The Biosphere Blog

This post complements last week’s post on a Photo Journal of a Young Jujube Tree Coming Out of Dormancy, by getting up closer on the buds themselves as they come into life. The photographs below show a cluster of terminal (tip, end) buds on a… more »

All tree orders for this winter 2019 had been received by Tuesday 20th August, six weeks ago today. While these were being sent out, I deliberately kept a few over in the exact same conditions as those that were being shipped, ie packed in wood shavings… more »

Many hobbyist/backyard fruit enthusiasts prefer to plant their jujube trees in large pots either because of their soil type, the tree’s suckering habit, or both. Keeping a tree in a pot also helps control its growth and manageability. And pots of… more »

As last week’s post stated, manufactured fertilisers are reliably the same with every batch, and the same measured applications can be relied on to deliver the same amounts of nutrients every time. Manures, in contrast, are a natural product and… more »

Last week’s discussion of three differing fertilisers briefly mentioned that manures and manure-based products should not be thought of as complete fertilisers able to supply all nutrients in adequate amounts — and commercial suppliers of these do… more »

Last week we went over the six macronutrients and six micronutrients (trace elements) all plants need for good health. There are a variety of fertilisers put out by garden product companies with the backyard fruit-grower in mind. These have been… more »

The Jujube Tree Growth Cycle Jujube trees go through many stages over a yearly cycle. As they leave dormancy around August/September, the sap begins to flow, buds erupt, and leaves grow. Roots grow and branches appear. Flower buds begin appearing about… more »

Water leaves soil in three ways: evaporation from a surface; drainage; and movement through a plant. Evaporation is due to heat, drainage is due to gravity, and movement through a plant begins with root uptake and ends with evaporation through the… more »

Are you familiar with capillary tubes, the very thin rods with very narrow bores? When placed into water, the water is pulled into and up the tube, against gravity. This is capillary action. And the narrower the bore, the higher the column of water will… more »

Water on contact with a soil’s surface may do one of three things. Depending on the geography and soil, water may continue downhill, or pool on the surface, or soak in. Water that soaks into a soil is said to infiltrate it, and it follows that it… more »

As with soil, there’s more to water when it comes to plants (and soil) than is evident at first glance. Elsewhere in this blog I’ve mentioned water secondarily and where relevant, but now it’s time to give the subject of water the… more »

Last week focused on bulk density as a property of soil, and how lower values were associated with good soil structure and high organic matter content, while higher values were associated with soil compaction. We ended with the note that soils compact… more »

Last week covered pore space, or the holes in soil. This week we look at the opposite of holes — the solids in soil. Pore space is expressed as a percentage of soil volume, while solids are expressed as a mass per volume. This measurement is referred to… more »

We’ve spent quite a few weeks examining soil structure, from soil horizons right down to the level of cations and anions and the role they play. Having zoomed in closer and closer each week on smaller and smaller components, this week we’ll… more »

So far we’ve gone over cations,and exchangeable cations and where there are cations (the positively-charged ions) there will be anions, the negatively-charged ions, because ions come in pairs. Some anions are also soil nutrients — and essential… more »