pots indoors for a head start on '08

[freda]

Our milkweed overwintered just fine in pots…so far. We brought 5 pots of plants to town in October and left them out until April 6th when we dug them out of the snow and brought them indoors, frozen solid. Two of the pots aren’t showing any shoots but the others are looking great! One pot has 12 shoots poking through the soil. Two of those 12 are growing at the rate of 2” a day!! I pinched off the tip of one plant to slow it down and force it to branch a bit. Right now there are as many leaves as there were when Mrs. Monarch deposited her eggs on them last year. In our micro-climate we’re at least two weeks late this season. On April 26th we had 14” of snow and the remnants of that snowstorm are still showing in the bush/woods. In ’07 our first monarch showed up on May 23rd….VERY early for our area. Hopefully though, this year we’ll be ready for her with an established milkweed plant or two. Journey North reports tell us that the monarchs are still a long way south of us, just into mid-Minnesota. A Journey North web-responder also gave me information on calculating Degree Days to determine if we could possibly get a second generation here in Kenora. It’s a time-consuming project to complete but it is giving me some answers. Anyway, we’re ready for the ’08 season!

[Mona Miller]

What species of milkweed did you overwinter? I did not have any luck with my tropical milkweed. The white flies won the battle.

[freda]

Common milkweed from the Manitoba ditches...from the time we left on Saturday morning until now, Monday noon, leaves have opened on several other shoots. I'm ready! And in fact, at camp this weekend there were a couple of shoots of the same common milkweed just poking through the ground. I found them when I was raking with a hand fork...dug several lengths up by mistake. I replanted into pots the ones which I pulled up. They each had many underground shoots coming from them so I think they'll do well. The shoots in the garden weren't significant enough for me to post on Journey North but I'll watch them over the next couple of days and then document them.

My indoor plants have their own set of problems, not white flies, but GRASSHOPPER nymphs! We have been overrun with grasshoppers of every size, colour and description for several years and apparently they overwinter in the soil 'cause they're popping up (hopping up?) like crazy!

[Mona Miller]

Now, a few more questions. How much did you water them? How warm was the place you kept them? How much light did they receive? I can't wait to try this next year.

[freda]

Hi Mona...I didn't water them at all when we brought them into our workshop. They were frozen solid and had a lot of snow sitting on them. The shop is set at about 15 degrees celsius. There are two small windows in the shop but the pots were on the floor so not getting any direct light. After a month of gradual thawing there were just a few tiny dark shoots showing. At that time I brought them into the house and put them beside our hot tub (humidity) and in front of south-west facing windows. They get light from opposite wall windows but no direct light until about noon and through to sunset. I have been watering them for this last couple of weeks that they've been indoors, but only lightly. This week should show amazing growth at the rate they're going now. Not sure about a couple of the pots...nothing breaking ground there.

[Mona Miller]

I wish I had a workshop, etc. I just have a small garden window and a garage with mice. I'll have to see what I can rig up for this fall and winter. Always good to have a head start on those Monarchs. I have about 80 eggs right now. They have been hatching and I'm getting a good success rate for the eggs.

My Monarch looks like she traveled all the way from the coast or Mexico.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26695859@N ... otostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26695859@N ... otostream/
My photographer friend took these pictures for me. Unfortunately, she expired the second day I had her in captivity. I usually net a female and keep her about 3 days or so and collect eggs and then let her go. This is much easier than collecting eggs. It also insures that no predators have been messing with the eggs. I use a 10'x12' screen tent set up in my backyard with host and nectar sources inside.

William Folsom, my photographer friend, published a book called "Art and Science of Butterfly Photography":
http://www.wfolsom.com/book.html
He will be publishing a new book on the use of digital photograghy for
photographing butterflies. I think he said it will be out in January 2009.

[Mona Miller]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26695859@N ... 7/sizes/o/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26695859@N ... otostream/
Scale sample of abdomen, clean--no OE on Ms. Monarch

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26695859@N ... otostream/
Larger top photo of Ms. Monarch
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26695859@N ... otostream/
Larger bottom photo of Ms. Monarch