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coshipi — Tamarind trees and ginger
Published: 2005-12-06 19:34:44 +0000 UTC; Views: 193; Favourites: 1; Downloads: 34
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Description
Two and a half tamarind trees and some ginger plants growing in pots in our window, seen from outdoors.Cambridgeshire, England.
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Comments: 30
So that's what tamarind trees look like. Hopefully the greenhouse will be finished soon, so that they can move...
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The greenhouse is finished - [link] - but it's full of plants waiting to go out to the allotment at the moment!
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Well, bigger than they were a few months ago, anyway 
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Nice plants! Simona would love them too. Foliage is her thing, whilst I tend to go for exotic flowers. What are the soil and temperature conditions?
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I really don't know a lot about the soil - we just do things by instinct, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The soil for the tamarinds is a mixture of "universal compost" cheapo cheapo from our local Wilkinsons, and builder's sand that I have for building work - because I know that tamarinds grow quite well in the part of India I know well, where the soil's pretty sandy and leached. We keep the soil moist with reasonably frequent but totally unmeasured watering, other than looking at it to see it's not too dry or too wet.
Temperature is just typical UK centrally-heated indoors temperature.
The only other thing we did specially for the tamarinds was to file away the outer casing of the seeds a bit, after totally failing to germinate some without. This is based on the knowledge that they frequently grow after passing through the gizzards of Indian hornbills, which do a pretty good grinding job on them. Oh, and give them some extra light in the winter months.
I've almost finished building a double-glazed greenhouse that we'll keep warmer than just frost free, and with supplementary lighting for winter, to grow things like this in. I have jack fruit trees, mango trees and a lychee tree on the windowsill at work waiting to move into it.
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Interesting! I've never experienced a double-glazed greenhouse - can't wait to see pics of the resultant verdant explosion!
My step-father, when he worked for the NCB and got free coal, built a coal-fired, indirect (gravity-fed water circuit) heater for his greenhouse. The novelty soon wore off because he didn't design in any control feedback; it was too time-consuming to maintain a constant temperature. Many plants died as a result of violent temperature fluctuations!
KK
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I'm proposing to use a thermostatically controlled fan heater to keep the temperature from dropping too far in cold weather. I'd rather use a less environmentally unfriendly fuel, but it'd be a lot of trouble in comparison, and the electricity consumption to keep a pretty well insulated greenhouse from dropping below about 5°C won't be that much. I might put in a chimneyless fireplace of some kind to burn a small amount of junk mail and scrap wood to cut down on electricity consumption, and raise the carbon dioxide levels in the greenhouse, but I've not yet investigated whether any adverse effects of carbon monoxide or other pollutants might rule that out.
Sunny days in summer are likely to be more problematical. I've got a couple of decent sized windows that open nice and wide, and a big door, but they're going to be manually operated, initially at least. I've not made any plans so far for thermostatically controlled motorized opening and closing.
It's constructed out of old double glazed patio doors that I bought for a song from the local recycling centre, plus those two big openers from an aluminium framed double glazed bay window from the same source.
I'll probably put a couple of pics of it up soon.
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Hi,
Have you considered using Nitinol (so-called 'muscle wire') for ventilation control? For longevity it should not be forced to undergo length changes of more than about 5% so you would need to multiply by means of pulleys or gears I guess. Also, I'm not sure about temperature ranges of operation but if ambient changes were insufficient directly you just pass a heating current through it. I'm interested in robotics (only passively unfortunately) - that's how I encountered articles about it. I don't know anyone who's used the stuff but it might be worth some experimentation. Controlling your big door is a different matter! Is it a sliding door? Maybe London Transport have some old tube train hydraulic door gear!
Rgds, KK
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They really make good progresses, I remember them when just a seed
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I'll try the washing machine for some plants at home
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We certainly couldn't have put plants on top of our old washing machine, it would have thrown them off in a fit of temper. But this one's ever so even-tempered.
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Peaceful? Those pots are sitting on top of the washing machine! The plants seem to like it there though, you're right. Obviously the din and vibration of a washing machine is a whole lot better than a Crown Prince talking softly to his plants.
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Aha - Prince Charles (the Crown Prince) is well known for talking to his plants, and believing that it encourages them to grow.
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Maybe, but it doesn't seem to be as effective as putting them on top of the washing machine!
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All creatures, all plants, have their own characteristics and qualities. It all comes from their roots.
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Creature's roots? Ah, ancestors. Yes, then - well, mostly, anyway.
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Um. Well - so far, so good, anyway.
But the papaya trees died 
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Plants are said to love music. Maybe you should have sung a song to them and perhaps saved them. Such as, "Oh, My Papaya."
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The tamarinds and the ginger seem to prefer the din and vibration of the washing machine to anyone singing. Maybe papayas are different
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I can't reply to that one, Clive. I've got plenty of ink but I've run out of papaya.
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