Succulent Terrarium

 Ciao! This post I'm going to just talk about a succulent terrarium that I made. Let me just start off by saying that this was a really fun project, and I also loved the way it turned out! All Together, I spent less than 20 dollars. The succulents cost 10 dollars, the decorative gravel cost 50 cents, the terrarium I had from some pet fish,the soil, gravel, and charcoal I already had.







The terrarium was pretty dirty, so I just rinsed it off outside,and it was good as new!

Before

after

after

before

Ta-Da!

Then I just Followed the instructions from my DIY Terrariums post, which you can find Here (click on this) . I also used a very porous soil, as to make it well-draining, which succulents need. It took a total of maybe an hour or two, but it was worth it! The end result was a cool looking terrarium that could add some pizzazz to an apartment or home, and was really affordable! Comment if you have any questions or would like me to elaborate on something. Feel free to share this with friends, family, coworkers, bosses, presidents, kings, well, you get the gist. Come back next weekend for another legendary post on either plants or mycology; Bye!

Sourdough Starter How-to

When we think of bread/bread-making, we think of bakers who went to apprenticeship programs and have probably spent years honing their skill. But anyone with the right recipe, a little practice, and a little finesse, can learn to bake bread that might make you surprised.

I don't know about you, but I've always thought it was cool to be able to do something on my own; especially something that most people didn't and/or weren't able to do. It's just cool to be able to be independent in that way. Cooking from scratch is one of those things. To be able to can your own fruit, make your own jerky, or even get your own milk is in my opinion, very satisfying. Baking bread is also in this category. For this blog post, I'm going to be talking about starting a sourdough starter for making (you guessed it!) sourdough bread.

Now, just what is a sourdough starter? A sourdough starter is mixture of yeast and bacteria that is added to the bread dough mix to A) help the dough rise, and B) add a unique flavor to the bread. One of the by-products of yeast is carbon dioxide, which is a gas, which makes the dough rise as it gets filled with the gas.

How does this all go into plants and mycology? Well, yeast is a type of fungus, if you didn't already know! There are actually 1,500 different currently know species of Yeasts; and Yeasts are also used in the making of beer, wine, and sodas as well.

Now you're probably either going "Wow, that's actually pretty cool!", or "Blah blah blah just get to the how-to already!". I understand. Without further ado, here it is.

Materials

For this Sourdough starter, you will need 

1)Container of some sort (could be a jar,or even a plastic cup that's a good size)

2)Some way of measuring out things ( a Dixie cup, a measuring cup, pretty much anything)

3)All-purpose flour

4)DeChlorinated water, at a tepid temperature

A quick note on the water; you don't want the water to be too hot, as it will kill the yeast and bacteria that land there. You also want to dechlorinate it. You can do this simply by boiling the water for 20 minutes, or letting the water sit out overnight.

For simplicity, I'm just going to pretend to use Dixie cups.

Steps

1) Fill the Dixie cup with the flour, pour into the container

2) Fill the Dixie cup with The water, pour into the container

3) Mix the flour and water thoroughly

4) Place on a Somewhat sunny windowsill

5) Feed the mix every 12 hours. (it's okay if you forget, just feed it the next time)

5) Repeat this process for at least 2-3 days, it should start smelling a little sour/funky after that amount of time

6) Once you think it's got that good sourdough smell, You can use it to bake some sourdough bread!! 

You can find many sourdough bread recipes in cookbooks, and on the internet, but let me know if you guys would like to see a recipe post in the comments!

Please make sure to +1 this if you liked it (Heck, even if you didn't!) and make sure to share with friends, family, or anyone who might be interested! I make a post every weekend, so make sure to come back next week for a cool blog post!

As always, thank you for reading, sharing, and just taking the time to click on this link. byyyeee!

Fictional Fungi

                Believe it or not, there have been multiple uses of Fungi and mushrooms in pop culture. From video games to literature, Fungi has made appearances.  In this blog post, I am going to be talking about some of the ones from various video games, books, and movies.

  Goomba- Goombas are a sentient mushroom animal from the Mario video games. They first appeared in Super Mario Bros. and are modeled after the Shiitake mushroom.











Mutant Cordyceps- This Fungus appears in the Video game The Last of Us as a mutated strain of the real fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. It turns the human host into a cannibalistic monster. I'm planning on making a post in the future on the fungi this is based on.


Toad- Another character From Mario, Toad is both the name of a character, and the people of the mushroom kingdom. I'm not sure what type of mushroom he is, but personally I think he looks like a reverse fly agaric.










Firewalker Fungus- This fictional fungus appeared on the x files episode Firewalker. In the episode, it is a silicon based Fungus that once inside the host, can affects it's behavior, until when ready to reproduce, which it then sends a fruiting body out through the throat. Pretty gruesome...



Mi-Go- Mi-Go are a race of extra-terrestrial, fungoid, crustacean-like creatures in the novel Cthulhu Mythos. They first appeared in H. P. Lovecraft's novel The Whisperer in Darkness. In my professional opinion, they are pretty rad looking.






Well that's about it. I know that there are other fictional Fungi, but these are some of the most popular ones, or the ones I thought was the most interesting. I hope you enjoyed reading this! I make a post every week,usually on a Saturday,Sometimes on Fridays or Sundays. If you liked this post,be sure to come back next week,and maybe tell a friend if you think they might be interested, or just +1 it! Thanks for reading, see ya!

Terrariums Update

 Yo! So in my first post, I showed you guys some terrariums that were a little less than a month old. In this post I'm just going to give an update on my strawberry/sedum terrarium, and my english ivy terrarium. In the strawberry/sedum one, I put a strawberry runner that I took from a plant in my front yard. I also got a sedum cutting from there. They both are doing well. the sedum has many new sprouts, and I may move it to another container in the future.

The ivy cuttings have grown a lot since I planted them. I started them a week after I made the above terrarium. For the cuttings I took off some twigs from the plant in my backyard. I then made a diagonal cut on one side (the side that I was going to stick in the ground). I also removed all leaves, so the cuttings could spend all their energy on just getting established. I didn't use a rooting hormone, though I highly suggest that you do for any cuttings that you do in the future. It's been about a month and a half, and they both have new growth! One took a lot longer than the other, and I actually was thinking of throwing it out soon. Good thing I didn't!

For taking care of them, there was not much to it. I kept them on a west facing window, though south-facing works well too. I opened them up every once in a while to dry out, though not very often, I mist them maybe about once a week or so, pretty much whenever I think they need it.
You really do not want to let your terrariums get too moist, as that can lead to a growth of unwanted fungus (mold). To get rid of mold, just let the terrarium dry out, and try to remove parts with mold in it.

I think that's about it! I want to try and make a mushroom terrarium (tutorial?) sometime hopefully soon. I make posts about every weekend, I try to get them out on Friday or Saturday most of the time, so please check in then! Any-who, thanks for reading and good luck on any plant/mycology adventures!