Where did my new amigo go?

6/9

Who knew counting lychee fruits could be so exciting and dangerous? A thrill-seekers dream job? Perhaps. I found a tarantula at the bottom of one of the bins. He (or she?) was just hanging out with the lychee fruit, probably ate all the other little creatures that ended up in there. Was I frightened? Duh, comes to mind. So my coworker proceeded to poke the spider with a stick. “These jump.”

Thank you for that interesting fact. “It jumps, and you’re poking it! Ah!”

I’m the only girl in the lab and the only one that does not speak Spanish. Ah, silly Jersey girl. I’m sure they all got a kick out of my anxiety. It was all in good fun. I’m ok. The spider did not bite anyone. We put it in a large graduated cylinder and proudly showed off our new pet to all our visitors.

Just before lunch break, I found a cockroach in another bin. The tarantula feasted on it. I thought I was supposed to be studying plant science! I was treated to an Animal Planet show. So Mr. (or Miss) Tarantula got their own lunch!

I am happy to report we have our hot water back. The switch in the kitchen that we thought belonged to an outside light actually controls our hot water heater. No wonder we haven’t had hot water! We turned it off Sunday night.

More dragonfruit! The cactus is so productive, the plant so vigorous. It’s truly amazing. I wonder if anyone has done any research on the compounds in the fruit. It has such a magnificent, unique color. what gives it that amazing magenta color?

I also did some grafting in the afternoon. What is grafting and what’s the point? Grafting is a method of vegetative propagation. Because the seedlings of many fruits are not identical to their parents, vegetative propagation is preferable to ensure quality and limit variability. Grafting involves putting a desirable variety onto a different rootstock. As stated, this ensures that you get the desired variety. It also brings fruit trees into production earlier. Furthermore, once can use rootstocks with desirable characteristics, such as dwarfing habit (to keep trees small and manageable) or disease resistance or drought tolerance. So what did I graft? A grapefruit-orange hybrid called chironha, breadfruit, and rambutan. There are a number of different grafting techniques. We used side veneer and T-budding. In the latter, only a bud is taken from the desired variety and inserted into the rootstock. I practiced a bit of grafting in plant propagation class last semester. I am too scared of cutting myself to be good, I think. And I am no less awkward in the tropics, I am sad to report. I hope the grafts are successful. At least here, there is less of a chance of them drying out!

After work a lot of us went over to the beach to play volleyball. I was reassured several times, by several people, that Puerto Rico has much more beautiful beaches. Please do not judge Puerto Rico’s beaches solely on your impression of those in Mayaguez…The park was constructed for the Central American games, which were held in Mayaguez last year. Across the street was the baseball stadium, where the Mayaguez Indios (?) play. Hmm…maybe we’ll see a baseball game? Someone help me, is this baseball season? I think it is, right?

You must all be wondering: did she actually play? I hate sports; I hate volleyball. Ever since sixth grade, when that girl yelled at me in gym class for missing the ball (well, pretty much since I learned how to play…but even more so after this incident). I did play. For a bit, at least. But I am easily frustrated and lost motivation and interest. It’s fine, I had a fine time socializing.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home, and, I admit, I practiced my right to purchase alcohol. A nice 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon from Mendoza (Argentina). Oh, I want to go back to Argentina! Great wine, at least in my humble opinion, and a great price too. I was pleasantly surprised to find such a great selection at the grocery store. I think I’ll go for a German Riesling next. I mean, a Riesling from Germany would be great! I’ve only had NJ and NY Rieslings…recommendations anyone?

6/10

Our new friend is missing! The tarantula was not in the container we left it in. It wasn’t in our boots, either. Mysterious…

I used a refractometer to test Brix of lychee fruits. A valuable skill in viticulture, too. I hope to use it again during harvest season. It’s not a very difficult task, actually. Just squeeze some juice over the light of the refractometer. Most of the lycees had brix from 15 to 25, with the majority falling around 20.

I saw the new spectrometer in the chemistry lab. It measures the concentrations of multiple elements in a solution using plasma and detecting characteristic states of excitation. Solutions of ground plant tissues (root, shoot, and leaf) are to be tested for the macro and micronutrients to determine fertilizer uptake.

After that, planting! We planted gosh knows how many breadfruit trees. TARS is the home of primary germplasm collections. However, it is not enough to have one germplasm collection – as we learned after Hurricane Andrew devastated the mango collection in Florida. So TARS has a back-up collection for mangoes and is now planting a backup collection for breadfruit (the primary collection is in Hawaii..my next stop?).

A germplasm collection is a collection of a number of varieties of one species. We want to make sure that we are preserving the genetic material of all these different varieties – some may be valued for their delicious fruits, others for disease resistance, others for pest tolerance, etc.  A germplasm collection stores all of these unique traits. Breeders can draw on specimens to develop new varieties.

So, we planted breadfruit. Pretty big trees for being so young! They were started from air layers. What is air layering? Another form of vegetative propagation. Expose the tissue beneath the bark and apply hormone to stimulate the tissue to develop roots. Surround with potting mix and wrap with plastic. We planted, as I said, gosh knows how many. Trees were 20’ apart, with 25’ between rows. It was hot! Very hot. Every once in a while we benefitted from a slight breeze. I think I should stick with planting tomatoes. I can’t handle moving the heavy trees and digging big holes (we used a backhoe, actually) and moving so much dirt! So, I think, in my case, planting tomatoes and doing labwork are more doable.

After our first week, we treated ourselves to ice cream at Rex Cream. Yum…mocha…I also tried the tamarind and key lime pie. Both pretty good, but my heart belonged to the mocha. I’ll have to try more, including the corn! I hear it’s great with cinnamon on top. And of course I will get it with sprinkles on a cone. Cones are much more sustainable than cups. Yes, that’s the reason I always get a cone. Sustainability. Some day, however, I should really take to heart how messy ice cream cones are. You think that, at my age, I’d be able to eat one without staining a shirt. Ha!

Later we went out to a bar in Cabo Rojo. We did karaoke. Of course we did songs in English, i.e. Britney Spears “You Drive me Crazy.” Towards the end of the night, though, I was getting a handle on some of the Spanish songs. Once you get the rhythm down, it’s not too difficult. It was a lovely way to end the week. We got in at 3 AM, though, and my body will no longer let me sleep later than 6AM after a week of waking up at 5. So, I was up at 5:30 AM. I am going to be so cranky later. You have been warned.

So, I tried doing some laundry. I'm not really sure how to use our washing machine, though, so,mm, that didn't go too well. I mean my clothes soaked a bit in hot soapy water and are now hanging to dry, so, mission accomplished?
Feeling antsy, I decided to go for a walk. I wandered a bit around teh TARS grounds and located the miracle berry tree. One ripe fruit! A small red berry, the miracle fruit Synsepalum dulcifium Daniell (Sapotaceae) makes sour foods taste sweet. There is a lemon in our fridge - I can't wait to try it! I also found a ripe cacao pod. I really need to locate some dark chocolate. So far all I have seen is milk. : (
I'm in the Plaza now. Music is playing. I"m in the shade. I'd say it's pretty nice. Come join me!