Muddy Mark
Educating the little saplings!

A school tour last week at the complex.  It was too cold to take the kids for a walk in the mud, it was all too frozen. Too bad, I had my rubber boots on.

All dressed up with no place to mess.

The kids had some great questions and many of them were about trees.  Sometimes the cats and dogs get some of the kids attention.

Trees  are important and I am sure that message was well received. 

Birch Bonsai start of Winter

We now have snow in Timmins. I think it will stay this time.

My little tree has been outside waiting for the cold. The buds look healthy and the stem is green.

The plan is to leave it outside until it is below -20C then bring it into the house and store in a cool dark place for a little while before bringing it into the heat to start the growth cycle over again.

Day 01 entry

Month 05 entry

You can buy your own tree to make your own bonsai at Millson Forestry Service. If you do not see the species you want let them know and maybe they can start what you want.

How do trees grow up?

The other day I was driving through a spruce plantation. The leader of some the the trees were incredible. Many in the plantation were more then 50 cm in length and a couple of the superstars were in the 90 cm range.

How do trees grow?

Here is a question I ask of everyone that comes on a tour with Muddy Mark, at the greenhouse, or on a hike with me at Kettle Lakes Provincial Park.

The tree we are standing beside is about 20cm in diameter. This tree grows about 50 cm in

height every year. Today we put a mark in the tree, we will come back in 10 years.

How high will the mark

be when return?

It will be at the same place! Why? Trees only grow up at the tip. In forestry lingo it goes something like " the meristematic tissue elongates"

What is in the pictures is last seasons height growth. The growth is fantastic! If trees grow like this every year the trees would cast shadows for kilometers. Tree growth slows as they age.

Trees grow in diameter, that is why you can count the tree rings to determine the age.

Want to learn more? Try these links.

Link 001

Link 002

Link 003

Today in the Greenhouse

Seedlings that had been started early in the new year have been moved out of the greenhouse and into a shadehouse.

This means there is more room in the greenhouse to start some more seedlings. I am told we are now starting black spruce.

In the picture is the seeding machine with Mindy, again. If you have been following this blog you will have seen her near the seeding machine a number of times.

What is going on in the picture?  The sheet (insert) of jiffy pellets is placed on the conveyor. A template is place on top before the inserts continues under the seeder. A "cruchunk" of the machine drops seeds into a tube which travels down to the jiffy pellet under the insert. It continues down the converyor where it gets watered before traveling another conveyor to the greenhouse bench.

The jiffy pellets will expand once watered to provide plenty of rome for roots.

Mindy - did I get it right? Dan you are looking good!!

Delta class teaching old Muddy Mark

Once again the Delta class from Timmins High and Vocational School came for a tour of the greenhouse complex.

I enjoy having the older kids that ask good questions and have that keen interest to understand the forest.

I was surprised that they knew the White pine is Ontario's arboreal emblem, our provincial tree. 

Wonder about the other Ontario Emblems and Symbols

It was a perfect day for the class to come. In true teenager style they wore running shoes and even one in shorts, while the dusting of snow fell from the sky onto the muddy, very muddy ground. You just got'a love rubber boots!

While walking from the back to the front the class taught me about (oh I know I am not going to get this right but here is my stab at it) potoku, a cree word. It is the area between the snow and the ground where the mice and little creatures forage for food.  We could see in the field where this happened this past winter. You could see the trail on the ground from hole to hole.

The greenhouse is green and very hot. It is wonderful to come into the greenhouse on such cold days. Ask the people working there how nice it is . . . cloudy days are not bad, but it can get pretty hot in there on sunny days.

I wonder what they were impressed by the most?

Green in the Greenhouse

I just love it when the everything is green.

The smell of spring is strong, and the snow is still melting outside.

Mindy is taking care of her young charges. She has given each a name, jack pine 01, jack pine 02 . . . jack pine 231,348 . . . jack pine 

Greenhouse is turning green

Spring has come under the plastic. I love this time of the year. You can step out of the -30C outside temperature and into a tropic moist warmth that fogs my glasses instantly. Soon the benches will be just a sea of green.

We have been seeding in the greenhouse now for month. The little seeds of white pine, white spruce and jack pine are starting to germinate. You can see in the pictures the seed coat has not yet fallen off some of the seedlings. The seed coat will fall off as they get bigger.


I see I will have to work harder at getting better closeup shots.

















millsonforestry.com
Timmins Honour Role of Trees

Seeding Machine - Soon the greenhouse will be all green!!

One day this week I was in the greenhouse helping on the seeding line.

I was at the "front" of the machine. My job was to place the template on the top of the growing medium before it passed under the seeding machine. What does that mean?

The growing medium (in this cased jiffy pellets) are contained inside a plastic insert. The template lines up so that the seeds will fall, one seed into each container.

Once it passes under the seeding machine the template is removed and the, now seeded, containers move forward under a gentle spray. Two of these inserts are placed in a plastic tray and then forwarded onto a conveyor that will take the tray down the bench.

Millions of tree seedlings are started this way.

Coming soon, the greenhouse will turn green. I love going into the greenhouse when it is -30C. My glasses steam and the moist air smells wonderful.

Watch for picture of the greenhouse turning green.

Spring in the Greenhouse

Just a quick post to let everyone know the temperature has been turned up and soon you will see pictures of green as the tree seeds start to sprout.

The greenhouse is washed and neat waiting for the hassle of the seeding machine pumping out tray after tray of seeded containers.

Got to love it when spring comes early, even if it is just under a huge section of plastic.

Watch for it!!


Muddys' Emporium