I'm refering to the one climbing the walls. It was growing all over and I didn't know what to do with it. I then just stared hanging it to the wall with cable nails. I never really thought of pothos as a climbing plant but it actually does stick to the wall once something holds it there for a bit first. Now it gets so much light that it's growing like crazy. Not sure whether to do a full loop or turn back once I reach the lower right corner.

Cross-geposted von: https://slrpnk.net/post/36671875

I have pretty much all my plants in semi-hydro, where I use LECA as a substrate, which is constantly submerged 1/3 in nutrient solution.

Over the last years, I've transitioned over a hundred different plants (including finicky ones like Calatheas, ferns, etc.) from soil to hydro and never had a problem. Sure, they are stressed in the beginning and a few leaves are getting crispy, but they usually recover in a few weeks and then really take off.

Orchids are different tho. I have mostly Oncidiums and Phalaenopsis, and Phals in particular somehow really don't seem to like S/H. Almost all roots are dying off in the beginning, and I've lost a lot of phals compared to other plants. And even when they survive the first weeks, winter seems to take a big toll on them.

They need to regrow fresh roots first, which need to be directed into the media, and then they really take off. After two years!

I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Either that's totally normal. Many of the specimens I got were already pretty weakened when I bought them, and they would have died anyway?

Or, the transition went too fast.

Or, phals need really warm temperatures, and the constantly moist airy substrate is too cool due to evaporation.

Or, there's something special about orchid roots that makes them completely unable to adapt to new conditions.

Or, maybe something totally different?

What can I do to minimise the losses?

Hi, I'm a beginner at plant caretaking. I recently picked out a couple of small plants at a nursery, but they didn't have any pottery to go with them unfortunately.

So, I'd like to know where do you generally like to go to get what you need? Are there any good online resources I should be aware of? I'd prefer to shop locally of course, but the resources available to me here are limited and difficult to get to.

The flower is so big!

2 standard African violets (one a scraggly guy in need of a repot once he's out of rehab), 2 primulina bebes (paper cups inside a teeny terracotta pot so hopefully they stop falling over), and 2 AV leaves that WILL propagate and give me flowers, dammit.

Another picture of the overall plant:

It started dropping its lowest leafs a few weeks ago, then it stopped, now the bottom leafs are getting yellow again and i suppose will be dropped…

edit: Thanks everyone for responding, i will try to atering less and placing in a brighter spot

I live in Vancouver

5 pots by the window include:

• rubber plant
• monstera and snake plant
• an orchid
• a green anthurium
• this new plant:

They are very small, I didn't notice they were bugs until today. I have been cleaning them away.

Some are dead, and some are walking. None are flying but they have wings.

What is it? What should I do to prevent the spread? How can I cure it in the long term?

They are still contained around the window sill. I want to get rid of them before they start flying around my home.

Should I put the plants outside?

Hey, we moved about 1.5 years ago and our ZZ plant loves its new place. It made 3 new shoots since we moved in and even bloomed last week. But today we found brown spots on the leaves of the newest shoot.

They don't match the online images I found for fungi infections, the plant did not receive too much water. Anyone have a guess? (perhaps it is fungi and I'm just too inexperienced to see it...)

Doesn't look like it has any parasites.

Hello! I hope it's ok to post questions like that here. I have ALWAYS had problems with Monsteras and their leaves browning and dying off. I always thought it might be a too dark or too sunny location. Now I've made some new living room space and I thought maaaybe this spot would be good (bit away from a large window, lots of light but no direct sunlight hits it)

But once again the leaves turn brown, just as they did with the regular Monsteras I had. I tried spraying them with water for humidity, but no help.

So now I wanna ask if anyone has an idea what could cause this? If there might be something I'm obviously doing wrong?

Any help would be greatly appreciated <3 🌿

Since it is quiet here, I'll give you an update on my pineapple!

I posted the blossom two months ago, it has turned into a proper fruit. I expect it to grow twice this size before harvest. On the left you can see the dried-out stem of the first fruit. The new stem branched off sideways. I have squeezed in a stone from below to keep it upright. The fruit will soon need support from above, or risk toppling.

The leaves are a bit of a hazard, sharp and pointy as the fruit crown. I'm cutting the tips before they reach eye-level.

Growing next to the pineapple is a young cotton plant (hopeful) and the top of an avocado (dying).

Terrarium setup seems like it would be better for my executive dysfunction. Much easier to avoid algae growth (and prevent the suffering of fish).

Planning to add a pebble or leca substrate, but keep my big plants potted. I do love me some mosses, might commit to moss directly in my tank. Also planning to get better bulbs in the aquarium hood, but this African violet and strep have been needing rehab for the last few weeks/months.

When I started getting more serious about plantkeeping last year, I picked up the essentials for repotting the plants I had. I have potting mix, perlite, orchid bark, spaghum moss, and fertilizer pellets

But times have changed and I may have impulse bought a bunch of caudex roots online and I definitely don't have the right soil for it so I have to pick up some cactus soil. I also may have purchased a bunch of seeds of various plants...

I figured if I'm driving to the supply store, I might as well get everything I might need. So what do you keep around if you want to be able to pot anything?

Golden pothos iirc

I hope these count because they are plants in my house. I grow small amounts of lettuce and herbs to spoil my bunnies with.

After only 2 days, I’m already getting some lettuce sprouts in my second garden. 🥰

Hi, my saviours!

Here are Angela (orchid), Lourdes (spider plant I'm doing my best to save after someone at the office gave them 200 ml of water twice a week for a month and they started smelling like rot...), and the big gal at the back is Daenerys (because they are a dracaena... Get it? Get it? ...)

About six years ago, someone threw Daenerys out and I got them home. Lately, they've been growing very enthusiastically fast and one of the stems bent about 20 cm from the base, so I got them a stick (which should probably be longer).

Now, I know those leaf tips don't look ideal, but they seemed to be doing well enough until leaves started falling from bottom up mostly from the stem that got bent, and that got me worried.

They were in a West facing room with not a ton of light, so I thought maybe more would make a difference and I brought them to the east side – but I am wondering if it may be something else, though they seem happy and I'm going to be a grandma soon.

I water when dry. Otherwise, I haven't done a thing with them – apart from a brief quarantine period due to gnats taking over the soil caused by my anxious overwatering in early summer.

Maybe they need repotting? I've tried to find out their family so I could look up for advice, but I am not sure. Dracaena fragrans...?

Thanks in advance for your help! 🪴

Calatheas. They have the reputation for being literally impossible to keep alive. And if you manage to at least not outright kill them, they look super sad. Crispy leaves, no growth, and more dead than alive. You also just didn't like the plant to begin with, because it always has been super fuzzy about everything.

Into the trash it goes!

No... wait!
Maybe reconsider the bad reputation.

I find them actually not hard at all to cultivate successfully.

Let me explain.

Substrate

Let's begin with the soil.
That's the first thing you did wrong. You used dirt.

Marantacae, the whole class of diva plants, where all those Calatheas, Marantas, Ctenanthes and whatever words with red dots below belong to, are native to rainforests.

They literally need daily rain showers, or else they throw a tantrum and die.

So, just water your plant all the time...right? NOPE. You will kill it with root rot, because soil needs dry periods for proper oxygenation.

So... skip watering? Yep. But do it 5 minutes too long, and the plant gets crispy and again land in the trash.

And now, what else?

✨ H Y D R O ! ✨

Give them some LECA clay balls and let them sit in an inch of nutrient solution.

I plan to post a guide/ experience report on semi-hydro soon for more details.

With that method, they are constantly hydrated and you literally never have to worry about root rot or fungus gnats. Also no more guesswork thanks to the water level indicator!

They need to be watered every two weeks or so and that's it.

Air humidity

I've read a lot that you'll need at least 70, better 80% RH, which is basically only achievable in terrariums and greenhouses, and DAILY misting, or else they get burnt tips.

That's total BS imo!

They are fucking houseplants. They need to survive in normal house conditions, often 50% or way lower, or else they shouldn't have been born as houseplants.

Burnt tips are only a problem if they live in soil. Forget to water once, and they'll burn. This happens in soil all the time, and in hydro rarely. Just don't let the indicator drop below zero and you'll be fine.

If you have high RH that's great. Then they don't crisp up quite as fast and extreme. As long as there's enough moisture around the roots even 30% RH is absolutely fine.

Survival strategy (just in case!)

You may now wonder: how do they survive in nature when they're THAT much of a diva?

Answer: POTATO 🥔

You see those bulbs? Maybe they remind you of arrow root if you have already seen one. THATS BECAUSE IT'S THE SAME FUCKING THING. (almost)

Their survival strategy is basically:

• "Oh, comfy here!" (Good conditions with moisture and stuff)
• Literally explode with growth and pump out as much leaves as possible
• Get as much light as literally possible somehow
• Convert light into small tubers (those potato thingies that contain starch)
• "Oh, everything sucks now, where's my fucking rain?"
• Literally die in the most unfashionable way possible (suck up all water and nutrients from the leaves and get it into the potatoes)
• Wait until
• "Oh, comfy here!"
• ...
• Repeat.

Basically, leaf damage is normal. Normal, but not what we ever want. Keep everything consistent!

Lighting

People say Calatheas are """""Low Light Plants""""". Buuuuullshit.

What the heck means "low light"?

We live in fucking concrete caves. Even the darkest shadow outside (in a bush or whatever) is like 10x brighter than your window.

They have adapted to grow on rainforest floors with "very little" light. But they still need some.

Sheer curtains are great for that. They reduce the incoming direct light, and diffuse it.

If the leaves are getting dark green, or the pattern fades, it's too dark. Give them some light.

They need the energy to create new tubers, where new leaves also sprout from.

But don't overdo it. Unfiltered sun is too much for them.

Give them a bit of light, and they'll survive. But if you give them lots of diffused light they'll literally explode with new growth!

Water quality

One last word about watering. I personally use reverse osmosis or rain water as a base, and always add a bit of hydroponic fertilizer every time.

I never "water", I "refill the nutrient solution".

You don't need RO water, but I highly recommend it to you. It will make your life easier, trust me.

If you use tap water (if you have clean drinking water of course, no chlorine or whatever!) flush the reservoir every few times maybe to avoid mineral accumulation or nutrient lockout.

Calatheas are amazing imo! They look stunning, and they have relatively low light requirements because they tilt themselves automatically towards light sources.

I hope you found it helpful and maybe you'll like them soon too!

EDIT: a small overview of my collection. Most of them are ~1 year old, often less, and started from a small plug :)

These two are my first Phalaenopsis orchids I got about one year ago.

Like pretty much all of my other orchids, both phal and other types, I saved them from the trash for 1€ and then cared for them properly.

I will do another post soon once they're in full bloom, with a small guide on what I've learnt so far.

One thing I noticed is that they look way cooler imo when you just let them do their thing. I apparently really just don't like the way they are forced to grow when you buy them.

In nature, they attach themselves to tree trunks meters above ground and grow sideways.

Ever killed an orchid by spilling water on the crown? Too bad. Where they grow in nature, this happens daily, and they like it!

When they grow upright like we force them to, water can't flow anywhere and they get crown rot.

I don't rotate them and they search their way to the sun to suck up every juicy delicious photon. That way they get enough energy to bloom like crazy!

Oh, and when we speak about blooming. Flower spikes. Why the hell should I stake them?

Again, most orchids available grow on trees. Not in grass. They have literally ZERO reason to grow upright like they do in supermarkets.

They just grow towards light. Sure, you can force them again with wooden sticks to grow just like EVERY other stupid flower on this planet. But WHY would you?

They have this natural grace and the individual flowers grow in a beautiful arch downwards.

Orchids in general are just so cool and I find them even cooler when they can play out their amazing characteristics!