181 replies to this topic

[ANTdrew]

Update 11/30/2019

 

 Humans aren't the only ones feasting on pumpkin these days. Even though it's been quite chilly around here, Prenolepis imparis ants have been very active in my yard. I was impressed the other night to see a bunch of them chowing down on my Halloween pumpkin, which I had thrown in my compost bin. It was about 49deg F! I definitely hope to find more queens of this species next year. They're just so weird!

 

 

Here is the actual pumpkin pre-decomposition:

 

I carved it while listening to the Washington Nationals win game seven of the World Series on the radio.

 

[ANTdrew]

Update 1-9-2020

 

My garden was blanketed in snow a few days ago, and everything is in deep dormancy. I used some of my extra free time over the holidays to plant a lot of new native plants seeds. Most of these seeds I either gathered off my garden plants or from wild plants in my area. Some special new seeds I found were dawn redwood seeds. This is a species of redwood that was once found in North America, but was thought extinct until being rediscovered in a remote Chinese valley about 60 years ago. There is a nice specimen growing in downtown Leesburg, VA, so I decided to give it a shot. How cool would it be to have a redwood in your yard? It was once native here, so I feel ok growing it.

The other species I planted are:

Echinacea purpurea (purple coneflower)

Rudbeckia laciniata (cutleaf coneflower)

Rudbeckia fulgida (black eyed susan)

Asclepias syriaca (Common milkweed)

Apocynum canabinum (dogbane)

Campsis radicans (trumpet creeper vine)

Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper vine)

Eupatorium fistulosum (hollow stem Joe Pye weed)

Pinus Virginia (Virginia pine)

 

I hope to continue planting some more species soon. These are all native species that I've documented benefiting ants and other insects in this journal.

 

I do a simple process of winter sowing because the majority of these seeds need a cold, damp period of a month or more before they will germinate. The easiest way to do this is to sow the seeds in pots, cover them with shade cloth, and leave them outdoors all winter. It's ridiculously easy to get hundreds of seedlings this way. Buying all these plants at a nursery would set you back a couple hundred bucks in no time.

 

 

Here are the pots protected under shade cloth. This helps keep rodents from raiding the seeds, and it will protect tender seedlings once they emerge come spring.

 

[BeginnerAntKeeper]

Update?

[ANTdrew]

Update?

I’ll put one together ASAP.

[ANTdrew]

Update 3-18-2020

 

Another spring is here in Virginia and it's one like no other. The natural world seems to be the only thing that hasn't been closed, quarantined, or suspended, so my plants are a welcome diversion. None of the native plants have bloomed yet - they're not so easily fooled by false starts. I am getting some germination in starting in my seed trays, however.

 

Two new species I planted this year are Zizia aurea, or golden alexanders and Apocynum canabinum, aka dogbane. Both have started to germinate, which is exciting. Dogbane is a plant I've wanted for a long time because insects love it like no other! It is a cousin of the milkweeds and much loved by pollinators of all kinds. You can make out a tiny bit of green in this photo, which is a seed germinating:

 

I also planted a lot of purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea), and pretty much all of those seeds have germinated:

 

My spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) seeds have also germinated after almost a year of waiting. I put these in an old plastic salad box and keep them moist all summer and all winter to meet their germination requirements. Their box doubled this year as a home for my springtails and a bit of moss I propagated up in the corner.

 

Finally, an elm tree I've been training in a half a**ed manner as a bonsai is starting to leaf out. I started training this tree in 2016, the year my son was born. One of these days I'll get it a legitimate bonsai pot.

 

 

 

Edited by ANTdrew, March 18 2020 - 11:09 AM.

[Martialis]

Have you ever tried any of the spring ephemerals? I think those would be nice!

[ANTdrew]

Affirmative. Virginia Bluebells and the spring beauty in my post up above. They’re really easy using my salad box technique. The only tricky part is gathering seeds before the plants disappear.

[EthanNgo678]

You should grow some native orchids, they are amazing!

[ANTdrew]

That would be out of this world, but incredibly more complicated. Most orchid seeds need symbiotic fungi to survive and germinate. The ones you see in the grocery store are propagated via tissue culture cloning.

[EthanNgo678]

That would be out of this world, but incredibly more complicated. Most orchid seeds need symbiotic fungi to survive and germinate. The ones you see in the grocery store are propagated via tissue culture cloning.

I know, but natives are a bit easier as long as you are willing to start from a bit more than seeds. Like starting from a flask which is much easier.

[FSTP]

One of my favorite journals

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

My dad grows a bunch of greens in the basement. He grows wheat grass, spinach, and a bunch of other plants that only he could name lol

[ANTdrew]

Twist his arm to grow natives, too.

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

I'll try, he said he wanted to grow some plants in a really fertile corner of our backyard, so I'll suggest he grows natives as well

[AntsDakota]

What would Illinois natives be considered? Just curious.

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

Here's a search, as I wouldn't be able to name them all (https://www.google.c...=active&ssui=on)

[ANTdrew]

The majority of the plants mentioned in this journal are native across eastern North America.
Great plants to start with would be milkweeds, black-eyes susans, echinacea, and beebalm.

[ANTdrew]

What would Illinois natives be considered? Just curious.

This company is based out of MN. Everything they sell would be native throughout the midwest. Some of the prairie plants are not native as far east as I am, however.
https://www.prairiemoon.com

Edited by ANTdrew, March 22 2020 - 9:26 AM.

[AntsDakota]

The majority of the plants mentioned in this journal are native across eastern North America.
Great plants to start with would be milkweeds, black-eyes susans, echinacea, and beebalm.

I used to grow all these! Lots of Lasius in that garden. I believe some were even brevicornis, and I also got some americanus, besides the ever so abundant neoniger. Had a couple claviger colonies, as well.

[ANTdrew]

Why did you stop growing them?