Of Plants and Lockdowns

Last week was a short week for us in our vocational courses, leading up to America's 250th Birthday. We had two days of classes, then what should be a four day weekend starting on Thursday.

This break is not so good for us in Horticulture, because we have to manually water our plants. There is not an automatic system that casts a fine spray early in the day, nor a drip irrigation system that metes out water to our plants. At best, we can try putting paper cups on the ground next to out plants with a small hole poked in the bottom to let water trickle through, but that just lasts an extra hour or so after we leave in the mornings; by noon, the cups are empty unless we get rain or have algal growth in the cup (ew).

So, as a plant parent, I have to leaf my babies unattended for four days (okay, pun intended :)), which makes me sad. I am trying grass mulch around the biggest ones (two of my cucumbers), but I am apprehensive: I would have preferred something like a bark mulch (melaleuca, not pine bark) or wood chip mulch (maybe cypress), or maybe straw or hay that had been better prepared than my grass (steamed to kill off pests and fungi, etc), but desperation to protect the lives of my little plants with anything on hand led to usage of what I had. So I watered well, watered the grass mulch as well, then put that mulch down around the base of the plant, wishing it well that Wednesday morning.

Thursday, one of the Teacher Assistants let me know they went and watered plots on that day -- they had work, even as students had the day off. I'm thankful for that: it's hot out there for a thirsty li'l plant.

Friday, around 11 AM, we were ordered into our cells, with officers securing the doors behind us. It's another lockdown, right in time for the Independence Day weekend!
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Based on our standard of 72 hours for a lockdown, we will not likely clear this lockdown in time for students to go to vocations and education on Monday. My plants will be starved for ATP and NADPH because they won't have the water to make these (and the glucose they need): there has been no rain. Just torrential heat. They get the CO₂ they need, but not the H₂O.

The Worry:

I will not likely be able to check up on my plants until Tuesday.
Unless Ms. S (our instructor) explicitly calls for her teacher assistants tomorrow, belaboring the point that the class is actively maintaining plants that must be watered, our plants will go five days without water in this prevailing heat.

This can wipe out my cucumbers, my one stalk of glass gem corn that sprouted, the four other glass gem corn that should hopefully sprout any day if watered, my pak choi that survived the other week's insane downpours, the two dandelions that are hanging on to dear life (well, maybe not those -- they're dandelions, they're tough), the random melon that tried to kill my corn, the garlic chives...

It would be enough to make me want to not continue that part of the class. That would wound me to go out to a dead garden.

Here's hoping that something goes right over the next several hours about this lockdown. I want my plants.