|
What type of plants are you interested in growing? This poll is closed. |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Perennials! |
|
142 | 20.91% |
| Annuals! |
|
30 | 4.42% |
| Woody plants! |
|
62 | 9.13% |
| Succulent plants! |
|
171 | 25.18% |
| Tropical plants! |
|
60 | 8.84% |
| Non-vascular plants are the best! |
|
31 | 4.57% |
| Screw you, I'd rather eat them! |
|
183 | 26.95% |
| Total: | 679 votes | ||
|
Spider plant. I've tried to kill mine many times by long periods where I fell out of the habit of watering but it always comes back to life...
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2018 14:51
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 16:33 |
|
|
Hello friends. Work on my balcony is almost done and I can finally start my garden. Is there a good site to help with plant recommendations? I'm in the PNW, so hot dry sunny summers and wet dark but above freezing winters. I'm looking for a plant that smells nice, that won't die during our climate mood swings, and preferably colorful. Any ideas?
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2018 18:26
|
|
|
I have the most success with snake plants and ZZ plants. They can go weeks without water just fine, survive well in low light, and they look nice.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2018 20:47
|
|
|
What direction is the balcony facing? Have you considered a jade plant :3
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2018 20:52
|
|
|
South I believe, but it sticks out from the balcony above so it gets sun from East and West.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2018 00:13
|
|
|
e:  warning:  incoming Forbidden Donut posted:Hey one more question regarding the backpack sprayer...you mean for applying fungicides/herbicides yes? Or are you saying there are ways to get fertilizers to work in these too? I agree granular is bad for treating things especially weeds. I usually opt for the hose attachments and a weed be gone type product because granuales don't really do anything. OK! A lot to unpack. Note that this is all going to be in terms of maximum cost/effort effectiveness -- none of the product formulations are really "bad", so go with whatever works for your desired effort level. (I just feel like I have to make this caveat because I've become a bit of a hobbyist and realize some people just want to have the lawn look good and not think about it too much, which is totally fine as well) For the (tank) sprayer, I was generally talking about fungicides, insecticides, herbicides (pre/post-emergent); however, it's a totally valid way to apply fertilizer, with its own benefits. Granular fert can be hard to apply evenly at small rates. It also has to be wetted in to start releasing, so therer is generally a bit more of a delay in uptake versus a foliar spray. So for the kind of thing you were doing to treat the Red Thread (N @ 0.20 lb/1k) a liquid application would be way more convenient. Another similar-but-different option is a hose-end sprayer (basically a reusable version of what you buy in the stores). Talking about the herbicides, make sure you're using the right thing. There are no granular post-emergent herbicides that I am aware of. All the granular products are pre-emergent -- they dissolve into the soil and form a layer at the surface that prevents seeds from successfully germinating, while not really affecting established plants. Thus, they are great for preventing new weeds (proovided they are put down early enough) but won't do anything for existing weeds, or those that are dormant (like dandelions or wild violets). They are especially useful for preventing grassy weeds like crabgrass which are difficult to treat post-emergent. Meanwhile, there are liquid sprayer products for both pre-emergent and post-emergent treatments. If you used a sprayer post-emergent then it's not at all surprising that you saw much better results with the liquid. The "best practice" for dealing with weeds is to not do a broadcast herbicide with a hose end sprayer, though. Since pre-emergents have much less environmental impact, ideally you would do a broadcast pre-emergent treatment in early March (and a follow up in May/June) to prevent grassy weeds and then do targeted spot treatments with a post-emergent (either using a pre-mixed spray product or using a tank sprayer) every 2-4 weeks wherever you see established weeds. As time goes, the amount of spot treatment you need to do should be very limited. Here's a general breakdown of how I see the formulations and what I use for each: quote:Granular For sprayers, I have three: - A cheap 1-gal HD sprayer I use exclusively for selective weed killers. I mix my post-emergent in here and just grab it whenever I need to spot spray. A mix will usually last me most of a season. - A 2-galbattery powered sprayer that I use for non-herbicide applications (I make sure I keep it "plant safe" so I can use it on landscape as well as grass) - A 2-Gal hand-pump sprayer that I only put "garden-safe" stuff in (spinosad, neem oil, food-safe fungicides) for my food plants. Here's what I do (I can provide product links later if you want): quote:
The thing that makes tank/hose end spraying nice is that if you are doing it at regular 2/3/4 week intervals you can just mix whatever you want to broadcast together and do it all at once. It seems like a lot of effort listed out like that, but in practice it's easy once you have a plan. And IF you are tasnk spraying every 2 weeks then your absolute best bet would be to do your fertilization as part of that mix and "spoon feed" your turf based on the season (maybe with a reduced rate milorganite in the Spring and Fall as a slow release N/Biosolid source). Note that the Scotts 4-Step program has most of all this same stuff in it (or some equivalent) pre-mixed into regular granular applications. The main difference is just one of control (in terms of what/where/when/how much) and cost. So like I said at the start, go with whatever fits your goals. ee: I should say that most liquid fertilizers recommend a lot more water volume (2-5 gal/1k) than is convenient for a tank sprayer. So a hose-end sprayer (with a marking dye) is probably the right way to provide a full NPK fertilizer, since they tend to put out a lot more water. It is all about the water/N ratio though, so if you're doing real spoon-feedings (versus applying 0.75lb N or more at once) then a tank is probably fine. Hubis fucked around with this message at 17:28 on Jul 21, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2018 14:53
|
|
|
I was organizing our shed from stuff the previous owner (an experienced gardener) left and found two bags of fertilizer. I think. IIRC, the bags say wonder gro (no w) have packaging from the... 80s? No clue. The bags are falling apart, like crumbling when I handle them. One bag is grey crystal stuff and one is white crystal stuff. Is it worth calling the company (which is still in business, got their phone number) to see what they can figure out? Toss them? Do some kind of study? Interestingly the bags are kind of wet and didn't mold at all, probably because they are full of fertilizer. Edit: VVV - good idea, I thought I took pictures but can't find them on my phone and it's raining now. Pictures to follow. WrenP-Complete fucked around with this message at 18:40 on Jul 21, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2018 15:41
|
|
|
WrenP-Complete posted:I was organizing our shed from stuff the previous owner (an experienced gardener) left and found two bags of fertilizer. I think. IIRC, the bags say wonder gro (no w) have packaging from the... 80s? No clue. The bags are falling apart, like crumbling when I handle them. One bag is grey crystal stuff and one is white crystal stuff. Is it worth calling the company (which is still in business, got their phone number) to see what they can figure out? Toss them? Do some kind of study? Interestingly the bags are kind of wet and didn't mold at all, probably because they are full of fertilizer. White crystals could be perlite and grey crystals could be vermiculite.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2018 16:19
|
|
|
WrenP-Complete posted:I was organizing our shed from stuff the previous owner (an experienced gardener) left and found two bags of fertilizer. I think. IIRC, the bags say wonder gro (no w) have packaging from the... 80s? No clue. The bags are falling apart, like crumbling when I handle them. One bag is grey crystal stuff and one is white crystal stuff. Is it worth calling the company (which is still in business, got their phone number) to see what they can figure out? Toss them? Do some kind of study? Interestingly the bags are kind of wet and didn't mold at all, probably because they are full of fertilizer. Photos? kid sinister posted:White crystals could be perlite and grey crystals could be vermiculite. Yeah, could be. Do they feel "light and fluffy"?
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2018 16:39
|
|
|
My dorstenia foetida (kind of like a succulent I guess) has been doing poorly lately so I poured its soil out to see what's up - it has a ton of tiny, tiny white maggot looking things all over the roots. They're like the size of a period in a book, too small to remove manually, is there anything I can kill them with that won't also kill the plant? I put it back in the soil but can dig it out again if I need to apply something directly to the roots.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2018 22:32
|
|
|
kid sinister posted:White crystals could be perlite and grey crystals could be vermiculite. Hubis posted:Photos? Okay! I have photos and more information. I was able to read the label on one of them! This one is labelled "lawn fertilizer" and is actually more beige/brown than white.  Here's the grey one. This bag is too shredded to read.  I don't think it's vermiculite or perlite.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2018 17:37
|
|
|
Here's a question for y'all: I'm trying to get a vine-y type plant in my front room, one that'll grow pretty large. I wanna kind of hang out around the top of the wall along one of the sides of the room its in. Is this possible, and what type of vine-y plant would I be looking for?
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2018 02:53
|
|
|
Johnny Truant posted:Here's a question for y'all: I'm trying to get a vine-y type plant in my front room, one that'll grow pretty large. I wanna kind of hang out around the top of the wall along one of the sides of the room its in. It's going to depend on how much sun you have but... Pothos is pretty awesome! Easy and vine-y!  English ivy is the bane of my existence (it's invasive outdoors in my yard) but is also a good indoor plant.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2018 03:10
|
|
|
You also have Philodendron hederaceum and its various cultivars.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2018 08:03
|
|
|
WrenP-Complete posted:It's going to depend on how much sun you have but... Ooh that looks cool! The room gets a pretty good amount of natural light as it has 3 Bay windows and faces like SE, if that helps with any other suggestions. Is that pothos like, a million smaller vines or one big long one? I was thinking I'd have it in a pot hanging from the ceiling pet much directly in front of one window, then just start draping the long vine(s) along the wall, held up with... something? Haha. Are any of these vine-y plants extremely poisonous to cats, does anyone know? I don't plan to have them within cat-reach, but with cats... 
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2018 11:35
|
|
|
Someone back in the thread had a banana plant or cheese plant or whatever that was just massive, that grew up and along rather than down. Anyone know what I'm babbling about?
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2018 11:48
|
|
|
Johnny Truant posted:Ooh that looks cool!
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2018 12:06
|
|
|
WrenP-Complete posted:Okay! I have photos and more information.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2018 12:06
|
|
|
cakesmith handyman posted:Someone back in the thread had a banana plant or cheese plant or whatever that was just massive, that grew up and along rather than down. Anyone know what I'm babbling about? Monstera deliciosa? https://www.houseofplants.co.uk/plants/monstera-deliciosa_swiss-cheese-plant_72918.html They can get ginormous.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2018 23:44
|
|
|
So I recently cleared out 5 overgrown yew bushes in front of my house, so I have a blank slate for landscaping and I’m looking for a little feedback. One bed in front of my front porch (about 4 feet below the floor of the porch) is about 2 feet deep by 6 feet long, the other that goes up against the house is about 5 feet deep and about 10 feet long. The depth of the larger bed can easily be decreased if I seed it in the fall. (Zone 6a, Maryland) I was kind of thinking to doing boxwoods in the smaller bed and hydrangeas in the larger. I’m really just looking for something that looks nice and won’t require a ton of maintenance. I can post some pics of the beds when it’s not pouring down rain.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2018 00:26
|
|
|
MikeTheCoolOne posted:Monstera deliciosa? That's it thanks.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2018 15:27
|
|
|
WrenP-Complete posted:English ivy is the bane of my existence (it's invasive outdoors in my yard) but is also a good indoor plant. Noooooooo! The little roots they use to adhere to surfaces will cause damage to many indoor surfaces. Be sure you know what you're getting into before growing this indoors.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2018 20:55
|
|
|
I bought a house two years ago so I finally have a garden to look after. It's a fairly modest 12x3.5m garden so I won't get to go too grandiose. Mostly I hope to plant stuff that brings in bees and butterflies. I neglected it up until this summer so I’m now having to resort to some chemical warfare against periwinkle which has rooted itself across a wider area than the previous owners kept it. The other issue is the large number of neighborhood cats all who have decided my modest lawn is where they want to poo poo. Having finally bought and planted some of my own plants I’ve got the garden centre bug and I’m slowly working my way around all the ones in my area. I don't have any grand plan, just buy plants over a long period (so I don't end up with everything flowering at the same time) and see what's popular with the bees at the garden centre. So far I haven't killed anything I've planted... I picked up a plant yesterday. It only had the Latin name on the label and it wasn't until I got home I discovered it was a relative of cat nip! I'm loathed to get rid of a plant I've only just paid for so I'm hoping that rather than increasing the number of cats who want to poop in my yard it becomes the place the cool cats hang out to get stoned (and not poop).
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2018 12:01
|
|
|
Bought some plants for the yard. Redcurrant and gooseberry bushes and some juniper bushes (Juniperus squamata) and another ground covering bush I forget the name of. I'm spacing the juniper out along side the rock wall behind our garage, the idea is they'll grow and sort of flow over the wall, covering the top in a green carpet with time. I will make cuttings later to make more of them, or perhaps find something slightly different to put between them. Need to let it grow and see what it will turn out like.   And the summer drought continues here, only had a week of rain during midsummer, thank god for that at least. The grass we tried to plant failed miserably even with watering, will have to try new seeds come autumn.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2018 10:20
|
|
|
w...what have i done  In the two previous years I've experimented with morning glories, and this season I went all-out. I have a wraparound porch that faces due north, so both sides face NE and NW respectively. The NW side especially gets a lot of sun, and is the main reason I started this project. I strapped soccer nets to the balcony and spent a few minutes each day wrapping each little vine horizontally to slow their rush to the roof. There are probably six species of climbing vine in the mix, and everything is great until the temp gets above 90. I'm in Texas and watering 3 times a day, even with like six cubic feet of dirt. I work nights, so on the hottest days i I have to throw myself out of bed and set an alarm to water in the heat of the day. You can see where entire vines have died by me not watering in time. For now, I'm dumping compost tea into the containers every couple days to increase water retention, and have placed sheets of white styrofoam in the direct path of the sunlight so the roots stay cool. Anything else I can be doing? The leaves are really stressed from wilting twice a day and are starting to look ratty. I also think I have really tiny bugs making small, dark grey webs on the leaves in one section. These plants have invited their own ecosystem, which is neat. I was using exclusively compost and miracle-gro 3-1-2 to prioritize vegetation, but I'm interested in collecting a ton of seeds for next year (of the few dozen vines, 3 or so have stems the width of a nickel at the base, and they're less than four months old). I stopped using the 3-1-2 about three weeks ago and haven't seen buds develop. Is my compost tea strong enough to inhibit flowering? It's all-purpose, not N-heavy. I don't wanna starve 'em, they've already significantly slowed their growth.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2018 13:20
|
|
|
I have a chain link fence that I can't easily rip out (concrete foundation... wtf  ) so I decided to grow some vines on it to at least try to make it look pretty.Where do I start?
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2018 18:37
|
|
|
i say swears online posted:w...what have i done cursed pic whyyyy do this enraged_camel posted:I have a chain link fence that I can't easily rip out (concrete foundation... wtf ahhh the morning glory is already spreading through minds
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2018 18:50
|
|
|
i loving love morning glories, i can't help it seriously though my apartment leaks like a sieve and my electricity bill is down 1/3 this year even though it's hotter
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2018 01:29
|
|
|
There’s got to be hardier vines that don’t need watering 6 times a day
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2018 01:33
|
|
|
i say swears online posted:w...what have i done https://www.amazon.com/Rain-Bird-GRDNERKIT-Irrigation-Gardeners/dp/B000LO4FFG
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2018 04:11
|
|
|
thesurlyspringKAA posted:There’s got to be hardier vines that don’t need watering 6 times a day That's the other thing: I live in Texas and don't want to water anything if I can help it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2018 04:47
|
|
|
 What's next, someone asking how they can train more English ivy on their brick home?
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2018 13:33
|
|
|
enraged_camel posted:That's the other thing: I live in Texas and don't want to water anything if I can help it. If you have a hose faucet handy I would check out Blumats and a pressure reducer.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2018 16:18
|
|
|
Shame Boner posted:
Hey guys, I've got this nice paver patio in my back yard, but I'd like a little privacy from my neighbors. What kind of bamboo should I plant around it?
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2018 16:38
|
|
|
i recommend running bamboo so it fills out the space more quickly
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2018 16:43
|
|
|
i think the last few posts are implying i'm destroying my balcony, but these are twisty vines, not grabby vines. is there something i'm missing?
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2018 17:28
|
|
|
Most cultivated morning glories are somewhat invasive. They're pretty low on the list though I think, and I imagine they're good for pollinators.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2018 17:36
|
|
|
Yeah another reason is to attract bees and hummingbirds. If I lived in Houston or didn't live on the third floor I'd be concerned about invasiveness, but where I live the winters are too cold and summer's too dry for anything to take hold. Two floors below me is an inch-deep layer of cigarette butts, so any fallen seeds are dead unless eaten by teens.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2018 18:05
|
|
|
Hello plant goons! I'm hoping someone might be able to help me, or direct me to somewhere that can. Namely: what the f is this thing   So basically my brother's four year-old son grew this thing in pre-school...or, started to, because it was a tiny bulb at the time...and then they went to Japan for the month, leaving it for me to take care of. And now it's grown so tall that it's literally falling over unless I prop it up. I assume that I'll have to trim it, but how exactly? Have I accidentally made it too powerful to contain? What type of plant is it anyway? My brother knows even less about plants than I do so he's no help obvs.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2018 11:06
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 16:33 |
|
|
BrianWilly posted:So basically my brother's four year-old son grew this thing in pre-school...or, started to, because it was a tiny bulb at the time...and then they went to Japan for the month, leaving it for me to take care of. And now it's grown so tall that it's literally falling over unless I prop it up. I assume that I'll have to trim it, but how exactly? Have I accidentally made it too powerful to contain? What type of plant is it anyway? My brother knows even less about plants than I do so he's no help obvs. Possibly gladiolus. I have some in my flower beds and they look very similar
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2018 13:59
|
|
