#aroid mix

[pachyfaeria]

After using Sol Soils for a while, I can’t say that I recommend spending as much money as it costs to only have bugs in your soil. And not gnats but the creepy crawler kind. Yes it 100% came from the soil.

I immediately ordered some more perlite and bark and it’s back to making my own with FoxFarm as a base because NOPE I’m not doing it.

Photo under the cut of the little invader in one of my pots. Open at your own risk. I mean it’s not bad, just if you’re squeamish about centipedes/millipedes you might not want to look.

Ugh! I’m so upset. I saw some when I went to water my Monstera Albo but I thought since it was a new plant maybe it came from the original soil, but nope this is an almost brand new plant in this cup. It went straight from the starter soil plug into Sol Soils and before I potted it up I made sure to completely remove the soil plug so I know 100% it’s from the bag of Sol Soils.

I’m so sad. I know it’s always a possibility but when I paid $30 for a rather small bag it’s just kind of annoying having to deal with getting rid of them.

Since more of the plants that are in this soil are in self watering pots, I can’t drown them without risking overwatering my plants so I might just completely change out the soil. But that’s 11 plants I have to repot. 🥲

Send help!

[greenbarnorchidsupplies]

Organic Special Orchid Mixes At Best Price - Green Barn Orchid                                           

At Green Barn Orchid, the primary function of the special organic Orchid Mixes is to create the environment necessary for healthy root system development. The potting mix you choose can literally mean life or death for your orchid. A potting mix that promotes a healthy root mass improves orchid growth, health and blooms. Give us a call at 561-499-2810 or visit our website: greenbarnorchid.com for any questions about us.

[planty-gal]

[planthouseandgarden]

How to Propagate Alocasia Portodora from Stem Cuttings?

If you’re interested in learning how to propagate Alocasia, you’re in the right place! This guide will show you everything you need to know to propagate Alocasia plants using stem cuttings. I’ll walk you through each step, including setup, maintenance, and progress updates, so you can confidently grow new Alocasia plants at home. Although this demonstration focuses on Alocasia Portodora, this…

[jayslittlejungle]

When ordering my vivarium supplies I forgot to order ABG mix so I had to make my own. Unfortunately I couldn't find tree fern fiber and it's ridiculously expensive online so I substituted it with coco husk and some coarse pumice. Here's to hoping it works!

[vaurien]

Cereopegia Woodii ("String of Hearts")

[exilley]

may i hear about ivy the oc

I will gladly tell you about her :3

Ivy Aroid is the daughter of a fallen clan of nobles in a monarchical aristocracy. The world this character exists within is one domineered by gods, or more plainly and literally, immortals in charge of governing the metaphysical wellbeing of the universe, but that’s its own lore dump. In short, the world is split into nation-like factions that hundreds of different gods have individual claim over. The citizens of each faction are bound by social expectation to follow their patron god’s doctrine and organize themselves according to the ideals of said god. In Ivy’s case, that doctrine and those ideals entail a social structure that splits a so-called Burden of Coexistence that splits the population into two classes of people: Aristocrats who may become either a Scholar or a Warrior, and Tradesmen who can become a Healer or Artisan (these four categories are a universal standard, but how a god interprets which kinds of work fall under which label is completely up to their whim, as is the manner in which the classes are implemented in society).

Ivy’s family was one of many who fell off politically following a long and complicated ordeal with what was functionally the ruling clan of monarchs of a few generations past. The clan’s rule has left the country (ahem faction) in economic and social disarray, and Aristocrats are all vying to gain power in the midst of a power vacuum opening up. The Aroids are particularly aggressive in their pursuit and the family heads have abused their children to that end, Ivy included. But she’s intelligent and, in her adolescence, grows to become keenly aware of her situation. So she starts to play a character— that of a cunning, manipulative, unfeeling agent who would do everything in her power to climb the ranks. It’s a bid to reclaim what she’s been through; convincing herself she chose to be a bad person and reclaiming autonomy over her survival response, which was to distance herself from people and become the perfect pawn for her clan’s re-ascension. To this end she did a lot of reprehensible things, including but not limited to, blackmail, sexual exploitation, stealing, lying, cheating, and making threats of emotional or physical violence to her interpersonal circle. She lives in a society that is cruel by nature and she embodies that cruelty perfectly, as a medley of tragedy and hurt that can only exist alongside one another. She does what she must to climb the ranks for both herself and her clan, but the line between what she must do and what she wants to do are blurry and indefinite.

And then comes around the congregational season, where all aristocrats are invited to the oldest temple in the nation faction for a ball commemorating a celestial event in which the two moons are both visible and full at the same time— something that only occurs once every other year. It’s at this event that Ivy meets Yeonzhun, the person who would change the trajectory of her life forever. They hit it off really well, since they shared a lot of similar views on politics and had a lot of commonalities outside of their politics as well. Mostly, Ivy was drawn to him/her (Yeon is markedly a transgressor of the binary so regardless of the spiritual canon I use both she/he for her) for reasons that vaguely border on attraction but ultimately I have elected never to clarify. They continue to exchange letters with each other as they lived their lives, Yeon wrapping up military academy and Ivy acting as a subordinate diplomat for another, more powerful clan.

At this point, I should mention that Ivy has established many connections all over, but her primary contacts are illicit: the coven of rebels who seek to overthrow the regime of the gods and overturn the world order so that mortals have complete self-determinative capacity. This coven extends worldwide and is comprised of a mix of Rogues (a fifth category of person, who, loosely defined, are those who have abandoned their faction’s subservience to their patron and were exiled as punishment), descendants of a “cursed” bloodline (heavy quotes there because whether the bloodline is actually cursed or not is up for interpretation), and those with status in their respective factions who secretly wish to abolish the status quo. This may initially seem at conflict with Ivy’s character, since it goes against the grain of her intended to be a symbol of the cycle the people are trapped within, but consider that she is foremost contextualized by her desire to have control over her role in society. That she wants tangible authority and power to mitigate her internalized anxieties of being deprived of control is not necessarily at odds with the idea that she contends with guilt and shame over having done bad things in the name of a poorly justified cause. She doesn’t enjoy being trapped in the cave any more than the next guy.

After several exchanges with Yeon over letters, she one day asks if Yeon would be interested in joining the rebel forces with her. Of course, she was aware of the implications of roping Yeonzhun, an aristocrat who by far outranked her and had her own slew of baggage, into something like the rebellion, but there was just too much she admired and loved about him that she felt it would be disingenuous to not reveal this side of herself to her. Yeonzhun accepted in a heartbeat, and after receiving the reply, Ivy basically swore a vow of servitude to Yeonzhun, to help her achieve what she herself had suffered through years of agony for. Yeonzhun was not just a genuine companion to Ivy; he began to epitomize the concept of hope and strength for her. There was so much that she lamented or regretted doing and Yeonzhun was the outlet for that self-hatred. Symbolically, and literally, Yeonzhun became Ivy’s new patron god.

It’s the kind of romanticism you’d write a line like “If the heavens were a tree, I would grab the trunk and shake the branches to fell the fruits of my sins for you” for.

And uh… commit sins she does! Because once Yeonzhun comes out of the military academy and Ivy found an opportunity to resign from her position, the two become a pretty infamous duo. And the closer they grew in person and the older they aged together, Ivy came to realize the one thing that kept Yeonzhun from snapping was her stubborn belief in the goodness of people. Ivy did not ever once think less of her for this in spite of her experiences. Rather, it was a trait that she considered to be one of Yeonzhun’s most admirable qualities. But Yeonzhun is not a politican like Ivy, she’s a fighter. A Warrior. It’s a point where their similarities dissipate into differences. And Ivy, with all of her jaded optimism, who at this point truly only desired for Yeonzhun’s ideals to become a reality as it represented the best possible version of Ivy’s (at least, in Ivy’s perspective), came to the conclusion that the best way to help Yeonzhun realize his goals was to betray him and face the consequence of certain vengeance/death by his hands.

So that’s exactly what Ivy did. She betrayed him by leaking to some of the brass she was connected to that Yeonzhun was part of the rebellion, and should thusly be exiled from the Aristocrat class as punishment. In the months after Yeon’s exile, Ivy mostly retreated into herself and spent the days contemplating what she’d done with her life and how she ended up here. In the end, she did exactly as her parents wanted: to rise up the ranks and bring the Aroid clan back into prominence. She basically set that motion into stone with her betrayal of Yeonzhun, since it earned her a lot of respect, awe, and fear. But she also accomplished the complete opposite of her efforts to defy that initial compulsion, which was to play the game for herself and herself only, by tying her whole being to Yeonzhun. And, of course, when Yeonzhun makes a return leading a group of rebels driven by the shared anger of being sold out by who they all thought was a close comrade, Ivy’s throat is cut by Yeonzhun himself.

Such is the entire story summed up neatly. You will notice that it’s long, so I had to cut out basically every detail related to Yeonzhun to keep it a somewhat reasonable length. But knowing Yeon’s deal makes Ivy’s fascination and infatuation with her very clear I promise. It all makes sense

[syngoniums]

Amorphophallus (and similar tuberous aroids) incoming!

In past years, I've thrown the corms I've had in a couple of large pots and called it a day. While this is the most convenient way to do it, it causes some cultural problems. Not all species emerge from dormancy at the same time or rate*, and the same is true going into dormancy. This means some corms are at risk of rotting if you water the actively growing plants.

Complicating this further is the fact that amorphophallus can be broadly divided into two groups. Some species, specifically the more cold hardy ones like konjac, paeoniifolius and bulbifer, follow a pretty regular schedule; they begin to emerge from dormancy around March or April, and can be potted up by May or June. They go dormant as days shorten and cool in the autumn, and their corms can be dug up for storage in a cool, dry place until temperatures warm.

Other species, like titanum, don't necessarily follow this seasonal pattern. They may go dormant in response to factors like a change in environmental conditions (e.g., being brought indoors for winter) or being left dry too long. They may not go dormant at all some years, in optimal conditions. Their dormancies are usually significantly shorter too, and they will not tolerate much cold. This means they need more attention throughout the year, and should be left potted when dormant, because they do best with a little water here and there. Some non-amorphophallus like Anchomanes and Gonatopus also require this treatment. There's a more extensive article on this here, but long story short, you need to know which is which.

I have not been mixing the two groups, but having obtained a number of new species recently, I decided it was finally time to get rid of the community pot approach to reduce potential losses overall. Most of the big corms actually lost some mass in last year's extreme heat and drought, so this will hopefully allow me to better control conditions and speed up their recovery. The downside? So many fucking pots. So many smaller pots, too. Time to find some new outdoor shelving.

*This is a callout post for Sauromatum giganteum particularly, forever the kid who sleeps through their 8AM classes

[verved]

Hi hi! My special interest is horticulture so I just wanted to say I’m so glad you love pothos because that’s one of the reasons I love it too! If you want it to thrive ridiculously, no matter how much you neglect it, look up “aroid mix” for potting soils. It will change your life! Anyways, sorry if you already knew this, I just wanted to share. Have a good night!

i did not know that thank you! i'll try to remember that for when i get my hands back on my pothos (it's still in another state atm). i myself had only a few tiny clippings of it to look after but in my household we do have some larger plants that are absolutely thriving. i think this pothos is older than ME and it just does not stop growing. whatever my dad is doing is working great for it.

[bumblebeeappletree]

Shajan Velaeden is an optometrist by day and “plant daddy” by night. Living in the Melbourne CBD there’s few opportunities for having a garden but Shajan bought his apartment for the unusually large courtyard. Inside and out is full of beautiful plant collections from highly prized aroids to unusual caudex and succulent plants. It’s a calming green haven to come home to after a busy of day at work.

“When you enter you just get this whiff of fresh air, of plants, the room smell is actually sort of relaxing. I say hi to the plants every morning and evening, they’re sort of like your little babies, and so each time when you come home you see the new growth or new bloom you get excited.”

Shajan grew up in Singapore with his identical twin brother and two sisters. “I was born to mixed parentage, my dad’s Indian my mum’s Chinese so we always had a very interesting of both the Indian and the Chinese side of the family… Mum loves orchids, she has a whole collection of orchids and I remember growing up she had this whole row of plants that she would grow and she would get us to water the plants when she gets to work. That’s probably where [my interest] stems from.”

Inside his home is a vertical wall full of anthuriums, philodendrons and orchids, favourite plants that he can look at every day such as the dark purple Anthurium luxurians x papillilaminum or the long, leathery leaves of Anthurium veitchii x ‘Red Beauty’. The structure is a 1000kg load bearing garage shelf. “You want to invest in something that lasts a long while. And because all the plants have a water reservoir they are pretty heavy.” The extra humidity can also lead to rust, so he made sure the steel was powder coated too.

There’s also a paludarium – “a mini ecosystem where it has its own climate. Majority of the plants used in here are carnivorous plants because they are quite small, they don’t grow big, minimal maintenance is required.” It’s also full of mini orchids, begonias, ferns, and mosses loving the tropical environment created by the pool of water and heat from a grow light.

Shajan’s courtyard is home to a large succulent and cacti collection to make the most of the sun and fresh air. Some of his favourites include the Medusa’s head euphorbia and the Mexican boulder (Beaucarnea hookeri syn. Calibanus hookeri) - “it has a nice, beautiful caudex below, like a soccer ball, part of it gets buried underground. But what’s so beautiful about it is this long, wiry, blue-green leaves” adding lots of texture and a different colour to the collection.

The courtyard also has a glasshouse for “ugly beautiful” succulents and caudex plants. “The more gnarly, knobby, arrow shaped they are the more I see the beauty in them. I like things that are just oddly shaped and the more oddly shaped they are the more beautiful to me.”

“It gives you that rewarding and satisfying vision every day that you come back [home]. The wall is actually alive, it’s changing every day, makes you transcend to another world.”

[uveggyapot]

egy része a kis csapatomnak🥹🥰

tegnap kiültetésre került végre a monstera deliciosa albo variegata, amit még a lakásavatóra kaptam. nagyon régi vágyam volt ez a növény, nagyobb formájában a levelei fehérek és zöldek, tényleg egészen földöntúli látványa szokott lenni, mindig mindenki szívét rabul ejti. nekem egyelőre csak az egyik levelén vannak fehér csíkok, pöttyök, azok is halványak, a másik kettőn még nincs, de az ültetés után várható, hogy hoz majd új leveleket is, ha minden rendben. nagyon féltem a gyökereztetésétől, mikor hozzám került, mert tényleg, még azok közül a barátaim közül is, akik értenek hozzá, és próbálkoztak vele, egyiküknek sem maradt meg… nagyon sok emberrel beszéltem és olvastam utána, de mivel jó genetikából kaptam, és tényleg mindenre odafigyeltem már akkor is, míg a gyökereztető vázában volt, így nagyon bizakodó vagyok. a virágcserép aljába agyaggolyókat tettem, azon van a műanyagcserép, amiben a föld is van, és majd azokat fogom párásítani, így maga a növény nem ér majd vízbe. a földje aroid mix. nem egyszerű eset, itt úgy tűnik a szépségéért nekem kell (majd) megszenvedni, de megéri, mert ha még nő, tényleg nagyon szép lesz, és tök jó érzés, hogy én nevelgethetem már egészen a kezdetektől.

a pöttyös begóniám magáért beszél. ő is piciként került hozzám, én ültettem el, és szerintem most van ilyen tinédzser korában: továbbra sem pirosodnak be a levél aljai, de lassan már kellene. ellenben az egyik levél már a begóniára jellemzően "behajtva" nőtt, nem felfelé vagy kifelé ágaskodik, úgyhogy szép lassan, de haladunk vele is. a földjét picit neki is feltöltöttem a hétvégén, mert kezdett elfogyni.

a vitorlavirágom virágzik. szerintem végtelenül gyönyörű, de elfogult vagyok vele (is). meg ő mondjuk nem túl extra gondozás tekintetében. nem igényel sok törődést, cserébe mindig elkápráztat a virágaival.

a madagaszkári pálmám látott már szebb napokat. valamiért nem akar “haja” nőni, ahogy kellene, se az előző lakásban, sem itt. mindent elkövetek, ami a nagykönyvben meg van írva, egyelőre még nem jöttem rá a fortélyára. de nem adom fel. az egyetlen gyenge pontom, amikor közönséges kaktusznak hívja valaki. ha lenne “haja”, akkor talán nem mernék ezt mondani, de így kopaszon, tényleg csak egy másfél méteres kaktusznak tűnik első blikkre.

az agglegénypálmám nem is fér a képbe, két oldalra ágaskodik. de gyönyörű. nyilván, ő nem túl hisztis, mint a legtöbben, és úgy érzem, hogy az új lakásban sikerült a legmegfelelőbb helyet találnom neki. még azt sem bánja, hogy picit árnyékosabb.

a calathea triostar meg... hát, ő (is) a szemem fénye. ezek a rózsaszín csíkok mindent visznek. olykor ő is tud hisztis lenni, és a levelek olyankor lentebb konyulnak, de kis víz és/vagy fény, 10 perc, és megint boldog.

[pachyfaeria]

My chunky aroid mix is complete!

It consists of perlite, orchid bark, coco coir, leca, and a tiny bit of fox farm ocean forest soil.

Honestly I probably could have done without the soil but here we are. 😅

Oh and I’m not planting a ton of plants so I didn’t feel the need to do a huge bin full of it. But now I just need to wait for my syngoniums and alocasias to arrive which should be on Saturday!

[fixaidea]

Planty hot-take of the day is that selling tiny bags of specialised 'Aroid mix' soils that are barely enough to repot a seedling are either quasi-scams that exploit over-anxious beginners or deliberately unreasonable luxury products for the type of buyer who would pay 1000 dollars for a cup of gold-flaked icecream just to prove they're better than you.

What you need to do is go to your nearest garden centre, buy some all-purpose planting soil, a bag of perlite and a bag of orchid bark. Mix them in a bowl/bucket and there, you have a perfect Aroid mix. Also in this quantity it will last you much longer than the teeny little bags I've seen unboxed on Youtube.

Also maybe experiment on a garden-centre Alocasia and a cheap Philodendron first, don't get something from Doc Bloc or a huge mature albo Monstera as your first ever houseplant, because then your anxiety over possibly losing it might drive you to fall for schemes like this.

[plantshaped]

would you be able to make a collage of your plants? did you always have a green thumb or did someone influence you?

I probably could but it would definitely take a while! Maybe I'll do it this weekend for you :)

I've been slowly inventorying (for lack of a better word) all my plants and I think I have roughly 80? 60 documented and then a bunch of stragglers and hard to categorize things like cuttings/random found on the floor of a store and hoping it'll root finds. Does an unrooted cutting count as a plant? Unsprouted seeds? I'm not sure! At least, for my own documentation purposes

Anyways, no not really. I don't think I can pinpoint any particular moment or person where my planty interest started. When I was in highschool I at some point started just trying to grow anything I could get my hands on. Seeds from produce mostly. I remember spending a whole day at an amusement park with peeled lemon seeds from my lemonade in my cheek so I could try and grow them. 100% success rate with that, but I learned I'm bad at pruning lemon trees and keeping them alive for more than about 2 years anyways.

Once I got my first job and could drive, I started collecting orchids and cacti/succulents. Mostly clearance ones from Lowes. I still love orchids, but my cacti and succulent interest has waned quite a bit. I don't think I have any of those on my wishlist atm

I only kind of recently started getting obsessively into plants. Hoyas primarily. Starting to venture a bit into aroids. Trying not to suddenly collect a million nepenthes. Still love orchids, but I'm a bit pickier about those purchases now. I'm now making my own (simple) soil mixes, buying some rare cuttings, thinking about propagating a few things instead of letting them just go and go. Fertilizing and using moss poles and regular pest treatments. Things I never bothered with in the earlier days

[uveggyapot]

azért vicces, mert munka után pont azt terveztem, hogy megyek az Inplantedbe. a monstera deliciosa albo variegatámat végre kiültethetem - ami nagy szó, mert sokan már a gyökereztetésben elvéreznek -, és mivel luxy virághoz luxy föld kell (jó, amúgy nem, csak aroid mix), muszáj bevásárolnom neki. meg akkor már agyaggolyót is veszek hozzá is, meg van még pár, amelyik örülne neki. ráadásul most pont elfogyott a műanyag cserepem is, úgyhogy jó kis köröm lesz :Dddd és ugyebár azt sem igazán szoktam megállni, hogy ne egy új virággal térjek haza pluszba, amelyikbe mindig csak úgy, első látásra belez��gok, szóval xd imádkozzatok értem, hogy ne hagyjam ott, csak a szükséges vagyont (lassan már nem fogok férni a növényektől egyébként viccen kívül). de awww

Let me glimpse inside your velvet bones - E. A. Poe

[rannibonsai]

It's official I have a love hate dealy with my camera. I must have spent just as much time fiddling with the camera as I did styling this little Kishu. On the plus side, my cobbled together studio is coming together. My fiance wasn't too happy I commandeered their desk, but i think it worked out pretty well.

I'm debating going the DIY route, and making myself a nice barber chair work table, or just getting a motorcycle lift table. Either way, it'll run me about $200. A painful amount totaling higher than I'm making in a week as I pursue this American style apprenticeship. I'm really wanting to order some trees this week, so I think I'll hold off for now. At least I can try to sell the trees, yknow?

In unrelated news, my webstore is stocked with topdressing for show season, and plenty of aroid mix for any other plant people who stumble across it. I've got a minor feud with etsy going, but I'm confident the shopify will take off soon. It's had over 100 visits this week just.. no sales. I'm trying not to give in to the nagging fear that turning all of savings into topdressing and a camera wasn't the smartest move, but I've always been the trial by fire sort.