On Tuesday, May 28th, members of the Roslyn AYLUS branch volunteered at the Long Island Native Plant Initiative (LINPI) from 10:00am to 2:00pm. The Long Island Native Plant Initiative is an all-volunteer cooperative effort of many nonprofit organizations, dedicated to preserving Long Island’s plant biodiversity. Today, volunteers worked on up-potting seedlings to provide more nutrients and increase the yield for the plants.
Throughout the day, we were each assigned to a specific plant or a specific job. We began by learning how to loosen the chunks of soil so that the seedlings would be easier to separate. After separating seedlings, we up-potted them into individual pots in trays, and added more soil to ensure that the plants had enough nutrients to grow. One of the trickier parts was making the plants stand up without packing the soil; we had to keep the soil loose and airy so that the roots would be able to continue growing and spreading. When we used up all the pots, we moistened more soil before adding them into more pots to make sure that the soil is in good condition to hydrate the plants.
From talking to the other volunteers, we learned a lot about potting plants and what they need in order to grow well. In the future, we hope to continue volunteering to support LINPI and their cause, and we hope our volunteering work will make a difference in maintaining the biodiversity of plants.
Participants: Brooke Zheng (4 hours), Leo Zheng (4 hours), Naveh Azulai (4 hours), Maxim Li (4 hours)
Reporter: Brooke Zheng
