Nip it in the Bud

In the last few weeks I've been hearing a lot of people talk about illnesses, mostly colds. Everyone wants the magic bullet that will kill the thing before it becomes debilitating.

There's an old phrase that some might have heard but few would know the meaning of.

"Nip it in the bud" literally means to nip (or cut off) the bud before the fruit appears. If you don't want the fruit, kill the blossom. If you don't want the cold, you need to catch it when it first shows its head rather than waiting until it's gnawing at your ankle.

There is no magic bullet that will kill a cold, but there are a lot of things you can do to keep it from becoming a monster. The same things that kill any other disease.

First, a healthy immune system. Vitamin C and D support immune system function, as do zinc and selenium. Vitamin B is another important vitamin for immune system function. Ironically, most of these items are found in fresh fruits and vegetables, something that was once much more difficult to acquire during cold season. Coincidence?

Lots of sunshine will take care of the D problem (although during the winter we all mew ourselves up like we're hibernating). Antioxidants also help build a strong immune system, but they are easily destroyed by excess heat--i.e., eat fruits and vegetables raw or steamed rather than boiled. Processed vegetables out of a can are better than nothing, but most of the nutrients are gone.

Another irony--the vitamins taken out of our food are re-processed and sold as vitamins on the shelf. But that's a rant for another time. Where were we?

Oh. If your immune system is in peak shape (which very few are) it will throw off the effects of most bacterial or viral diseases easily.

So when a cold rears its head, you need to take action.

1) A tablespoon of honey, morning and night. Taken on bread, in an herbal tea or simply from a spoon, honey has a multitude of beneficial vitamins and minerals that make it a miracle food. Too bad the bees are dying, huh?

2) A clove of crushed garlic every night (and every morning if your stomach will handle it). Eat it WITH the skin. Don't peel it. Whether in a capsule, a bowl of spaghetti or raw, garlic is an anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-biotic all rolled into one tasty little package.

3) Vitamin C, as much as your system can handle. If you have the chewable vitamin C, use them as lozenges rather than the chemical drops you buy from the store. Save those for the sore throat stage. Orange juice, pineapple juice

4) Drink. Lots. Drink water until you leak, but leave the sugar drinks and caffeine drinks strictly alone. That's a general rule for all the time, because they make you lose more water than you get from them. It's the definition of a diuretic.

5) Sleep deprivation is one of the most common maladies in the modern world. If you can go to sleep an hour earlier or get up an hour later, it will help.

6) Destress. A no brainer, but sometimes the most difficult to do. Meditation, breathing exercises, reading a good book--whatever it takes.

Garlic update

When I started this thing I forgot one critical component of any hydroponic system. Oxygen. Most hydroponic systems are flood and drain systems, where the roots are immersed for a few minutes every hour (or every few hours, depending on the situation). I don't have the space or the time to devote to a full hydroponics system, and I don't like using electricity for that anyway, so I make do.

I have the plants in straight water, and until last week I had forgotten to pump air into the water. Blah. Anyway, I've started pumping air into the water on a daily basis, so we'll see what kind of difference that makes.

In this first picture, you can see the difference between the two plantings of garlic. On the left is the first planting. I kept the moss moist until the roots were well developed, and then I let it dry out and let the water level drop. The second planting the moss has remained moist and I've left the water level high. You can see the difference. The other difference is that I stopped adding fertilizer to the water when I planted this batch. I was afraid that the nitrogen level might be getting toxic.

The second picture, below, shows the water level. I keep the plants in a nursery planter tray (the kind with the little hanging baskets) in a plastic tub that I purchased from a craft store. In the spring it (and two more just like it) will be used to start my plants for my garden.

I tried to get a picture of the comparative root-mass, but it didn't work. It's not really visible in this picture, and balancing the tray in one hand while manipulating the camera with the other isn't my favorite thing. So what you see is what you get.

What you don't see is that the roots of the most recent planting are white, thick and strong, the roots on the left more spindly and an odd yellow color where they're not brown and dry. They also tend to grow straight down rather than bunching and spreading.

Garlic usually has a MUCH larger root-mass than this, so I'll have to wait and see how it works. Maybe the larger root-mass isn't necessary with so much water available. Who knows? A few of the bulbs are starting to divide into cloves, so they're almost ready.

Experiment update

Looking out at two feet of snow on the ground reminds me that I haven't given an update on the garlic experiment yet (See Soil-less growth medium).

The first "planting" is about two feet high. I wasn't aware (since it's always happened under the ground) that the old clove is destroyed in building the new bulb. It develops at the center and splits the old clove open. Then it just falls off.

I planted two more rows, staggered. All of the original planting is popping at the seams, so I'm guessing we'll have new garlic in time for Christmas, which is good since the cold and flu season is upon us.

Garlic is a heavy feeder, so I've been fertilizing it about once a week. I hope that's enough.

I brought the citrus and the amarylis in months ago (they would normally go on the shelf where the garlic is sitting), so my room is just a little crowded right now.

Soil-less growth medium

I decided to do something different this winter. It may be an ongoing thing, depending on how the experiment works.

A lot of people work with what they call a "soil-less medium," by which they mean that the soil they use isn't soil but compost or something of that kind.

I have a different version of "soil-less," which means sphegnum moss. (I tried gelatin, plain water, etc, but they didn't work very well)

I suppose that lots of different kinds of moss and grass would do the same. All it does is create something for the roots to lock into, something that will retain water but won't stay soggy.

We use LOTS of garlic, so last year I tried growing garlic inside. The cloves rotted even before they sprouted. This year I'm trying something different.

Not much different, but a little.

I put the garlic in the refrigerator for a couple months to simulate winter.

Then I put them in the moss. They all sprouted within about a week. Once the roots are well established I'll let the water level drop so the moss stays dry but the roots get all the water they need.

I've grown tomatoes and peppers this way, started melons, beans, etc. They thrive, but before I've just used it as a starter garden before I put things outside in the spring. Not permanent.

We'll see how it works.

Update 1
Update 2
Update 3
Update 4
Final results

Got my Drug Interaction book back!

Since I didn't have the book that has all the drug interactions, I didn't put the interactions in each of the posts. I think the herbs below are those that I missed (with the exception of a few that aren't in the book).

I think it's important to note (although the people who wrote the book would probably scream at me for it) that many of these "interactions" are increases or decreases in the effect of the drugs. The authors are very careful to state that nothing is proven as to the effects of the herbs, then they state that the herbs increase or decrease the effects of pharmaceuticals. Which would suggest to me that the herbs are actually effective, since taking a double dose of a pharmaceutical would have the same effect.

Yarrow
Avoid using yarrow with depressants (such as alcohol) as well as blood thinners and drugs that lower blood pressure

Ginger
Avoid using ginger with blood thinners

Garlic
Avoid using garlic with anti-platelet agents or blood thinners, as garlic may increase their effects

Pepper
Pepper interacts with blood thinners, some anti-biotics, non-steroidal pain killers, and smoking cessation aids.

Catnip
No interactions listed

Maybe a cold

I had a nasty headache yesterday, and this morning my throat is a little sore. I think I caught something from my nessies (nieces and nephews, for those who don't understand my shorthand) so right now I'm taking honey and garlic.

Both have anti-biotic and anti-viral properties. Usually when I start feeling sick I go to the honey and garlic (which leads to a rant on bees, but that's not for this post) to take it out before it takes me out. I'll take a clove of garlic and a spoonful of honey every day for about the next week.

It usually works. It's when I forget to start taking my "medicine" at the beginning that colds are a problem. Once the thing settles in, it's harder to get rid of.

In the Kitchen: The Perfect Food :)

Even when I'm not paying attention (which is usually) I still have to cook. Or rather, I have to eat, which is the end result of cooking.

All of the following are stimulating cullinary herbs. They have a lot of other properties as well (for example, most of them are anti-bacterial or anti-fungal) and together with tomatoes they make spaghetti sauce. Meat optional.

Basil
Rosemary
Marjoram or Oregano
Thyme
Garlic
Pepper

Dice and cook 1 large onion and dice or crush garlic (cook it with the meat if you prefer meat, or add a teaspoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of milk for the same taste without the meat)
Cut up three large tomatoes. Add them to the onions.
Add tomato juice if you like it runny rather than chunky.
Add seasonings.

Cook down and serve. I like eating it alone, without noodles. Tomato soup! Or wrap it in a tortilla before it has cooked down with fresh basil leaves and mint.

Use in place of chicken soup for colds, eat it with additional basil, rosemary and oregano when you need to be alert. Add more Rosemary if you have a headache and more garlic if you have high blood pressure. If I use it for medicine, I add the extra seasonings last, after everything else has cooked in.

I like to sneak it in as an "herbal" meal for someone who needs help but won't admit it.

Insect control

Several years ago I made this stuff--I figured, insects don't like garlic, they don't like onions, they don't like hot peppers and they don't like vinegar.

So I mixed the four, using onion seeds instead of onions. The second batch I left out the garlic and it worked just as well. The ingredients are better fresh, but dried works.

Let it all sit in the vinegar for a couple days to as long as necessary--no bacteria or fungus is going to be caught dead in this stuff! Then strain it and pour the juice into a spray bottle. Or just pour off the juice and cover the pulp with more vinegar for the next batch.

Mix it with water at 5:1 or more. For a really bad infestation you may need to use it straight, but only if the problem has gotten to that point before you start. Aphids, beetles, spiders, whatever. It seems to work on everything. I never tried it on spider mites, because they're mostly in the house and there are people in the house who don't like hot peppers. :)

Spray it every day until the problem is gone, but watch the plants. Some plants are really sensitive to acids. It's totally biodegradable and you don't need to worry if your kids drink it (although they might end up immitating a fish to get rid of the taste).

Oh, and try to use white vinegar. My understanding is that other vinegars have a lower acid content, not to mention that they're usually made from fruit of some kind. I use a dilution of water and plain white vinegar (10:1) to get rid of fruit flies and gnats on my houseplants.

Note: I've seen suggestions that you should use some dishsoap in your mix, but unless it's biodegradable it might damage the plants. If you use dishsoap, don't get it on the roots and keep a careful eye on the more tender plants.