Tag Archives: Banana plant

Our friends in Kyiv

Posted on by
4

A big thanks as always to our good friend Wlad (US7IGN) in Kyiv for sending us some more excellent pictures. The first is his Dill seedlings (above) that look like they’re doing very well.

Wlad also wrote of the other plants he started off as well “The garlic also remained small for a long time, but then simply dried out” and his potato plant is growing but seems to have stood still for a while (pics above).

It’s funny as we’re having problems on some of the seedlings on our windowsill too, we’ve got some chilli and tomato seedlings and they are not doing much else after growing their seed leaves and one set of a normal leaf. There looks like there’s some sort of greenfly about but they don’t seem to be bothering any of the other sunflower seedlings or sweet peas. Any ideas?

As for his Wlad’s good mate Sergiy (UT3UFD) his banana is doing very well! It looks well healthy and so does his date palm (above). Great stuff!

We always think of Sergiy’s plant when we pass the banana plant that is in a front garden in SE23. We have no idea if bananas are supposed to survive the british weather but this one seems to! Cheers again to Wlad and Sergiy for the pics and we look forward to seeing more.

Radio connects us all

Posted on by
Reply

A while ago we heard a wonderful Radio 4 programme in the Lights Out series called Call Signs. It featured the story of a radio ham, Wlad Gurtovy (US7IGN) talking about life in Kyiv, Ukraine on his own after his wife and children had to flee to Poland because of the crazy war.

It’s a capitating story, one about radios, home-made antennas and even features his children’s hamster called Mouse. He jokes that when his family contacts him, sometimes they ask how Mouse is before they ask how he is! It’s all mixed in with various radio noises and a nice soundtrack from 8ctavius. Download and listen to the programme here.

Wlad has also published a book about his experiences called “War Diaries – A Radio Amateur in Kyiv” which is presented as a record of events from the first day of the war on 24 February to the end of September 2022. We’ve still not finished the book yet but it’s an excellent read so far and one well worth buying. More on purchasing it here.

A big thanks to Wlad for passing on the pictures of his good friend Sergiy (UT3UFD)’s banana plant presently growing indoors in his apartment in Kyiv and it looks as healthy as anything. We’re not the best with indoor plants here sadly but it certainly looks like it is getting a lot of care an attention from Sergiy as it is thriving.

Wlad mentioned that Sergiy uses a lamp to heat the plant as it needs an environment of about 20°C. When the temperature in the apartment recently dropped to 14°C because of the blackouts he had to turn the gas stove on to get the heat back up to the right temperature. That’s dedication for you.

Thanks again to Wlad and also Sergiy for the photographs. We look forward to any updates!