have been just the water - it had to be the epsom salts. Sure enough, thanks to pinterest, I've learned a lot of plants, and even your lawn, love epsom salt. It doesn't take a lot to get lush full healthy plants. As little as a tablespoon to a gallon of water is enough to make everything from your grass, roses, and even tomatoes and other veggies happy and healthy. You can buy epsom salts at pretty much any grocery or drug store, though since I use so much as a soaking aid I buy mine in bulk at Costco. 

But why does this work so well? Is it safe to be putting salt of all things on your lawn?

 Well the science behind it is what makes epsom salt different from table salt. Epsom salt is actually magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) vs table salt (Sodium chloride or NaCI). Epsom salt isn't salt the way we think it as - it's actually a compound of magnesium, sulfur and oxygen, where as table salt is sodium and chloride. In scientific terms, salt simply refers to ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base, so a lot of things are technically 'salts'. 

Why this works is because it's not uncommon for the soil to be low in magnesium and sulfur, which certain plants need in order to produce chlorophyll, and sulfur helps with the entire cell structure of the plant it's self, not to mention germination, and even photosynthesis, among many other workings of the plant. 

The official studies are actually mixed on if this works or not, but so far it looks like the top three plants to use it on is roses, tomatoes, and peppers - plants that need a higher magnesium content in the soil are the plants that are going to thrive with a epsom salt water.

"But isn't this salt, and you shouldn't salt the earth?" Good question.  I haven't been able to find much of anything specifically regarding epsom salts and salinization and I imagine that if it was a concern, there would be more data on it out there. If you know you live in an area with high saline content in the dirt, I would recommend using this only in potted plants just to be on the safe side. It's also important to keep the area you've added epsom salts to watered really well, as this helps prevent build up of salts at the root level of the plant, ensuring it doesn't get damaged from any high saline content in the dirt. Another method that I've seen recommended is to just spray the leaves of the plant with water and epsom salt as the salt is able to be absorbed through the leaves, which would be kinder on the soil if that's a concern for you.

  Personally I was able to see just how well it worked, since only one of my three rose bushes was receiving the salted water, that I'm a believer myself.