Mizuna - space food!
I like to rescue dying plants from the shops whenever I get the chance and today I knew I was going to be buying some seedlings so it was the perfect chance for me to indulge. The sickest looking plant that I could have gotten from the supermarket was Mizuna a Japanese lettuce that is apparently quick growing.
Oh god this thing was in really bad condition and I honestly don’t expect it to survive, just the smell alone was a sure fire sign that it had been sitting in that tiny little pot with too much water for way too long. I’d never heard about Mizuna before so I really hope that I’m able to resurrect this one.
Well I removed it from its waterlogged packaging and popped it into one of those self watering pots that have really good drainage. Of course there is no strength in the plants themselves so I buried their roots nice and deep (well not too deep!). Then I liquid fertilized the soil and then put the granules and finally watered it all in so it wouldn’t be too much of a shock.
Now why did I mention space food? Well Mizuna is the first plant to be grown in space using the LADA plant growth chamber on board the international space station. Why did they pick Mizuna?
“The biggest reason we’re growing Mizuna is because the Russian cosmonauts like it,†he said. “It’s going to be in the Russian part of the space station and they’ll eat it.â€
April 28th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Came home tonight to discover Baxter has eaten half of the Mizuna plant. Maybe he has some cosmonaut in him. Just another nail in the plant’s coffin - we’ll see if it bounces back.