Tea Time

I will be growing three herbs in the garden: German Chamomile, Lavender, and Peppermint.

All three of these herbs have medicinal properties and mysterious voodoo power. The flowers of the German Chamomile and Lavender are the only things you dry and make tea out of, but with Peppermint you use the leaves. None of the plants are poisonous, but the parts that are used for tea and the like are just the sweetest with the most oils and the ones that are the least bitter. In addition, all three of these herbs are quite hardy and the Chamomile is self-sowing, the Lavender grows big quick, and the Peppermint is rather invasive.

German Chamomile is an erect annual best planted in August before any chance of frost. Here in San Diego the temperate climate is perfect for this hardy, sun-germinating plant. They take about 7 to 14 days to take off and around 6 weeks before they start flowering and are ready to pick. It's good to also note that they will take more time to dry. The plant is annual and once its seeds are on top of the soil they often can spread like weeds; however, they help in calcium absorption in compost piles and can be easily weeded. It does not require too much space to produce quite a lot of flowers for tea and will keep growing new ones when old ones are cut off. Plants should be six inches apart. The soil doesn't have to spectacular by any means, just well drained. In addition, chamomile likes soil more on the acidic side. The plant should be watered regularly but not over-watered by a sprinkler. I'm going to plant it alongside the other herbs, but they can be next to vegetables like cabbage or tomatoes, etc. due to their great bug-repelling properties.

Lavender is a perennial shrub that grows well on the mild Pacific Coast. It is most commonly propagated by cutting choice parts of existing plants since seeds create unpredictable varieties of the original plant. They should be planted about 18 inches to 24 inches apart and kept in more alkaline soil with full sunlight. Make sure the soil isn't too wet otherwise the lavender will grow poorly and if the soil is too rich the lavender will be lush but the fragrance, in either case, will not be strong or concentrated in the flowers. It grows to about one to one-and-a-half feet in height. If you plant from seed you can sometimes freeze to improve germination. Lavender takes about 12 to 16 weeks to grow to the point of harvest, then 8 to 10 weeks to dry and cure. While cultivating, keep them constantly watered (but not too much) and watch out for the bees the plants are sure to attract.

Peppermint is a perennial herb that grows well in many climates and can potentially become a weed, spreading over any available space. They grow best in rich, moist soil with not a lot of fertilizer. They don't need to be tended to very much, but it's good to prune the plant back to half its size when it grows to 6 to 8 inches high, otherwise the mint grows too many leaves and the oils are dispersed throughout a larger plant. To keep a constant supply of mint through all seasons, fertilize the pruned part heavily to re-stimulate growth. The plants can grow to a height of about 12 to 18 inches, in a sprawling loose-bush mass. They should be planted 18 to 24 inches apart. Also like lavender, they like mildly alkaline soil and need to be planted at least 8 weeks prior to any frost. Peppermint seeds take 12 to 16 days to germinate. They're often grown from plugs cut from other plants and once the leaves are picked it takes about 4 weeks to dry and cure them to tea-readiness. They also like full sun.

Union-Trib Article Response Questions

Well, on Thursday afternoon after the school's electricity went out, we soon found out (thank goodness for smartphones) that the blackout was county-wide. However, we had already planned on going to the beach afterschool, so my dad, two sisters, and I went over the hill to Santa Cruz street and into the ocean. After that, however, we didn't have enough gas (can't get gas with no electricity) to make it through the insane amount of traffic pouring out of Point Loma and OB. We also realized that we didn't have filtered water at home. To wait out the traffic, we visited an old teacher friend from Mt. Everest Academy since she lives over on Adascadero. That was actually really fun and when the traffic cleared up we headed on home.

I went to bed early, but ironically enough (this is how I heard it) after my sister had blown out all the candles in the house and was walking down the hall to her bedroom, all the lights came on. Pretty eerie, huh?

Carbon Fixation in Elodea Analysis

1. The phenol red changes color when bubbles are blown into the tube because we exhale carbon dioxide. When the CO2 in our exhaled breath dissolves into the water it forms carbonic acid, which acidifies the water. Since phenol red is a pH indicator, it turned to a urine yellow color when the water became more acidic (pH<7) and its hydrogen ion concentration increased, indicating the presence of CO2 necessary for carbon fixation.
2. When we were blowing bubbles into the water, it took around 5 to 10 (max.) seconds for the water to turn yellow, which means the carbon dioxide dissolved quickly into carbonic acid. However, the fact that it took longer for the Elodea to fixate the carbon would be subject to other variables besides the amount of CO2 we blew into the water.
3. Although the light independent stage of photosynthesis is, indeed, light independent, the energy needed to fixate carbon is derived from the light dependent stage of photosynthesis. Therefore, the plants were placed under the grow lights in order to indirectly supply the energy for the light independent stage of photosynthesis.
4. We saw no change in the color of the phenol red test tube without any elodea, most likely due to the fact that there was no plant in it to fixate the carbon so the carbonic acid was just left to sit there and make  the water acidic.
5. Carbon fixation does not occur in humans or any other heterotrophs. Only autotrophs (which all of earth depends upon for energy) make their own food and can create energy from inorganic molecules. Almost all plants are autotrophs, but even fungi are not producers.
6. Plants don't eat carbon. They take the inorganic molecules of Carbon Dioxide and reduce them to organic molecules that supply energy for them and all other biological organisms. Carbon fixation, personally, is easiest described as the process of "fixing" inorganic molecules and making them organic, or synthesizing sugar from CO2.
7. The controls in this experiment were the tube with only phenol red and the covered tube with elodea. Since the purpose of the experiment was to observe carbon fixation and the conditions needed to stimulate the synthesis of monosaccharides, the color of the phenol red in the tube exposed to the grow light could be compared to the covered tube (and that tube could be compared to the phenol red tube) in order to demonstrate that the light independent stage of photosynthesis is, in actuality, dependent on the energy generated during photosynthesis, and also that without carbon fixation the carbonic acid stayed in the water as indicated by the yellow coloration in the phenol red only tube. Without controls, variables cannot be isolated and conclusions cannot be accurately drawn from experiments. When a variable is changed, we still need something to compare it to in order to observe the effect of that change--the control serves that purpose.

Attack of "Fishzilla"

The Channa argus, also known as the Nothern Snakehead, is an uprising threat in many countries including the United States. Growing up to more than 1 meter in length and weighing up to 15 lbs, they have no natural predator in the food chain. 

These Snakefishes are thrust feeders. As juveniles, they feed on plankton, aquatic insects and mollusks, and when they grow up, they prey on other fish. They can come in and dominate almost any freshwater ecosystem. They are extremely difficult to contain, as they can breathe for up to 4 days of atmospheric air, and wriggle over a 1/4 mile of land to a new body of water.

They originated out of Asia and were introduced to America as a food-fish. When people began to release wild Snakeheads into American habitat, the population exploded and they began to spread rapidly. Due to their amazing adaptability to many different environments, the Snakehead fish has had no problem in any parts of the United States in which it has been introduced. Piscicides such as Rotenone have been released in ponds known to contain the fish in order to prevent them from spreading farther.

Blog Post by Alex Machado and Noah Schlottman