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Welcome to The Plant Thread, DIY's horticultural haven for plant nerds of all stripes. What is horticulture? In short, horticultural is loving around with plants in all the ways that they can be hosed with, a unique combination of hard science and aesthetic philosophy. Whether you're planning a farm, converting your lawn to home gardens, tending to a windowsill succulent collection, or even planting a single tree, the principles behind what you're doing right (or wrong) are rooted in horticulture. What's the difference between this thread and the gardening thread? Our counterparts and arch-rivals in the gardening thread mainly post about production-centric home gardening, where they want to get the maximum number of strange Thai chilis that they can yield from the grow light set up in their parents' basement. This thread is much broader in scope and entertains pretty much any conceivable plant question, but with a heavy focus on the ornamental qualities of plants, both indoors and outside. Did you buy an overpriced succulent off of tittycactus69 on Etsy and it's immediately dying? Did you plant a dogwood in a mud pit in the middle of August and now it's not looking so hot? Are you curious why the agave you left outside during a freeze exploded? Ask away! Sounds like a lot can go wrong! Taking care of plants sounds hard. I am scare You're absolutely right my cowardly friend, much can go wrong. Plants are living things and each has their own particular needs and wants. If these needs are denied, the plant will politely let you know of your error by rapid death. I think one of the biggest hurdles to overcome in the beginning of the hobby is the immutable fact that plants die and they die a lot. But plants are also replaceable and you can learn from your errors, which makes your successes and triumphs all the sweeter. Well if they die all the time, why should I grow plants at all? I can't speak for anyone but for me, I enjoy making the world a slightly less lovely place to experience. There are only a couple dozen plants that comprise like 90% of the landscaping that we see on a daily basis; people get burned out on them. I like to see people walk through neighborhoods and stop to admire an apricot (Prunus mume) blooming in the middle of January, stop in awe at the red-as-murder fall color of an American smoketree (Cotinus obovatus), or reach out to touch a tiny, delicate puffball of a fothergilla. Weird plants make the world more exciting and contribute to restoring our broken ecosystems as well, help migratory birds find food, provide shelter for nesting animals, and restore a habitat for our increasingly plagued bug buddies. I love to watch assassin bugs creep through leaves to pulverize some poor dumbass grasshopper while bees gather their pollen and butterflies drink their nectar just inches away. Who gives a poo poo about that? I don’t have a yard! Lol well hold on to your butts. Indoor gardening is one of the most popular fads that has arisen from the pandemic. Windowsills around the country are packed to the brim with rare and unusual plants, and grow setups in basements are increasingly filled with plants other than weed. I can go on a brief walk in my neighborhood and see bromeliads, giant monsteras, cacti, succulents, and palms, all safely tucked behind windows. It’s amazing to me to see such a diversity of life, plants from literally every corner of the globe tucked into cute pots in someone’s kitchen. These are some of the most beautiful and subtle plants in the world, sometimes it can even be difficult to describe them This is a great thread for succulent chat with some very smart posters btw, so please ask away when you overwatered and totally owned that jade plant There's something magical in contributing to this little plant renaissance. It's so fun to have the knowledge to look around you and recognize exactly what you're looking upon, to know all the names of the plants in your yard and just be gobsmacked at the diversity of life that's contained merely on your street. That’s the real beauty of learning about horticulture
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# ? Dec 15, 2020 12:36 |
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# ? Apr 28, 2024 19:59 |
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Here’s a link to the old/previous thread for posterity: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3543738
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# ? Dec 15, 2020 13:06 |
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Plant resources. If you have a resource/nursery to add to this here list. Plant info/identification
Outdoor nurseries There's obviously a ton of places to get plants but these are the ones I or other goons have ordered plants from and been happy with what arrived.
Supplies
Succulents I'm claiming the rest of this post in the name of succulents. Succulent? Can I eat them? Succulents are plants that have developed methods of storing water in above-ground tissue in response to dry (or drought-prone) environments. Cacti count in your heart even if horticulturalists want to exclude them. Succulents come in many (sometimes strange) forms. (Pachycereus marginatus f. cristata; Haworthia springbokvlakensis; Sempervivum wulfenii; Crassula capitella subsp. thyrsiflora) Some of them even flower, if you are nice to them. (Titanopsis calcarea from elgarbo; Sedum morganianum; Cereus validus) Why succulents? Many succulents make excellent houseplants if you can provide them with enough light; they don't need a ton of fussing, and they won't turn into a wilted mess if you forget to water them for a couple of days. Some of them also make excellent garden plants if you can maintain good drainage. How do I not kill my succulents? Don't water them too much—they will die. You will want to let most succulents dry out between waterings. Some popular succulents, including epiphytic cacti like Schlumbergera (Christmas/Thanksgiving/Easter cacti), want quite a bit of water, while others (say Lithops) should be watered very rarely. If you aren't sure if you should be watering yet, you probably shouldn't. For most succulents you will be able to see quite clearly if they aren't getting enough to drink: their water storing tissues will start to shrivel up and wrinkle, and eventually (if they can) they'll start dropping leaves from the bottom up. What should I plant my succulents in? While most succulents are sold in potting soil mixed with some perlite, the conditions in your living room are likely to be quite different than those in a greenhouse in California. A decent sized pot of the succulent mix you'll find at your big box store of choice is going to retain water for weeks unless your house is bone dry. If you're worried about letting your indoor succulents sit in too much water (you probably should be) consider growing them in a gritty mix with limited organic materials and little if any soil (please no peat). You can make your own, if you want to. A basic recipe is a 1:1:1 mix of pine or fir bark fines (pet supply stores sometimes have this for people who keep reptiles); turface (calcined clay), or pumice, or perlite; and crushed granite, or pea gravel, or whatever small bits of non-porous rock make you happy. There are also many pre-made gritty mixes for succulents available of varying qualities. Bonsai Jack makes an excellent one. If you're repotting a plant from soil into a gritty mix you will first want to remove as much of the soil from the plant's roots as you can without maiming it. It can be very misleading to have a pot full of something that retains very little water while having a substrate that retains a great deal more water right up against the plant's roots. It can be helpful to start with the soil totally dry so that you can remove the dirt that the plant isn't holding on to (running a skewer or pencil through it can help if the soil is very compacted). Once you've removed what you can dry, you can generally wash the rest off using your sink, or a hose, or by soaking the roots/dirt in some water. How do I know if my succulent is rotting? Anyone who has grown succulents has likely dealt with rot. It may be that you watered them too often, or they may have come to you well on their way to dead. Often succulents sold in big box stores are already rotting below the surface before you even take them home. If your plant has leaves that are drying out and falling off it's probably either discarding leaves it doesn't need anymore or it doesn't have enough water. If your plant has leaves that are dying/falling off but they aren't drying out first then the plant isn't very happy, and it may be rotting. Rotting leaves/pads/etc will turn brown or translucent and mushy. Rot often starts in the roots, which can be harder to notice if you aren't paying attention. If your plant starts showing signs of water stress (getting wrinkly, dropping lower leaves) even though you're giving it plenty of water, it's likely that it has a root problem preventing it from taking up the water you are providing, and it may well be rot. You'll want to take a peek under its skirts before it's too late: rotten roots will generally be soft/mushy and dark brown, while healthy roots should be firm and have a lighter color. I think it's rotting. Depending on how advanced the rot is, you may still be able to save the plant. Many succulents can be regrown from a single leaf (google before you try this as some can't). If your plant has started to rot, it's important to remove all of the rotten tissue to stop the spread. You'll want to use a sharp (sterile) knife or scissors. Don't put it back in the same substrate after you've cleaned up the plant unless you've sterilized it (which you can do in the oven, if desired). 3% hydrogen peroxide is also effective at dealing with the fungi that cause root rot and can be applied to the underground portions of the plant or used as a soil drench. Why is my succulent growing all weird? Some succulents can be hard to keep compact in a home environment. Your plant might start out as a neat little rosette. But if it starts looking like this. Or like this. It's because your plant wants more light, and it's stretching out to try and get it. Wallet fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Aug 26, 2022 |
# ? Dec 15, 2020 14:08 |
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I'm turning the old thread into a commemorative 6er thread for the next day or two before we send it off to the goodmine so plz post there if you want some flowers in your rap sheet. Kaiser Schnitzel fucked around with this message at 14:57 on Dec 15, 2020 |
# ? Dec 15, 2020 14:49 |
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My fruit trees haven’t shed their leaves yet and it’s starting to annoy me. The vast majority of the leaves haven’t even changed color. loving GO DORMANT already! I gotta prune you fucks at some point.
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# ? Dec 16, 2020 02:25 |
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Saw this fella lounging around in my garden today
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# ? Dec 16, 2020 03:20 |
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Jestery posted:Saw this fella lounging around in my garden today I am envious of your climate and also your cute skink friend (I think it's a skink? I have no idea, we don't have lizards in these parts). It's about to drop a couple feet of snow here.
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# ? Dec 16, 2020 22:34 |
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Wallet posted:I am envious of your climate and also your cute skink friend (I think it's a skink? I have no idea, we don't have lizards in these parts). It's about to drop a couple feet of snow here. It is a cute skink friend, but I also need to contend with the larger local fauna and I've been chasing the local scrub turkeys away from my garden https://youtu.be/Og_g3b5edRY It's been getting bloody hot and humid here ~40° and 80-90% humidity which gets old quick My plants love it but I have been watering myself as much as the plants
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# ? Dec 16, 2020 22:43 |
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Frost bitten crassula update: the damage is more extensive than I thought: some of the bigger stems went mushy. Still, I think I’ve removed all the worst bits and there’s signs of life here and there so all is not lost.
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 00:42 |
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the fart question posted:
I’m not sure about Crassula, but with other related succulents like Spekboom you want to stop watering until the new foliage starts coming in. Hang in there!
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 00:45 |
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the fart question posted:
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 01:01 |
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I’m sort of expecting to lose over half the plant - the left trunk isn’t showing any growth yet. A lot has been removed from the right but it’s growing a bit
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 12:57 |
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I have a very soft spot for crassula My mother keeps a lot of it and my crassula is from her garden
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 13:12 |
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the fart question posted:I’m sort of expecting to lose over half the plant - the left trunk isn’t showing any growth yet. A lot has been removed from the right but it’s growing a bit Is it under a grow light? You could also get a cheap soil warming mat if you’re feeling extra worried and want to give the roots as much coddling as possible. No clue how much the latter would help in practice but slowly ramping up the former until it’s getting ~8hrs or more daily (probably best to stay relatively within the bounds of the season wrt sunlight hours) will really stimulate leaf growth
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 13:51 |
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Camellia question that I posted too late on the old thread: Any ideas on what causes these leaf "holes"? This specimen is planted out in the garden, semi shade, and a good number of the leaves have these, almost like burn holes, but otherwise it seems ok (despite probably needing more feed and compost, (the climate here in Germany is tbh not great for them either)). I wonder if maybe it's something to do with a sooty-mold that I often see on camelias that spend time over winter in a greenhouse?
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 13:57 |
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RickRogers posted:Camellia question that I posted too late on the old thread: I don't know what it is, but I have seen it before and it doesn't seem to do major harm. Looks like sunburn or maybe salt injury? https://www.americancamellias.com/education-and-camellia-care/insects-and-diseases
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 14:07 |
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Ok Comboomer posted:Is it under a grow light? You could also get a cheap soil warming mat if you’re feeling extra worried and want to give the roots as much coddling as possible. No clue how much the latter would help in practice but slowly ramping up the former until it’s getting ~8hrs or more daily (probably best to stay relatively within the bounds of the season wrt sunlight hours) will really stimulate leaf growth Yeah it's under a lamp now, though it wasn't for the first week. As for temperature, it's inside now and nice and warm.
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 14:17 |
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new thread new thread new thread new thread i have a problematic hobby of trying to grow ridiculous things over winter, so here's a recent seed order:
Heavy Hitter Okra Crespo Squash Chinese Sweet Basil Lettuce Leaf Basil Blue Spice Basil Dwarf Lemon Cilantro Camelia Flowered Mix Balsam Kiwano Rund Jelly Melon Kiwano - African Horned Cucumber Bateekh Samara Melon Great White Tomato White Tomesol Tomato White Horehound Anise Hyssop Japanese Black Sticky Corn Strawberry Popcorn i dunno how many of these will be winter production vs planting in the spring, but we'll find out. also, i went and checked on the citrus in the shed the other day and found a snoozing guest...i didn't have the heart to make him get out, haha.
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 14:31 |
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How much of a pain is it to start English Lavender from seeds? The package makes it sound pretty simple, but other resources make it sound like I need to keep them cold for a few weeks (not happening), or just state "Lavender isn’t easy to grow from seed".
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 15:57 |
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Cowwan posted:How much of a pain is it to start English Lavender from seeds? Lavender is perfectly happy with seeding itself all over the place, even thhrough gravel/mineral mulch, so I imagine follow the packet instructions and you are good to go.
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 16:07 |
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gently caress! Orchids are hard!!!!!!! I now have three little friends, two Phalaenopsis hybrids and one Oncidium (which I was told was a Cymbidium, so I left it outside, then the back bulbs all started rotting...). The yellow Phalaenopsis I received for free when it was close to death, then spotted mold on all the uppermost roots and discovered why it was close to death--the roots were completely packed in soaking-wet sphagnum moss, and not in one plastic growpot as I had thought, but secretly crammed into ANOTHER inner growpot with one teeny drainage hole! And the crown basically broke off, so there's only one leaf at the base of the crown desperately clinging on for life. I picked off all the moss and laid it out to dry, razored off the hosed-up moldy roots, and repotted in coarse fir bark. Gonna leave it to dry out for a couple weeks or a month then start lightly watering again. If all I can do is keep this thing alive for another year, let alone the poor frostbitten Oncidium, I will praise our dark orchid god with, I don't even know, human sacrifice or something
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 18:36 |
I recently got 2 new ones and am trying a 3-4 daily spray thing, but yea they're hard. I had one that sounds very similar to yours with the dead crown that I babied because I was hoping it would make a keiki, but it never did and slowly withered away
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 18:52 |
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ime once you have them going and healthy (i.e., repotted into appropriate media or mostly left growing in an empty pot) you can do things like just letting the whole pot soak in water for an hour then letting it drain and not bothering again until it’s bone dry a week later. definitely never watered them daily. my so is the orchid grower in the family tho. if you have them mostly bare rooted you might also try the soak and then letting drain for a while and keeping them in a cloche or inverted jar or something beneath their light source mediaphage fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Dec 17, 2020 |
# ? Dec 17, 2020 19:07 |
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RickRogers posted:Lavender is perfectly happy with seeding itself all over the place, even thhrough gravel/mineral mulch, so I imagine follow the packet instructions and you are good to go. Cool, Lavender is one of the plants I've had trouble with (I think it doesn't like how wet Florida is), so it's good to know I can start again from seed without too much trouble.
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 19:34 |
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I have a lavender plant that has completely died and come back at least three times. It ugly as hell, but it's still alive! I'd post a pic but it's dark out.
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 19:37 |
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Cowwan posted:Cool, Lavender is one of the plants I've had trouble with (I think it doesn't like how wet Florida is), so it's good to know I can start again from seed without too much trouble.
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 19:37 |
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My goodness, lavender in Florida sounds like a challenge! We have a great "airated lava-stone substrate" here, (being right by a supervolcano has some benefits) that L. angustifolia goes nuts for; also makes for excellent green-roofing substrate
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 19:55 |
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Lol, good to know I'm not just that incompetent.
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 20:57 |
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I'd like to share a little experiment with the thread. I had read how christmas cactus grows on other plants in rain forests, so I wondered if I could get one to grow on some mossy sticks? I tied some moss from the back yard onto some thin fir branches, and tied some leaves from a cactus on with them, and crammed a couple in a bottle. It has been sitting on the kitchen window sill (North facing) for a while now, and it hasn't all died yet! Check out these root hairs! and the moss seems to be doing well too In other news, can anyone help me determine if this is aloe or agave? I was thinking agave, but when I finally managed to snap one of the leaves open, it's just gel inside. the gel smells just like aloe (not the stuff in the bottle, actual aloe plant) gel. Bonus monstera veins
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 21:51 |
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B33rChiller posted:I'd like to share a little experiment with the thread. I had posted earlier about the two nearly-12-year-old cactus plants I inherited from my beloved late grandmother. One was pretty rotted, but I took a ton of cuttings, and many are successfully rooting and growing. I repot those three at a time once they start to look like something. I put the healthier of the two OG plants into its own pot, at which point it promptly put out all kinds of new segments off its very oldest growth, right at the soil line. It's happy.
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# ? Dec 17, 2020 22:04 |
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Hirayuki posted:Cool granny cactus anecdote I was inspired by wondering how I might get the humidity up around the plant without having to spray all the time (or increasing the humidity in the house to levels we aren't prepared to deal with) I noticed the old bottle just gathering dust, and the lightbulb came on.
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# ? Dec 18, 2020 00:00 |
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I'm really interested in hearing how those kiwanos go. I love those little bastards but tropical fruit prices in Canada hurt.
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# ? Dec 18, 2020 00:05 |
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I somehow managed to rehab an orchid that was so rotted out in the roots that it only had 1 tiny inch long section of live root left. The poor thing was all dehydrated and floppy, but I liked the pot that it was in so I figured for $5 it’d be okay if it died- I’d just put something else in there. I pulled out all the moss and cut off all the dead wormy roots, put it into fresh bark/charcoal/perlite mix and soak it once/week for a couple hours, then drain it completely and ignore for the rest of the week. This was in February, and it’s somehow regrown tons of new roots and replaced 2 of its leaves. It’s even growing a flower spike! If I can save that thing, you can do it too! I’m known as the black thumb of the family and a huge disappointment to my mother, the horticulturist.
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# ? Dec 18, 2020 00:11 |
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B33rChiller posted:Nice to hear. Grandma's treasured houseplants have to be right up there with Grandpa's treasured guns in high sentimental value inheritance. that’s super fun looking. we have at least a couple of dozen of those guys going atm; my so started to breed them and grew a bunch of the resultant seeds. subpar anachronism posted:I'm really interested in hearing how those kiwanos go. I love those little bastards but tropical fruit prices in Canada hurt. i’ll deffo let you know. that’s one of the big reasons for doing it; i’m in ontario. the other of course is that winter is just dreary after a certain point with no greenery.
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# ? Dec 18, 2020 00:54 |
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I’m so keen to get into orchids but I’m scared of ending up with a bunch of permanently flowerless little aroids that I can successfully keep alive and going but never get to thrive up here in New England. My mom used to have a couple of Phals that held on, flowerless and somewhat miserable and pruny looking, for like a decade. Eventually she gave them prosthetic silk flowers. Meanwhile her sister in the DR has a whole orchidarium growing out of her balcony with literally zero work on her part. Anybody ever try building a cloche/indoor greenhouse? There are some ikea-based ones that are super popular right now that seem to actually do a pretty good job of maintaining a humid microclimate and lighting while also providing tasteful display. They certainly look substantially better than getting a loving growtent, which is the other really common way I’ve seen people successfully do orchid collecting north of Georgia. Tho you can def fit more weed plants in with your phals and oncidiums in a grow tent than in a glass cabinet, so at least you have something to occupy yourself with when the orchids don’t flower again :P . I suppose if I committed to building some kind of humid enclosure I’d want to know that I could make good use of the space. I’ve seen people use them as “plant hospitals”, places to start seeds/cuttings, etc. I’ve also seen a lot of dumb Instagram bs of somebody adding lights/humidifier/fan/weatherstripping/wire shelves to a $200 cabinet and then filling the entire space with like one orchid, a large trailing pothos, and the contents of an 8” monstera pot. Like don’t get me wrong, probably 70% of my indoor plants would love nothing more than to live in a greenhouse where the ambient humidity never, ever dropped below 65%, but cloche privileges would have to be for plants that 1) fit 2) really required it like orchids, etc. Aside from orchids, what else fits in a cabinet and really needs that kind of climate management? Calatheas? I’ve seen people in the carnivorous plant scene get into it too, but if I’m ever keeping North American carnivores it’ll be in a bog filter for a koi pond outside, I ain’t dealing with winter dormancy and finicky NA carnivorous plants indoors again.
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# ? Dec 18, 2020 01:43 |
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for what it's worth the problem is almost assuredly going to be light rather than humidity for orchids. yes, some sensitive orchids will do better with a higher maintained humidity (you could just have a humidifier in a closed off room for the times when they're not in bloom if it's that important), but you're probably going to want a fairly substantial source of supplemental light if you're not going to be using an outdoor greenhouse. like i've mentioned before i'm not the orchid person in our relationship, but my so regularly gets them to bloom and we're in canada. they go outside in a shaded area all summer and live indoors under LEDs when it gets too cool for them outside. no special humidification, though some of the live with the birbs and get a little extra help during the winter. regular soakings, allowed to dry out between waterings, etc. a lot of orchids really aren't that fussy. i don't know all the ones we have but there are for sure phals and oncidiums. edit: here's an old pic of some of the orchids and here's the weirdest flower we've gotten, on one of the succulents (Stapelia scitula): mediaphage fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Dec 18, 2020 |
# ? Dec 18, 2020 01:58 |
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B33rChiller posted:In other news, can anyone help me determine if this is aloe or agave? The shape of the spines looks more like an Aloe to me but who the gently caress knows—the interior of an Agave leaf would be quite fibrous when you snapped it open so if there isn't any of that going on it's an Aloe. Hirayuki posted:I had posted earlier about the two nearly-12-year-old cactus plants I inherited from my beloved late grandmother. One was pretty rotted, but I took a ton of cuttings, and many are successfully rooting and growing. I repot those three at a time once they start to look like something. I put the healthier of the two OG plants into its own pot, at which point it promptly put out all kinds of new segments off its very oldest growth, right at the soil line. It's happy. Happy to hear these are doing well! It looked pretty dire as I recall.
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# ? Dec 18, 2020 02:39 |
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mediaphage posted:for what it's worth the problem is almost assuredly going to be light rather than humidity for orchids. yes, some sensitive orchids will do better with a higher maintained humidity (you could just have a humidifier in a closed off room for the times when they're not in bloom if it's that important), but you're probably going to want a fairly substantial source of supplemental light if you're not going to be using an outdoor greenhouse. Funny you mention that- the other part of the equation is lighting. I imagine I’d go with the same type of LED grow light I’m currently using on my shelves. The goon recommendation of Barrina lights has been great so far. They’re really bright. A Calathea mosaica I have on the other side of the room can pick up when they’re turned on. But isn’t bright direct light bad for orchids? I’ve seen reviews of the Barrina lights say that using 2-3 tubes together was enough to light stress some succulents, and I guess I believe it. I imagine that with 1-2 tubes per shelf you’d have yourself a decent little cabinet. I guess a different question would be- how hard is it to keep humidity around ~70% in a plant collection when they’re in a dry, dry-rear end room for much of the year?
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# ? Dec 18, 2020 02:43 |
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Dumb ghetto solution Could you hang up a wet towel on a rack nearby and let it dry and remoisten as needed?
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# ? Dec 18, 2020 02:58 |
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# ? Apr 28, 2024 19:59 |
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Also- Costa Farms finally getting their <$20 Mosaicas- aka “network” and Birkins pushed out to Home Depots across America is a great end to 2020, it’s the Plant Internet version of when Target decided to go all in on “ironic” millennial pool toys and jizzed out a billion inflatable lime wedges and pelicans and donuts. Realtalk: I saw a whole palletful of the Birkins the other day while picking up a snowshovel and they looked good. “Christmas-gift-for-mom-and-maybe-I’ll-just-also-separate-that-one-big-pup-for-myself-shhh-nobody-will-notice” good. If the Monstera albo and Thai constellation rumored for 2021 are this good I’m gonna need to make room.
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# ? Dec 18, 2020 02:59 |