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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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I've got a butter popcorn cassia that has grown half a foot in the time I've had it! I had to repot it twice. Despite its awesome growth, being in full sun, and looking really happy, the guy still isn't blooming. It's about two feet tall right now. Perhaps it's just not a mature enough plant? My other plants are still blooming pretty profusely.
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Oct 23, 2013 15:50
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We bought our first house this summer that had a lot of what our inspector called "deferred maintenance" and that seems to have extended to the yard as well. We have been tackling the indoor stuff but want to start working on the yard and lawn in the spring. What are some good resources for someone in our situation? We have only a vague plan, which is 1: improve the lawn, 2: improve everything else. I've already done a few things with the grass, like spread weed & feed, try to kill moss with moss killer and spot treat broadleaf weeds. I've also been mowing and all that. What I think I'm looking for is resources that deal with lawn care to help me get the grass back in better shape, and something to help us identify the plants and trees already on the property, as well as something to help us develop a plan to prune, thin, transplant and add to the existing beds. A note about our chemical use- we hope to get things into a place where we have to use as few chemicals as possible. The yard, and lawn specifically, are kind of teetering on the edge of chaos. My limited reading so far tells me that the best way to prevent weeds is to have a full, healthy lawn to shade them out before they can grow. We want to get to that place as soon as possible. The lawn already looks 100% better than when we moved in but it has a long way to go.
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Oct 25, 2013 19:28
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Lawns are basically a way to show off, and don't offer much in the way of natural weeding (though I do believe grasses have a built in herbicide that inhibits the growth of many plants), nor are they very economical in time investment or money. The best, low maintenance way to care for a yard is by plantings and proper deep mulching. Also, stop wasting your time killing moss - it grows on top of stuff, not in it, and only grows where other stuff isn't growing. But, all that aside, give us some background info: where you're at, how big the yard is, pictures if at all possible, what you like in a yard, what you don't. Do you prefer a woodsy forest, a wildflower meadow, nothing but grass (don't be this dude), formal English garden, etc?
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Oct 25, 2013 19:44
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OK, images. These are from the inspection day and are not the greatest at showing the beds along the fences. They also don't really do the weeds justice, since they started growing like crazy as soon as the rain started. Front of the house. The seller took the two arborvitae in pots with them.  Right side of the driveway. Very dense and messy-looking. The property stops at the fence just visible on the right of the picture.  From the rear of the yard looking toward the front.  Same area as above, looking the opposite direction.  I believe these are known as "plants" but I might be wrong here.  Gross overgrown weeds along the side of the house. The lot is 8000 sq ft. The house is in the Portland, OR area (zone 8a). As for goals: green lawn (we like it), neater appearance and planting for more privacy. We like sort-of "ordered-chaos", where it looks cared-for but not straight rows of plantings arranged from tallest to shortest.
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Oct 25, 2013 20:33
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You've been left with some decent stuff, actually. Which side do you need more privacy on? Notes on pictures: Pic 1 - you've got some decent japanese maples here. Area isn't big enough to bother trying to keep grass. To keep it looking ordered and neat, I'd remove (or smother) all the sod, the sedum and other little plantings, and just keep the trees and a nice deep mulch. You can apply Preen when you mulch. It's a granular pre-emergant, which will help with weed control, as will the mulch. Pic 2 - Pretty random plantings, here. Might be a nice flowering shrub in all of that. What would you like to use this space for? Walking? Or screening? Pic 3 - Good potential for traditional yardage here. Just keep on as you have been - reseed in spring, and it should come in thick. Which plantings don't you like? Pic 4 - You might get rid of that bed - it doesn't have any structure or purpose. Pic 5 - Left-to-right: clumping bamboo, rhododendron, blackberry lily. Hold out judgement on the rhododenron until spring; they put on a really nice show. They like dappled shade, so it might do well closer to your fence, if you want to move it. Pic 6 - Sweet ladders. Clean out, and if you'd like it to be pretty, install some chicken wire or some cattle fencing panels and grow clematis all over it. Otherwise, aim for tidy. Tree might be a catalpa, which will be a very big shade tree. They're a nice tree, but could crowd your space. There might be some more appropriate choices if you want a tree there. Lots of potential for a really nice looking yard. Ask more questions.
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Oct 25, 2013 21:55
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Except for the last picture almost every single thing I see are named plants. 1) Move both weeping red laceleaf Jap maples somewhere else. They are going to get wide and crazy looking right there, especially with the two trees. (Upright Japanese maple and maybe-but-probably-not Podocarpus?). Remove the scalloped concrete edging and transplant some of the Autumn Joy sedum to make room for evergreen groundcover. 2) Remove lily, Vinca minor, Rose of Sharon, maybe remove the bush in the middle. Transplant the two (Green Mountain?) Boxwood to front foundation. 3) Transplant Rhododendron to a better drained and shadier spot. Leave the deciduous Magnolia(edit- its a fig tree on second look) alone. Don't touch the Dicentra around it. If anything, expand this bed to be part of the background bed and incorporate some mid-size fall/winter interest plantings. 4) Remove saplings along fence. Limb up some trees to allow large and midsize flowering shrubs to be planted among the Vinca. 5) Make sure the bamboo is not a "running" variety. 6) Throw all of that away. Without better pictures or any information, I can't make any other recommendations. dinozaur fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Oct 26, 2013 |
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Oct 26, 2013 01:47
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Fall order came in. 45 conifer cultivars. Also recently received 25 Picea breweriana, a most excellent spruce.
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Oct 26, 2013 13:23
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TISSUE CULTURE UPDATE! So its been a few weeks since I instigate the GMO Carnation tissue culture. I made about 24 pots in general, but only about a third of those survived. The rest succumbed to complications arising from mould and bacterial growth, unfortunately because I was on a time limit I didn't manage to get pics of those. But here's the ones the survived before subculturing. Lets see how they're growing.  This guy is a solid contender. The shoot on the right is nice and thick and in this instance slow and steady often wins the race. If you compare it to the shoot on the left, or the tall shoot on the image below It will have more chance of getting to a rooting point.  The spindly shoot on this one lead me to believe that that the Kinetin concentration was a bit high for it, putting a lot of energy into growth but not enough into structural support.  This guy is a champ too. I think he'll probably have the best chance of surviving to the rooting round.  Arty side angle  Final presentation. These flowers will be observed and subcultured for the next 3 months so the public can see how the process works. I'm hoping to get a few GMO plants out of it to plant and maybe we'll e able to get a re-wilding program going on in my backgarden next spring. ps. As for the poster who asked about amphotericin, I think it would work but do a bit of reserch about the concentration necessary. The main moulds you would be dealing with are aspergillus niger/fumigatus, but sometimes rhizopus can sneak in and gently caress everything up.
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Oct 27, 2013 14:39
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I am in search of Citrus hystrix (kaffir or "leech" lime) cuttings, fruit, or seeds. A lot of people in Florida or similarly tropical areas have them outside or potted as well as old school Thai ladies who cook well. I would be willing to pay shipping or trade a multitude of plants. Please PM or reply here if you have what I am looking for, thanks! Citrus hystrix: 
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Oct 30, 2013 21:23
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Pardalis posted:I am in search of Citrus hystrix (kaffir or "leech" lime) cuttings, fruit, or seeds. A lot of people in Florida or similarly tropical areas have them outside or potted as well as old school Thai ladies who cook well. I would be willing to pay shipping or trade a multitude of plants. Please PM or reply here if you have what I am looking for, thanks! You could probably find a sapling from the listings at Dave's Garden: http://davesgarden.com/products/ps/go/67460/
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Oct 31, 2013 13:01
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Thanks for the comments and especially for identifying the plants in my yard pictures. If anyone's interested, I took some more pictures and assembled them into an Imgur album with some commentary here: http://imgur.com/a/qnSlJ If you're bored enough to look through them, I'm hoping to get ideas of what we have now and what we should focus our time and money on to get the most bang for our buck. I bought some books on landscaping to get ideas and they are helping me see that there are a lot of really great possibilities for our yard. If anyone can recommend resources on landscape planning, that would be very helpful. Right now, we still don't really know what specifically we want to do, let alone how to plan it out to the point that we could go to the nursery and buy plants. My next step, I think, is to get some graph paper and make a scale drawing of the whole lot as it stands so we can try to sketch out ideas.
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Nov 6, 2013 21:32
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Whoever was there before sure liked plants, but didn't have any vision. You're in a bit of a sweet spot, climate-wise. You can grow a lot of cool plants. A lot of your work is going to be removing plants. Add plants slowly to create the look you want. Check out http://formandfoliage.wordpress.com/ for interesting evergreen ideas. One thing that is deceiving when people first start buying plants/trees is that the size estimates you see on tags are at 10-years, and trees never stop growing, and in fact tend to grow faster as they get bigger/older. You don't want everything to be crowded out after 15 years, unless you don't plan to be there long. ps. Good luck controlling or getting rid of the ivy. It will take over and choke other plants out if you don't.
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Nov 6, 2013 21:43
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I'm sorry to interrupt this thread, but I represent the Carnivorous Plant Tribes, and I am going to have to cite you for vegetative segregation. On behalf of the Tribe of Plants That Eat Animals, I demand this thread cease and desist not having more pictures of insects being digested. In order to force compliance with aforementioned complaints, I am leaving you with these sample pictures: "Oh, hey! Windows! I can escape back here!"  "Thith bug tatheth thfunny."  Sharing is caring.  There is a tricksy thief in this picture!  "Be vewwy quiet!" Leperflesh posted:My wife got this one from someone at a frog meeting. It likes to be moist and is some kind of special rare tropical plant maybe from florida? I forget the details. Yay! A Pinguicula! Also known as a Butterwort. It's insectivorous. It wants more sunlight, so it can turn nice and pleasingly pinkish for you. Touch the leaves, they're gooey and weird!  unprofessional posted:If the stalk stays green, leave it; you'll often get smaller reblooms. This is what happened to the flower stalk on my neighbor's orchid: 
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Nov 7, 2013 07:54
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That's a keiki. Totally new plant.
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Nov 8, 2013 16:17
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What's this gross stuff growing on my succulents (also I know I have to repot them)   I had them out for the summer and brought them in last week. I noticed the spots on the short succulent last year but I thought it might be part of it, oops. Can I fix it?
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Nov 9, 2013 18:00
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Not an Anthem posted:What's this gross stuff growing on my succulents (also I know I have to repot them) Appears to be some type of scale. Little disgusting insects that are very difficult to get rid of. Last year on my Majestic Palm I tried insecticidal soap, systemic insecticide, and Neem oil to no success. I was going to throw away the plant but as a last resort hosed it down with Ortho Home-Defense (Bifenthrin) to great success. I would quarantine the infected plants and start treatment. If my plants get scale again this year I am going straight to treatment with Bifenthrin, forget all the recommended remedies. Last fall my Echeveria also got tons of aphids one day, but the plant quickly suffocated them all with its deadly sap. Some resources online have said that Echeveria sap can cause permanent blindness. Needless to say, whenever I do any pruning, I wear rubber gloves. dinozaur fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Nov 9, 2013 |
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Nov 9, 2013 20:32
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Hello! I was hoping somebody could help me identify what these brown spots are on the petals of my hydrangea plant. I got it about a week ago and it has lived indoors next to glass sliding doors ever since as I liked it being a feature on my coffee table and it's hot as balls outside (I do realise it needs light and intend to leave it on my balcony frequently). A few days after I got it, the plant had wilted as I had not kept up with watering it. I have since kept it in a saucer of water that I fill up as needed and it has always been well-hydrated. Some of the leaves have dried up but I attributed that to the initial lack of watering/poor conditions prior to me buying it/heat. They don't have brown spots like the petals do. I thought the spots might be a symptom of that but they have since become more numerous. I have had the plant on my covered balcony in filtered sunlight now that we have had some cloudy days (so I don't shock it), but it has still been about 30°C most days. The spots seem to start off soft and become somewhat dry. Please help as I love my plant   Edit: I just realised how crappy the leaves/rest of the plant look so have some more pics (I intend to repot it in a bigger pot this weekend). The new growth looks great though.  
Eden fucked around with this message at 08:37 on Nov 13, 2013 |
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Nov 13, 2013 08:18
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I suspect root rot. Your plant is severely underpotted and when you pull it out, it'll probably have circling roots. Good news is hydrangeas are known to do okay in pots (though they really prefer to be planted). Repot into a very well-draining mix (cut a normal potting mix in half with perlite), and make sure you get every little bit of soil that's in the root system right now off. Do corrective surgery on the roots to free circling roots and remove any rot. Don't be afraid to hack away at them. I would cut the flowers off to allow the shrub all the energy possible to put into new root growth. From reading, it sounds like you can go right to a 15 or 25 gallon container. Are you southern hemisphere? If not, somebody forced the plant to bloom way out of season, as macrophyllas generally bloom early summer.
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Nov 13, 2013 13:21
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Scale is terrible, I know in the orchid community we generally suggest discarding any plants with bad scale infestations, because it can spread rapidly.
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Nov 13, 2013 15:00
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There is a strip of land on the side of my house that you walk by to get to my backyard that I want to plant flowers in. It is about 1'x15', but gets pretty much no sun. What kind of things can I grow there? It would be nice to be colorful, and not something that I need to constantly trim back from the pathway.
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Nov 14, 2013 01:22
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Fozzy The Bear posted:There is a strip of land on the side of my house that you walk by to get to my backyard that I want to plant flowers in. It is about 1'x15', but gets pretty much no sun. What kind of things can I grow there? It would be nice to be colorful, and not something that I need to constantly trim back from the pathway. What is your zone? What kind of a style are you looking for? Colorful leaves or actual flowers? Google Result #1 Google Result #2 Google Result #3
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Nov 14, 2013 06:07
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Sun Dog posted:Yay! A Pinguicula! Also known as a Butterwort. It's insectivorous. It wants more sunlight, so it can turn nice and pleasingly pinkish for you. Touch the leaves, they're gooey and weird! It's going to be hard to give it more light: we don't really have a lot of well-lit indoor spots. Should I give it some bugs? I keep flightless fruitfly cultures (to feed my dart frogs) so it'd be really easy to toss a handful in there occasionally: the container even has a glass lid!
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Nov 14, 2013 18:39
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I have a cactus that got too tall and broke into three parts. I replanted the two pieces, the top part is growing just fine, but the middle part is scarred over and doesn't appear to be growing. Do I just need to wait for it to get some branches, or can I cut off the top centimeter or so and have it start growing upwards again?
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Nov 16, 2013 14:24
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It will have to branch on its own. Sometimes it takes extremely long periods of time for that to happen. Post pics for better advice. When did you plant the broken pieces? It's good to let them sit on their sides, exposed, so they callous up before potting, to avoid rot.
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Nov 16, 2013 23:03
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Ok I've got 2 questions: I have a little aloe in a tiny pot, but it looks like it's putting out a pup. Should I replant the pup? How big of a pot does an aloe need? Here's a picture:  The pup is the thing on the left side, the one on the bottom is a really tiny aloe that didn't really start. Question 2: How should I prune a creeping fig? Is it just doomed to look weird in the center like most aging creeper plants? It's pretty bald in the middle. Pic: 
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Nov 18, 2013 02:24
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You can let it grow and pup more, and eventually it'll fill up the pot with babies, which makes a good display, or you can just cut off the pup and give it its own pot. You can repot whenever you get roots circling at the bottom and judge pot size when you wash the old media off. By the way, your potting mix looks very wet, and you will more than likely get rot in that sort of mix. You only want 10-20% of your mix to be organics. You can manipulate your creeper by pruning back hard. If you prune all the way back to the edges of the pot, new shoots will be inside that area and if you keep at it, the plant will eventually be very full in the only area you allow it to grow. Another method would be a stake and tie some shoots up; prune off everything else and let that area fill in.
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Nov 18, 2013 16:19
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unprofessional posted:I suspect root rot. Your plant is severely underpotted and when you pull it out, it'll probably have circling roots. Good news is hydrangeas are known to do okay in pots (though they really prefer to be planted). Repot into a very well-draining mix (cut a normal potting mix in half with perlite), and make sure you get every little bit of soil that's in the root system right now off. Do corrective surgery on the roots to free circling roots and remove any rot. Don't be afraid to hack away at them. I would cut the flowers off to allow the shrub all the energy possible to put into new root growth. From reading, it sounds like you can go right to a 15 or 25 gallon container. Sorry for the delayed reply. Yes I am in the southern hemisphere (Australia) so it's hydrangea season here. I haven't had time to repot it yet and now it looks like the pictures below - it has green colouring growing out from the centre of the petals. Does this change your diagnosis? I will definitely be repotting it this weekend. I would love to be able to plant it but we live in the top half of a house and don't have our own garden so I'm restricted to balcony planting and am trying my best with my hydrangeas as they're one of my favourite plants. Being in Australia, especially a subtropical area (Brisbane) where temperatures lately have been about 30 degrees Celcius, the plant is going through a saucer of water a day. Given that you think it has root rot, do you think this is a bad idea? Should I remove the saucer of water from under it? Or is having better-draining soil and a much larger pot going to be the solution to my problems? 
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Nov 20, 2013 14:04
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Your flowers are just aging - they look fine. The best thing you can do is repot into something more porous and larger. Do your best to really clean all the media off all the roots. The sooner you do this, the better chances you have to keep your plant long term. Do you see hydrangeas in the landscape at all, where you are? If other people can do it where you are, you can too.
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Nov 20, 2013 19:17
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After seeing those carnivorous plants I very much want a few butterworts. They look cool and there are many annoying flying things around they can eat for me. Are they difficult to take care of? I tried a venus flytrap before but it didn't work out to well for me. E: Sundews look really cool too. Azuth0667 fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Nov 23, 2013 |
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Nov 23, 2013 05:40
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So I inherited a 30 year old Goldfish plant. Its winter, we get little sunlight, and the drat thing is flowering. What's up? It's supposed to be losing leaves and be hibernating....
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Nov 23, 2013 23:22
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I've recently started collecting cacti and a few other succulents, and am thinking about getting a water meter to reduce the ambiguity of watering. Amazon has a few that are like 8 bucks, then like 12 or 16 bucks, and then 20+ for 3-in-1 pH, moisture, etc. meters. Is it worth it to invest in the more expensive single-taskers vs. the cheap ones? Should I go for the digital all-in-one?Azuth0667 posted:After seeing those carnivorous plants I very much want a few butterworts. They look cool and there are many annoying flying things around they can eat for me. Are they difficult to take care of? I tried a venus flytrap before but it didn't work out to well for me. I picked up a nice Drosera capensis recently and in doing some reading about caring for it I came across GrowSundews.com, which has a lot of great guidelines for sundew maintenance. In fact, it was sufficiently cool that I talked my once-upon-a-time botany major roommate into helping me build a lighting setup. For sundews it seems like the boggy soil is important, but that's pretty easy to do with a tray. The more specialized aspects of care are the light (the more the better), and the feeding. For lighting we bought a 3-bulb T-8 fluorescent shop light and are almost done building the frame for it. For the feeding apparently SundewMan uses ground up beta bites fish food mixed with distilled or RO water (he has a cool video about it). In some of the GrowSundews guy's videos you can see him growing butterwort in the same tray as his sundews, so their light needs must be pretty similar. Not sure about the feeding, but I imagine there are people out there who have figured out the best way to feed butterwort. Also apparently a lot of times Venus flytraps die because people trigger their traps with toothpicks or whatever, which stresses the plant. Carnivorous plants are rad as gently caress.
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Nov 24, 2013 08:50
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Oh boy, a plant thread! Are aquatic plants okay here? I've not had much luck with most plants in my apartment. Windows are south facing in the southern hemisphere, so light is a bit of a problem. So I was quite happy to find a plant that actually flourishes:  Golden pothos! Yeah yeah, easy mode, but pretty nevertheless. It's grown ridiculously well that I've actually got to prune to keep it managable. They're actually growing out of the filter area in my fishtank. I originally picked them up for their utility value, they do a really good job of enhancing the filtration for the water and are growing like crazy. They really love fish poop. The newest leaves have started growing to the size of my palm now, crazy!As for what's in the tank:  I really should do something with this mass of peacock moss. It's gone nuts.  Mainly vallisneria, more peacock moss, java ferns and anubiases. Also an algae problem on the anubias leaves, but lets not mention that. Without any balcony space and the light restrictions, this is pretty much what will grow nicely. I really do like succulents and would like a few growing around, but they hate the lack of light in my place.
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Nov 25, 2013 01:59
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The leaves on them can get huge - a foot or so, though it could just be a related species. I spoke with the curator of the nearest public garden, and he said they've talked about tearing everything out of their tropical house, just to basically get rid of the pothos and start fresh. I like your aquascape. Has a good amazonian feel to it. Are those plecos or cats? Get some amano shrimp if you want something that'll keep the plants looking good.
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Nov 25, 2013 13:25
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Oh man I never even thought of growing pothos in an aquatic setup. My daughter has a temporary tank housing two bullfrog tadpoles she caught a month ago, and the Elodea canadensis we have in the tank isn't quite keeping up with all the tadpole poop. I think I'm just going to stick a cutting from my pothos in there and see what happens.
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Nov 25, 2013 19:49
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I've got a few stonecrop, hens and chick and ice plant inside that have aphids (apparently from other plants that were since removed). Should I try to fight them off or maybe just stick them outside? They've been sitting under fluorescent lights at ~65 F for a few months and the weather outside is going to be in the 40s. USDA says I'm zone 8b. They'd be on the south facing side of the house that gets a little warmer.
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Nov 25, 2013 20:52
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Marchegiana posted:Oh man I never even thought of growing pothos in an aquatic setup. My daughter has a temporary tank housing two bullfrog tadpoles she caught a month ago, and the Elodea canadensis we have in the tank isn't quite keeping up with all the tadpole poop. I think I'm just going to stick a cutting from my pothos in there and see what happens. Its pretty easy. Within a few days of just floating in the tank, they sprouted a ton of roots. The one in the small tank fits pretty snugly now, but the other needs a suction cup mount to stay up. I snipped the end of one to give a cutting to a friend, and in response it's growing three new shoots. I think I can see why it becomes a problem when it gets in the wild. It's doing a super job at cleanup though. Interestingly in the small tank, it's in the filter so it has a huge water flow. That plant is basically double the size of the other one, which just sits directly in the tank itself, even though they started from identically sized cuttings. unprofessional posted:I like your aquascape. Has a good amazonian feel to it. Are those plecos or cats? Get some amano shrimp if you want something that'll keep the plants looking good. Cant get amanos here in Australia due to fauna import restrictions unfortunately. Those are tiny corydoras cats. Goofy little guys.
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Nov 25, 2013 23:48
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Cpt.Wacky posted:I've got a few stonecrop, hens and chick and ice plant inside that have aphids (apparently from other plants that were since removed). Should I try to fight them off or maybe just stick them outside? They've been sitting under fluorescent lights at ~65 F for a few months and the weather outside is going to be in the 40s. USDA says I'm zone 8b. They'd be on the south facing side of the house that gets a little warmer.
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Nov 26, 2013 12:53
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I have a Tillandsia Ionantha that I bought a week ago. It's this (just no flowers, I assume due to it being winter): http://www.logees.com/Tillandsia-Ionantha-Ball/productinfo/L6518/ I noticed after I got it home that there appeared to be what I could only describe as looking like a cluster of miniaturized mouse droppings (each one in the cluster being a little smaller than the tip of a pen) on one of the plants in the ball. They weren't moving at all, so I didn't think it was any sort of pest, but a few days later that plant started to see the leaves turn black & curl in until it finally died. The clusters of whatever it was on that plant are black to med tan in color. The other plants seem fine so far & haven't had anything on the leaves that I can (easily) see, but I'm assuming this is some sort of pest I need to take care of before they pick off the rest. What can I do? I've seen mention (through googling) of people soaking the plant in a soap/water mixture & then rinsing the plant really well with plain water before shaking it off & leaving it to dry. Is that safe? Or is there something similarly as simple that can be done? I should mention we live pretty much borderline zones 4b/5a according to the USDA map, so it's an indoor plant. I've been giving it a good watering once every 3-4 days, and a light misting on other days. One other question, should I be buying a jug of spring water to use instead of our water (well water that I'd consider moderately hard).
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Dec 2, 2013 02:38
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IdeoPhanthus posted:I have a Tillandsia Ionantha that I bought a week ago. It's this (just no flowers, I assume due to it being winter): I just looked online for to make sure, but I don't think the type of water really matters for Tillandsias. On this one website I found this: http://plants.web-indexes.com/airplants/airplants-care.html posted:Generally speaking water quality is not important to Tillandsias, they do not tend to show water spots and are basically only susceptible to pH8 or higher, or too much salt. Artificially softened water has too much sodium (salt) for Tillandsias and should not be used as it will slowly cause die back. Distilled water is too pure and will actually pull nutrients out of the plant tissue causing death, NEVER use distilled water. Tillandsia like moving air not closed stuffy conditions. The well water might be okay, so long as it isn't too salty nor basic. Sorry to hear about the death of one your plants. If you suspect the problem is a fungus or something like that, may I suggest taking apart the rest of the Tillandsia ball? With them being separate from each other, it would make it much harder for any fungus to take hold of them. Another thing I might suggest to get rid of any fungus is a simple combination of rubbing alcohol with cinnamon that has been allowed to steep for at least a day in a spray bottle. It has never harmed any of the plants that I own, and there's not a lot of pests that can deal with it.
EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 07:01 on Dec 8, 2013 |
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Dec 8, 2013 03:00
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 18:34 |
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As Kenning said, butterworts and sundews do well under the same lights. I feed my plants very little, the inside ones, and the outdoor ones never (except to show them off to someone maybe). Water quality is important. People who live in Southern California should not use tapwater. I use rainwater (I catch it in trashcans under the gutterspouts) until I run out, then I use reverse osmosis water.Leperflesh posted:It's going to be hard to give it more light: we don't really have a lot of well-lit indoor spots. I have always wanted to try raising CPs in a dart frog enclosure. It seems like it'd be a perfect match. Consider trying that. Don't feed the plants too many bugs. See if they are catching miller moths and/or soil gnats. You may not wish to feed them anything else if they are catching pantry pests! Azuth0667 posted:After seeing those carnivorous plants I very much want a few butterworts. They look cool and there are many annoying flying things around they can eat for me. Are they difficult to take care of? I tried a venus flytrap before but it didn't work out to well for me. Venus Flytraps are finicky little bitches. They are for advanced growers, or the very lucky. VFTs like it drier than most other CPs. In the wild, they are found growing on top of little hummocks. In captivity, give them a large pot with an airy, sandy mix. And as Kenning also said, do not tease the poor traps. They only have about six snaps to a leaf before they stop closing altogether.
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Dec 8, 2013 11:24
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