Anne @anne@beach.city

@anne @Maltimore @puffinus_puffinus @InvaderXan One of the reasons for crop rotations is to try and counter this issue. Some plants add nitrogen, others use up lots, etc, so by rotating crops, the soil doesn't get depleted.

Though you need to add manure as well as rotate crops. Here I would add green manures or farmyard manure, rather than any fertilizer that comes from fossil fuels.

@anne @Maltimore @puffinus_puffinus @InvaderXan if capitalism took into account environmental degradation costs, suddenly monocultures aren't that cheap.

Can a nonbinary boy participate in #wenbiesday ? Either way I thought I rocked this goth disaster look yesterday (I got lots of disapproving looks in the library so I'll mark that down as a win)

Feathery friends spotted by the Dowager on his way home ✨

What are y'all's favourite keyboard-driven chromeless web browsers? I know of Next and Luakit.

PSA! Finding work for my friend who's a nutritionist/personal trainer. Please read because there's a lot to this :D Also please share! <3

My friend Jen has fibro, IC, depression, and anxiety. Two years ago she was hugely overweight and unfit, and walking ~100m was enough exertion that she'd feel sick afterwards. Today, she's lost 80kg in weight and is a qualified personal trainer and nutritionist. She does Krav, boxing, runs a community social walking group, teaches teens self-defense. (1/?)

wth is this weird thing! it looks like a cnidarian, related to jellyfish and corals, but it looks like a singular polyp (the coral individual, usually like .5 cm across) but this one is huge!!!!!!! like 20+ cm and looks like a calcified base? maybe a wild kinda cup coral

*cracks an eyelid* cuddles?

#deanwye #LeafPeeping °

#inktober day 15: rust monster! almost halfway thru
#inktober2019 #rpginktober #mastoart #ttrpg

@puffinus_puffinus @Maltimore @GwenfarsGarden
Yeah, that's the big cause of land degradation in monoculture farming. The land gets sucked dry of nutrients and ends up barren.

Even monoculture farms need to sometimes give fields a fallow year, to let nature sort things out. Other farmers plant beans to enrich the soil with nitrogen.

They usually don't even harvest the beans, annoyingly. When I was a kid, I used to go and "acquire" lots of them from nearby fields. It's not like they'd be missed!

@emsenn @GwenfarsGarden @puffinus_puffinus @Maltimore
But yeah. Most of the nutrients any plant needs need comes from the soil. No plant can survive without those nutrients.

However, it is true that plants are mostly made of cellulose and lignin. These are the biopolymers which make up all their structures, and which we process into paper. And those are built, essentially, from sugar. Plants get sugar from photosynthesis – they convert CO2 into sugar to store it and/or use it.

So a significant amount of any plant was indeed once atmospheric carbon dioxide – or, more simply, air.

@emsenn @GwenfarsGarden @puffinus_puffinus @Maltimore
As for nitrogen, it's more than just a catalyst. In plants, it's an integral component of the molecular structure of chlorophyll. See this image. The N is nitrogen. Note also the magnesium (Mg) atom in the centre!

All life on Earth also needs nitrogen to build proteins. Plants usually just build as many proteins as they can, so lots of nitrogen and lots of light makes plants grow faster. Nitrogen is also fixed from the atmosphere by soil bacteria. Some plants (notably legumes) cultivate these bacteria symbiotically in their root nodules.

@emsenn @GwenfarsGarden @puffinus_puffinus @Maltimore
If we're to be technical, the only things which create potassium are stars ☀️

On Earth, metals get passed around from one form to another. Plants (and animals) need bioavailable sources, which usually means salts. As well as potassium, plants need many other minerals. Manganese and magnesium, for instance, are essential for chlorophyll to function. Mostly, plants get these from ground water, which usually contains enough dissolved minerals to meet their needs.

precious boy

Not much decides to predate/nibble on #Saffron but if you have deer or rabbits, they can kill the crop by eating off the leaves in winter. I hear if you have rats in your garden, they might actually dig up and eat a corm.

The only thing I've ever seen in my garden is some nibbling by squirrels on the flower petals during the harvest, and it pretty much looks like the below. My wire cover is loose with gaps and this fresh nibbling probably took place last night.

Here is an emerging #Saffron shot, where you can see the flowers starting to come out of the corm tips. The layers spiral a bit, and the flower moves right up the center.

Two blooms are emerging here, and if the sun comes out and the flowers warm up enough, they will open fully.

Deity in the house! Welcome, #Saffron!

Here is the first flower to appear. Unless you take the time and effort to grow saffron, or intentionally research it, most people never have an opportunity to see the flowers.

I will let this flower stay for a couple more hours, and actually open, so I can take some pictures.