This Week In Ag #144
Much like when a local radio station starts its non-stop Yuletide music, a plant that ushers in the holiday season is the Christmas cactus. It gets its festive name because it starts to bloom right after Thanksgiving. Blooms are triggered by the reduced light levels this time of year. Like all cacti, the Christmas cactus is a succulent, meaning it features thick fleshy tissues that store water. But don’t let the cactus name fool you. Unlike their famous cousin, the Saguaro cactus, Christmas cacti are actually tropical plants that originated in the Brazilian rainforest. They prefer humid conditions with indirect sunlight. They are also epiphytes, meaning they grow on other plants for support, but they are not parasitic and do not harm their hosts. They absorb water from the air, rain, or dew, and take in nutrients from decaying organic matter in their host. In their native habitat, you’ll often find them growing on trees.
Related Posts
This Week in Ag #4
Wednesday was Tax Day. For farmers, it was. Unlike the rest of us, farmers (and fishermen) file taxes on March 1. Due to the complexities of farming, including depreciation schedules for machinery, most farmers hire a professional tax preparer to help file their Schedule F. These are often independent accountants. And most are long-standing, often
It’s ALIVE!
by Heather Jennings, PE . . . the lagoon sludge layer, that is. I’ve seen many lagoons full of sludge, and the general attitude I find in the water industry is that the sludge layer is inert and really can only be mechanically dredged. To a certain point, that is correct: sand, soil, grit, plastics—basically
This Week in Ag #7
For most farmers, April means the start of planting season. It’s a lot like opening day for a baseball team: heavy planning, great excitement and anticipation, lots of optimism and more than a few watch outs. So when exactly do farmers start planting? While they all have a plan, Mother Nature usually has the final say. There is
