Find out why Janet is trying "Tricontanol" — a natural fatty acid growth stimulant!

Breaking News Warning! This is NOT a proven new weight-loss drug! In fact Tricontanol is a natural fatty acid growth stimulant.

HM! Gardens (Hommel Mangas Gardens) located in Greenwood, Indiana is an official site for a new Hosta Growth Study. The question had to be answered: “To use Alfalfa Pellets or Not to use Alfalfa Pellets.”

During the spring-like winter we experienced in the Heartland, which includes good ole Indiana, I was introduced to some plant rumors that prestigious Universities like to call "research studies" —  which basically means I read some plant fertilization hints on the internet and I’m going to do my own research to find out if it works.

Alfalfa meal or pellets, that are used as animal feed, have also been used to increase organic matter in the soil and offer nutrients and a high availability of trace minerals. Here’s the kicker: they contain triacontanol, a natural fatty-acid growth stimulant.

Are you "Woe is me" because your Hosta Wu is not "Wow"

I'll let you know in another month if this is the greatest idea EVER — or not!

So figured that "why yes, I would like bigger hostas and double the number and size of flower buds on my flowering plants," so I jumped into my horse-driven wagon and headed to the Tractor Supply Store. (Any feed store would carry it, but Rural King also offers free popcorn — just saying.) You can pick up a 40lb. bag of Alfalfa Pellets for about $11.99. 

Just so you don't get the idea that I follow any fad that comes along, the following information from the Sault Ste. Marie Horticultural Society in Ontario Canada is entitiled: Alfalfa Pellets—Wonder Drug for Hosta?

   

Triacontanol has been called “the most potent growth hormone ever”. It can be extracted from alfalfa in one of the following ways:

1.     Soak 5 tablets (500-600 mg. of compressed alfalfa) in one gallon of water for 24 hours. Agitate and drench the plants with it as many as 5x during the growing season.

2.      Add 2-3 cupfuls of alfalfa meal (be sure it has not been denatured by high heat) to 1 yard of soil or compost.

3.      Use alfalfa meal or chopped alfalfa as a light mulch or top dress around plants and apply water.

4.      Put a couple of handfuls in an old sock, put the sock in a 5 gallon bucket and let it make alfalfa tea in about 48 hours. Use the water on your plants.

   

Alfalfa pellets look a little like goose poop when you apply it and it smells just a bit. So I sprinkled  the pellets around in a circular base under the leaves of my flowering plants and hostas (away from the plant stems) and  and let it rain first. Rain makes the pellets expand like marshmallow Peeps  in the microwave. Of course, you can be boring and water the pellets in. But I chose to also use lovely cocoa shell mulch, (which is supposed to divert slugs) to cover the Alfalfa pellets about three weeks later.

Beneficial results are as follows:

1.       Early breaking of dormancy.

2.       Doubling of weight of plants in one year.

3.       Up to three years of growth in one growing season.

4.       Root system greatly increases.

5.       Possible stimulation of mycorrhizal bacteria and reported inhibition of pathogens.

6.       Doubling of number and size of flower buds, flowers and seeds.

7.       Much improved quality of growth with increased number and thickness of leaves.

   

Source: Westside Hosta FAQ by Hosta folks.

I will keep you updated on my official research findings. And if you go to the Tractor Supply Store in Greenwood, tell Racquel hello!

Love At First Smell...

I fell in love the first time I smelled her.

She caught my eye clothed in purple as she delicately swayed in the breeze — in rhythm to the jazz music playing at a garden party.

Now thirty years later she still stands out among the hundreds of others that have come courting my heart.

I love lavender.

Maybe it’s the bright purple color that towers over the fragrant, needle-like leaves. Maybe it’s her distinct musky aroma that beckons my love — and the hundreds of honeybees that are drawn to her like magnets.  I realize, of course, that I’m not her only lover.

Perhaps what intrigues me is that people like me have been using her as a remedy for ailments for thousands of years.  She can be used for cooking, as tea, essential oil or soaps and bath salts. The ancients use to call her spikenard or nard — I just refer to her as lavender.  She was used in ancient times by the Egyptians and people of Arabia for perfume and mummification, Romans employed lavender oils for cooking and bathing in addition to using the strong scent as a natural insecticide. In ancient Greece, lavender was called “nardus,” “nard,” or “spikenard”  — named for the Syrian city of Naarda.

Lately I’ve slept with a new lavender sachet near my pillow and understand first hand why this herb has been used for thousands of years as a remedy for sleeping ailments. The University of Maryland Medical Center recently noted: “Research has confirmed that lavender produces slight calming, soothing, and sedative effects when its scent is inhaled.”

Scientific evidence suggests that aromatherapy with lavender slows the activity of the nervous system, improves sleep quality, promotes relaxation, and lifts mood in people suffering from sleep disorders.   

According to Prevention, new research shows “Psychologists at Wesleyan University asked 31 men and women to sniff lavender essential oil one night--and then distilled water the next--for four 2-minute periods just before bedtime. The researchers monitored their sleep cycles with brain scans. On the night they whiffed the herb, subjects slept more soundly; they also felt more energetic the next morning.

 The researchers found that lavender increased slow-wave sleep, the very deep slumber in which the heartbeat slows and muscles relax. During this phase, the brain is thought to organize memory, as well.”

Lavandula augustifolia at Willowfield Lavender Farm in Mooresville, Indiana.

But as I admitted, I’m not lavender’s only lover.

The first written record of the healing power of lavender is attributed to the Greek military physician Dioscorides around 77 AD. Dioscorides, collected medicinal plants from around the Mediterranean and noted in that De Materia Medica that lavender, when taken internally relieved indigestion, headaches and sore throats. Externally, lavender could be used to clean wounds and burns or treat skin ailments

It is recorded that Horace offered to send Virgil a whole barrel of his best wine in exchange for a phial of nard.

Roman Elder, Pliny, in his Natural History, published in the first century AD, listed twelve species of nard, ranging from lavender stoechas and tuberous valerian to true nard —  and recorded that lavender was good for menstrual problems, stomach problems, kidney disorders, jaundice, insect bites, dropsy, and infections.

According to Bible Fragrances: “In the Old Testament, nard is referred to in the Song of Songs, as a symbol of the intimate nature of the Bride’s love. This is the point at which relations with her beloved are initiated. When the perfume of nard is named, the bride recognizes her beloved as such.”


Like I said — I fell in love the first time I smelled her.