Horticulture: How/Who to Feed Your Audrey II

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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

[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

Squats: Nov 4, 2009

Thanks for making a general plants thread! I had been lurking the gardening and veggies threads for a while, even though I mainly want to know about houseplants. (Apartment.)

EagerSleeper posted:

But my favorite will always be this smaller plant:

I think it's some sort of Graptopetalum

razz posted:

So, I have 3 ghost plants that are quite small (less than 6 inches) that I grew from a leaf. I have seen pictures online (and your picture) where they are real low to the ground and spread out. Mine are tall and "leggy". I wonder why that is? How can I get them to grow outward instead of upward?

We have a couple of plants that looked like EagerSleeper's adorable pale succulent, that we got from the local arboretum society sale. We didn't know exactly what they were because the place is stocked with donation plants and run by volunteers. We've had them for about two months now and they've uh, I think they've grown in a way they weren't supposed to? razz's description of her's sounds about right. This is them now:

They got all tall and stringy and some of the bottom leaves fell off and the weird pink strings starting coming out of their lower stalks. Based on another of EagerSleeper's photos in the thread, I guess the pink strings are roots?

unprofessional posted:

Succulents that are leggy are etiolated, which means they need more light.

Oh, that explains it.

We had them too far away from the window-side of the apartment likely. If I leave them by the window for a month, will more leaves fill in the sparse stem areas, or should I try to propagate new plants from their leaves if I ever want a cute rosette shape again? As a chronic black thumb, I too would greatly appreciate an illustrated step-by-step of how to do that by the way.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2013 19:45

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 13:44

Squats: Nov 4, 2009

EagerSleeper posted:

College has been kicking my rear end, but seeing all the people posting here makes me feel better! I'm glad that people enjoyed my pictures of my graptopetalum, and shared their stories as well. The reason my plants are so low-growing is because they're etoliated from me keeping them in a place that receives only strong morning/afternoon light.

Although your plants may be etoliated, one look at them stems show that they are growing very robustly. Unfortunately, succulents need almost direct sunlight to be able to maintain a rosette shape, and the sparse stems won't fill themselves up with leaves. If you want, you could cut off the top of Graptopetalums and use the top to make a new plant, while the original will have rosettes sprouting off from the sides of the stem. But yeah, outdoors only for a rosette shape. And yeah, those pink things are aerial roots.

Well, our windows are southwest-facing (northern hemisphere), so we get really strong direct sunlight around them around 1pm-6pm at the moment. Would putting the graptopetalums in that light sunburn them, or can they stand the harsh afternoon light? I think I'll take your advice and try to start new plants with the tops or leaves, and put those in the teacups, while re-potting the current etoliated ones into something bigger.

EagerSleeper posted:

I've been meaning to ask someone this for a while, but how did you drill a drainage hole into coffee cup? That seems like a badass thing to do.

There aren't actually any drainage holes in the teacups. The volunteer working the arboretum store that day said they had put charcoal at the bottom of the cups to make sure the soil wasn't sitting in water, and told us to check that the soil an inch or two down was dry before each watering. And that we'd eventually have to re-pot them when they got too big anyway. She explained that they couldn't just drill holes into these teacups because the drill would crack the ceramic, so I've no idea how anyone else has managed to do so. Sorry about that.

# ¿ May 2, 2013 20:24

Squats: Nov 4, 2009

gender illusionist posted:

Tremors posted:

Such beauties!

I'm super excited to be going to the San Francisco Succulent and Cactus Society's Annual Show and Sale this weekend! :neckbeard:

My collection of succulents isn't terribly extensive, ~~I mainly have a lot of clones of this one Echeveria/Graptoveria~~*** some Haworthias and "Gollum" Jade Plants, and a few others. I'm not terribly knowledgeable on which kinds of succulents are hard to find normally. So, I would greatly appreciate any advice on/suggestions for specific species and cultivars I should be on the lookout for, specifically because it'd be hard to get my hands on them outside of opportunities like this.

Everyone likes pictures right? :v:

Here's most of my collection:

I've no idea what this baby plant is. I got it from the local volunteer-run arboretum society, and all their plants are donations, so they often don't know the cultivar either. Its dark and light green variegated leaves with jagged edges seem promising!

I'm not 100% sure what exactly this white powder-covered one is, but I *think* it's a Pachyphytum Oviferum? If so, is it supposed to have that white powdery fuzz on it's stems as well? Or should I be more worried?

Now this silvery-purple beauty is one my favorite! :allears:

I think this is a Graptoveria "Debbie" or a Perle von Nurnberg Echeveria? Its leaves are somewhat thick, so probably the former.

This stout dark green plant was in the background of few of the other photos, but here's a close up of it's shockingly magenta underside.

***UPDATE: Three days after originally composing this post, most of those echeveria/graptoveria/whatever clones have been trashed.

I discovered an aphid infestation in one of the branches of my supposed pachyphytum oviferum. :gonk:

I cut off the offending branch, sprayed water at it until I knocked all the little creeps off, then quarantined the branch in No Plants Land. Several days later both the branch and the rest of the plant seem to to be okay for now? It's too early to tell.

However, that one infestation freaked me out, so I went and closely examined my other plants. And this is what I found:

Many of them had colonies of these white fuzzy egg/bug/gross-rear end poo poo just hanging out under the decorative layer of pebbles. :barf:

The pebbles must've kept the soil too damp, soooo never using those again. (I only spotted one actively moving tiny white bug the whole time, from investigation to repotting, so it also might be some kind of fungus? :iiam:

)

I repotted every plant that had visible fuzzy egg things in the soil, threw that soil the hell out (including most of the sproutlings in infested pots), dipped the roots in 120F water (only some of the plants; didn't realize you could do that safely until I was about half-way through repotting), washed the poo poo out of the pots, trimmed off every leaf and branch that looked even vaguely sickly or had scars, and sterilized new soil in the oven before replanting. A bottle of neem oil arrived today, so I'll try to figure out how to best use that on soil-based pests.

Googling tells me the pests are probably root mealy bugs or root aphids, but I can't tell which.

I'll be keeping anything I end up buying at the Succulent Society Sale (would still love suggestions on what to look for!) in a separate quarantine zone for a few weeks before introducing them to the others. I just want my plant babies to live and not be full of bugs. :ohdear:

Is that too much to ask?

Squats fucked around with this message at 06:53 on Jun 2, 2015

# ¿ Jun 2, 2015 05:07

Squats: Nov 4, 2009

Flattened Spoon posted:

Don't know what it is, but I'm going to assume it's mold so:

Stupid question: do those pots have drainage holes? Pretty sure they do, but some look like drinking cups so I'm not sure.

What mix are you using? You can water succulents fairly regularly but the mix can't hold water after watering, if that makes sense. After watering, all of the space is replaced with fresh air so watering helps aerate the soil. Even if you don't water a lot, you'll get root rot if the soil remains damp and stagnant. If the plant can't uptake all of the excess water in the pot, or it can't be evaporated fast enough, you'll get stagnant spots in the pot, which means either the plant is overpotted or the soil mix needs to be faster draining. You'll also get mold if the potting soil remains stagnant.

Also some of those look like they're planted too low. Having the soil nearer to the rim of the pot will help increase airflow over the top of the soil. Shorter pots would also dry faster. Some of those are really tall.

Hope this helps. Sorry about the loss

Yup, all the pots have drainage holes. I even ended up drilling bonus holes in the larger cups while the plants were out of them, since I noticed the soil was so damp.

It's the Miracle Gro cactus and succulent soil mix, in most cases, cut with 1/3 perlite. I didn't realize they were seated to low, I'll add more soil and raise them higher in their pots when I get the chance.

Thanks for the advice!

# ¿ Jun 3, 2015 08:12

Squats: Nov 4, 2009

Kenning posted:

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.

Agreeing that your poster is fantastic, and I'm super sad I didn't check the thread earlier, because I would've loved to have gone to that event.

At least I'll be able to go to the San Francisco Succulent & Cactus Society annual show and sale this weekend.

Also there's gross fuzzy white poo poo (with weird tiny balls in it) growing in the dirt of my zebra haworthia and gasteria(?) again. :barf:

I've had it before in a couple succulent pots a year or two ago, but I've completely forgotten what I did to get rid of it last time. Dug up the visible stuff and hosed the roots with neem oil? Just tossed the poor plants out? Who knows!

# ¿ Jun 6, 2017 20:48

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