I am OCD when it comes to my growing in general. My wife probably laughs under her breath at how often i move my plants around. Sometimes i stand there, puffing away on my ecig, looking at my seedlings lovingly.

She must think i am insane, But i think it helps to show your plants love.

jifjifjif LOL! We must share the same genetics. I do the same; standing there smokin my ecig staring at my seedlings contemplating in a trance. I think my wife thinks I'm a nut! she wonders who I love more; my plants or her?

Eric

Hahahaha. Awesome, Leaf!

There's not much better than vaping away with a beer in hand and staring at your pepper plants.

Took me a while to figure out ecig... Thought it was a strange acronym! Don't have any strange habits when growing plants, unless you count havin the parrot help with every step. He really loves mixing up fresh potting soil, weeding (I have great video of him weeding the aspargus bed), and of course harvesting. But that's not idiosyncratic... Is it?

I always wanted a parrot; I never did get one cus I don't want a pet that will outlive me.
sunnibel7, anyway you could post that video. Me and my wife would love to see it. She is a bird nut and was teased in elementary school. They called her "Birdbrain"
Since birds are not affected by capsicum; I wonder if you could train a parrot to plant pepper seeds for you?

jifjifjif, don't drink too much you may actually think you saw them grow..

Eric.

"I give some encouraging words/tones to those that are lagging, and give praise and appreciation to those that are doing well.

That's not quirky; that's just good practice."

So, THAT'S what I've been doing wrong. ;)

Kevin

Eric, did you ever think of adopting a parrot? Older birds sometimes get left behind by those they have outlived and have no interested family members to take them in. Of course, adopting one means you have to jump through all the hoops that you can avoid when you just buy one. Most important, they need fairly constant companionship, someone at home fairly often. Anyhow, it is only a thought. We only have the one parrot because we realized our limits where quickly being reached with 1 parrot, 1 very old budgie, 2 cats, 1 dog, and various chickens. Though it is a party out in the garden when the weather is warm!

I have no clue how to post a video, but I would share it with you by email if you like. It is very short. He can't really be trained not to eat a seed, so I don't think planting is the ideal task. He's really not that well suited for harvest, either, unless you count feeding himself. Or if you want a single bite out of every fruit. Seems like that is intrinsic bird behavior.

Not sure I could give a parrot all the time it needs:(
My cats are demanding enough. They like to wake us up like 3 am. Sometimes I catch the one sitting on my wife's head chewing on her hair while she sleeps.
We used to go to our local pet shop and visit the parrots but they have now closed down and all the other local pet shops don't keep parrots, too costly of an investment I guess.

Eric

This post was edited by LeafEricson on Sun, Feb 17, 13 at 11:36

I am OCD when it comes to my growing in general. My wife probably laughs under her breath at how often i move my plants around. Sometimes i stand there, puffing away on my ecig, looking at my seedlings lovingly.

She must think i am insane, But i think it helps to show your plants love.

Was just talking to an old country dude the other day. He said his dad grew the hottest peppers around his town, he couldn't tell me exactly what they were though. Anyhow he said his dad smoked and drank around them,cussed at his plants and even took a whiz on them from time to time (eww). How is that for strange growing practices !? Anybody ever hear of such methods !?

Sounds like the way I treat my cats. It must be effective. They claim to love me and do let me sleep until 7am.

Can't say I talk to my plants, though I do harangue the cats when working with them. Maybe they won't know any better and think it's for them.

rodnebridges, that's not strange at all..
My paranoid, skitsofrantic, alcoholic friend with 13 cats; drinks, smokes, pee's on his plants and drains his grey water (water from his washing machine) onto his plants. LOL his plants grow like they were on steroids with more fruit than you would expect!
He says it's all the phosphorus from the laundry detergent.. Oh yea, he mumbles all day long; not sure who he is talking to, maybe the plants maybe the black helicopters in the sky.
As for me; besides staring at my plants for way too long I give every plant two asprin when I transplant them.

Eric

Rodne:

The pissing I can see would be an acceptable practice-- not too many things that are as high in Nitrogen as urine. The smoking -- I do it, but you're not supposed to because of tobacco mosaic virus. The drinking -- can't hurt... may as well be happy as one toils in the summer heat of his or her garden. ;)

Kevin

So, Eric, I'm curious about the aspirin. Did you hear of any particular reason for doing that? I've got a whole bottle of "expired" aspirin, fortunately.

Grey water also has soap, which is the vaccine for hydrophobia.

spacetogrow, aspirin works great! It contains salicylic acid. Aspirin was originally derived from willow tree bark. Salicylic acid makes roots grow like crazy and a lot of people use willow bark for cloning plants. Unfortunately I don't have a readily available source of willow so I use aspirin instead. I prefer willow and I have proved it's effectiveness in comparison to aspirin with deep water culture hydroponics. If you have a weeping willow tree chop up some branches and put them in with the roots and you will see the difference. If not then try some aspirin like I do and see for yourself. Either way you can't loose:)

DMForcier, hydrophobia??? You lost me there...

Eric

Peat (and some soils) doesn't like to absorb water: hydrophobia, or "fear of water". Soap is a wetting agent that lets the two happily make mud.

Thanks for clarifying.
I use a little dish detergent with any foliar spray to help the nutrients absorb better into the leaves.

Eric

I have veggie plants throughout my living space. I could never go back to living without an indoor jungle.

I gently run my hands over the tops of pepper and tomato plants when I go past them. Some family members think I'm petting them or showing them how much I care for them. Actually, I'm trying to toughen them up without having to run a fan in the room. Maybe if I didn't also talk while touching the plants, my family would actually believe me!

Yes, thanks for clearing up "hydrophobia" which I remember as being and old fashioned term for rabies. Had me scratching my head for a couple of moments there...