Twinkle in bloom!

I am really excited to see my Oncidium Twinkle in bloom! These are the first blooms from new pseudobulbs that grew under my watch! 

Last year, I had yanked off three pseudobulbs because they were developing brown spots that I thought might have been rot and I wasn't sure if I did the right thing. It still had three pseudobulbs and I hoped it would be okay. It's recommended that you leave at least three pseudobulbs on an orchid so that it has enough energy reserves to continue growing and developing. An orchid requires a lot of energy to develop and without three pseudobulbs, you could be waiting years before seeing rapid growth and flowers.

Twinkle is currently sitting on the corner of my desk so I can enjoy the blooms and the fragrance. It's not an overwhelming fragrance but when there is air movement, I can smell it and it makes me happy.

Mushroom progress and harvest

They grow very quickly!

This was the progress after a week! When they started to look dried out, it was time to harvest. I didn't think they were getting any bigger.

It's not much but it was enough for me to add to my scrambled eggs this morning (along with spinach and onions) and I am very happy with the results!

Mushrooms growing

At least, I think they're growing. I noticed today there are some little blobby things that weren't in the picture in the last post!

I followed the instructions on the box which was to cut an X in the plastic packaging and then let it soak in water for about 8 hours. I then spritz it with water every couple of days so that the growing medium doesn't dry out.

I'll keep updating!

Mushrooms

For Christmas, one of my friends gave me a Mushroom Mini Farm from Back To The Roots. I had one of these before, well, two. The first one wasn't so successful and nothing grew. The second one languished on my bookshelf and after a couple of months, I found that mushrooms had grown out of it and dried. Not really thinking about it, I threw out the mushrooms. I should have just re-hydrated them.

So now, I bring you iteration 3. I just let it soak over night and it is now it will sit and be sprayed for the next few days. I'll report back on whether anything has grown.