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Hey plant folks, I just discovered mold or mildew or something on the soil of my Monstera and one of my snake plants. How do I deal with this in a way that will keep my plants happy?
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Jul 2, 2022 16:04
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Mad Hamish posted:Hey plant folks, I just discovered mold or mildew or something on the soil of my Monstera and one of my snake plants. How do I deal with this in a way that will keep my plants happy? put it outside in the sun
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Jul 2, 2022 16:07
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Lakitu7 posted:To be fair, western civilization only "discovered" African Violets in 1892, vs humans have been accumulating knowledge about roses and orchids since antiquity. touche. apropos of this, check out my spiral orchid   First year growing one so didnt know what to expect. Definitely too big of a pot, next year i'll try growing it in a smaller one maybe with some grasses
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Jul 2, 2022 17:41
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Let me amplify, so you know why this is so disastrous. I just visited the nursery and spoke to four different people, with the last one printing my order Information and telling me the owner would call me back. I mentioned that I had noticed several issues after prying out some fist size rocks from under the mulch, like the burlap and wire poking up underneath had not being removed, the rootball had not been exposed and was a good 5-6" below the surface, and also that the original order included some stuff like soil that wasn't even included as part of the delivery. I honestly don't even care about the soil and it's probably better to have used the clay that was there so it's homogenous, but the rest of the situation is really discouraging. I'm not normally the person to complain about poo poo or stick up for myself when this sort of thing happens, but I just really want that tree to do all right  Every single person I spoke with at the nursery said that they only plant with the basket and burlap, to which I said that everything I've looked at says that's basically the "kiss of death". Even the US Forest Service and various researchers at several public universities say it's better to remove the wire and burlap. I feel like this is going to be me, an idiot when it comes to plants, arguing with a disagreeable nursery owner that I know better than they do about planting trees, and I just don't know what to do. I thought paying almost 250$ to get this thing delivered and professionally installed six miles away would mean that things were done well 
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Jul 2, 2022 20:07
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Mad Hamish posted:Hey plant folks, I just discovered mold or mildew or something on the soil of my Monstera and one of my snake plants. How do I deal with this in a way that will keep my plants happy? make a solution in the ratio of 1tbsp hydrogen peroxide:1cup water solution and water thoroughly (until water comes out the bottom)
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Jul 2, 2022 21:48
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OSU_Matthew posted:I feel like this is going to be me, an idiot when it comes to plants, arguing with a disagreeable nursery owner that I know better than they do about planting trees, and I just don't know what to do. Approach A: "I talked to Fred at the cooperative extension, and he agrees that a tree planted with the burlap and cage intact is not going to thrive. You can either come out and re-plant the plant, or refund me the money, if you would prefer. I will not accept a tree that has been planted in a way that will damage it." Approach B: "The US Forestry Service recommends against planting trees with the burlap and cage intact, because it damages the root system. You can either ..." If the owner is intransigent, go nuclear; do a chargeback if you bought with credit, and leave a nasty Yelp review. e: Do point out that you paid for services like fresh soil that were not provided.
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Jul 2, 2022 22:32
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I'm sorry. I hate confrontation, too. This is going to be hard. If you're in the US, call your county's "cooperative extension" and talk to them. Oh this is really really good, I didn't even think about the county coop! That's absolutely perfect, I'll get in touch with them because that would be a perfect local source of authoritative reference. In fact, I just googled around, and the State University that runs the extension program has a guide for planting trees that says you should remove the wire and burlap and look for girdling roots, which didn't happen since the root ball wasn't exposed. Seriously, really appreciate the help!
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Jul 3, 2022 00:07
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Jul 3, 2022 20:27
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I have a giant pile of mostly leaf mold from the previous owner in a full shade area. It is currently the most weed-infested hellscape I have ever seen. What is the best way to amend the soil so I can plant some ground cover? I'm thinking Japanese Spurge or similar.
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Jul 4, 2022 00:51
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unlimited shrimp posted:I have a giant pile of mostly leaf mold from the previous owner in a full shade area. It is currently the most weed-infested hellscape I have ever seen. What is the best way to amend the soil so I can plant some ground cover? Seems like Japanese Spurge might be invasive? Allegheny spurge might be a better bet if you're on the east coast? Not exactly the same, but I've been trying to avoid using glyphosphate altogether since I have a buncha plants I really like and don't want to inadvertently harm. Recently I've been getting a lot of mileage out of a 3 finger hoe to rake up mulch beds and disturb the established weeds, which is a bit if elbow grease but solved my "gently caress this is a lot of stuff to pull up by hand" problem. I recently finally got around to planting my garden, which had a lot of volunteers from last year and weeds that took hold over the rest in the past few weeks. To get the mass of grass and weeds out of the neglected bed, I had a bunch of luck using an older twist tiller I got at a garage sale awhile back. It did a great job snaring the plants and root systems around the tines as I rotated it, and everything came up much easier than trying to pull poo poo by hand and leave the root systems to resprout.  I also bought a new tractor to do some yardwork:  And planted some clearance Hydrangeas I found at Menards under the Rose of Sharon:  It feels really good to be making gradual progress while adding more green and color to my little fiefdom 
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Jul 4, 2022 20:10
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Arsenic Lupin posted:The little sprouting branches are what the plum will fruit on next year; don't cut them. Pruning so more light will reach the center is definitely good; there are lots of good guides online. My first guess on why it's not fruiting is that it needs another plum nearby to pollinate. A lot of plums aren't self-fertile. (Some are, of course.) Did you plant the plum yourself, and if so do you remember what variety it was? There's actually three plums in the yard, but the other two were doing fairly well so I was less concerned/confused about them. They both seem to be smaller and younger than the tree in the picture, with well spaced out branches, less leaf coverage, and room for sunlight. Which was what had me wondering what was going on with the big one. All the plants and trees came with the house when we bought it and we have no idea what variety any of them are. I do know both the plums and the cherries that were on the trees last year were very sweet and pleasant to eat, as reported to me by family members we gave the fruit to.
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Jul 5, 2022 00:03
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Canadian Bakin posted:There's actually three plums in the yard, but the other two were doing fairly well so I was less concerned/confused about them. They both seem to be smaller and younger than the tree in the picture, with well spaced out branches, less leaf coverage, and room for sunlight. Which was what had me wondering what was going on with the big one. Were there plums on all the trees, including the big one, last year? Another possibility is that some plum (and other) trees fruit heavily every other year, and don't do much in the years in between. See here. The foliage looks good and healthy. Are there any black masses on the branches? I ask because I've had problems with "black knot" on plum trees, although it didn't stop them from bearing. You should certainly prune it to get more light in the center during the dormant season (winter), but if that were the only problem, it wouldn't stop the tree from fruiting on the outside. I don't honestly know enough to make any other suggestions. BTW, thinning the cherries would be a good idea if you were a commercial grower; given how tall cherries get I wouldn't be inclined to try it myself.
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Jul 5, 2022 00:17
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Well, there goes the easy answer. I hadn't stopped to think about harvests varying from year to year. That's a distinct possibility! I'll give that website a read, thanks. Weather permitting, I'll give that plum a look over for anything but off the top of my head I don't recall seeing any growths or spots and my husband didn't mention anything so I think it's fairly healthy? As for pruning, I've got a copy of "Grow a Little Fruit Tree" by Ann Ralph which seems to have some decent advice on fruit tree pruning, so I'll combine that with anything I can find with a google search on pruning for more light. I appreciate your willingness to be a sounding board! And as for the cherries, fortunately the trees aren't very tall yet and were part of the reason for my above book purchase. So I'll leave those alone and see how the harvest turns out. Some of them are already turning red. Should be fun!
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Jul 5, 2022 01:39
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Canadian Bakin posted:So I'll leave those alone and see how the harvest turns out. Some of them are already turning red. Should be fun! 
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Jul 5, 2022 01:45
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Good morning from my (mostly) aroid garden. Everything is horrible but this place is not.           And my wife's cacti. 
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Jul 5, 2022 14:05
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Beautiful! What do you use for the shade tarp? Do they still get water through it?
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Jul 5, 2022 15:05
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skylined! posted:Good morning from my (mostly) aroid garden. Everything is horrible but this place is not. Oh, lovely. I hope you have a comfy chair somewhere in there.
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Jul 5, 2022 16:10
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Lakitu7 posted:Beautiful! What do you use for the shade tarp? Do they still get water through it? Just basic cheap 50% shadecloth and yea water passes through easily. The wood lattice and side of my house seems to block heavy winds pretty well as well - zone 8b and we've had a lot of strong storms lately. Arsenic Lupin posted:Oh, lovely. I hope you have a comfy chair somewhere in there. I had a small couch but had to move it because I needed the space for more plants (oops). At least the side with the cacti has a swinging bed and some chairs.
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Jul 5, 2022 17:02
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skylined! posted:Just basic cheap 50% shadecloth and yea water passes through easily. The wood lattice and side of my house seems to block heavy winds pretty well as well - zone 8b and we've had a lot of strong storms lately. Thanks! I've got a corner of deck/balcony that used to have shade from a tree, but the tree came down last winter. I'd like to put a few plants out there to enjoy more sun for the summer than I can give them indoors, but I learned quickly that even the ~2h of direct sun it now gets is too much. Is 50% dark enough to avoid sunburn for pretty much anything, or are there some plants where you'd have to consider the 60-75%?
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Jul 5, 2022 18:08
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Lakitu7 posted:Thanks! I've got a corner of deck/balcony that used to have shade from a tree, but the tree came down last winter. I'd like to put a few plants out there to enjoy more sun for the summer than I can give them indoors, but I learned quickly that even the ~2h of direct sun it now gets is too much. Is 50% dark enough to avoid sunburn for pretty much anything, or are there some plants where you'd have to consider the 60-75%? Orchids and sensitive understory plants Also probably good for setting up a gradient for growing seedlings and staging sensitive plants/moving them up to full sun or preparing them to be brought indoors and so forth
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Jul 5, 2022 18:16
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Lakitu7 posted:Thanks! I've got a corner of deck/balcony that used to have shade from a tree, but the tree came down last winter. I'd like to put a few plants out there to enjoy more sun for the summer than I can give them indoors, but I learned quickly that even the ~2h of direct sun it now gets is too much. Is 50% dark enough to avoid sunburn for pretty much anything, or are there some plants where you'd have to consider the 60-75%? I haven't had an issue with anything burning, though I do position some things to get more or less sun depending on their natural growth habitats that I can fine. For instance the ficus, some hoya and other epiphytes all get as much light as I can give them, while some of the anthurium and the 2 terrestrial orchids I have are shaded by cloth and other plants. The philos mostly do fine in direct filtered light; I have a billietiae in a hanging basket that gets direct sun light only shaded by the cloth til the sun crests over the roofline around 5p. Most of the alocasia almost demand the brightest filtered light I can find them. I am surrounded by a lot of trees as well that filters most light a bit after about 11am, til the sun is past the roofline by about 5p. All of my aroids and bananas in a lower flower bed burnt in direct sun - even some of the cacti - til I put up more cloth. It's certainly an inexpensive means to shade; I think a 10x20ft sheet was $20. The 2x4s I attached the lattice and cloth to was way more expensive. skylined! fucked around with this message at 19:03 on Jul 5, 2022 |
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Jul 5, 2022 19:01
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Can you foliar feed hardwood cuttings the same way you can cannabis cuttings? A maple tree fell over (it was literally uprooted), and the leaves on the top of the trunk are dry and yellow, but some of the leaves on the branches on the underside of the trunk are still green in places. I figure the whole tree doesn’t need to die, so I took cuttings. They’re under humidity domes right now. I keep them moist by spraying them with RO water. But I’ve noticed them starting to get a little yellow in places. If they were cannabis I would say they had a nitrogen deficiency and I’d spray them with DNF gold at dusk and/or dawn. But these are hardwoods. The only thing I know for certain about them is that for rooting hormone you use 0.8% IBA instead of 0.3%. I’m guessing that also probably they don’t have the same nutritional requirements as cannabis. What do you use to foliar feed hardwood cuttings? Or do you not?
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Jul 6, 2022 04:10
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DreadLlama posted:Can you foliar feed hardwood cuttings the same way you can cannabis cuttings? A maple tree fell over (it was literally uprooted), and the leaves on the top of the trunk are dry and yellow, but some of the leaves on the branches on the underside of the trunk are still green in places. I figure the whole tree doesn’t need to die, so I took cuttings. They’re under humidity domes right now. I keep them moist by spraying them with RO water. I don't think foliar feeding will help, but I doubt it would hurt. However, the usual advice for hardwood cuttings is to remove most of the leaves or cut them in half so the cutting puts all its energy into growing roots, not trying to get water to the leaves. Do any of them show any signs of rooting? Is the inner bark (cambium) still a nice bright green? It can take months for woody cuttings to root.
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Jul 6, 2022 13:21
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DreadLlama posted:Can you foliar feed hardwood cuttings the same way you can cannabis cuttings? A maple tree fell over (it was literally uprooted), and the leaves on the top of the trunk are dry and yellow, but some of the leaves on the branches on the underside of the trunk are still green in places. I figure the whole tree doesn’t need to die, so I took cuttings. They’re under humidity domes right now. I keep them moist by spraying them with RO water. I usually hold off on fertilizing until I see new growth. Based on what you said, it sounds like the leaves are beginning to die from lack of water. Summer is tricky for cuttings bc the cutting will be transpiring much more water and the developing root system is unlikely to be able to meet demands. Spring/fall, with cooler temperature, are easier to keep them alive. You can get around this with an indoor setting involving a translucent enclosure and a grow light: the enclosure keeps humidity high, reducing water loss through transpiration, and the grow light provides light energy without overheating & cooking the cutting. This is a really good article on propagating cuttings: https://www.evergreengardenworks.com/cuttings.htm
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Jul 6, 2022 13:39
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OSU_Matthew posted:Seems like Japanese Spurge might be invasive? Allegheny spurge might be a better bet if you're on the east coast? Glyphosphate's not an option here so it'll definitely be a good workout getting the weeds up. I used one of those twist tillers too in the garden bed but, after some trial and error, found the work went a lot faster (and with fewer blisters on my palms) with a spading fork and the 3 finger hoe you mentioned. My garden soil is a little clay heavy though so having the extra leverage with the fork was a big help. I'm just not sure what to do about the lack of nutrients in the leaf mold area. It's a good 300sqft section and I really don't want to pay for that much compost and topsoil to amend it all. Maybe I should just keep tilling the weeds back into the soil for a few years and let it amend itself.
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Jul 6, 2022 16:44
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unlimited shrimp posted:Thanks for the heads up about the spurge. I was looking at ferns, too, but I'm not a fan of the dinosaur jungle look. From my experience trying to repair the few sections of grass lawn we have, there are two basic ways to go. Work on amending your topsoil with home made compost and stuff and slowly revitalize it, or take a time skip and buy some stuff to spread around. I don't mind doing it the long way, but aerating the compacted area, amending with nutrients, and fresh soil are all helpful, and you're going to need to add seed a few times as it comes in and you keep working it. So if you can compost your own leaves in the fall, do that and then work it into the area, otherwise there are slow release nutrients and they sell giant sacks of organic lawn "turf builder" soils here. They're something like $10 each and I think you'd need 3-4 for 300sq ft. Growing grass is more expensive than growing plants a lot of the time.
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Jul 6, 2022 17:53
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I discovered I have cute little roses growing on the neglected far side of my back fence, and spent the entire morning trimming away a couple years worth of grapevines to extricate the rose bush and train it toward us. It looks very happy to see the sun. I'll get pics next time I go outside. Also, why the gently caress didn't I wear gloves? Goddamn I'm stupid. I haven't felt this many itchy pricks since college.
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Jul 6, 2022 18:02
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Brawnfire posted:I discovered I have cute little roses growing on the neglected far side of my back fence, and spent the entire morning trimming away a couple years worth of grapevines to extricate the rose bush and train it toward us. It looks very happy to see the sun. I'll get pics next time I go outside.  They call elbow-length gauntlets "rose pruners" for a reason. If you plan on growing anything else spiny (raspberries, blackberries), it might be worth buying a pair.
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Jul 6, 2022 20:36
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Caneberries are just tasty roses. Change my view.
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Jul 6, 2022 21:11
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Platystemon posted:Caneberries are just tasty roses.
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Jul 6, 2022 21:29
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Thank you for the advice. Especially this:Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Rooting hardwood cuttings from trees can range from impossible to fairly difficult, so don't be surprised if your experiment is unsuccessful. Timing is really important, and I wouldn't put great hope in cuttings taken in the height of summer from a stressed tree.  Kaiser Schnitzel posted:[T]he usual advice for hardwood cuttings is to remove most of the leaves or cut them in half so the cutting puts all its energy into growing roots, not trying to get water to the leaves. Do any of them show any signs of rooting? Is the inner bark (cambium) still a nice bright green? It can take months for woody cuttings to root. I only took the cuttings on June 27. Ought they have roots so quickly? I thought hardwoods took a long time. They look greenish to me. But I'm no expert. Picture is worth 1,000 words. Some I think look good.   Others not so much.   Should I cut out this brown section?Some I'm not sure of.    BIG-DICK-BUTT-gently caress posted:I usually hold off on fertilizing until I see new growth. Based on what you said, it sounds like the leaves are beginning to die from lack of water. Summer is tricky for cuttings bc the cutting will be transpiring much more water and the developing root system is unlikely to be able to meet demands. Spring/fall, with cooler temperature, are easier to keep them alive. I will hold off on fertilizing. But I genuinely believe they're moist enough. I keep them where I can keep an eye on them, and the humidity domes are never not foggy. They're always foggy.
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Jul 6, 2022 21:59
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They look pretty good! Best of luck and keep us updated  E: yeah after a second closer look they look really good, i wouldn't change a thing. i think you'll have a high success rate. it sounds like you have experience w cannabis, and horticultural techniques between container grown trees and cannabis plants are not TOO dissimilar do you have a plan for the winter? BIG-DICK-BUTT-FUCK fucked around with this message at 00:18 on Jul 7, 2022 |
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Jul 6, 2022 22:18
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Yeah those look pretty good. Hope it works-I wasn’t trying to be discouraging, but trying to root woody plants has often been an exercise in disappointment for me. One year I stuck like 50 rose cuttings, took them when I was supposed to, got so excited when in the spring every single one leafed out, and then all but 2 died because they hadn’t actually grown any roots  I’ve had much better luck air layering woody stuff. If some of the tree’s roots are still connected and in the ground, it may well live for a while (possibly decades!) so you’d have time and it might be a good backup. I know air layering works well for Japanese maples, at least.
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Jul 6, 2022 23:43
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Awesome! I'm going to keep spraying them with RO water and crossing my fingers. They have hard work to do. I'm just the water boy. Air layering looks interesting. You peel the bark off and wrap it in a sealed bag of moistened dirt? Does it need regular misting or can you leave it that way? I'm going to have to read up on this. If I can turn some of those branches into 4 - 6 foot trees, I'm going to be ecstatic.
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Jul 7, 2022 02:37
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DreadLlama posted:Awesome! Yeah you mostly to completely girdle the branch. It’s important to remove the right amount of bark-not too deep and not too shallow. I’m sure there are good YouTubes. I’ve used sphagnum moss wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil over that to keep the birds off. You can mostly sterilize sphagnum moss in the oven and that maybe helps with fungus and stuff. I’d try to get a 1’ tall tree, not a 4-6’ tree. It’s always better to have a lot of roots for the amount of tree. E: this is for camellias but it’s the guide I have followed in the past, and the principles are the same: https://www.americancamellias.com/care-culture-resources/propagation/air-layering
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Jul 7, 2022 04:01
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Arsenic Lupin posted:A tree cannot grow roots through burlap.  Well drat. This might be what killed my cherry trees last year. I don't have the instructions on hand right now, but I'm pretty sure they said to leave the burlap around the root ball. I'm normally pretty anal about following the instructions exactly, so I'd be shocked if they said to remove it and I just didn't.Oh well. Maybe it's just my destiny to have fig trees instead. Those are doing great so far, and unsurprisingly, no burlap.
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Jul 7, 2022 13:39
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What’s the theory behind leaving the burlap? It’s supposed to just decompose? Stuff doesn’t decompose *that* fast.
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Jul 7, 2022 16:23
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im guessing its a holdover from the days when they used jute burlap that would decompose but more importantly it wont restrict the roots
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Jul 7, 2022 16:34
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 Here we are. Not a glamor shot, but they're not really glamor roses either... They're very happy to be free of the wrath of the grapes, though.
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Jul 7, 2022 19:35
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Jul 10, 2022 18:40
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