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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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I don't have a lot to add, but I just wanted to share my Christmas Cactus: I've had it since spring of 2005 when a family member gave it to me after I visited the ancestral farm house. It is a cutting from a plant that used to belong to my great-great-grandmother, who died in 1941. It took a very long time for it to flower. It finally started to when I put it in the sunny guest bedroom of our old house. Now it's in the basement with my other plants under a grow light. I don't think it likes to be moved, as it'll take a long while to flower if I move it to a new place. We've been at our new house since May. It also doesn't seem to grow very fast, but it seems happy. I'm attempting to make new plants from cuttings, that I can possibly give to other family members. I like that this plant gives me a connection to ancestors I've never met.
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Nov 18, 2016 15:30
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Warbird posted:Muscadine vine: This is the problem child. I've moved it inside, but it clearly isn't enjoying it. The leaves are starting to turn yellow and fall off. I'm concerned that the pot it's in is too small and would be more susceptible to cold/frost than a larger one with more insulating soil. Muscadines are deciduous and will lose their leaves anyway. They need a winter dormancy. Just how cold does it get where you are? It will probably be fine outside with some insulation.
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Nov 18, 2016 15:34
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Warbird posted:Pepper plants (Jalapeno, Habanero, Tabasco): Moved inside, but I've read it's possible to winter them outside so I'll likely be shifting them into a semi-protected corner of the porch for the sake of having space in my apartment. Unless you live someplace with relatively warm winters (which it sounds like you do not), you won't be able to overwinter them outside. None of those are particularly hearty breeds, they'll die if it dips below freezing. However you can aggressively trim them and bring them indoors. Aggressive as in trim like 90% of the plant. That should help save at least a bit of space!
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Nov 18, 2016 16:40
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I'm just north of Charlotte, so it's relatively mild compared to most of the country, but it does get fairly cold. Talk to me about insulation and what that entails please. Also, is my concern regarding these plants being in pots and them being more susceptible to cold because of it warranted? Side note: I've had a squash plant that's done fuckall since I planted it. I've gotten 1, maybe 2, little semi formed squashes that start to rot immediately. It's far past the point of doing anything about, but what would you figure would cause something like that?
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Nov 18, 2016 17:16
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Warbird posted:I'm just north of Charlotte, so it's relatively mild compared to most of the country, but it does get fairly cold. Talk to me about insulation and what that entails please. Also, is my concern regarding these plants being in pots and them being more susceptible to cold because of it warranted? Pots are more susceptible to temperature changes, but that isn't necessarily a concern with temperate species. They're designed to handle freezing temperatures. It just depends on how cold hardy that particular species is. Your muscadine is probably fine as-is, but you could put some pine straw or mulch on the soil. If you're worried about wind, you could put up a barrier or wrap the pot in something.
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Nov 18, 2016 17:38
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Re: insulation – I bought a bunch of mulch last year and covered all of my bonsai pots in about three inches or so. I took a big cardboard box, put a couple of inches of mulch on the bottom, placed the plants inside and then covered the pots with mulch. They all made it through the winter fine. However normal mulch is a huge pain in the rear end for me because I have zero storage space and I could only find it in 2 cu/ft bags. This year I'm trying out coconut husk mulch because it comes in a much smaller package.
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Nov 18, 2016 18:33
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Thanks for the tips guys, I'll move the muscadine and pepper plants back outside which will give me back a fair amount of space.
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Nov 18, 2016 18:34
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Hey, Kenning: I just got a VFT and D. madagascariensis in the mail from Predatory Plants. I've potted up the latter already, but I do you have any idea if I can give the VFT a refrigerator dormancy as is? The rest of my VFTs are outside, but I don't see any point in potting this one and putting it outside if I can just throw it in my fridge for a while instead. Maybe just add some neem oil for fungicide? Really like the packaging btw. I was not expecting moss to pop out of the box.
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Nov 19, 2016 00:09
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Warbird posted:I'm just north of Charlotte, so it's relatively mild compared to most of the country, but it does get fairly cold. Talk to me about insulation and what that entails please. Also, is my concern regarding these plants being in pots and them being more susceptible to cold because of it warranted? Peppers are sub-tropical plants, not temperate, and cold temperatures will kill them. They need to be overwintered if you want to keep them as perennials. If you properly overwinter habeneros, they will keep producing peppers (a lot of other peppers go dormant with less light). Jalapenos are more finicky and don't tend to overwinter well unless you take a lot of care with them. Plants in pots are more vulnerable to temperature changes in winter than plants in the ground for a few reasons. Temperatures have to get a lot lower and/or for a lot longer in order to solidly freeze several inches under the ground than to freeze a small pot of dirt. The roots of a plant in a pot will be overall much closer to outside surface areas directly exposed to cold than the roots of a plant in the ground. Cold pots sitting on cold, bare ground = cold roots and make plants a lot more vulnerable to frost damage. Raising the pots off bare ground in some way will help (surfaces freeze faster) as well insulating the pot if necessary. The mulch-boxes Kedo described are a great way to protect plants.
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Nov 19, 2016 00:12
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Warbird posted:Side note: I've had a squash plant that's done fuckall since I planted it. I've gotten 1, maybe 2, little semi formed squashes that start to rot immediately. It's far past the point of doing anything about, but what would you figure would cause something like that? Missed this from before - that sounds like blossom end rot, to which squash and tomatoes are especially vulnerable. It occurs when the fruit doesn't have enough calcium as it develops. There are a few different things which can cause a lack of calcium: Plants can't absorb calcium very well in acidic soil, so you could have plenty of calcium available to your plant, but if your soil is very acidic, it won't be able to absorb it. Too much nitrogen also causes blossom end rot. Nitrogen causes rapid leafy growth (which is why it's such a common element of fertilisers). If your plant gets too much nitrogen, the rapid growth means there will be less time to absorb the calcium needed to fruit. A lot of common fertilisers like MiracleGro are nitrogen heavy. Root damage is the other common cause of blossom end rot. If you overwater your plant or have inadequate drainage so that the roots end up sitting in water, they will start rotting and be unable to absorb soil nutrients. Roots also can't absorb water from dry soil, so if the plant dries out much between watering, that will cause issues with calcium absorption.
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Nov 19, 2016 00:32
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^^ e: that miracle-gro comment explains a lot. I gave up on our tomato plant (apartment balcony) in the middle of September because it started getting cold, the one fruit it set ended up rotting, and it was broken in several places near the top from a windstorm. so it's just been sitting in the corner of the balcony, neglected, not watered, until I can find a place for the compost. it set three tomatoes near the bottom sometime within the past month.  I don't think they're going to grow much more, especially because we might finally get below freezing at night soon, but ??????? maybe I can have a few slices of fried green tomatoes at least. second edit: any suggestions for a small/diy compost bin for our balcony? I have a couple of 5 gallon buckets that I could gently caress up for it... I don't know if I need worms or not. my parents have giant compost bins and it'd be nice to have a place for our kitchen scraps again. I feel bad throwing them out. snoo fucked around with this message at 05:37 on Nov 19, 2016 |
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Nov 19, 2016 05:31
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Yeah definitely don't overwinter your peppers outside unless you live in Florida or something. If they get below about 40F they're toast.
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Nov 19, 2016 10:22
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thats one hell of a title
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Nov 19, 2016 11:04
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Synthbuttrange posted:thats one hell of a title https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3794563&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=6#post465552094
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Nov 19, 2016 14:33
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kid sinister posted:Pssh, next you're gonna tell me a Christmas Cactus isn't a real cactus. No, that one's a cactus. Fitzy Fitz posted:Hey, Kenning: Oh hey, sorry I'm late seeing this. Glad you liked the packaging, we try to make it an all-in-one deal. As for VFT dormancy, I've never messed around with refrigerators. Unless you live in like, Hawai'i on the one hand or Alaska on the other hand just keeping them outside really seems best. I'd just toss it outside, why not. It takes the guesswork out of knowing when to acclimate it to your environment. I guess it's worth mentioning that we're gonna have our biggest sale of the year this weekend over at https://www.predatoryplants.com. It's something like 25% or 30% off. There are lots of cool plants! And we have cold weather shipping kits in case you live in the barbarous north. Anyway, a bit of a shameless plug (PM me if you order something and I'll get you the best stuff). Here are a bunch of plant pictures to make up for it. I've been selling a lot of Nepenthes, so I have a lot of pictures of them.  Nepenthes 'Lady Pauline'  Nepenthes fusca "Sarawak"  Nepenthes copelandii  Nepenthes (lowii × veitchii) × boschiana  Nepenthes "Singapore Garden Tech"  Nepenthes robcantleyi × hamata  Nepenthes vogelii  Nepenthes graciflora  Nepenthes petiolata They're pretty.
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Nov 24, 2016 09:15
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Following Christmas Cactus chat from earlier, here's mine. Grown from a leaf that fell of my grandmas. She's had the main plant since long before she met my granddad, and they just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary... It's grown this big over two years or so, and my care-method is pretty much ignore it until I realise it's starting to shrivel up. At what point will it need a bigger pot? 
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Nov 24, 2016 16:00
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Nettle Soup posted:At what point will it need a bigger pot? This goes for most plants. Put your hand on the pot edge and tilt the plant towards your hand. If lots of dirt falls out into your hand, it doesn't need repotting. Next try lifting the plant and its dirt out of the pot. For this step, it might help to wait a few days for the root ball to dry out so that the dirt stays attached and won't make a big mess. If you see only a few roots exposed on the sides and bottom, then that plant is fine. Put it back in its pot. If you see lots of roots, then repot it. If you see more roots than dirt, that is called "pot-bound". Repot him too, but he has an extra step. Use a clean knife and score the roots every 1-2 inches on the sides and bottom before repotting. That will make more tips for new roots to grow from. Note: that "lift it out" step only works if you didn't choose some weird rear end pot design that doesn't allow for the root ball to be removed without needing to break the pot off.
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Nov 24, 2016 18:18
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This just in: turns out that creating a grow room with stagnant air causes fungus problems. Who would've thunk. It was mostly my fault for trying to block out the tell-tale pink light that's associated with a grow closet, but still, my mini African violets are paying the price with white dust creeping on their leaves' edges. I'm trying to rectify the issue with better airflow and by lowering the soil pH, but I might have to chunk them out if they can't recover. On the bright side at least, the mini orchids and other plants are doing well. My Christmas cactus is already starting to grow small flower buds, so yay!
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Nov 30, 2016 03:03
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EagerSleeper posted:This just in: turns out that creating a grow room with stagnant air causes fungus problems. Who would've thunk. It was mostly my fault for trying to block out the tell-tale pink light that's associated with a grow closet, but still, my mini African violets are paying the price with white dust creeping on their leaves' edges. I'm trying to rectify the issue with better airflow and by lowering the soil pH, but I might have to chunk them out if they can't recover. I always found that red/blue LED light to be off-putting for a grow light. I've been watching some videos from weed growers, specifically growmau5, on building your own LED grow lights with COBs (chip-on-board) that have a more pleasant full-spectrum white light and are passively cooled. They seem to be easy to put together and fairly competitive with the MarsHydro-type stuff on price. Here's one of his kits with a single light: https://www.cutter.com.au/proddetail.php?prod=cut3012
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Nov 30, 2016 18:53
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Cpt.Wacky posted:I always found that red/blue LED light to be off-putting for a grow light. I've been watching some videos from weed growers, specifically growmau5, on building your own LED grow lights with COBs (chip-on-board) that have a more pleasant full-spectrum white light and are passively cooled. They seem to be easy to put together and fairly competitive with the MarsHydro-type stuff on price. Here's one of his kits with a single light: https://www.cutter.com.au/proddetail.php?prod=cut3012 Is that a 60w? I'm having a hard time figuring it out.
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Nov 30, 2016 21:12
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goodness posted:Is that a 60w? I'm having a hard time figuring it out. It's a 50 watt light. I'm still pretty new to this stuff and haven't actually built anything yet. The COBs run at a particular voltage and a range of current with varying efficiency. You pick the driver based on the voltage and current you want to run the COB at with enough wattage capacity for the number of COBs you want to use. So that driver supplies 1400 mA at 36V and can support a max of one COB. 1.4 amps x 36 volts = 50.4 watts, which is less than the 60 watt capacity of the driver. So it's a 50 watt LED light but you can't compare it directly to another type of LED like the MarsHydro stuff by just looking at wattage because that doesn't account for efficiency and other factors like spectrum and distribution pattern. The single light kit is about $100. The 4 light kit draws about 200 watts and is recommended for a 2x2 space (when growing weed), and only costs $300. I have no idea how the light needs of other plants compare to weed though. Even if it costs more upfront I feel like it's going to be more efficient in energy consumption over the long run, passively cooled for less noise and not have the annoying pink light, so it's worth it.
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Nov 30, 2016 22:15
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After moving into my own apartment for the first time, I ended up getting this. However, I'm a big dumb idiot and I didn't realize I would need to get an actual planter to put this thing in. Given that it's an 8.75 inch pot, it should fit in this 9 inch planter since they're both circle-shaped, right? Also, I only put like a glass of water into this thing every couple of months, right?
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Dec 1, 2016 19:21
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surf rock posted:After moving into my own apartment for the first time, I ended up getting this. However, I'm a big dumb idiot and I didn't realize I would need to get an actual planter to put this thing in. Given that it's an 8.75 inch pot, it should fit in this 9 inch planter since they're both circle-shaped, right? No need for a planter unless you care about the aesthetics. I've had mine in the original pot for a few years with a plastic tray under it to catch any excess water draining out. I give them about 1/2 cup of water every weekend.
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Dec 1, 2016 21:55
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Cpt.Wacky posted:No need for a planter unless you care about the aesthetics. I've had mine in the original pot for a few years with a plastic tray under it to catch any excess water draining out. I give them about 1/2 cup of water every weekend. Right, I just thought that it looks kind of bad where I'm going to put it in the original pot, so I'm trying to figure out what size planter I would need to fit it. Thanks for the watering tip! EDIT: VVV That ended up being the best approach. Thanks! surf rock fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Dec 2, 2016 |
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Dec 1, 2016 22:01
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Are you putting the original pot inside the new pot? You can just pull the plant+dirt out and stuff it into the new one.
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Dec 1, 2016 22:06
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Our sale was pretty ridiculous and I'm still underwater trying to get all of these orders out, but I thought I'd share a funny story about it. One of our very good, regular customers placed a nice big order, and asked to either try and get it out Monday or hold it until the following Monday because it gets shipped to his university department and for some reason the weekends are no good. No problem, he was very polite, so we got it ready with the first batch and sent it out. He ordered a cold shipping kit, which is an insulated box and a heat pack since it was going to Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the boxes say "Perishable" on the outside, and when the admin staff at the university received it they decided that they should keep it safe. By putting it in the freezer. Apparently the plants were very beautiful, but very frozen and very dead by the time he figured out where his package got off to. I think this is officially the stupidest story of something going wrong with an order in transit.
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Dec 2, 2016 03:05
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So the wife's in town and took it upon herself to clean up the apartment a bit. This included cutting off all the drooping leaves off of my banana tree and then wrapping tape around the pseudotrunk to keep more from drooping. I'm not sure what to think.
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Dec 2, 2016 12:17
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Warbird posted:So the wife's in town and took it upon herself to clean up the apartment a bit. This included cutting off all the drooping leaves off of my banana tree and then wrapping tape around the pseudotrunk to keep more from drooping. I'm not sure what to think. Haha lol  She probably meant well, but that's not going to help the drooping problem. That poor plant is going to need good access to light in order to build up enough strength in its roots, especially now. I hope the best for you!This is offtopic, but I wanted to post some pictures of my plants. They've been doing very good lately, and I think I finally got the hang of this whole not-killing-orchids thing.  Here's a picture of the mini orchids, plus a mixed pot of Christmas cactus, philodendron, and red-veined prayer plant. Rumors exist of a small branch of Easter cactus living there, biding it's time for it's own day of then sun, but for now it's too small to be seen.  The mini orchids have been doing pretty good since I've got them from the store. They've been keeping their incredible flowers for a long time.  Wow, what a babe.  Christmas is approaching, and it's pretty surprising that even in the controlled lighting of the growroom, they can still sense it. Here's a bloom that's starting to develop. I know this pot of plants is composed of cactus of different colors (red, magenta, white, orange, cream, etc.), so it's a mystery for now which color this one is. We'll see!
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Dec 2, 2016 23:42
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XVIII posted:
Nice one. If you're concerned about the space it's taking up, you could try training it up the wall and along the ceiling like I've done with mine. This was taken a year or two ago, and I've re-potted it since. It's probably twice as long now. I'm amazed at how stunted it was from being root bound. 
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Dec 4, 2016 00:05
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How does it not fall over? Do you have it fastened to the wall? Depleted uranium in the pot?
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Dec 4, 2016 03:08
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kid sinister posted:How does it not fall over? Do you have it fastened to the wall? Depleted uranium in the pot? Yeah, I've got it held up with fabric wraps pinned to the wall. I realise this isn't optimal, as in nature they cling to moss covered tree trunks, but It seems to do well enough.
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Dec 4, 2016 03:43
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Kenning posted:Our sale was pretty ridiculous and I'm still underwater trying to get all of these orders out, but I thought I'd share a funny story about it. One of our very good, regular customers placed a nice big order, and asked to either try and get it out Monday or hold it until the following Monday because it gets shipped to his university department and for some reason the weekends are no good. No problem, he was very polite, so we got it ready with the first batch and sent it out. He ordered a cold shipping kit, which is an insulated box and a heat pack since it was going to Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the boxes say "Perishable" on the outside, and when the admin staff at the university received it they decided that they should keep it safe. By putting it in the freezer. This is kind of hilarious / sad. Do any of your plants do well in 7a/7b with north facing windows? I'm in NYC. I kept a majesty palm alive for a year in front of a southwest facing bay window, but I moved and my new place, while bigger, has much less natural light.
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Dec 5, 2016 06:33
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Kenning posted:Our sale was pretty ridiculous and I'm still underwater trying to get all of these orders out, but I thought I'd share a funny story about it. One of our very good, regular customers placed a nice big order, and asked to either try and get it out Monday or hold it until the following Monday because it gets shipped to his university department and for some reason the weekends are no good. No problem, he was very polite, so we got it ready with the first batch and sent it out. He ordered a cold shipping kit, which is an insulated box and a heat pack since it was going to Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the boxes say "Perishable" on the outside, and when the admin staff at the university received it they decided that they should keep it safe. By putting it in the freezer. Awww, that's kind of sweet in a very stupid way 
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Dec 5, 2016 23:52
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Over the last two days I planted a bunch of cuttings from my ficus and my christmas cactus into some solo cups, and then put some more ficus cuttings into 3 sub-irrigated planters made from 2L bottles. Propagation from cuttings is magical.
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Dec 6, 2016 00:58
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When we bought our house in 2014, there was a giant 100-year old ash on the parkway, sadly dead from ash borer. We had the city remove it, and the next year just after Thanksgiving, they replaced it with a ginkgo. It didn't make it through the winter, so we had the city remove it this summer. They just replaced it again today with another ginkgo. I'm in Chicago. There's snow everywhere, and the high temp this week alone won't be above 30 degrees. I have no idea why the city is choosing to plant trees so late in the year when everything I read about ginkgos says they have a high failure rate if you do it later than early autumn, but oh well, at least they keep replacing them. However, I'd like this tree to live. Is there anything I can do to help it survive the winter?
Melicious fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Dec 6, 2016 |
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Dec 6, 2016 21:13
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Mulch the poo poo out of the base. Pray?
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Dec 6, 2016 21:17
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If it dies, dig it up in spring and replace it with a tree of your choosing?
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Dec 6, 2016 21:35
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I think snow is actually better than a plant just being exposed to wind in winter. If it dies anyway, I know MWRD in Cook County sometimes gives out free oaks if you want to plant something on your own cheaply next season. http://www.mwrd.org/irj/portal/anonymous/canopy
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Dec 6, 2016 22:30
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 I saved this from my aunt's house when she died. She had several Hoyas that were over 50 years old. Anyone know what this is and how I might take care of it? It oozes a milky white substance when you cut the branches off. I'd like to keep it alive, but the leaves are getting curlier and I assume that's bad. I'm keeping it by a sliding glass door to get as much light as possible, but the leaves on the light side seem to be doing worse. Maybe it's getting too cold? Trillest Parrot fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Dec 9, 2016 |
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Dec 9, 2016 01:15
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If it has white sap, then it's a Euphorbia for sure, but I'm not sure too much about the specific species. The closest guess I have is Pedilanthus tithymaloides, AKA Devil's Backbone, and Zig Zag Cactus, but the only problem I have with that is that the leaf arrangement doesn't seem as zigzaggy as Pedilanthus. The type of plant that you have is most definitely rare. I'm going to assume the care is similar to the Pedilanthus tithymaloides I had outdoors in zone 9a. It can handle cold temperatures down to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but absolutely no cold wind or else it will die down to the ground. Needs high light and fast draining potting soil. By the picture, there's no yellowing or browning, so water is not the issue. It's probably not dealing with the cold or light levels as well as it did before in the previous location. You're doing a good thing keeping it by a huge light source as a glass sliding door, but either the light is not enough or it's a bit too drafty there. Does the door get opened a lot? If so, then maybe the sudden and sharp chills it gets could be an additional issue. If the issue is lighting, then that might be tougher to fix because you'd need a lamp to help provided the additional light. The last thing that could possibly be the cause of the sudden leaf curl is that it's struggling to adjust to the change in locations from the old place to your place. If that's the case, keep a close eye on it, and see if there's any new growth happening. If the new growth can happen at a rate faster than the loss of leaves, than you're golden. If not... Then it's definitely an issue with light or coldness. tl;dr It's probably cold, or needs more light. Hope this helps!
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Dec 9, 2016 22:09
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