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Pioneer42
Jun 8, 2010
Thank you. This gives me a place to start researching. I’ll dig up a photo later.

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Hirayuki
Mar 28, 2010


I picked up a little cyclamen this summer and it's been going like gangbusters. After its initial forced bloom, it took a brief break and is full bloom yet again with at least twenty flowers--just when I was preparing to put it into a bigger pot. I give it a little water when it droops and it perks right up, happy as a clam.

Emboldened and charmed by this first plant, I bought another cyclamen variety at Trader Joe's whose petals are more explicitly down-facing. It got droopy, so I watered it...and it stayed droopy. That's when I discovered cyclamens droop when they are underwatered AND overwatered. Piss.

The only thing I could do, apparently, was repot it, so I extricated the central root mass from the practically dripping-wet soil, literally squeezed them like a drat towel, and repotted it in fresh dry soil. But it didn't work; it now looks like a plant abandoned over a long vacation, with some crispy leaves, some listless floppy leaves, and just generally looking extremely unhappy. :negative: Maybe I jinxed it by saying "Man, I do NOT need this plant, but I really like it. What the hell!" when I tossed it into my cart.

pokie
Apr 27, 2008

IT HAPPENED!

Growing stuff is generally a learning by experience hobby. I think everyone kills some of their plants.

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!
The trick is to get more than one of a plant that you really like/don’t think you’ll be able to easily replace.

Get a whole bunch of them.

That way all of them look lovely and stressed all of the time because you’re always overwhelmed and running behind on their care, and also their needs/problems/accidents will all line up at the same time and if one gets an infection it can spread it to all the others and—

Wallet
Jun 19, 2006

pokie posted:

Growing stuff is generally a learning by experience hobby. I think everyone kills some of their plants.
Moving a plant into a new pot and a new substrate and a new house is quite a lot of stress that not all individual plants respond to equally well, and it's easy to forget that because we can pick them up in a pot at the grocery store and carry them home like a loaf of bread. I have a little over 40 genera of succulents in my living room and I haven't found any of them to be particularly temperamental once they're stable and settled, but until you get them to stabilize all kinds of poo poo can go wrong and I think even the most experienced horticulturalists lose plants during that period.

For all their foibles plants are remarkably resilient, and they'll do their damndest to recover as long as you can stabilize them enough that they aren't actively dying but damage that occurs over a period of days can take years to repair. I have a Haworthia attenuata I got in January of 2020 that had almost immediate root rot issues and just sat there like a lump for nearly two years until last month it started pushing out new growth. It's like an $8 supermarket plant so I guess it would have been smarter to just buy a new one. I also have a Tylecodon wallichii I spent months looking for that lost literally every single one of its leaves in shipping and hasn't regrown any of them in the nine months I've had it, though the stem is still perfectly healthy. Who the gently caress knows what it's doing, but I'm just going to keep watering it until it figures it out.

If you're spending a couple minutes actually looking at your plants once or twice a week I'd say you're ahead of the game :shrug:

Ok Comboomer posted:

That way all of them look lovely and stressed all of the time because you’re always overwhelmed and running behind on their care, and also their needs/problems/accidents will all line up at the same time and if one gets an infection it can spread it to all the others and—

If I can't find a cultural solution to make a plant stress free (for me to take care of) I'm not sure I want to keep that plant. I've put a lot of time/money into big shared trays and putting plastic feet on all of my pots so they can't sit in water even if I gently caress up and get heavy handed, but I think it's super worth it. I feel the same way about garden plants: if it's unhappy all of the time and it keeps getting pests and poo poo it's in the wrong place. If I can find the right place somewhere else in the garden that's great, and if I can't I'll grow something else.



In unrelated news I splurged a little on this chonky Adenium arabicum a couple of weeks ago and now I have to stare at it and try to figure out how not to kill it with no leaves to indicate if I'm loving it up or not until it comes out of dormancy :ohdear:

Wallet fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Dec 10, 2021

pokie
Apr 27, 2008

IT HAPPENED!

That's a solid perspective. I am stubborn and keep buying lithops though :v:.

That's a nice fat caudex.

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

pokie posted:

That's a solid perspective. I am stubborn and keep buying lithops though :v:.

That's a nice fat caudex.

I have just (like a few months ago) gotten into keeping Lithops, so I’m by no means experienced in this regard

But I have managed to keep one Pleiospilos alive and somewhat thriving for over a year now, and brought it back from the brink multiple times.

My only advice is—they need way more light and way less water than you ever think they do. And if they’re in soil that retains any amount of water (like the poo poo they come in from the store if you’re not getting them from an enthusiast dealer) then you really need to bake them under the sun to make up for it.

Also I’ve learned from hard experience to repot them into something hella gritty pretty much ASAP. In fact I just lost two brand new Pleios (nothing super tragic just extras of the ones everybody already has. you know, because they die a lot) that I found at Home Despot because I got lazy and assumed they were dry enough from the store and didn’t repot them for two weeks. And they were under bright light too.

Wallet posted:

If I can't find a cultural solution to make a plant stress free (for me to take care of) I'm not sure I want to keep that plant. I've put a lot of time/money into big shared trays and putting plastic feet on all of my pots so they can't sit in water even if I gently caress up and get heavy handed, but I think it's super worth it. I feel the same way about garden plants: if it's unhappy all of the time and it keeps getting pests and poo poo it's in the wrong place. If I can find the right place somewhere else in the garden that's great, and if I can't I'll grow something else.

In unrelated news I splurged a little on this chonky Adenium arabicum a couple of weeks ago and now I have to stare at it and try to figure out how not to kill it with no leaves to indicate if I'm loving it up or not until it comes out of dormancy :ohdear:



Agreed, but sometimes there are plants that you just want, y’know?

Like I got a laugh out of the lady at J&L when I asked where all their vandas were, and she explained that they only ever special order them for the occasional client because they simply do not thrive in New England. They want it hot and bright and moist all of the time and that’s why they do great in Florida, otherwise you need a tropical greenhouse like J&L and some grow op-level lights to keep them up here in the winter.

She’s like “some people keep them in grow tents” as if to dissuade me, but meanwhile in my head I’m already going “yessssss, another reason to get a grow tent.....”

Are you gonna go full bonsai with that adenium? I picked up two quart-sized ones and some rooted cuttings on Black Friday with the intent to train the gently caress out of them and maybe give one as a gift this year.

https://youtu.be/G9l8rf3Whu0

https://youtu.be/skF6JhpTrTE

https://youtu.be/a4EHkfWFYw4

pokie
Apr 27, 2008

IT HAPPENED!

I keep lithops in 90% pumice and only water them after they absorb old leaves and shrivel slightly. I have had some survive for 1.5 years, but nothing has lived for a full 2 :C. They need less light than I thought though - I scorched one to death in CA sun. Now I keep them in shade of larger pots when outdoors in the summer.

Mostly I've been following this highly regarded source http://www.lithops.info/ and my succ discord, but still, I have killed like 8 now in 3 years :C.

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

pokie posted:

I keep lithops in 90% pumice and only water them after they absorb old leaves and shrivel slightly. I have had some survive for 1.5 years, but nothing has lived for a full 2 :C. They need less light than I thought though - I scorched one to death in CA sun. Now I keep them in shade of larger pots when outdoors in the summer.

Mostly I've been following this highly regarded source http://www.lithops.info/ and my succ discord, but still, I have killed like 8 now in 3 years :C.

man that sucks :(

lithops are supposed to live decades (not a dig at you)

have you considered reducing the pumice content? Pumice is extremely porous and extremely good at retaining both air and water. If your lithops are rotting it might still be too wet for them.

I had bad experiences using 90% DE (similar water retention properties to pumice) with various succulents in the past. The only plant that seems to do well in it for me is Portulacaria.

Maybe a 1:1 pumice to aquarium gravel?

Also, maybe they’ll do better for you under an indoor grow light with good PAR if the sun is too hot/inconsistent? Something where you can give them a good long day of bright light but not cook them in a pot?

trilobite terror fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Dec 10, 2021

Hirayuki
Mar 28, 2010


Wallet posted:

For all their foibles plants are remarkably resilient, and they'll do their damndest to recover as long as you can stabilize them enough that they aren't actively dying but damage that occurs over a period of days can take years to repair. I have a Haworthia attenuata I got in January of 2020 that had almost immediate root rot issues and just sat there like a lump for nearly two years until last month it started pushing out new growth.
Exactly, which is why I'm loath to chuck this one even though it looks really bad. Like, really really bad. Maybe I can find somewhere else for it to recover in relative private.

Wallet posted:

It's like an $8 supermarket plant so I guess it would have been smarter to just buy a new one.
Yeah...this, too. :sigh:

pokie
Apr 27, 2008

IT HAPPENED!

Hirayuki posted:

Exactly, which is why I'm loath to chuck this one even though it looks really bad. Like, really really bad. Maybe I can find somewhere else for it to recover in relative private.

I find it rewarding to bring plants back to health (when it works). As long as it's not a serious pest problem in which case yeeting can be best to avoid spread.

Wallet
Jun 19, 2006

Ok Comboomer posted:

Are you gonna go full bonsai with that adenium? I picked up two quart-sized ones and some rooted cuttings on Black Friday with the intent to train the gently caress out of them and maybe give one as a gift this year.

I don't think I'm qualified for full bonsai. I am keeping it indoors so I don't want to let it get so big it no longer fits anywhere, but we'll see how it does when it actually has leaves again.


Ok Comboomer posted:

She’s like “some people keep them in grow tents” as if to dissuade me, but meanwhile in my head I’m already going “yessssss, another reason to get a grow tent.....”
'

On the one hand I kind of get really wanting a particular plant, but on the other hand I kind of feel the same way about grow tents as I do about using those blue/red grow LEDs for indoor ornamentals. What's the point if I don't get to see it? If I were going to get into orchids I'd probably go for a glass terrarium setup over a grow tent though obviously the cost to available growing area ratio is much worse.


pokie posted:

That's a solid perspective. I am stubborn and keep buying lithops though :v:.

I haven't really hosed with Lithops but I might at some point. I guess they're easy enough to find/cheap enough to kill repeatedly so someone must be managing it. Do they still go dormant regularly if their photo period and temperature is kept stable?

pokie
Apr 27, 2008

IT HAPPENED!

Ok Comboomer posted:

man that sucks :(

lithops are supposed to live decades (not a dig at you)

have you considered reducing the pumice content? Pumice is extremely porous and extremely good at retaining both air and water. If your lithops are rotting it might still be too wet for them.

I had bad experiences using 90% DE (similar water retention properties to pumice) with various succulents in the past. The only plant that seems to do well in it for me is Portulacaria.

Maybe a 1:1 pumice to aquarium gravel?

Also, maybe they’ll do better for you under an indoor grow light with good PAR if the sun is too hot/inconsistent? Something where you can give them a good long day of bright light but not cook them in a pot?

This is news to me! My understanding is that pumice is a great gritty additive and stuff flows right through it. And I have only had one root rot problem since I have switched to using pumice (my first lithops died terribly to overwatering and root rot). Most recent 4 deaths included 1 from sunburn and 3 from suddenly shriveling with no indication of overwatering. I can try compare and contrast in the next batch using your mix vs mine.

BTW, here's the source I use on pot mixes https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aLHXMDSRxNwjxem6Q7omccH2lBBp1pP-HyZq6tThaDQ/edit
It's written by a friend who seems respected as far as succ knowledge goes.

pokie fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Dec 10, 2021

pokie
Apr 27, 2008

IT HAPPENED!

Wallet posted:

I haven't really hosed with Lithops but I might at some point. I guess they're easy enough to find/cheap enough to kill repeatedly so someone must be managing it. Do they still go dormant regularly if their photo period and temperature is kept stable?

I have overwintered all my lithops indoors and they seem fine under grow lights. I got flowers next growing season etc. But I am clearly not an expert. While I have read a bunch on them, I clearly have a bad success rate.

Wallet
Jun 19, 2006

pokie posted:

BTW, here's the source I use on pot mixes https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aLHXMDSRxNwjxem6Q7omccH2lBBp1pP-HyZq6tThaDQ/edit
It's written by a friend who seems respected as far as succ knowledge goes.

My experience is that every succulent I have grows well in the same mix (though they vary somewhat in how much water they want). Obviously in an absolutely ideal world they might all want a slightly different media, but there's no way for you to actually know what that precise mix is going to be for each species or cultivar or even individual plant unless you are going to bring in hundreds of individuals of each and test it. The ability to adjust water and light seems sufficient to account for variation in preferences.

The document you linked seems fine in general as far as the practical advice though I wouldn't really advocate for using soil based anything as either a basis for or component of succulent media, even for epiphytes, as the margin of error is incredibly slim on over watering. If I lived somewhere hot and dry I might feel very differently.

pokie posted:

This is news to me! My understanding is that pumice is a great gritty additive and stuff flows right through it.

Drainage is totally the wrong way to think about it in my opinion. It's relevant when we're talking about soil in your yard or in a farmer's field, but it really isn't when we're talking about a pot that a plant is going to grow in because unless you put concrete in there water will flow freely through virtually anything once it's saturated. What actually matters is porosity and how that porosity is filled with air and water, which is what you'll find discussions of in horticultural literature mostly.

For a quick overview:
  • Porosity (or pore space): The proportion of a given volume of substrate that is not occupied by the substrate itself (and so is available for air/water).
  • Air porosity (or capacity or space): The proportion of a given volume of substrate occupied by air after the substrate has been saturated with water and any free water has been allowed to completely drain.
  • Water porosity (or capacity or space): The inverse of air porosity—the proportion of a given volume of substrate occupied by water after the substrate has been saturated with water and any free water has been allowed to completely drain.
Note: Some authors (for reasons I can't fathom) will present water/air porosity as a percentage of pore space, not as a percentage of substrate volume.

What drains out of any substrate is a function of how much water you put into it, it's really what stays that you care about. poo poo can get complex, because things like the volume and particularly the height of a container will impact the porosity of whatever you put in it (the weight of the media and gravity will literally squeeze more water out, increasing air porosity, in a taller pot). This means that you really can't directly compare across different sources for actual figures on soil components, but here's some data* for some common things people use to grow poo poo:

pre:
Media       Total  Water  Air
Sphagnum    89-94% 74-77% 12-20%
Pine Bark   75-80% 56%    19-24%
Coir        92-94% 82-83% 9-12% 
Perlite     68%    36-40% 28-32%
Vermiculite 78-80% 70-72% 6-10% 
pre:
Media                Total  Water  Air   
Sphagnum peat moss   84.2%  58.0%  25.4% 
Hypnum peat moss     71.7%  59.3%  12.4% 
Vermiculite          80.5%  53.0%  27.5% 
Perlite              77.1%  47.3%  29.8% 
Fir bark             69.7%  15.0%  54.7% 
Sand                 36.2%  33.7%  2.5% 
Generally speaking a coarser media with larger pores is going to retain less water (increasing air capacity) and reduce the distance over which water can be drawn via capillary action/wicking.

A finer substrate will do the opposite, increasing water capacity, decreasing air capacity, and increasing the distance over which wicking can occur. It's worth noting that just because a finer substrate can hold more water doesn't mean that it makes that water more easily available to plants, as the same action that allows finer substrates to retain water also makes it more difficult for plants to suck that water out of them.

If you dig real deep they start talking about macro, meso, micro, and ultra-micro pores and how those have different properties and inter-media (or aggregate) vs intra-media pores and poo poo like that and how those impact water availability to plants. It's not really worth getting into beyond saying that extremely fine/small pores will hold water but that water is usually unavailable to plants.


Once you start mixing poo poo the properties can change radically, though. If you're mixing 90% pumice with something else and that something else is much finer than pumice you may as well not be using pumice. It's difficult to get direct numbers for pumice, but it has lots of very fine pores which means it is likely to retain some water but a decent amount of that water is likely not plant available. Probably not entirely dissimilar to perlite which retains a decent amount of water.

* here and here

Wallet fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Dec 11, 2021

pokie
Apr 27, 2008

IT HAPPENED!

Wallet posted:

My experience is that every succulent I have grows well in the same mix (though they vary somewhat in how much water they want).

What do you use then?

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

pokie posted:

What do you use then?

Wallet
Jun 19, 2006

pokie posted:

What do you use then?

Bonsai Jack :shrug:


Or this. It may have been mentioned once or twice in the thread and/or prior iterations (repeatedly).

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

Wallet posted:

Bonsai Jack :shrug:

Or this. It may have been mentioned once or twice in the thread and/or prior iterations (repeatedly).

I resisted/put it off for the longest time but it really is the best.

Bonsai Jack and Al’s Gritty, etc are all mostly variations on the same theme:

1:1:1

1 gravel : 1 pumice/perlite/DE/turface/kanuma/etc : 1 organic (I like pine bark mulch for drier mix or a bit of peat moss for wetter mix)

you can cut/add organic as you need

pokie
Apr 27, 2008

IT HAPPENED!

OK, I will just buy some gravel & pine bark after i move.

FWIW though my mix only seemed to matter for three things so far: huernia, ariocarpus fissuratus (RIP $150), and lithops. Everything else doesn't seem to give a gently caress in what ratio i mix rocks, pumice and potting soil.

Wallet
Jun 19, 2006

Ok Comboomer posted:

1 gravel : 1 pumice/perlite/DE/turface/kanuma/etc : 1 organic (I like pine bark mulch for drier mix or a bit of peat moss for wetter mix)

Yeah, there's a lot of options, I'm just too lazy to gently caress around with mixing it myself and it works good for me.

Re: a wetter mix, about a year ago (or maybe a little longer) Bonsai Jack switched from using 1/4" pine bark fines to using pine coir which is somewhat smaller and has a greater particle size variation which sort of goes against the gritty mix orthodoxy. The next time I ordered some it seemed weird to me so I wrote them an email about it.

This is what they said:

quote:

For years we have used straight ¼ inch pine bark in our soil with mixed results on sensitive plants such as Echeveria and vine type succulents. These sometimes required the addition of potting soil. The addition of Pine Coir greatly improves plant health for cacti and succulents alike while eliminating the need for additional potting soil. It’s ready to use right out of the bag, for a wider variety of succulents and cacti. Removing the finer particles will reduce performance and is not recommended. This decision was made after hundreds of field tests over the past year. This change dramatically improves soil performance. In fact, we have yet to find a succulent that mix does not agree with. It may look a little different when potting but will even out after a few watering’s. Please know that this decision was not taken lightly. The test results could not be ignored and this small change needed to be made. As always, please be sure to let the soil dry completely between watering’s.

And I haven't had any issues with it (or with the stuff I got before they switched, to be fair) so maybe they're right.

Wallet fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Dec 11, 2021

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

wee trithops :3:

pokie
Apr 27, 2008

IT HAPPENED!

3 leaves? whoa

Wallet
Jun 19, 2006

pokie posted:

3 leaves? whoa

Apparently this is a thing but they generally revert.

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

pokie posted:

3 leaves? whoa

they tend to revert to two eventually, but occasionally people on the internet find one that persists with its deviant lifestyle for multiple growth cycles

skylined!
Apr 6, 2012

THE DEM DEFENDER HAS LOGGED ON
Here have some plant pictures of plants I love and how our home has been enriched by them.

Plants have been wintered for about a month and it's clear which ones are going to be fine inside and which aren't. I've had one ficus altisima just poo poo itself to a stalk, a few alocasia that are... struggling but the philos and monstera seem happy. This is what sits behind me in our office.



Big light off, camera doesn't capture how loving bright it is. Spiderfarm SF1000D light if anyone cares.


Newest philo, super happy - philo panduriforme.


Better angle


Rando succulent I bought in the Spring that spent all summer outside and it went nuts. Thinking I will chop it soon. Pretty sure it is about to flower.







I think this is a "Thanksgiving" cactus as opposed to Christmas but it should be blooming around Christmas. About to go crazy.


Deck where everything will go back in the Spring. Just got a shade tarp for a steal and tossed it up, a bit premature but turned out good! Also the tropical hibiscus on the left is still somehow blooming, even after we've had frost in the morning a few times the last 3 weeks.



We redid our kitchen last fall. We ordered some shelves a year ago. They finally arrived and we got them hung and made a bare wall into a nice little coffee bar with plants.



Got a giant golden pothos cutting in the Spring and it surprisingly continued to spit out giant leaves and not totally revert. It's shot out a few of these large aerial roots that you don't typically see unless they're in the wild.



Annnnd the window to the right of my desk.


Ok thanks for reading.

skylined! fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Dec 14, 2021

Lakitu7
Jul 10, 2001

Watch for spinys
What's the mysterious glowing green box under the Xanadu?

What palms are those to take a frost? It looks like a Chinese Fan on the right but the other two are far enough I can't tell.



I bought a Sago Palm from Home Depot on clearance a couple months ago and it looks exactly the same as it did on day one. I know they are very slow growers, but can anyone guess in what direction it's going to go? Like, are the tall leaves at the top the newer ones and they will slowly lay down and turn into a very short, wide plant? Are the smaller leaves at the bottom the newer ones and they're going to get wider and start sticking up? Is it going to stay pretty much like this but get new tall ones that match the existing five while retaining the bottom rim of smaller ones? On google images pretty much none of the Sagos have this shape, so I'm just not sure what the growth habit is.

[edit]Sorry, I haven't posted an image in years and didn't realize you can't timg an attachment and now can't delete it after posting either.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

Lakitu7 fucked around with this message at 02:18 on Dec 15, 2021

Shemp the Stooge
Feb 23, 2001
I have two plants that I am pretty sure are areca palms. They have become so wide they are getting in the way of things. Is there a way to tighten them up horizontally? Can I wrap or tie them up? Here are some pictures. Any advice is appreciated.


Wallet
Jun 19, 2006

I have this Epipremnum (with a bonus little Philodendron I put in when I was repotting it a couple of weeks ago) that I've been growing in/up my hallway/furniture.




It's kind of a mess but I like it anyway and it's getting close to the ceiling now. I'd like to encourage it to start going down the wall but that's away from the window so I think I probably need a grow light. I could clip one to the door frame and keep moving it along except that I haven't seen any that seem like they have jaws anywhere near big enough for that. Anyone have any bright ideas?


Shemp the Stooge posted:

I have two plants that I am pretty sure are areca palms. They have become so wide they are getting in the way of things. Is there a way to tighten them up horizontally? Can I wrap or tie them up?

Tieing or wrapping them could cause issues, but you can safely give them some support to hold them more upright. They make supports/cages for this purpose though mostly they're intended for poo poo in the garden. Here's some fairly expensive ones from Gardener's Supply Company, though I'm sure you can find cheaper alternatives on Amazon or whatever (or just make your own).

skylined!
Apr 6, 2012

THE DEM DEFENDER HAS LOGGED ON

Lakitu7 posted:

What's the mysterious glowing green box under the Xanadu?

What palms are those to take a frost? It looks like a Chinese Fan on the right but the other two are far enough I can't tell.

The mysterious green box is my PC, lol. The two palms are two majesty and a fan palm of some kind. They're doing OK so far but I expect some die-back over the winter and may need to be moved inside for extended frost. For right now I think the sun is more beneficial than frost protection, as I'm in 8b and frost has been very temporary early in the morning.

Wallet posted:

I have this Epipremnum (with a bonus little Philodendron I put in when I was repotting it a couple of weeks ago) that I've been growing in/up my hallway/furniture.




It's kind of a mess but I like it anyway and it's getting close to the ceiling now. I'd like to encourage it to start going down the wall but that's away from the window so I think I probably need a grow light. I could clip one to the door frame and keep moving it along except that I haven't seen any that seem like they have jaws anywhere near big enough for that. Anyone have any bright ideas?

So this might not be terribly helpful but my neon epi pinnatum grew into our window frame (like, into the small holes where the rope and pulley attach to the weight in an old window) before we remodeled our kitchen, and sent about 15 feet of ghost-white vines into our walls in search or whatever it could get. Pulling it all out was absolutely wild and I'm pretty sure we left more in the wall. I honestly think you'd be fine without a grow light, just continuing to train it where you want it to go. Something like this might work to tape on the top of the door and window frame, if you wanted to take it that way though? It looks great!

skylined! fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Dec 15, 2021

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

Wallet posted:

I have this Epipremnum (with a bonus little Philodendron I put in when I was repotting it a couple of weeks ago) that I've been growing in/up my hallway/furniture.




It's kind of a mess but I like it anyway and it's getting close to the ceiling now. I'd like to encourage it to start going down the wall but that's away from the window so I think I probably need a grow light. I could clip one to the door frame and keep moving it along except that I haven't seen any that seem like they have jaws anywhere near big enough for that. Anyone have any bright ideas?

How comfortable/prepared are you to hang a pendant light for that purpose? I have some ikea ones that are really cheap—just a super long cord with a little clip dealie that you hang from a hook, and there are plenty of others from Target/Amazon/etc that aren’t ikea. $5-$25 online it seems.

One end is a plug/switch and the other end is a standard lightbulb fixture. Pop in a GE grow bulb and your shade of choice and you’re good to go.

Shemp the Stooge
Feb 23, 2001

Wallet posted:

Tieing or wrapping them could cause issues, but you can safely give them some support to hold them more upright. They make supports/cages for this purpose though mostly they're intended for poo poo in the garden. Here's some fairly expensive ones from Gardener's Supply Company, though I'm sure you can find cheaper alternatives on Amazon or whatever (or just make your own).

Perfect, I found some cheap ones on amazon, thanks!

Wallet
Jun 19, 2006

skylined! posted:

Something like this might work to tape on the top of the door and window frame, if you wanted to take it that way though? It looks great!

For some reason I didn't think about it but I bet I can just put a strip light on top of the door frame actually now that you mention it.

It probably doesn't need a light but once it figured out there was actually a window there it started going in that direction and now the leaves on the vine going over the window are >2x the size of the other ones (a little larger than my hand) which I kind of dig so I'm sure it would appreciate some more juice.

Wallet fucked around with this message at 14:35 on Dec 15, 2021

snailshell
Aug 26, 2010

I LOVE BIG WET CROROCDILE PUSSYT
My Oncidium and very first orchid that I almost killed last winter has finally flowered!!!!! The first orchid I've ever gotten to rebloom!!!!!



Any ID ideas? I was thinking Oncidium x 'Purple Queen,' but the center has a little mottling, which the other photos I've seen don't have.

Yoruichi
Sep 21, 2017


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Dang It Bhabhi!
May 27, 2004



ASK ME ABOUT
BEING
ESCULA GRIND'S
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That gymno and flower are amazing!

pokie
Apr 27, 2008

IT HAPPENED!

That gymno rules.

Wallet
Jun 19, 2006


I love how spectacular Gymno flowers are, and the cross banding on your mihanovichii (var. filadelfiense? Are they still arguing about that?) is really nice.

pokie
Apr 27, 2008

IT HAPPENED!

It reminds me of how I didn't know mine needed complete rest in winter, left it outside where it got rained on, and it shrank in height by 50%. Now I overwinter it indoors and don't water, and it's been ok, although this winter it got scale bugs. I hate those fuckers so much. They keep coming back on my massive crested Myrtillocactus geometrizans and Lophocereus marginatus too. I feel like a dentist murdering them with a brush and toothpick.

pokie fucked around with this message at 06:39 on Dec 20, 2021

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Kaiser Schnitzel
Mar 29, 2006

Schnitzel mit uns


cross-postin this for a yobber in need of a plant ID:

Buttchocks posted:

Hey plant sleuths, my mother has had this plant for like 15 years but doesn't know what it is. It recently flowered for the first time ever. We didn't even know it could flower. Anyone know what this is?


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