#plant update

[whoreticulturebabe]

reading • hiking • napping • simping • thriving

✨and this is the playlist✨

[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.

[velveteengreen]

Philodendron Ring O' Fire 🧡

6/16/23 - 9/25/23

[wishingforautumn]

Happy Solstice ☀️🌻 Look who decided to start blooming today

[thebiotope]

Finally got a job interview. Wish me luck 🤞

[candle]

my cymbidium is flowering again :)

[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.

[whoreticulturebabe]

I did that.

[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 ✨

[mad-aims]

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! 😅

🌱🌱

[mossberry-forest]

Meet My Plants!

I haven't gotten the chance to introduce my plant friends to the internet until now, so here we go!

Speckles

Speckles (she/they) is my first plant! She's a *Syngonium podophyllum*. They're living outside right now while it's still warm so she can get more sun, but when I bring her inside when it gets cold, I might need grow lights.

Snowy

Snowy (they/them) is a *Pothos* (pearls and jade). They've gotten bigger since this picture was taken, so I might post an update soon 🤷

Herbert

Herbert (he/they) is a spider plant. He actually belongs to my partner, who is currently living with me. We had to rescue Herb from my partner's parents' house since they weren't watering him, and Herb has slowly been recovering. I just help take care of Herb and his offspring...

Herbert Jr.

Herb Jr (he/they) was propagated from Herbert. Herb Jr. is about 4 months old, but hadn't really perked up until we moved him to the windowsill. His leaves have turned a darker green since this picture was taken.

Those are all of my houseplants right now! I might post more updates about them going forward, so check back if you're curious 😊

[pixelette-cc]

Plant Journey, Month #8: crying and throwing up

♫ when you try your best, but you don't succeed ♫

♫ when you lose something you can't replace when you love someone, but it goes to waste ♫

yeah this month’s update is,,,, not good lmao

there are two probable causes why most of my plants have gone downhill since last month: a) a pretty bad heatwave hit my city + summer is VERY dry here (we’re talking 20% humidity while most of the plants i own need 60% to thrive. the humidifier hasn’t helped either) or b) remember how i got thrips last month? well the systemic pesticide i used got rid of them but i’m starting to think it also damaged the plants

Stromanthe Sanguinea Triostar: MY BEAUTIFUL BELOVED DAUGHTER...................... IS FUCKING DYING TOO!!!!!! two weeks ago it started getting crunchy and losing its leaves like crazy and shows no signs of stopping 💔 if this one fully dies I’m giving up on plants forever and i’ll never believe in love again <333

Stromanthe Sanguinea: it lost its last leaf today and i think it doesn’t have any growing points left. rest in peace 💀   

Aloe Vera: not a very exciting plant but at least it’s still alive lol

Maranta Leuconeura: tell me why a plant that i consistently ignore and that is placed in the worst spot of my house is thriving the most??? 🙄

Philodendron Pink Princess: ugly but alive and still growing

Philodendron Pink Princess 2.0: ONE OF THE LEAVES WITH THE MOST PINK IS ALREADY DYING NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 😭 i just got a moss pole for her too so let’s see how that goes!!

Calathea White Fusion: the thrips obliterated her and only has one (crunchy) leaf left... it had a shoot coming in but it’s dying too :(

Pothos Marble Queen: doing fine but barely growing

Tradescantia Fluminensis Tricolor: #rip 💀 the thrips feasted on her lol

I have lost a total of 5 plants since November 2022 😃 i fucking hate it <3 

[neverelo]

Cherry tomato update!

They're doing pretty good! I've been researching a lot, and apparently gently tapping the stem helps the flowers self-pollinate. It's kind of relaxing but I'm sure it looks like I'm just weirdly petting this small tomato plant