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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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Cross post from A/T coz I always forget this subforum exists! Can someone tell me  \/\/ Thanks much! I'll bet you're right... it's an awfully big plant for such a small pot. kedo fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Apr 30, 2013 |
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Apr 30, 2013 18:19
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Sagebrush posted:A guy at my work gave me a venus fly trap. Said "my girlfriend doesn't like it any more, so I thought I'd bring it in and see if anyone here wanted it." It's quite small and looked a little sick at work, but after taking it home and putting it in the window and dutifully keeping it wet, it seems to have perked up and is uncoiling some new leaves with baby traps on the end of them. I'm pretty sure you can buy dead flies at pet/some plant stores. Other that I'm not sure, good luck! e: Actually, it's dried crickets. Here, you can buy dead insects to feed your flesh eating plant through the power of the internet. 
kedo fucked around with this message at 01:33 on May 1, 2013 |
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May 1, 2013 01:29
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Murg posted:any tips would be much appreciated! Water it so it doesn't die, that poor thing looks like it's on its last legs.
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Aug 23, 2013 15:36
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I have a little bonsai mangrove that I've successfully kept alive for a few years now, but I think I may have nearly killed it. My windows have a slight UV coating on them so it doesn't get enough sun in the winter, thus when it's a nice warm day I put it outside to catch some rays. Except I forgot that I put it outside and left it out there on two ~20°F nights. The majority of its leaves now have a sickly brown, mottled coloration on them and while it doesn't look entirely dead, it's clearly very unhappy. Is there anything I can do to help nurse it back to health, or should I just keep watering it and hope for the best? I am a monster 
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Dec 25, 2013 19:27
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unprofessional posted:Sounds pretty dead, but best way to find out is start cutting into it. Start from top (assuming this is where it's most dead), and cut out until you reach nice non-mushy wood. I've killed jades all the way down to ground level and cut out all the dead stuff to have it resprout. There's a chance the whole thing is toast, though. If none of it is mushy, wait and see.  Gah, I hope that's not what I have to do... I've never tried something like that before and am sure I'd kill it. After a few days indoors it seems to be doing okay. There are still a slew of brown leaves, but there are also a couple of green ones that seem to be clinging to life. The trunk doesn't feel mushy at all when I squeeze it, so perhaps it'll be alright?  Should I pull off all the leaves that are entirely brown? There are a bunch that are sort of half and half, but I worry the brown ones are just preventing the other non-dead leaves from getting sun. They don't seem to want to fall off on their own. kedo fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Dec 27, 2013 |
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Dec 27, 2013 17:55
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Thanks folks, I appreciate the help!unprofessional posted:Looks frost burnt - might not be dead. Let dead leaves fall off; when it starts to push new foliage, trim the whole thing back hard so you don't have a ton of bare branches with foliage on the ends. How long since it's been repotted with fresh media? It's been awhile (maybe two years) and I was actually planning on repotting it in the near future, but I think I may wait a bit now since it's clearly in an unhappy state.
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Dec 28, 2013 18:00
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Follow up on my little bonsai mangrove from the last page. It is not doing well at all. All of its leaves have fallen off and while it tried to sprout some new little buds at the end of each branch, those two have become brown and brittle. Large swaths of the trunk are now spongy and the tree no longer seems to be drinking. When I went to water it late last week it all just ran through the soil and out the bottom of the pot like it was already completely saturated (I checked, it was). However about 1/3 the main trunk down near the base is still firm, so I'm beginning to think about trying this: unprofessional posted:Sounds pretty dead, but best way to find out is start cutting into it. Start from top (assuming this is where it's most dead), and cut out until you reach nice non-mushy wood. I've killed jades all the way down to ground level and cut out all the dead stuff to have it resprout. There's a chance the whole thing is toast, though. If none of it is mushy, wait and see. However it hasn't sprouted anything else anywhere on the trunk so I'm worried the whole thing is dead. So questions: 1) Does this sound like a plant that can be saved? The fact that it's not absorbing water makes me think the thing is just dead. 2) How do I go about cutting it down? This is completely new to me. What tools do I need? 3) Not drinking = root damage? Should I repot it and see if the roots are all messed up, or would that just be even harder on it? 4) Any other ideas? e: The tree was a gift and I feel like an absolute jackass for killing it, so I want to save it if I can. Even if the whole thing dies but a new one sprouts from the roots or something, I want that new plant. 
kedo fucked around with this message at 15:50 on Jan 20, 2014 |
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Jan 20, 2014 15:47
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Question about light levels. I live in a large apartment building surrounded by other large buildings and my balcony receives at most 3-4 hours of direct sunlight per day in the afternoon. During the rest of the day it's not like it's smothered in darkness or anything, there's lots of light bouncing off the windows of the surrounding buildings. But it's not direct. Am I going to kill plants that require "full sunlight?" It seems that every single kind I'm interested in growing (veggies and herbs mostly) requires full sunlight. Any recommendations? All of my neighbors seem to be growing evergreens. Perennials are also of interest to me.
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May 6, 2014 13:59
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A long shot perhaps, but can anyone identify this tree and/or its seeds for me?  About a month or so ago I was walking around gathering seeds to germinate (only others I found were some red maples... I was a little late for seed gathering), and found this tree with a boatload of seeds on the ground below it. I have zero clue what kind of tree it is. Any ideas?
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Jan 13, 2015 17:52
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Oh, good idea. Here's the tree on street view. Here's a screenshot of the foliage: I don't remember seeing any empty seed pods anywhere. I wondered if the seeds came from anywhere else, but there were no other trees or large plants within a dozen feet or so that could have dropped such a huge number of seeds right in that specific spot. I can't tell in that photo if the light stuff scattered throughout the leaves are dead flowers like in this photo of a black locust, or seed pods. The leaf/branch structure looks similar, though. kedo fucked around with this message at 16:56 on Jan 14, 2015 |
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Jan 14, 2015 16:53
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Marchegiana posted:From the summer picture it looks like a Ailanthus altissima or Tree of Heaven. It's a voracious nusiance in some places and downright invasive in others. Considering these things also stink you might want to consider not planting those seeds, unless of course you like invasive species that are nearly impossible to eradicate and smell like rear end. Well I was planning on trying to bonsai it, but if it's going to stink then maybe I won't. Blarg.
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Jan 14, 2015 19:40
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Any recommendations for good brands/a good place to buy terrariums? I recently germinated a lemon tree and it's doing great but will probably outgrow my ghetto homemade greenhouse (a glass mixing bowl plopped upside down on top of it) in a month or so. It can live outside during the summer, but during the winter I'll need to keep it inside. I have a cat that consumes anything green and leafy, so until it's tall enough that he can't reach the leaves, I need to protect it. Any ideas or recommendations? Bonus photo: 
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Jan 16, 2015 20:13
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Pictures of a couple of citrus seedlings I'm growing for the hell of it: From left to right we have two Meyer lemon seedlings that are both about two months old (Señor Limón and Maria, because giving names to seedlings makes me take better care of them), and a wee baby blood orange (Ruby). I have four other blood orange seeds in the process of germinating but that aren't quite ready to plant. Ruby was in a hurry and germinated in about three days. Maria is a bit of a "special" seedling. She germinated, I planted her, and then she decided that the best thing to do was to grow back into her seed. Señor Limón was already a few inches high and Maria hadn't even sprouted yet, so I dug her up with the toothpick pictured and found the small sickly leaf on the left growing downwards through the shell in the process of dying. With a little coaxing I got the leaf out of the seed and above ground and about a week ago she sent up a new shoot. Weeeee trees are fun.  Can't wait for the weather to warm up so I can get these guys outside and into some bigger pots.
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Mar 6, 2015 21:03
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Question about repotting – how do I know when it's time to repot a seedling? One of my Meyer lemon seedlings is getting pretty big and I've noticed he's sent a first little root tendril down through one of the water drainage holes in his solo cup. Is he ready for a bigger pot? Is there any potential downside to putting a younger seedling into a bigger pot? I've read a few places that small seedlings in a big pot run the risk of "drowning," but I'm not sure how that would really happen... is it that if you have a small plant that's not drinking much water, you can't keep the potted soil from drying out without giving it way more water than the tree can possibly use? And another question about trees. I want to get some more fruit trees going, mostly apples because they fair well in my hardiness zone (7b) as opposed to all these citrus trees. However I've heard that planting random apple seeds can be a bit of a crapshoot since a lot of orchards graft good fruit-bearing limbs onto hardy, lovely fruit-bearing trunks, and the seeds carry the genetics of the trunk rather than the limb. Do I just need to buy seeds somewhere, and if so where's a good place to do so?
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Mar 23, 2015 19:59
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Hmmm, well that's a bummer. Also as an aside I totally neglected to read the few posts above mine and didn't realize apples were already the topic of conversation. Weeeirrd. What's a fruit tree that would make more sense for me to grow in that case? I'm not totally attached to growing it from a seed, but I find that to be a lot more rewarding. Maybe cherries or apricots?
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Mar 23, 2015 20:43
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Cool, thanks I'll take a look! I might need to make a craigslist post about it or something... the results of a quick search through all my local pick-your-own orchards isn't promising. None of them appear to have snow apples.
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Mar 23, 2015 22:19
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kid sinister posted:The general rule for repotting for plants of all sizes is... Thanks much! That's super helpful. I pulled a couple of the seedlings' root balls out this morning and none of them are anywhere remotely close to being root bound, so I'll hold off for awhile.
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Mar 24, 2015 16:37
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Similar indoor plant question – I'm getting a couple of indoor wall planters which will be hung in spots that get a lot of reflected sunlight, but zero direct light. I'll likely end up going to my local nursery to grab a few plants, but any recommendations? Something that would make my place smell nice without being super floral (or preferably not floral at all) would be cool.
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Mar 30, 2015 18:53
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Can anyone help me identify what type of oak this is?  I found a few acorns on a hike over the winter and decided to germinate them. I'm in northern VA and the area where I found them was hilly with mostly 30-70 foot trees. I'm thinking it might be some sort of chestnut oak?
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May 4, 2015 16:57
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kid sinister posted:That's one of the oaks with broad, shallowly-lobed leaves. It might also be a swamp oak, but their leaves tend not to get as pointy. Exceedingly average. Medium brown in color with a similarly colored cap. Not too bulbous or long. They looked exactly like what you'd find if you googled it. Phone posting or I'd find a good image!
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May 4, 2015 22:26
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Pogo the Clown posted:Due to the little spines on the end of the leaf lobes I'd say it's in the red oak group, but beyond that it's hard to say since the immature leaves don't necessarily resemble the adult leaves. I would give Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra) a high likelihood since they are so common through VA. Weird, I had no idea young trees would have differently shaped leaves. Thanks for the info! stuxracer posted:Check this PDF from your forestry department. I am also phone posting but the pages all look like they have leaf pictures. Also thanks for this. I clicked through a few oak identification guides but couldn't seem to find an exact match... but perhaps that's because of what Pogo mentioned. Only time will tell!
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May 5, 2015 14:53
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Gratuitous "I have a tiny amount of outdoor space and am attempting to grow all of the things" photo: Pictured: two tomato plants, an herb planter with thyme and a few weeds that hasn't made a great comeback after the winter, three oak saplings, rosemary, some sort of climbing flower (whose name I forget), a strawberry plant, cucumber plant, another planter hidden behind the chair with some columbine and creeping jennys, a whole bunch of citrus (lemon and blood orange) saplings on the table and some small purple flower whose name I also forget, and a big ol' probably dead grape vine. Not pictured, some basil, mint (currently engaged in a ladybug/aphid turf war), catnip, and an also-probably-dead blueberry. e: Oh, and some sweet peas. I think I have a problem.
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May 19, 2015 00:23
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I've got spider mites everywhere and on almost every plant on my balcony. I bought some weird powder pesticide at the recommendation of my local garden shop, but I am terrible at applying it. Most of the stuff I'm growing is food, so I don't want to use anything that's going to make the food inedible (the guy at the garden shop claimed the one I'm using is okay on veggies, as does the bottle). Any recommendations for some sort of liquid spray I could use to just soak the poo poo out of all the plants and kill these little bastards, or at least to dissuade them from eating my plants? I'm okay doing multiple/continual applications throughout the summer if necessary.
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Jun 23, 2015 17:48
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Fozzy The Bear posted:Is the powder Diatomaceous Earth? DE is food safe, as in you could lick the DE and not get sick. I just grab a cup full of it and liberally sprinkle it on the plants that are having bug problems. Just remember it doesn't work if it gets even slightly wet, so make sure the area is completely dry before you apply it. It's Eight Insect Control, which while the packaging says it's safe on vegetables, it also has the sort of hysterical messaging you might expect on a bottle of poison, eg. "don't get it on your skin! if you eat it you will die painfully! call poison control if you even look at this bottle!" Neem oil sounds like what I'll try next. Thanks!
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Jun 23, 2015 19:11
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What are these viney flower guys? They grow all over the place in the DC area and appear to be native. Wondering if they'd make a good garden plant, as I don't think I've ever seen them in a non-wild setting.
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Jul 6, 2015 18:17
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Marchegiana posted:That's Campsis radicans, or trumpet vine. They are indeed native but people usually don't grow them in gardens because they're highly aggressive and impossible to get rid of once they're established. I've heard there are some less aggressive hybrids but I take that with a grain of salt. Thanks! I think that's the only plant where I've seen "ruthless" pruning recommended.
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Jul 6, 2015 21:40
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Am I overwatering this guy? I have five blood orange seedlings going at the moment and over the past day or so about half of them have started developing droopy leaves. The leaves that are drooping feel mush softer and almost spongy compared to the non-droopy leaves. It hasn't been significantly hotter/colder/more or less humid than normal, and I don't think that I've been watering them much more than normal, but then again they've been super water-thirsty the entire time I've been growing them so I might have gotten careless. The soil is dry for about the first centimeter, then there rest is damp but not super wet. I thought it might be root rot so I pulled a few of them out of their super fancy Solo cup pots – nice and healthy white roots. e: Yeah, it was just overwatered. Sorry for the inane questions, I'm fairly new to growing stuff as a hobby and am trying to learn. kedo fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Jul 21, 2015 |
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Jul 16, 2015 20:23
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Speaking of plant identification... what the heck is this? It started growing in my thyme pot early in the spring and since the thyme hadn't really bounced back from the winter, I just let it grow for awhile. When the thyme finally started doing well I viciously uprooted this guy (it had gotten pretty big), immediately felt bad about it, and shoved him into a spare pot with the understanding that if he could survive such manhandling I wouldn't donate him to the compost pile. The majority of the leaves died (hence the dead portion of the stem on the left), but it eventually came back stronger than ever. I'm guessing it's just some sort of weed, but I'm curious. Any ideas?
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Jul 27, 2015 17:15
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What?! A weed turned out to be something cool that I'd actually like to keep alive? Thanks goons... guess I'll stop using the pot as my temporary compost bin.
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Jul 27, 2015 18:10
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Compared to the other trees I have growing on my balcony, it is shooting up like crazy. I germinated two oaks in the early spring and they're maybe six inches high with green, skinny trunks. But this guy... Foot and a half even after being manhandled and mistreated and growing for less than three months. Fitzy Fitz posted:Based on the rounded teeth on the leaves, I think it's either a white or black mulberry. Too bad you didn't luck out and get a red one. I think you're definitely right about this. The leaves look nothing like the red mulberry leaves I'm seeing on the Googles. Alas! kedo fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Aug 3, 2015 |
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Aug 3, 2015 17:50
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Cross posting in the plant and critter threads because I'm not sure if this is some sort of plant/fungus or the eggs of some critter. What the heck are these?  I just noticed that they'd started growing/had been laid in one of my potted plants. They're leathery feeling and inside are a whole bunch of weird black, semi-slimy (or just wet?) seed or egg looking things. They appear to be in no way connected to the roots of the plants around them (strawberry and a kind of climbing flower). Some appear to have burst open on their own accord already, others are still sealed shut.
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Aug 17, 2015 23:20
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SynthOrange posted:http://www.backyardnature.net/f/birdnest.htm Spiffy, thanks much! I am much happier knowing they're a fungus and not some sort of weird ultra mosquito egg or something.
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Aug 18, 2015 15:32
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There was some talk about cross breeding among peppers in GWS which got me thinking – how does the cross breeding actually work? Like, if I have some peppers growing in pots on my balcony (say, some super spicy ghost peppers and some wussy man's jalapeños) and they're cross pollinated, will the heat of the ghosts be reduced and the jalapeños be increased? Or would it just be that if I were to plant the seeds from one or the other next year they would result in some odd frankenstein pepper? Of all the food plants I grew on my balcony this summer the peppers did by far the best, so I plan on growing a bunch next summer and don't want to wussify my ghosts.
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Sep 4, 2015 00:29
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kid sinister posted:The children will be hybrids, not the parents. You would have to plant the seeds obtained from a successful cross breeding. That new plant's fruit would have the blended features, most likely. Cross breeding doesn't always have the intended results. Sometimes, any seeds produced wouldn't be viable, or that the resulting hybrid will be sterile. That's actually a strategy used sometimes by professional plant breeding companies. If the plant you spent decades developing can't reproduce via its seeds, then that removes one source of potential customers obtaining their own plant outside of your control. Legally, they will have to come to you or a licensed nursery to buy their own vegetative clone, at least until your patent expires. A lot of rose cultivars are like that. Cool cool. I figured as much but wanted to make sure. Thanks!
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Sep 4, 2015 16:25
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Another question plant folk. I'm worried about my blood orange seedlings. Recently a couple of them have started losing some of their lower leaves. They turn yellow and eventually drop. I figured I was over watering (it's been quite hot and dry recently and when I've checked their soil has been bone dry on top, barely moist at all on bottom, so I was giving them more than usual), but now I seem to be under watering as they've been looking droopy and parched for the last day or so.  This guy, for example, has already lost three leaves and is in the process of dropping another couple. Normally he's quite perky, but yesterday and today he has been super droopy and has started curling some leaves. At the same time this guy:  seems to be doing just fine. I had a problem with spider mites earlier in the year but was able to get rid of them with neem oil. Any idea what I can do to solve this problem? I'm thinking they might be getting too big for their little Solo cup pots. They're by no means root bound, but they all have at least some roots sticking out of the bottom in contact with the plastic. Is it normal for oranges to lose lower leaves as they grow, and am I just worried about nothing?
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Sep 5, 2015 23:19
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Bina posted:How often are you watering them? Could be that the soil is too wet. A good soak once every two to three days, depending on how the soil looked. I haven't left water pooled around the roots or anything like that, but the soil was indeed wet.
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Sep 6, 2015 16:02
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A few questions about indoor growing. I have several plants that need to come inside for the winter (a couple of young citrus trees, a pepper plant, maaaybe some basil), however I have two problems. First, I have cats that will eat anything green within reach and second, my windows have a slight UV coating so while I get lots of sun, sun-thirsty plants tend to not do so well. To solve the cat problem, I bought one of these guys from Ikea. So far the few plants I've had in there all summer have done fine, however they're shade or partial shade plants. Once I introduce a bunch more plants in there, I worry that A) the new plants won't get enough sun, and B) there might not be enough air flow in the cabinet to keep all the plants happy. Ikea sells a lighting set that fits in the cabinet, but I'm guessing they wouldn't work as grow lights. Does anyone have opinions on an indoor lighting setup that might fit in there? In terms of air flow I'm not sure what to do... would it work to drill out a few holes on the top/bottom and stick a small fan in there to move air around a bit? If I had my druthers I'd set up a cool grow cabinet in a corner somewhere, but my apartment is small and the girlfriend wouldn't be happy if we had a big ugly box plopped in the middle of a room.
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Oct 4, 2015 20:56
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kid sinister posted:I would buy some 18" T5 fluorescent fixtures and stick some grow bulbs in them. Little 18 inch ones come with a cord already attached along with the ballast and starter, everything you need you need to drive a grow bulb. As for attaching them, maybe some double sided tape? That should be easy to get off the glass later with a window scraper. That seems like it'd work quite well. Thanks for the recommendation! unprofessional posted:Don't overcomplicate it. A sunny window is going to be your best bet, and a Ssscat will take care of the kitty problem. Yeah... I'm not trying to, but I do worry about sunlight with the UV coating on my windows. I live in a small apartment and while I have southern exposure, the way my building is situated next to other tall buildings means that I only get about two to four hours of direct sunlight in the winter and that sunlight is filtered through the coating on my windows. The rest of the time I get bounced light from other buildings. I'm not expecting to see a lot of new growth over the winter, but from what I've read (and please correct me if I"m wrong here), citrus needs more than two to four hours per day? Ssscat is a good call, though. I didn't even know something like that existed. Fitzy Fitz posted:For air flow, you can modify a computer fan to plug into an outlet. They're small and already designed for mounting, so they work well. Amusingly I saw a video the other day where someone had done this for growing peppers indoors. I'll have to look into how you go about modifying it. Thanks!
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Oct 6, 2015 18:49
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kid sinister posted:Oh crap, I got it wrong. Most 18 inch under cabinet fixtures take a T8 bulb, not a T5. For fluorescents, the "T" size refers to the diameter of the bulb, where a "T" is equal to 1/8 an inch. I looked up 18'' fluorescent grow bulbs and found a bunch of packages that come with the mount and the bulbs for > $40. I may end up grabbing one of those.
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Oct 8, 2015 00:10
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What are these little insects on my ghost pepper plant and how do I get rid of them? I wish I could get a better picture, but if I move/zoom any closer and it gets all blurry. I didn't notice them until I brought the plant indoors for the winter. I just neem oiled the hell out of it yesterday and today they seem to be more plentiful than ever. Any ideas? I'm assuming they're the cause of the leaf discoloration which has also resulted in the plant losing at least half its leaves. e: Looking at this page I think they might be thrips? Does that seem right? If so it looks like neem oil is one of the suggested insecticides. Maybe I just need to hit it a few more times. kedo fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Nov 6, 2015 |
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Nov 6, 2015 21:18
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