#plant update

[whoreticulturebabe]

reading • hiking • napping • simping • thriving

✨and this is the playlist✨

[balkanradfem]

Plant update! January 22

So, I have once again, fumbled sowing my early plants, this time in the opposite direction. Let me explain.

You see I count on myself to responsibly grow little transplants, because this is my primary source of food; I will plant them all in my garden, harvest and eat all summer, and then can them for winter, it's how I live. So. When my first little batch of plants seemed to not be doing great (seeds not coming out of the soil, seedlings becoming leggy) I reasonably concluded that if I don't get this in order immediately, I will not have plants to put in my garden this spring, and then I will have nothing to eat this summer, and then nothing to eat the next winter, and then while starving to death I will think 'this could have been avoided, if only I started more seeds on time :( '

So in my panic, I put double amount of seeds for germination in a plastic bag, and to my surprise, most of them germinated very quickly. And then, I noticed, the plants from my first sowing that seemed to not want to grow, also started coming out of the soil. And now I have an unreasonable amounts of seedlings in January! It's too early for this much!

I did not have fresh soil for this, so I had to find an old dead plant on my balcony to steal soil from; it's already-used soil so it's not ideal, but it's something. I have in the past attempted various mixes of soil; like bringing in some sand and mixing it with the forest soil, mixing new and used soil and sand on top of it, and you know what the result was? My plants were growing SLOWER in it. It was BAD. I learned this way that the absolute ideal soil was just pure forest soil, with nothing added or mixed in it. The plants just love the nutrients.

This is the dead pepper plant who got her soil stolen, and you can see the new germinated seeds in my palm!

These babies did get planted in secondary quality soil but, I will transplant them into better soil later on, seedlings can do fine with less nutrients at the start. I am asking myself already where will I keep all these plants and the answer is,,, I don't know,,, I'll need to turn to invention of space.

Next morning, funnily, even more seeds germinated, and even though I'm so happy to have all these pepper seedlings, I feel like I'm being made fun of. This is when you decide to have 90% germination rate? When I'm in January and making bad choices? Alright. To the second hand soil they go.

Now about the everything I had planted beforehand!

You remember how I told you I had a tomato illegally growing in a pot where I planted peppers? Well guess who showed up:

Peppers.

They're roommates now.

The little tomato seedling also started growing a first true leaf! It is so cute! And she's so fast about it, you'd think I planted her in perfect living conditions, which I have not.

My first dwarf tomato plants are out as well!

They're so tiny and precious, I am feeling a lot of adoration here.

Second sowing of broccoli plants has also come out, and look at this:

One of them is purple, and I wish I could explain that, but I genuinely don't know what's going on. When I grabbed those seeds from a plant I wrote down 'this is broccoli... maybe' on the seed packet, which means it could have been anything and I only had vague ideas about it being broccoli. And now one of them is purple. We will find out within this year what these plants are. I am confident they're brassicas though!

The basil is very shyly coming out:

It's not doing super well but it's there and that's all that matters.

And for the end, here are the plants that were growing illegally and I transplanted them!

The biggest one on the right seems to be doing just fine, looking great. The ones on the left have some of their leaves yellow and dry; this means they are struggling to get nutrients, and it probably is because I broke some of their roots. But as they're not withering or actively dying, I think they'll make it! I'll water them with some nettle infusion solution and this might give them an easier access to nutrients, and give them time to grow new roots.

This is the comparison, picture from the last update vs today:

You can see a lot of plants straightened up! I had to make another aluminum board to make sure all these new plants had good light, but it was a 3 minute project, and I'm pleased with how much used aluminum I had stashed. You can see most of the leggy plants managed to stand up and we'll see if they manage to recover! And it also means the new plants will not get leggy like the last batch did.

[madaims]

Hi everybody! Aims here. 35 year old artist and plant mama (gn) of 6 different houseplants.

🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴

My pronouns are She/Any. No, seriously! My gender isn’t really that important to me.

Bisexual pride! 🩷💜💙

My Tumblr is mostly Good Omens, but I also sometimes have Doctor Who on here. I’m a huge David Tennant simp, I love him so much! I reblog lots of him. Also Michael Sheen being feral, Georgia’s unhinged fangirling of her own husband and the many tag games and personality quizzes my amazing moots tag me in.

Crowley is my kinnie just saying, he’s my favourite character and I just love him to bits. I draw him so much! He’s such a dork but he thinks he’s so cool! 🤣

I also loveeeeeeee Ineffable Husbands!! Aziraphale and Crowley are meant to be! 💛 I draw them and reblog art of them together all the time.

My most used tags are as follows:

#madaims draws things All my art and scribbles live here. 🖼️

#madaims talks My reviews and discussions live here. 💬

#madaims answers Where I answer tags, quizzes and inboxes. 💌

#madaims rants When I get a bit shouty about certain subjects. 🗣️

#madaims shower thoughts Things I daydream about and meta posts. 🚿

#madaims gpoy Unsolicited selfies. 📷

#madaims fic rec Fanfics I like, want to read and share with other people. 📚

#madaims stuff Just stuff really. 📦

#madaims writes I try my hand at being a poet and author. 📝

#madaims dreams Basically a dream diary of sorts. 💭

#plant update Updates on my ever growing houseplant family. 🪴

#good omens That queer angel and demon show I love. 😇😈

DNI if you’re a terf, racist, homophobe or just a general arsehole. If you don’t like what I post, then kindly fuck off. Ciao! 🖕

[evolnoomym]

Plant updates incoming 🪴🥰

My Alocasia birthed one new leaf, I’m crossing my fingers for more soon 🙏🏻

The philodendron gets soooo many new leafs but these ones with the green mixed in look so gorgeous 😍

And last but not least the Monstera finally pushed out the new leaf I’ve been eyeing for weeks 🥹🤍

[tavina-writes]

Plant Update

I'm slowly hoarding plants (and by that I mean I own six orchids one lucky bamboo plant, one aloe vera, three baby cacti, SOME NUMBER OF SUCCULENTS and like 30 assorted flower bulbs. (Stay tuned on the flower bulbs tbh something may come of them yet!!! LILIES MY BELOVED).

And tbqf this year alone I've gone from like, (1) orchid to (6) orchids so. Two of them are not phalaenopsis orchids (though tbh my largest and most successful one is a white phal. The yellow phal (david lim) has got, if i'm counting correctly THREE buds on it right now so I'm very excited.

The other two phals were rescued from the grocery store discount clearance bin so I have no idea what color they're supposed to be (probably white though, is my guess since I rescued them from the grocery store clearance bin) and their roots were a MESS because they were shoved in (1) tiny pot together, so you may imagine what distress they're in. But also they cost like 7.50 usd so who am I to complain. They've since been repotted but like, that's the state of things there.

I got my Cymbidium as a baby -- it was only planted in December 2022! -- so it's probably going to be a long time before it flowers alas.

My Lycaste is.... doing something. I don't know what. Most of the leaves have fallen off, but the roots are fine, so I think it's in winter dormancy right now but honestly I don't know! We'll find out if I killed it in a couple months I guess!

Anyway I feel like I'm well on my way to becoming an orchid whisperer so stay tuned. There's an orchid auction every year in August/September-ish so I will be keeping my eyes PEELED for new types....and other colors....

EDIT: I somehow forgot to add that I rescued a miniature rose from the same grocery store clearance bin as well. I have no rose growing experience but we'll see!

[wensdaiambrose]

Lil oddish, my milk bottle garden, and my lemon tree sprout.

[sarahgrows]

Plant photo dump. Hoya Carnosa Tricolor is thriving with her color and new leaf. My Wayetti is doing okay as is the Australis Lisa, just not doing much. Crassula is still happy and growing tall. Oddly enough with it being in just that planter and not an actual good one with drainage, it's happy. I'm really curious as to what the root system looks like because when I originally put it in there, there wasn't much. I didn't expect anything to really happen with it but I'm happy it has. My Red Moon's leaf is showing my some good signs of color but it still has yet to unfurl, which is a reoccurring issue for her. The additional humidifier hasn't seemed to help. I'll probably keep a damp paper towel wrapped around it tomorrow like I had to last time. Props to my Alocasia BV just because. I already mentioned there is a new leaf on the way but she has come a long way. Alocasias do not acclimate well when I bring them home, or at least I haven't mastered it yet. I think I was down from 10 to 3 leaves in a very short time span. But the new leaves she has produced continue to increase in size and now quantity without losing another one (yet) like usual.

I have tomorrow off from work and although all I want to do is sleep, I'm finally going to set up my propagation tub. My last PROP LIST: White Princess, Silver Sword, and White Knight Philodendrons. My White Wizards leaf is a half moon! I want to wait as I've heard it's not best to prop right after that although I know others say that it is. And yes I'm waiting on my PPP. I'd like to have at least two leaves on it and with that second leaf having to be the mostly pink one, I don't think it's the best idea. I'm also doing my Syngonium Batik and Confetti, as well as the tail on my Amydrium Silver Spiderman. It's quite long without any new leaves and I'd like to see if I can make it do anything. And lastly the Moonshine Snake Plant.

[velveteengreen]

Philodendron Ring O' Fire 🧡

6/16/23 - 9/25/23

[exxxtraterrestrialll]

Happy Solstice ☀️🌻 Look who decided to start blooming today

[thebiotope]

Finally got a job interview. Wish me luck 🤞

[candle]

my cymbidium is flowering again :)

[whoreticulturebabe]

I did that.

[balkanradfem]

Since I've been gone and computer-free for a while, it's only right that I make a life and plant update! I've been having the worst start with this year's plants, and I've been neglecting them for a while because it was making me a bit sour to see them all doing so bad; let's get into what happened.

So, since it's my fourth year of gardening, I felt super confident that I have leveled up so much that my plants will now grow however I please and that there will be no troubles whatsoever, which is just, a great mindset to start making mistakes in. So, I figured I'd wait until it's not freezing outside, and then, I would put all of the plants on my balcony, and they would have a lot of sun there, and that would make it easier for me to care for them. Before that, I've been keeping them in the kitchen during the night and morning, balcony in the afternoon. It's less work for me if they're on the balcony.

Well, it turns out, tiny baby plants do not do well on the balcony, even if it's not freezing outside! The temperatures were from 2-5 celsius during the night (that's 36 fahrenheit), and even if my plants didn't die, they started shriveling up, the backs of their leaves turning purple and dark. Seeing them turn dark and purple made me feel they were nitrogen deficient, because that has happened before, so I fertilized them all, thinking it would fix the issue - only it made the issue worse. Tiny plants cannot handle a lot of fertilization, they need to grow a bit before they're ready to be properly fed. So the result of this was that my most tiny and vulnerable plants burned out and died, most of just-transplanted tomatoes wilted, and basil died almost completely.

So, I finally realized that they actually disliked the cold of being outside, and brought them back in, and left them in the kitchen, where they had less light, but very warm, stable temperature. And, they all got better. It was almost like a weird mocking game from nature - if I had left them all in the kitchen, without ever taking them outside, they would have been growing consistently, and gotten twice the size already. I have been fooled by my arrogance. So why did all of the plants got sick and purple on my balcony?

Because the temperature of the soil affects what nutrients they're able to draw out. If it's too hot, or too cold, they won't be able to pull nitrogen out of the soil, even if there is plenty of nitrogen in! Same works with calcium, they need proper temperature and moisture in order to feed on it. Tiny plants do not take well to quick changes in temperature, they need to be bigger, and introduced gradually to colder nights. A month old plant can easily survive what a week old plant cannot. Only plants that are twice as big as their pot can easily bear thru cold nights outside without getting sick.

So, after this happened, I had a few happy accidents that I didn't count on, that cheered me up. There are 2 balcony windows that don't get a lot of light, but they're very warm (radiator underneath). I have left a few houseplants there, few lemons, and one cabbage, and forgot them completely. I didn't water them except maybe once every week. And somehow, without me noticing, tomatoes have started growing out of the pots with lemons, because apparently there were some seeds left in the soil there, and they quickly out-grew all of my carefully cared for tomato plants. Also that cabbage I forgot? It was the biggest most successful plant I had. I was in disbelief when I saw that, because, excuse me, I thought, you guys needed light to grow. Apparently, they cared more for the heat, and were happy to just get 2 hours of direct sunlight to grow. This went against everything I knew, but maybe I just needed to learn a new thing: sometimes warmth matters more. Next time I can just neglect bunch of plants on those windows and get successful plants with zero effort.

Encouraged by this, I was very careful this time to introduce my now bigger plants to the cold and bright balcony light, and this time I was listening to the rules carefully: First day only 1 hour in the direct sun, next day 3 hours, third day 5. Then they can stay overnight, and I only do it with plants that are big enough to survive minor damage. And it worked out perfectly. All plants held up well, and the last week of April, I've already started transplanting my tomatoes in the garden.

Another fun bit about me not being able to access laptop or my data, was that I could not check my own garden plan, that I made for this year. Planting the garden, I just had to figure out a whole new garden plan on the fly, which was absolutely hilarious. Me frantically typing on my phone 'can beans and strawberries grow together' while already holding a bag of beans in my hand, trying to decide where to dig the holes. Turns out, beans and strawberries DO grow well together, and since I have 3,5 garden beds of strawberries, I decided to plant beans in every one of them, just to see what happens. I have also stabbed large sticks in those gardens, and to an unknowing individual, who does not know about the beans, it might look as if I'm expecting my strawberries to climb up, which would be charming, and something to work towards in the future.

The strawberries are in full bloom and I want to spend hours just lying on the grass and looking at bees fertilize them. I felt so much yearning for the garden, so much of just wanting to be there all day and just watch life develop and grow.

After planting beans, I had a nagging feeling that I was supposed to plant something else and was forgetting about it, while I was ignoring all the plants due to feeling sulky, and I went to my box of seeds and took everything out to see what was not yet planted - to be immediately hit with a wall of shame: I had forgot to plant cucumbers and cantaloupes completely. And my poor mystery squash was also still in seed form. Now, these plants can grow very fast, and I started them right away and by now they're already developing their first leaves, so nothing is lost! This will depend on the climate. If we have a crazy hot summer with heat waves, my cantaloupes will not fare well, and I will have fewer cucumbers. If, by some chance, we have a bit more rain, some milder weather, maybe a storm every few weeks, then I might be looking at a good harvest anyway.

I had to starts all of my plants and plant my garden early, I planted everything about a month earlier than everyone else, because I know I will not be able to water my garden, and I'm counting on plants getting big and strong before the heat waves hit, and by then, they'll be mulched, covered, casting shade one over another in order to survive the heat. Last two years this worked brilliantly, and my garden was big and strong. I'm having high hopes this year as well, even as I started on rocky grounds, everything recovered so nicely, I even have a few basil plants looking good, brought back from the brink of death.

I've definitely spent more time outside, more time reading, writing, cooking, foraging and processing food, without access to computer. I've gathered so much bear's garlic, and found it's excellent in a pasta salad. I've eaten a full bowl of wood sorrel and came out just fine. I've tried to cook a soup with wild carrots - I would advise against using the roots, makes it taste very wrong. Almost got poisoned again because I confused young 'forget-me-not' plants with spinach and ate them in a sandwich; luckily I was fine. Laughed at myself a lot for that one. I saw lots of lizards, a frog, several deer, ducks, and a lot of birds in the forest, some very cool bugs as well. I sometimes run into other women in the forest and I feel like we're exactly where we're supposed to be, and we're ruling this land by protecting what's ours.

[angelsdean]

growing a plant from seeds is so thrilling. it makes you notice how much difference a day makes. how every single day is an opportunity for growth and change. this is four days in my baby flowers lives !! just four (4) days !!!! from barely poking their alien green heads out of the dirt to opening their leafy mouths into perfect little sprout emojis 🌱 and they keep curving toward the sunlight. they seek light and life ! they want to live ☀️

[suzycreamcheeze]

fresh rosemary from my backyard for a friend ✨

[madaims]

Plant mama update!

Knives and Vash have now swapped places (turns out Vash is a sunlight freeloader) and Knives has grown two new leaves!! It also looks like another off shoot is starting to grow too.

As for Vash, he also has a new off shoot starting to grow too, so maybe soon they might get even more leaves!

Will have to empty some water out of the self irrigation system I have made for the colder months, to avoid freezing.

Keeping the food bottles though as a treat to the seedlings. I’ve heard spraying plants with apple cyder vinegar deters parasites, so might look into getting some of that too. It might get rid of the mould growing on top of the bedding. 🤔

I also talk to them sometimes about random shit. Not sure that works, might have to start threatening them! 🤣

I find keeping and nurturing plants is very fun and challenging because unlike sentient creatures, they can’t actually tell you what they need. You have to take either an educated guess (and get it wrong) or fuck it up completely and kill the little buggers. Either way it’s a learning curve, don’t make the same mistake twice.

Also another thing I love about plants is how peaceful and calming they are. There’s just something special about those you’ve cultivated yourself though. It’s like “I kept this alive”. It’s so rewarding. 😊

I’ve kept you here ages talking about plants, yeah sorry about that! I just think they’re so cool! 😅

🌱🌱