Thanks for posting this! I opened RIF this morning to see what would happen and I was surprised to see that it seems to still work (I didn’t try logging in). I hope it’s what you described and not some kind of mistake that’s going to cost RIF millions of dollars!

Wow so cool! I wish I lived in a climate where growing outside on trees was possible. I live in Seattle, not exactly prime territory. Although I would like to learn about orchids native to the area.

It’s pretty good! I have only listened to a few episodes so far. I have tended to skip through the first 30-40% of the episodes, which has been a lot of discussion of the guest’s academic training and career, which isn’t very interesting to me personally. After they finish talking about that, I usually enjoy the rest of each episode!

Wow! Good luck getting to 100! What city are you in?

I heard about the orchid project on this podcast episode, a pretty interesting interview: https://www.indefenseofplants.com/podcast/2022/5/29/ep-371-the-million-orchid-project

This is pretty out of the box. It’s just something we’ve wanted to do for awhile and we’re using the 4th of July as an opportunity:

DIY nacho bar: everyone gets a cookie sheet, there’s a table with various chips, cheeses, and toppings, and you take turns under the broiler

DIY sundae bar: same thing, but ice cream (and no broiler!)

What a cute idea! How many have you given away so far?

Reminds me a bit of the Million Orchid Project, where plants are given to community members and schools to plant out in their community https://fairchildgarden.org/science-and-education/science/million-orchid-project/

I love how paprika will extract the ingredients and cooking instructions from a recipe site so I don’t have to hunt through a page that’s a mile long!

It looks terrific! I’ve never seen one of those growing so rambunctiously. Why do you think your succulents usually get leggy?

So satisfying to bring a plant back from the dead! Congratulations! The color is really pretty in the newest picture. Does it normally change color throughout the year or is the color change a reaction to the stress?

Interesting! I wonder if other countries will follow suit and if alcohol packaging will eventually go the way of tobacco labels. I also wonder if it will have less of an effect than tobacco labelling – so often you get a drink at a restaurant or bar where the consumer wouldn’t see the labels, compared to a cigarette that’s almost always purchased as a back by the smoker.

Great point!

Wow, it’s finally approved. I feel like I’ve been hearing about lab-grown meat forever and I wasn’t sure it would ever come to market. Then in the meantime Beyond/Impossible came onto the scene with their technology. To be honest their products are such close imitations of meat, I wonder how much better this lab grown meat could be. I also wonder about the cost.

Love it! They look so fragile during that process. Like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis

I’m intrigued!

You can make pizza dough with sourdough starter and get the protein through toppings. Here is a recipe by Paul Hollywood for sourdough pizza, with a little yeast thrown in to help it rise. “Strong white bread flour” is the same as bread flour, in case the “strong” throws you off.

Beautiful! The waxy case makes them seem so precious and special to me.

I haven’t ever gotten them to re-bloom on purpose. I just keep them around for years and periodically they do. Some re-bloom much more often than others. I got a few orchid books out of the library recently to take a more informed approach. It seems like many different factors can influence re-blooming and that it depends on the genus/species. Temperature changes like you mentioned, also day length, amount of light, even pressure changes with the weather! Good luck with your orchids.

I know what you mean! To be honest I get pretty excited about new roots too haha, all new growth is exciting

Here is a picture from today showing the current state of the spike, along with an emerging root!

Great question! I know for sure because the picture is from a couple of weeks ago and by now it’s clearly a flower spike.

I had your same question when the growth was at the stage shown in the picture. I looked up how to tell the difference between flower spike and root. What I learned was that two signs of flower spike are:

• Located right below the middle of where a leaf attaches to the stem, because that’s the location of a node that can become a flower spike. Roots can come from a greater variety of locations around the stem.
• Shaped like a mitten, in other words the growth is slightly asymmetric. I believe the thumb is a forming node and the fingers part is where the spike will continue growing. The mitten shape is not present in this image, it developed a day or two later. In contrast, a developing root is fully symmetric/round.

There may be other signs too or these may be incorrect, please share if you know them!