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What type of plants are you interested in growing? This poll is closed. |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Perennials! |
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142 | 20.91% |
| Annuals! |
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30 | 4.42% |
| Woody plants! |
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62 | 9.13% |
| Succulent plants! |
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171 | 25.18% |
| Tropical plants! |
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60 | 8.84% |
| Non-vascular plants are the best! |
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31 | 4.57% |
| Screw you, I'd rather eat them! |
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183 | 26.95% |
| Total: | 679 votes | ||
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 This is my cactus. It was one of only 2 sprouts from a Wal-Mart "Grow Your Own Cactus" little plastic greenhouse things. It was the only survivor. Fast forward 5 years and 3 moves and voila! I have a few questions about it. First, what species is it? Will the bottom ever thicken out? It seems to get taller and taller but never get larger at the base. Afraid it will tip over. It seems to grow only for a few weeks a year and in that time it GROWS. That green shoot that is the tallest is brand new, it was not there 3 weeks ago. The year before the section that is right-most grew in, then got fatter than the section before it. Is this normal? How tall will it grow and will it ever flower? What about that brownish/whiting spot near the base? It has been there for a few years, it seems like it is scaly and could peel off, but cactus, ow. I am very proud of my cactus and it is my favorite plant, so I hope I am doing right by it. Thanks guys.
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Jul 9, 2014 02:27
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It looks like it might be some type of Opuntia, maybe? I have one that I started from seed last year that also goes dormant a long time, and now is in its really short but really active growing phase, and it has a similar shape to yours, although it is smaller. I don't know if it will ever thicken at the base, you may want to tie it to a stick or something if you want it to stay upright. The different growth sizes is normal, often Opuntia have much flatter broader pads, but some are skinny like this guy. Edit: It may flower, but it will likely need a lot of sun to do so.
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Jul 9, 2014 03:11
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As far as I know, skinny cacti result from a lack of sufficient sunlight, and skinny bases never fill out. Instead, when you do give them more sun, the new growth will get fat and top heavy and break off or bend over.
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Jul 9, 2014 14:08
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I think it's some kind of Optunia subulata (or hybrid of), which stays very skinny normally. Usually the monstrose form gets sold, but if it's from seed, it's probably the species. It looks pretty good, but I would expect more growth over five years. Do you have it outside in the summer/full sun in the winter?
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Jul 9, 2014 14:21
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unprofessional posted:I think it's some kind of Optunia subulata (or hybrid of), which stays very skinny normally. Usually the monstrose form gets sold, but if it's from seed, it's probably the species. It looks pretty good, but I would expect more growth over five years. Do you have it outside in the summer/full sun in the winter? I had it outside for the first few weeks of late spring but from time to time it would get poured on to the point that the pot was filling up with water, so I brought it in. There is also a cat that tried to dig up my mint and I don't want that happening to the cactus (or the cat's owner coming over furious at me with a cat full of prickers). It's current spot gives it partial light. There are windows on 2 sides of the room, one floor to ceiling, so a good amount of natural light gets in. It is away from the windows though, as there is no window sill. We do have a covered porch that would keep it out of the rain, though I do not know if that would be too much an improvement on sun. I'd also be a bit worried about high winds knocking it over, we have had a number of bad thunderstorms in the last 2 weeks. e: Also, all the new growth happened after I brought it in.
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Jul 9, 2014 20:50
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Sounds like you need a much better potting mix. Cacti do really well when lots of air can reach the root system. An easy fix is to add an equal amount of perlite to a box-store cacti mix and use that. If you do that, you'll be able to leave it outside all spring/summer, and you'll probably get some sweet ol' prickly pear fruit (which are actually called tunas) to enjoy. If you look at the cacti/succulents I posted earlier, they're all potted in a mix that's about 80% perlite, then I top-dress with gravel.
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Jul 9, 2014 21:02
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Any ideas what either of these things might be?  I tried to find something like the second one on GIS, but perhaps unsurprisingly searching for "ping flowering tree in oregon" pretty much just turned up page after page of cherry trees. e: I was at the garden center today and they identified them as some type of arum and a hibiscus, probably some type of H. syriacus. stubblyhead fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Jul 13, 2014 |
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Jul 12, 2014 06:48
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Drosera adelae is a total beast. Here we are in mid-March.  And now in May.  And today.  Grows like a monster. What a great sundew.
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Jul 13, 2014 13:09
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I posted this in the fast fixes thread, and a kind goon pointed me to this plan thread. Any help is appreciated. Just closed on a house and I have a few yard related questions. I didn't see a general lawn care thread, so I figured I would try this thread first. Since location matters, this is in upstate South Carolina. What do you guys think of these plants?     The whole area has been neglected for years, and a bunch of this stuff is growing in the backyard. I want to start clearing it all out, but I want to make sure it isn't something harmful like any of the "poison _______" plants. After doing some research online, it actually looks most like poison sumac, but I'm not sure this is the right environment for it to grow. Here are a few more photos of the area...   Here are my questions: - Is that poison sumac or anything else harmful? - The layer of leaves on the ground is really deep, and there are vines running along the ground that need to be removed. How would you guys go about cleaning this up? - Should I look into some kind of herbicide? Should I just go back there with hand-tools and start working? I guess I'm just looking for any tips you guys have for getting the backyard in shape. The ultimate goal is to remove all these plants, get the leaves off the ground, and then evaluate the condition of the soil and figure out what is necessary to get grass growing back there.
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Jul 13, 2014 13:12
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That Drosera rocks. What's a good seed source for carnivorous plants? Ehud, give us a bit more detail. How large is the yard? Is it fenced? It sure looks full-shadish based on those pictures - what kind of trees are surrounding it? If you don't know, take pics of the trees/leaves and you can get some IDs. If it's deep, deep shade, grass might not be a good choice for you. Round-up would be a good choice to clear the weeds - buy the concentrate for cheap and mix your own. There's half a million types of sumac, so it's somewhat unlikely you have poison sumac.
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Jul 13, 2014 13:42
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Kenning posted:Drosera adelae is a total beast. Wow, that looks great! When do I need transplant my Drosera capensis, if ever? It has a couple roots sticking out the bottom of the pot now, and is growing new leaves really quickly but it still isn't done flowering.
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Jul 13, 2014 13:42
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unprofessional posted:That Drosera rocks. What's a good seed source for carnivorous plants? I'm going to head over today to start clearing off the ground and pulling some of these vines up. I'll grab some more pictures of the yard, the plants, etc. later today. Thanks!
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Jul 13, 2014 14:11
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Ehud posted:I posted this in the fast fixes thread, and a kind goon pointed me to this plan thread. Any help is appreciated. It looks like it could be Chinese wisteria: http://www.invasive.org/weedcd/species/3083.htm http://www.eddmaps.org/AT/distribution/point.cfm?id=2062483 I'd hit it with roundup first - that's gonna be a lot of digging. (It could be worse, it could be English ivy!)
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Jul 14, 2014 02:00
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unprofessional posted:That Drosera rocks. What's a good seed source for carnivorous plants? Thanks! The best all-around seed source is the ICPS seed bank, which you need to be a member to access. Drosera and Sarracenia seeds are relatively common among CP nurseries and small-time sellers – I sell Drosera seeds on my blog for example, and Natch Greyes and The Pitcher Plant Project each sell Sarracenia and Drosera seeds sometimes. You can also find Drosophyllum and Byblis seeds with a bit more poking about. There's stuff on eBay, but its provenance is always in doubt – lots of people selling bullshit seeds on eBay. Nepenthes, Pinguicula, and Utricularia seeds all have fairly short shelf lives, and you can really only get those by trading with private growers. Terra Forums is the best place in the US to arrange trades – they don't allow sales on the main forums, but you can arrange things over PM. Zratha posted:Wow, that looks great! Eh, repotting isn't a huge issue – you can go several years before mineral buildup and media breakdown make repotting a necessity. Drosera capensis does develop pretty substantial roots though, so I'd pot up to a 6-inch pot whenever is convenient to you. If it likes the conditions and gets a decent amount of food D. capensis will flower a lot, although I have noticed that a big bout of flowering will slow down leaf production and reduce leaf size. If those roots sticking out of the bottom of the pot get an inch or so long you can cut them off and start a new plant with it. Kenning fucked around with this message at 11:10 on Sep 10, 2014 |
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Jul 14, 2014 07:43
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Kenning posted:Thanks! The best all-around seed source is the ICPS seed bank, which you need to be a member to access. Drosera and Sarracenia seeds are relatively common among CP nurseries and small-time sellers – I sell Drosera seeds on my blog for example, and Natch Greyes and The Pitcher Plant Project each sell Sarracenia and Drosera seeds sometimes. You can also find Drosophyllum and Byblis seeds with a bit more poking about. There's stuff on eBay, but its provenance is always in doubt – lots of people selling bullshit seeds on eBay. Nepenthes, Pinguicula, and Utricularia seeds all have fairly short shelf lives, and you can really only get those by trading with private growers. Terra Forums is the best place in the US to arrange trades – they don't allow sales on the main forums, but you can arrange things over PM.
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Jul 14, 2014 13:21
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Holden Rodeo posted:It looks like it could be Chinese wisteria: That looks very similar. In doing some reading, it sounds like I'm in for a big fight with this stuff. I took a closer look at it yesterday, and it is an absolute mess. There are think vines tangled together, running in all directions. I think I'm going to get back there and cut these tangled bits apart, start tracing the vines back to the roots, and just dig out as much as possible, and spray Roundup on whatever is left. Here are a few more pictures of the trees and other plants, as requested by unprofessional. The total size of the property is about a third of an acre, and the backyard makes up about 60% of the total size. A lot of it is shaded, but grass is growing in places where there aren't a million leaves, stick, and fallen branches. Regarding the fence - There are two different fences. The outside is all chainlink, and there is an inner fence that is a 6' wooden privacy fence, which we plan on taking down. It was put up by the previous owner because her dogs didn't get along.    Bonus pictures. I don't think the previous owners have raked in years. I've got a lot of work to do back here.   At least I found bits of grass underneath the 6" layer of leaves. Bagging this stuff isn't the most fun. I wanted to mulch it all up, but the layer of leaves was very deep and moist.
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Jul 14, 2014 13:34
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I have no idea what type of weed it is, but I have the same plant as Ehud does.  Unrelated, but I've always been interested in growing plants indoors, but haha, what's all this about a light spectrum and taking the effort to program a timer system? Despite that, I always appreciated the idea of aquaculture, where you can garden inside of an aquarium. Sometimes it's even an artform.  Forest Scent, Pavel Bautin. Russia. 2010 IAPLC Grand Prize Winner  Pale Wind, Takayuki Fukada. Japan. 2013 IAPLC Gold Prize  Whisper of the pines, Serkan Çetinkol. Turkey. 2013 IAPLC Top 27  Wild West, Stjepan Erdeljić. Croatia.  Long Tran Hoang, Vietnam. 2012 IAPLC Third Place. There’s more over examples of beautiful aquascapes here at this link: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/01/the-incredible-underwater-art-of-aquascaping/ , and that link has even more links to beautiful photographs of past grand prize winners if you follow them.
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Jul 14, 2014 21:15
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stubblyhead posted:Any ideas what either of these things might be? Looks like a calla lily gone to seed. Holden Rodeo posted:It looks like it could be Chinese wisteria: That's what I thought first, too. There's a wisteria in my front yard that a previous owner put in. It creeps all over because there's no trellis for it to climb, and getting one the right size is pretty expensive. I actually like it and want to keep it, but keeping it in check is pretty tough. The first year I lived here I hacked down all the vines down to a stump, and it came back bigger the next year. 
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Jul 15, 2014 03:45
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You've got some potential, ehud. Plan on mulching 5' around each of the big pines, as nothing worthwhile is going to grow right next to them (and it reduces your mowing area). What's the deal with the cinder blocks? I would plan on removing all the scrubby little trees coming up, unless you know what they are and that you want them. Any ideas for how you want the chain link fence to look? You could easily cover it in an ivy or other vine, or make a bed about 3' wide all along it where you could plant good shade garden plants and a few choice trees. Or, if you just want grass, you could go that route. It doesn't look like it would be impossible to have a decent grass yard, if that's your goal.
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Jul 15, 2014 16:22
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unprofessional posted:Sweet. Ordered some seeds from you. Glad to get some from a goon and somebody who cares about provenance. Cool thanks! I sent the seeds out yesterday. I haven't written up a Drosera seed germination guide yet, but there's good information at Grow Sundews. Good luck, let me know how they go! Kenning fucked around with this message at 11:12 on Sep 10, 2014 |
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Jul 17, 2014 08:06
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Ehud posted:At least I found bits of grass underneath the 6" layer of leaves. Bagging this stuff isn't the most fun. I wanted to mulch it all up, but the layer of leaves was very deep and moist. Don't bag it up, that will make the best leaf compost!
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Jul 17, 2014 18:03
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unprofessional posted:You've got some potential, ehud. Plan on mulching 5' around each of the big pines, as nothing worthwhile is going to grow right next to them (and it reduces your mowing area). What's the deal with the cinder blocks? I would plan on removing all the scrubby little trees coming up, unless you know what they are and that you want them. Any ideas for how you want the chain link fence to look? You could easily cover it in an ivy or other vine, or make a bed about 3' wide all along it where you could plant good shade garden plants and a few choice trees. Or, if you just want grass, you could go that route. It doesn't look like it would be impossible to have a decent grass yard, if that's your goal. I have no idea why those cinder blocks are there, actually. I finished the leaves next to the garage on Thursday and noticed how useless the cinder blocks are for the first time. There is another row of them near the front of the garage as well. Very odd. Regarding the small trees - I am not sure what kind they are and I do plan on getting them up too. I think we are going to get rid of the chain link fence and finish the privacy fence all the way around. The previous owner had two dogs that didn't get along, and they made the odd choice of keeping an outside chainlink fence, with an inner privacy fence that divided up the dogs. Thanks for all the ideas and thoughts! Fozzy The Bear posted:Don't bag it up, that will make the best leaf compost! There was honestly too much to not bag some of it up. I have filled like 12 of those 32 gallon yard bags, and I haven't even gotten the worst part of the yard done yet. I haven't thrown any of it out yet, and I am probably going to end up with at least 20 more bags full of this stuff. The previous owners seriously haven't raked in a couple of years. I'm pretty ignorant on the subject of composting. Any advice on how to do it effectively? This is a really cool thread. Thank you to everyone for your help so far.
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Jul 19, 2014 18:42
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Well you can go buy a big composting setup like that you can rotate by hand and etc. but I think that's all mostly unnecessary. Composting can be as easy as finding a corner of the yard somewhere and just making a big heap of your yard waste. Keep it reasonably moist and occasionally use a pitchfork to turn it all over. After a year or so, start a second pile and start using the first pile as compost. I went one extra step and bought a couple of huge wooden crate things that my local produce market was getting rid of for $20 each. They have lids, so I am just routinely dumping my yard waste and my kitchen compost (no meat! vegetable matter only, or you'll attract scavengers) into one of the bins. I water it with the hose each time I water my plants, just kind of soak it down for a minute, and I turn it over maybe once every two or three months. A couple years of yard waste have compacted down a huge amount, you'll be amazed how much the volume shrinks as stuff rots and compacts. My crates are 4' cubes, and once cube is enough to absorb all the yard waste from my fairly smallish suburban lot plus the vegetable compost waste from my kitchen with room to spare. It sounds like you have a huge amount of leaves, so you might want a slightly larger setup. I've seen online people doing things using old wooden pallets, so if you know of a place you can get a few of those for free or very cheap that might be a good option for you. e. like this: http://www.sproutingoff.com/pallet-compost-bin/   Oh a couple things to mention, the one thing you don't want in your compost is the seeds from weeds. So I usually dump my lawnmower waste in there, but I don't do that when I've got a lot of dandilion seeds and stuff like that in the spring. Basically because the seeds that survive the composting will sprout from your compost when you go to use it in your garden. In theory the center of the compost should get nice and hot, and that should cook the seeds that are in there, but I don't trust that my setup is going to do that perfectly. Also be aware that rotting vegetable matter is a potential source of fire. It should get up to like 90 degrees or more in the center when it's cooking nicely, but don't put it up against your house, and keep the brush and stuff around your compost bins well trimmed. It's extremely unlikely you'll have a fire, but just be aware it's a remote possibility. Keep it moist and you'll be fine. There are tons of sites on the internet about DIY composting so just spend a couple hours doing some reading and you'll be on your way. It really is very easy and low effort. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Jul 24, 2014 |
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Jul 24, 2014 19:33
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Leperflesh posted:It should get up to like 90 degrees or more in the center when it's cooking nicely, but don't put it up against your house, and keep the brush and stuff around your compost bins well trimmed. It's extremely unlikely you'll have a fire, but just be aware it's a remote possibility. Keep it moist and you'll be fine. I assume that's 90 C (which is ~194 F). I've always heard the target is about 160 F. I have a 3 bin setup made with pallets. The main problem I ran into was the gaps between boards were too big and would let the fine stuff slide out. I've patched a lot of them up with pieces of scrap wood. If I was starting over I would sacrifice a few of the crappier pallets and use those boards to fill in the gaps. I also started out doing lazy cold composting: pile it up and forget about it for a year or more. Now that I'm producing more garden waste I bought a machete a started chopping stuff up smaller. Mixed with sawdust from my neighbor and a little compost accelerator it makes a big difference in the speed of decomposition. I turned a pile over last weekend that had only been there for about 2 weeks and it was steaming hot, dark brown with white rot. Assuming I turn it once or twice more then it should be ready to go in another 4-6 weeks.
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Jul 24, 2014 21:52
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My surviving Nematanthus has aphids, fungus gnats, and springtails. What the hell do I do?
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Jul 25, 2014 03:55
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Springtails are beneficial to your soil medium, but I can understand why you wouldn't want bugs on your plants in general. You can do neem oil treatments fairly effectively, but you generally have to keep reapplying it for a while for it to have long-term effectiveness. I would consider repotting into fresh media, as well as the neem oil treatment. Also, make sure the top of your potting media is drying out a bit before you are watering.
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Jul 25, 2014 13:39
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unprofessional posted:Springtails are beneficial to your soil medium, but I can understand why you wouldn't want bugs on your plants in general. You can do neem oil treatments fairly effectively, but you generally have to keep reapplying it for a while for it to have long-term effectiveness. I would consider repotting into fresh media, as well as the neem oil treatment. Also, make sure the top of your potting media is drying out a bit before you are watering. I'm not sure if nematanthus can take aphid and bug spray. The drat aphids are doing a fair amount of damage. Any ideas?
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Jul 25, 2014 15:00
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Neem oil is safe to use on it.
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Jul 25, 2014 15:05
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Is this the best place for general lawn questions, or over in the garden thread (It seems to be all about edibles).
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Aug 11, 2014 22:17
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I would go ahead and ask here. Check out my Drosera brevifolia pot guys.  These are tiny little sundews from SE Texas, though the species is found all over the wet parts of the southern US. They are about the size of a dime! This is also the official Sphagnum growing pot. All of that Sphagnum came from one little chunk that hitchhiked along with the dews. Growing carnivorous plants is really fun.
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Aug 12, 2014 07:58
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Kenning posted:Growing carnivorous plants is really fun. I wish I had the patience for them. I tried growing some pitcher plants around my parent's pond years ago, but 2 weeks of rains ended up drowning them all. 
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Aug 13, 2014 05:56
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kid sinister posted:I wish I had the patience for them. I tried growing some pitcher plants around my parent's pond years ago, but 2 weeks of rains ended up drowning them all. Nepenthes alata can actually be grown indoors. I've had mine for a few months now and all it takes is decent light, a hydration tray, and daily spray-bottle misting to keep it going. It's my first successful carnivorous plant.   Here's something neat from work. These Abelia sp. mexicana may not look like much, but they were apparently collected in the wild in 1993 somewhere in Mexico, and up until 6 months ago, A.K.A. 20 years or so after being collected, Mexico gave us a call because apparently they didn't even know this plant existed up until then.  We're also doing work with extinct-in-the-wild Deppea variates as well. Hopefully I can get a few pics when they bloom, they're really supposed to be something.
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Aug 13, 2014 07:08
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kid sinister posted:I wish I had the patience for them. I tried growing some pitcher plants around my parent's pond years ago, but 2 weeks of rains ended up drowning them all. Do you mean Sarracenia? Unless you live in a really specific sort of ecological zone they probably would have died just from soil nutrients. Sarracenia usually love the rain, so I can't imagine what happened. Also, you don't really need patience for sundews at all! Once their basic requirements are met they grow really easily, and if you feed them occasionally the grow like nuts. I'm always trying to get people to grow carnivorous plants, hahahah.
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Aug 13, 2014 08:40
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I've had some VTF and pitcher plant seeds going for like 2 months now, but nothing has happened. Think it may be time to give up on those. In other news, my D. capensis finally finished flowering. 86 flowers in all!  I guess now I just cut the flower stalk off and let it dry up so that I can collect seeds? Also,. I don't quite know how to say this but I think it is, uh, growing a dick. 
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Aug 13, 2014 13:01
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Zratha posted:Also,. I don't quite know how to say this but I think it is, uh, growing a dick. It REALLY likes the attention you're giving it.
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Aug 13, 2014 15:44
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Kenning posted:Do you mean Sarracenia? Unless you live in a really specific sort of ecological zone they probably would have died just from soil nutrients. Sarracenia usually love the rain, so I can't imagine what happened. Also, you don't really need patience for sundews at all! Once their basic requirements are met they grow really easily, and if you feed them occasionally the grow like nuts. Yeah, NA pitchers. I planted 3 different kinds, I couldn't tell you which anymore, it has been too long. The yellow one was growing quite well for a month until the rains filled the pond over the plant.
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Aug 14, 2014 00:21
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edit: wrong thread
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Aug 15, 2014 22:41
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Does anyone here have experience with shamrocks? I have a red one that has been looking really sad for a month or so. It was really lush and then I moved it to a different window so the flowers wouldn't glue onto the glass, and that was apparently not a good decision. Someone told me I should cut it all down and let it regrow, but I wanted to ask around before I started trimming.
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Aug 16, 2014 17:57
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Shirec posted:Does anyone here have experience with shamrocks? I have a red one that has been looking really sad for a month or so. It was really lush and then I moved it to a different window so the flowers wouldn't glue onto the glass, and that was apparently not a good decision. Someone told me I should cut it all down and let it regrow, but I wanted to ask around before I started trimming. It might depend on what species you have: Clover, or Oxalis. I don't know much about the situation or if it's happy being an indoor plant, but I think that since it's a red plant, it probably is unhappy about being placed by the shadier window. If it can have sunniness, I'm sure it will perk up. Alternatively, both clovers and oxalis grow like weeds where I live (since they are), so you might also be able to keep them outside long enough until they become happy again.
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Aug 16, 2014 19:17
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| # ? May 15, 2024 20:36 |
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EagerSleeper posted:It might depend on what species you have: Clover, or Oxalis. I don't know much about the situation or if it's happy being an indoor plant, but I think that since it's a red plant, it probably is unhappy about being placed by the shadier window. If it can have sunniness, I'm sure it will perk up. Looking at pictures, it's oxalis. It was getting morning sun originally before I moved it, so hopefully the repotting it just got and a nice stay outside will help. Glad I didn't just trim it down then
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Aug 16, 2014 19:30
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