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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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DevCore posted:I've got a dracaena in a corner that seems to be doing ok. The problem right now is that I didn't pot it very well so it's constantly tipping over. Hence being shoved in a corner to give it support. I was using those auto-watering globes but that seemed to make the soil a little swampy. So I went back to the "let it dry out, then water it method" You could get Nepenthes "Lady Luck", which is pretty much bred exactly for bright windowsills in warm places. At work right now we have N. ampullaria x (spectabilis x talangensis), which is very similar to N. "Lady Luck". You'd also have good luck with N. sanguinea or N. ventricosa. learnincurve posted:Yes! My faveroute plants ever. https://www.californiacarnivores.com/collections/lowland-nepenthes Lowland Nepenthes pitcher plant, (highland version needs putting out at night and bringing in again during the day for some odd reason). I'm convinced this plant has a brain, what it does is sit there nice and quiet catching small flys and whatnot and allowing the scouting ants to get all comfortable like, so they see it as a food source and not a threat. Then it starts to eat them. There was an article about this in the Carnivorous Plant Newsletter sometime in the last couple years, and also I think one of the talks at the conference last August dealt with it. Basically yes, Nepenthes (at least certain species) vary the efficacy of their traps in different ways. I think it actually was in response to local conditions like humidity and wetness etc. But essentially periods of low trap efficacy led to higher overall prey capture because it allowed scout ants and termites to alert the colony to a new nectar source. I believe they did an experiment where they kept certain pitchers wet all the time (this was an in the field) and they had much reduced prey capture. The plants really are extremely sophisticated. Zeris posted:Do you operate that website / sell these guys? I think we PM'd a year ago and I was wondering about the viability of a nepenthes in NYC. My window is west-facing and I supplement it with several LED lights but a few direct sunlight plants are struggling. They would be the perfect addition if they don't die from lack of light. West windows are usually pretty good, but in NYC I imagine there are complicating factors like other buildings. Certainly if you have a window and supplemental light I would imagine you would have a good chance with growing some Neps. I just looked and my PMs and I see I didn't respond to your inquiry! I'm really sorry about that, I must have lost it in the course of the week. If you'd still like to send me a picture of your windowsill you can email it to devon@predatoryplants.com. I know quite a few very good growers in NYC, so I know it can be done! Fitzy Fitz posted:You're probably thinking of Kenning. He works at Predatory Plants. I've bought from them and they're legit. Hey, glad you liked your plants!
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May 25, 2017 07:44
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"Oh it looks like it's finally going to stop raining for the first time this week. I can finally put down this 7 Dust stuff and keep my plants from getting more eaten up. 30% and less than a 10th of an inch are pretty good odds." "Oh look, it's an areal flood warning and a massive downpour." gently caress. Well, now I get to go buy more of this stuff. At least I found a slug outside and killed it. Salted the little bastard too as extra punishment. Warbird fucked around with this message at 14:24 on May 25, 2017 |
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May 25, 2017 14:21
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Kenning posted:You could get Nepenthes "Lady Luck", which is pretty much bred exactly for bright windowsills in warm places. At work right now we have N. ampullaria x (spectabilis x talangensis), which is very similar to N. "Lady Luck". You'd also have good luck with N. sanguinea or N. ventricosa. How well do Lady Luck and your ampullaria hybrid pitcher in a window? I have a huge southeast-facing window that receives bright filtered light all day. I had a Nepenthes hanging there over the winter (I think it's a ventrata, but I've never seen it pitcher, so IDK) and it was kinda happy for a while, but it never flourished. Is there a way to encourage pitchering indoors?
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May 25, 2017 14:48
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I have two plant questions: First, it turns out I have a rose bush in my front planter. The PO apparently chopped it down to the ground before listing it so this spring it all popped up. It seems pretty happy and all, but how do I make it be more like bush and less like a giagantic green spider? Should it be trellissed or pruned or staked, or what?  There's also an annual growing in the same bed that I don't recognize. It ended up dropping hundreds of small (about 2mm) black pea shaped seeds. I think it regrew from the seeds this spring, but I'm not 100% on that. It seems pretty distinctive, but it's not ringing any bells.  
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May 27, 2017 00:51
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It's hard to tell what kind of rose that is, different roses tend to have different habits. I guess the best route to take is decide what you want it to do and see if the rose will follow suit. It may not even be the original rose- a lot of fancy roses are grown on different rootstocks to confer some disease resistance (most common one I think is the "Dr. Huey" rootstock cultivar) but the rootstock can sometimes send up its own stems and take over. Fun fact- I actually have a rose (probably the aforementioned doctor) from a previous owner that I'd tried to dig out 3 times, and each year it came back again. I've since given up and started training it onto the fence. Your annuals are Mirabilis jalapa, aka Four o'clocks.
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May 28, 2017 01:19
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Marchegiana posted:Your annuals are Mirabilis jalapa, aka Four o'clocks. Perfect, that looks absolutely correct.
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May 28, 2017 07:16
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I would say If it's a bush then you cut it back and then it will start to fill out into a bush shape, however if it's a rambler or a climber then I just told you exactly the wrong thing to do.  I would tie it to a cane for support/to keep it out of the way and wait and see what the flowers are like.
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May 28, 2017 08:31
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    Flowers everywhere!
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May 28, 2017 22:10
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Those roses are looking gorgeous 
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May 28, 2017 23:31
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Anyone recognize what this is? It's about 3ft tall and the stalks are fuzzy. 
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May 29, 2017 00:50
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Might be an Echinacea.
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May 29, 2017 03:05
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So I have a what my wife calls a "Chinese Rose" that has a decent amount of what I believe to be slug damage. It's alive, but looks rather swiss cheese-y. Should I cut back the damaged parts or leave it be? Pick from earlier, it's a good deal more holey than this now: 
Warbird fucked around with this message at 14:51 on May 29, 2017 |
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May 29, 2017 14:49
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Crosspost from A/T: Is there any way to keep the grass on your lawn from growing?
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May 29, 2017 18:43
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Jeb! Repetition posted:Crosspost from A/T: Is there any way to keep the grass on your lawn from growing? Cover it with landscaping plastic/fabric and then a two or three or four inches of mulch?
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May 29, 2017 18:46
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Leperflesh posted:Cover it with landscaping plastic/fabric and then a two or three or four inches of mulch? I'm looking at prices for landscaping plastic and I need to stop a few acres so it'd be prohibitively expensive.
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May 29, 2017 18:56
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There is Rhinanthus minor/yellow rattle which is a grass parasite if you want to play the long game. You cut the grass short, rake it till you see earth then sow the seeds in autumn, early spring it grows up eating the grass and then dies after a month leaving space for wildflowers. Repeat each year. Other option is chemicals, but anything that destroys grass will destroy all things.
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May 29, 2017 19:02
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Hello thread, I have an english ivy that's in trouble. I got the plant a couple of months ago as a rooted cutting from a friend, in a largeish pot. Initially I had it by a window that receives direct sunlight for about half an hour a day and indirect sunlight for the rest of the day, and it grew about 6 pairs of leaves quicky, from the 4 leaves it already had. But after this growth spurt, it stopped growing at all, and the leaves remained in their juvenile shape for what must have already been at this point 5 or 6 weeks. A couple of them have dropped off and the rest are light green and small. Older leaves are also still alive and attached except for one that dropped off. Could this be because I leached the fertilizer from the soil by overwatering? Are the roots rotting due to excess soil moisture? I'd read directions that I should water about once a week by saturating the soil and then letting it get relatively dry, but I suspect that my potting mix may be retaining moisture too well. I remediated the problem and dried out the soil somewhat but the plant is still not budging. Should I re-fertilize? Edit: I also moved the plant to a slightly shadier spot, that doesn't seem to be helping either. DearSirXNORMadam fucked around with this message at 20:19 on May 29, 2017 |
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May 29, 2017 20:17
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Fertilizer isn't the problem. Plants grow fine without it in the short term, and people tend to over-fertilize. How established was it when you got it? It may have been running off inertia (the new leaves) and then halted growth when it realized it needed to start growing roots. It might need more light. I doubt it wants more shade. You might be overwatering. It doesn't sound like you're underwatering. Get in the habit of checking the soil with your finger rather than trying to follow a schedule. You want the top inch or two to dry out before you water again.
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May 29, 2017 21:48
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I murdered a couple English Ivy plants by putting them in lots of sun and watering once a week. My current one was shuffled to a back room that gets indirect light and much more irregular watering, and it's growing like mad now. I suspect they really hate wet roots.
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May 29, 2017 23:24
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Fitzy Fitz posted:How well do Lady Luck and your ampullaria hybrid pitcher in a window? I have a huge southeast-facing window that receives bright filtered light all day. I had a Nepenthes hanging there over the winter (I think it's a ventrata, but I've never seen it pitcher, so IDK) and it was kinda happy for a while, but it never flourished. Is there a way to encourage pitchering indoors? Lady Luck is a perfect windowsill plant, and it pitchers like mad. I've not grown the complex amp cross in a windowsill, but I imagine it would do fairly well. I suspect your problem was with winter. Lots of plants, including ventrata, stop pitchering over the winter due to the colder temperatures. My big ventrata vine only started really getting its pitchers back about a month ago, and I'm in California. Give it a few months of warm temperatures and it will probably pitcher up. Humidity can help, so if you spritz your plant with water a couple times a day that can raise the ambient humidity and encourage pitchering as well.
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May 30, 2017 04:13
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Jeb! Repetition posted:I'm looking at prices for landscaping plastic and I need to stop a few acres so it'd be prohibitively expensive. Rent a hundred goats Not being facetious, there are goat rentals and they're ideal for controlling grass. The area will need to be well-fenced.
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May 30, 2017 23:58
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Leperflesh posted:Rent a hundred goats Many goat rental places will supply their own fencing, the only things better than goats at getting out of fences are pigs.
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May 31, 2017 00:13
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Goats As A Service
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May 31, 2017 13:39
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Leperflesh posted:Rent a hundred goats wtf, you can apparently rent goats on Amazon now https://www.amazon.com/Hire-a-Goat-Grazer/dp/B00UBYDXXQ
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May 31, 2017 13:53
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What a world
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May 31, 2017 13:57
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Aren't goat rentals kinda expensive?
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May 31, 2017 14:35
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I've been told they're much cheaper than hiring someone to bring machinery to clear brush/grass/land, but probably substantially more expensive than doing that work yourself assuming you already own the necessary equipment. But they're also by far the most environmentally friendly option, and I bet you can get a discount from a goat-rental if you're a repeat customer. Also you get to hang around with goats, I mean, that's gotta be worth something right? People pay to go to zoos and farms just to feed the goats, right?
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Jun 1, 2017 02:31
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I know we have some Bay Area plant goons in here, so I figured I'd rep the BACPS show this weekend. It's going to be a very good show! I'll be selling plants, and also doing a presentation on "Carnivorous Plants As House Plants". If you're free on Saturday between noon and 6 pm come by the Lake Merritt Garden Center in Oakland, it'll be a Hoot. If you're a goon you can say some goony thing to me and I'll get you our best plants. I'll be the tall guy at the Predatory Plants booth. Kenning fucked around with this message at 08:15 on Jun 1, 2017 |
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Jun 1, 2017 08:13
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when's it ok to start pruning a bonsai? my tree is about 5 months old, but the canopy just exploded once I transferred it to a bigger pot, and I just put it in an even bigger one yesterday, so I'm anticipating even more growth. some of the branches are already longer than the trunk of the tree itself. but it's at the point where even a slight breeze causes the trunk to nearly bend to the ground (it's an indoor tree that I only took outside to change pots). also, when pruning, can I just trim the branch instead of removing it altogether? is it better to prune everything at once, or space it out doing one bit every 4-5 days to give the plant time to heal? all the guides to pruning bonsai I can find online are 1) geared toward aesthetics with little to no practical information, and 2) seem to be intended for older plants, so I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do
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Jun 1, 2017 12:12
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That is an awesome poster.
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Jun 1, 2017 12:25
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Enfys posted:That is an awesome poster.
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Jun 1, 2017 14:01
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indigi posted:when's it ok to start pruning a bonsai? my tree is about 5 months old, but the canopy just exploded once I transferred it to a bigger pot, and I just put it in an even bigger one yesterday, so I'm anticipating even more growth. some of the branches are already longer than the trunk of the tree itself. but it's at the point where even a slight breeze causes the trunk to nearly bend to the ground (it's an indoor tree that I only took outside to change pots). also, when pruning, can I just trim the branch instead of removing it altogether? is it better to prune everything at once, or space it out doing one bit every 4-5 days to give the plant time to heal? What kind of tree is it? Ficus? It sounds like it's a young tree, so at this point you probably won't be doing much shaping, you're just looking to get trunk thickness built up. I'd say trim branches that are ridiculously long but otherwise leave it alone, and also post in the bonsai thread with pics. Edit: I looked back at your previous posts. Jacaranda, which looks neat when I do an image search. Anyway, based on the picture you posted, I'd try cutting the longest branch down to ~1/2 its current length and see what happens. If it doesn't appear to kill the whole branch (I don't know much about jacarandas), you could them trim the others. Your pictures show a trunk that's still green so there's a lot of growth and development to do. Leave it outside all summer and only bring it in when the temperatures are threatening to drop to 40ish I'd say. This will help thicken the foliage and the trunk much quicker--all my ficuses are outside right now. Edit 2: It sounds like jacs are pretty resilient so here's what I was thinking:  Note that I removed one of the upper branches entirely because having two branches at the same level will result in an unsightly bulge in the trunk, so I chopped the thinner of the two figuring it would be easier to eliminate. You might start off by leaving a bit more on every branch, the more leaf area the better while you're trying to grow the trunk. Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Jun 1, 2017 |
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Jun 1, 2017 14:26
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Put your tree outside for a few years in a much, much larger container (or even in the ground). Bonsai aren't baby trees. They're adult trees that have been pruned and shaped to look miniature. Before they're ready for display, they need conditions like a regular healthy tree, including lots of sunlight and space for a root system. Pruning early on is liable to make it harder for the tree to photosynthesize, and it really needs that energy.
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Jun 1, 2017 15:14
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Leperflesh posted:I've been told they're much cheaper than hiring someone to bring machinery to clear brush/grass/land, but probably substantially more expensive than doing that work yourself assuming you already own the necessary equipment. But they're also by far the most environmentally friendly option, and I bet you can get a discount from a goat-rental if you're a repeat customer. Goats also do steep slopes which are dangerous/difficult for machinery.
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Jun 1, 2017 16:10
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this was all great advice, thanks! Fitzy Fitz posted:Put your tree outside for a few years in a much, much larger container (or even in the ground). Bonsai aren't baby trees. They're adult trees that have been pruned and shaped to look miniature. Before they're ready for display, they need conditions like a regular healthy tree, including lots of sunlight and space for a root system. Pruning early on is liable to make it harder for the tree to photosynthesize, and it really needs that energy. I can't really put it in the ground at the moment, but I did move it to a much larger pot. I'll start putting it outside, but I'm worried the wind will really do a number on it - the breeze that practically knocked it over yesterday wasn't even particularly strong. the big branches really catch the wind 
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Jun 1, 2017 16:40
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Fitzy Fitz posted:Put your tree outside for a few years in a much, much larger container (or even in the ground). Bonsai aren't baby trees. They're adult trees that have been pruned and shaped to look miniature. Before they're ready for display, they need conditions like a regular healthy tree, including lots of sunlight and space for a root system. Pruning early on is liable to make it harder for the tree to photosynthesize, and it really needs that energy. This is good advice, especially putting it in the ground if you live in a sufficiently warm area. However, having just repotted it, you might wait a while before stressing it again by putting it in the ground? I suggested pruning because it would suck for wind to break the branches or the trunk, but yeah if you can get it into a more sheltered area that still gets a lot of sun, don't prune it except maybe remove that one branch so the trunk doesn't get bulgy.
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Jun 1, 2017 16:54
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Yeah, probably wait until fall to transplant. I wonder if something like a tomato cage would be enough to protect from wind for now.
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Jun 1, 2017 16:59
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Kenning posted:I know we have some Bay Area plant goons in here, so I figured I'd rep the BACPS show this weekend. drat, I'm already committed to going to a house warming party after we do the cat adoption day thing.
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Jun 1, 2017 17:08
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anatomi posted:If you're unlucky the rhizome might've simply decayed. But chantrieri is a bit unpredictable. Maybe it's just taking its time. What are the conditions, temperature, humidity, soil, like? Temperature in the house has been around 70, unsure of the indoor humidity but outside it's been averaging 60%. Everywhere I read said they needed very well drained soil so I went with a cactus/succulent mix and put in some extra perlite. In other plant happenings, I stumbled upon a giant monstera hiding in a greenhouse that had to come home with me. They said it was a year old clipping from a six year old mother plant. My house's conversion into a jungle is going just as planned. 
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Jun 1, 2017 17:15
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| # ? May 15, 2024 00:41 |
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Pham Nuwen posted:What kind of tree is it? Ficus? It sounds like it's a young tree, so at this point you probably won't be doing much shaping, you're just looking to get trunk thickness built up. I'd say trim branches that are ridiculously long but otherwise leave it alone, and also post in the bonsai thread with pics. Is this really okay though? The parts suggested to be trimmed are actually leaves, not branches. There's actually only seven leaves total on that plant, and I'm worried about how well the plant will respond to having half of its leaves cut. I might recommend trying out one snip first to see how the plant reacts to having the leaves cut in half before proceeding with the rest since the styling advice is solid though.
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Jun 1, 2017 17:16
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