Pandanus Box

Yesterday I moved all the big trees out of GH 5 into GH1. Ouch. I started with the Pandanus, which are now quite large and I quickly discovered that I had gotten myself into an unanticipated challenge. Turns out all the trees were barely standing up and taking out just one caused a massive collapse of sprawling shrubbery. Once I started I had to move them all, which is good, I guess. 

Moving the Pandanus took me back to one of the inland transects of Holei Island I did last summer. The path took me through a dense thicket. That day I had chosen to wear shorts and a tanktop, as I didn't know the grove was there. Just walking through was like navigating a warehouse strewn with sticks and sawblades.

They're in greenhouse space that is being rented by Mary Beth Mudgett, so technically if they attract too many aphids, or the Mudgett lab needs the space the trees need to be moved out quickly. In theory they could be put outside, however, it seems like keeping them upright and sufficiently watered would be next to impossible outdoors.

I was previously concerned that the Scaevola plants might all have the same S incompatibility factors (because the seeds came from the same plant or siblings) and it would therefor be impossible to produce viable seed, even from cross pollination, however I found a fully-developed seed yesterday, so that seems to be less of a concern.

Yesterday I also finished the KCl extracts and put the alpkem cups in the fridge in Y2E2.  I also set up the P resin bags shaking.  When I came in this morning the shaker rack wasn't running anymore. I have no way of knowning when it turned off. It might have been shut off right before I got here (17-18 hours), or it could have been on for just a little over an hour. :-/ All 18 bags were under the same conditions (they all stopped together) so it shouldn't matter how long they shook for comparing P levels between each other, however if one wanted to compare it to any other levels (eg Palmyra averages) I guess it should probably be re-run it to make sure the bags are shaken for a full 18 hours. I won't be able to use the Discrete Analyzer for more than a week anyway.


Right now they are on the second shaking cycle with .5 M HCl to extract the phosphorus. Unfortunately I'm having trouble finding enough 50 mL volumetric flasks for the next step :-/