Sunflower Report 2.0

Ok, so I wanted to try raising praying mantises before I made the connection that the mantis is the friend of the sunflower — but that’s really cool — and it is true that praying mantises are voracious insect eaters.

I happened to be at a store called American Science and Surplus, a wonderful, dangerous place, with parts and odds and ends and some scientific and biological doodads from time to time — and I couldn’t help but notice a praying mantis “kit” from Worlds Alive. Then about a year later I got it out and actually ordered the mantis egg case — hmmm, about 2 months ago — and the first egg case was a dud — but they sent me another.

The package below is what you get in the mail — just an egg case — and then there’s the brochure from the original kit.

But if/when this second egg case actually results in praying mantises, then it will make for some interesting shenanigans — and there is a separate blog ready to go, just in case.

Since you were kind enough to read this blog post, you might also enjoy taking a peek at http://www.cftw.com/clubmantis — a game that a student from a class I taught last year created.

Over the course of the summer I suppose I’ll dig into the digital archives and dust off some of the ideas that were floating around my head last fall and winter for sunflower, mantis and other “characters”. And then it will become a little clearer. And I’ll categorize this entry as a “Pronkle” entry; and gradually things will start to make sense.

But just so you don’t think I’m kidding, here is a preview of one of the characters, “Grond” — basically a 3d drawing by Alexandra Constantin (who is a wonderful 3d artist, and who is available for freelance). And Grond, or Grondlet, was inspired by the sunflower of the same name from last summer. (see http://sunflowerreport.blogspot.com)

This entry is partly to put my money where my mouth is, to take my own medicine; I’ve been busy sending seeds out, getting the seeds in the ground, but now that summer is officially here in five days, we’re coming around to where I need to get people blogging — so of course, I need to be doing it myself.

So — here is my second attempt — or shall we say, third attempt. The first attempt at seedlings were attacked by varmints of various kinds, and some have survived, so I grew some seedlings in a tray (but didn’t take pictures - doh!), and this was the second attempt — coming along, have some nice ones by the fence (see how pictures would be nice here?). Then for fun, since various folks in various parts are trying different techniques, I decided to have a backup to the backup — and am trying to see how things go using peat moss plugs — this may end up becoming the official recommendation for starting sunflowers.

At any rate, the peat moss plug tray comes with little discs of peat moss, you add water, and then the plastic tops helps to keep moisture in, and is an idea environment for sprouting things. In this case, I also soaked the sunflower seeds for 12 something hours in water the night prior — so the idea will be to see how soon the seeds will sprout.

And here is a close-up of the peat moss plugs:

I will probably end up pushing the seeds further down in the peat moss plug. Ah! with the other end of a pencil I guess.