Your houseplants and gardens - Yellow leaf means underwatered AND overwatered?! What a country!

[Swagstika]

One of my pitcher plants have died, the tall skinny one (Thanks to @bliblblblbbllb saying they are notoriously fiddly I don't feel super bad about it) and the little fat ones doesn't look so great either. Booh!
I had the day off and ended up going by a plant store to check for a replacement for the tall pitcher plant and ended up leaving with... Three new pots and four new plants.
I did not need more weird stuff to obsess over.
(I blame you guys. Take the blame. Do iiiiiiittt)

The four new plants Chosen because of cool leaves.
My favourite is the one on the far right. It doesn't show up in the image, but it has the most fantastic velvety surface on the striped side of the leaves!

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

It's a war of attrition sometimes....


Does anyone have ideas why my paralell pepormia isn't growing anymore?

When I got it it was pretty small, and grew explosively under my nice grow light setup. It's definitely not a lack of light issue. All the new stems grew in twice as thick with much larger, thicker leaves. Then they just stopped growing. And it hasn't sprouted a single new leaf in a few months, but it's also not losing leaves or looking sad. It just has looked exactly the same.
I repotted it when I got it (less than a year ago) into my personal houseplant mix, so I think it's unlikely that it needs repotted or more soil nutrients.

Do I need to prune it?
Is it just dormant? Does it need less light?

 

[s0mbra]

I harvested my first peanut !
I have a few more peanut plants going now too. I feed the squirrels and other critters, and they were starting to eat me out of house and home so I planted some to grow as an experiment. They were actually really easy, but only ended up with a handful since I kinda just let them do their thing.They grow a bit oddly. They have self pollinating flowers that drop off, then turn into a little tentacle that pushes down into the dirt, and at the end of that is were the peanut grows. Was super neat to see, actually.

I also planted a bunch of black oil sunflower seeds for the same reason and had a handful of flowers grow, which the birds really seemed to enjoy plucking the seeds from, along with the stray millet that grew around the feeders. The rabbits usually get to anything before it grows, though.

I'm hoping to start growing real food like potatoes and onions soon too.

I've grown to really like doing yardwork. Even pulling weeds is very therapeutic.
When I tell people to touch grass, I genuinely mean it. Getting into gardening was probably the best thing I've ever done for myself.

One of my pitcher plants have died, the tall skinny one (Thanks to @bliblblblbbllb saying they are notoriously fiddly I don't feel super bad about it) and the little fat ones doesn't look so great either. Booh!
I had the day off and ended up going by a plant store to check for a replacement for the tall pitcher plant and ended up leaving with... Three new pots and four new plants.
I did not need more weird stuff to obsess over.
(I blame you guys. Take the blame. Do iiiiiiittt)

View attachment 5490628

The four new plants Chosen because of cool leaves.
My favourite is the one on the far right. It doesn't show up in the image, but it has the most fantastic velvety surface on the striped side of the leaves!

Holy crap those are pretty! The far right is wandering jew (oh no I'm gunna get banhammerd from le heccing reddit!) And looks really nice! I'm a sucker for those guys but have never had luck growing them indoors (granted I mostly kept them in water, which probably wasn't great long term), but they grew like crazy just on their own in FL, and I had a whole corner of the yard were they grew like crazy under some bushes (i dont think they do well in harsh/direct light)
They are also super easy to prop! Just cut the stem and dunk it in water and they root quickly.
Love those little walking kikes

I've also been thinking of getting some carnivorous plants, but I'm very much a succulent and cactus person... I'm a bit neglectful, haha.

 

[Swagstika]

Holy crap those are pretty! The far right is wandering jew (oh no I'm gunna get banhammerd from le heccing reddit!) And looks really nice! I'm a sucker for those guys but have never had luck growing them indoors (granted I mostly kept them in water, which probably wasn't great long term), but they grew like crazy just on their own in FL, and I had a whole corner of the yard were they grew like crazy under some bushes (i dont think they do well in harsh/direct light)
They are also super easy to prop! Just cut the stem and dunk it in water and they root quickly.
Love those little walking kikes

Of course it is.

Spoiler

I cannot for the life of me let Plant Dad aka Husbando know this.
I'm a certified, Tay Sachs carrying jew descendent.
And Plant Dad aka Husbando, who is half slav, half aryan finds it hilarious that I'm 99% aryan and juuuuuust have that little smidge of Jew.
He became the master of jew jokes when 23andme dropped that information on us. So that weird little curl I have at the base of my neck and that he loves to violate? It is of course my jewcurl. Eyeroll.
He can absolutely not find out that my new, favourite plant is a wandering jew. I will never hear the end of his jew jokes.
Groan.

 

[877-CASH-now]

Of course it is.

Spoiler

I cannot for the life of me let Plant Dad aka Husbando know this.
I'm a certified, Tay Sachs carrying jew descendent.
And Plant Dad aka Husbando, who is half slav, half aryan finds it hilarious that I'm 99% aryan and juuuuuust have that little smidge of Jew.
He became the master of jew jokes when 23andme dropped that information on us. So that weird little curl I have at the base of my neck and that he loves to violate? It is of course my jewcurl. Eyeroll.
He can absolutely not find out that my new, favourite plant is a wandering jew. I will never hear the end of his jew jokes.
Groan.

If plant dad is a Big Lebowski person, the new name for the plant is wandering dude, which I absolutely prefer to abide with.

 

[Swagstika]

Greetings from (unseaonably hot at 32 degrees celsius or 90 degrees fahrenheit) Mogan in Gran Canaria.
I bring the biggest, bushiest pothos I have ever seen in real life for your amusement:

 

[anliteralidiot]

So, a recent trip to my local nature reserve has me wanting to try a new experiment. See, I'm a sucker for water propagating after the excellent experiment from @NoReturn
However, fucking algae.

I think the nature reserve has a solution, and it's food coloring. I was getting some water plants from them, and noticed they had everything in blue water. I asked why, and they told me it's food coloring, and that the color helps keep algae from reproducing, and taking over. They mostly keep water plants, so I trust that they're on to something.

 

[NoReturn]

So, a recent trip to my local nature reserve has me wanting to try a new experiment. See, I'm a sucker for water propagating after the excellent experiment from @NoReturn
However, fucking algae.

I think the nature reserve has a solution, and it's food coloring. I was getting some water plants from them, and noticed they had everything in blue water. I asked why, and they told me it's food coloring, and that the color helps keep algae from reproducing, and taking over. They mostly keep water plants, so I trust that they're on to something.

Maybe the blue food coloring reflects away the specific light frequencies the algae needs to grow?

 

[glioblastoma multiforme]

Maybe the blue food coloring reflects away the specific light frequencies the algae needs to grow?

My guess would be that it reflects more of the bulk of the light. Assuming that this is in a place where the sky is more often blue than grey.

I think most photosynthetic organisms absorb most frequencies of light. It depends a bit on the selection pressures, things that don't receive much light need to get everything they can, things that get a lot can be more choosy i guess.

 

[AnOminous]

My guess would be that it reflects more of the bulk of the light. Assuming that this is in a place where the sky is more often blue than grey.

I think most photosynthetic organisms absorb most frequencies of light. It depends a bit on the selection pressures, things that don't receive much light need to get everything they can, things that get a lot can be more choosy i guess.

I'm not sure it absorbs more or if it's just the one color you can dye water that doesn't make it look totally weird. Apparently (according to Professor Google) algae likes red light.

 

[anliteralidiot]

My guess would be that it reflects more of the bulk of the light. Assuming that this is in a place where the sky is more often blue than grey.

I think most photosynthetic organisms absorb most frequencies of light. It depends a bit on the selection pressures, things that don't receive much light need to get everything they can, things that get a lot can be more choosy i guess.

It's very sunny, and very blue. I don't want to dox myself by saying too much, but it's a preserve for a swamp. The plant I was getting from them is in one of their man-made pools.

If anyone is going to know more about keeping algae off, I'd expect it to be mature preserve people who work in a swamp.

 

[Swagstika]

I just did my weekly plant maintenance and my little wandering kin is dropping both leaves and entire stalk pieces when handled. @s0mbra and anyone else: Is this just the plants tactic for spreading or have I done something wrong to it?

 

[s0mbra]

I just did my weekly plant maintenance and my little wandering kin is dropping both leaves and entire stalk pieces when handled. @s0mbra and anyone else: Is this just the plants tactic for spreading or have I done something wrong to it

Is anything yellow/ brown and squishy?
When was the last time you watered them?
They can be kind of delicate. Not like a succulent where you sneeze in their direction and leaves fall off, though. They shouldn't just be falling off if you're moving the pot or anything.

I think they are a bit sensitive to over watering, but good news is they are super easy to prop. So any healthy ends you can trim off, let dry for a day or two, and plop the ends in some water and you should have roots in a week or two. Maybe less, they prop quick. They always thrived outside, but anytime I took some inside they'd eventually rot. But I also kept them in a jar of water instead of ever planting them. They'd last a year or so before suddenly just rot overnight (we had so many I'd didn't matter anyway). So overwatering is my guess!


As for a little update: my enormous snake plant is finally bouncing back!
It had bad root rot. I don't think it liked the non breathable plastic pot that it came with, or the substrate it was in. After trimming the roots, putting it in a proper terracotta pot, and replacing the weird coconut shavings it was in with some good ol sandy FL dirt leftover from another plant (my cactuses, succulents etc LOVE that shit and i almost never had to buy soil <\3) it seemed to stabilize, and now it's got a few new roots and beginning to stand erect again!

Also even though I put some small wooden pointy spikes around my peanuts, the faggot squirrels or rabbits dug them up and ate them. Including the one that was already sprouted and a good palm sized plant.
My brothers in Christ those were going to make more food for you

Thinking of building a small cage out of chicken wire to put around my food stuff plants until they are properly established. But that will have to wait until spring now. If anyone has ideas let me know!

 

[Gay Mouth]

I just did my weekly plant maintenance and my little wandering kin is dropping both leaves and entire stalk pieces when handled. @s0mbra and anyone else: Is this just the plants tactic for spreading or have I done something wrong to it?

Both. If it’s dropping stalks with seemingly healthy juicy leaves and stalks, but it’s sort of dying at a joint to drop, it’s attempting a last ditch propagation. I’d guess it wants more light and probably more water. You can take those stalks, cut right above where it dropped and just poke them back into the dirt. If you can share a picture of the plant I might be able to tell better what the problem is.

 

[Lichen Bark]

Thinking of building a small cage out of chicken wire to put around my food stuff plants until they are properly established.

I would go with galvanized mesh fencing (also called hardware cloth) with 1" holes. Chicken wire is so flimsy that you have to build other stuff to hold it up, but a nice thick mesh fencing can be put together with pliers and galvanized wire and stay up by itself no extra support needed (if it's around 12-14 gauge thickness - American Wire Gauge). You buy it on a roll, more expensive, but lasts a lot longer than chicken wire, and is actually useful. Made a whole "greenhouse-style" cover for some larger plants. A big mesh arc with mesh sides, bent at the bottom so I could rest bricks on it. If you had a big plant/bush you could make a mesh cylinder and add a square mesh top and rest a rock on it, and it probably won't go anywhere.

I advise getting a proper hand tool to cut it though, cutting it with shitty "bolt cutters" is terrible. I also used the mesh I had to make some nice circular corrals for my compost piles, great for aeration. I use it to make lids for raised beds when the plants are small. Cut it to the bed width with leave maybe 7 inches of overhang on each short side, then bend the ends over the garden and spring tension keeps it on.

 

[s0mbra]

Thank you for the tips

Also lol
You're overwatering it!
No, you're underwatering it!
Plant care in a nutshell.

 

[aphelion]

Just got my first maypop passion fruit flower last month. I started these from seed two years ago. Just thought I'd share because I don't know any plant appreciaters irl.

 

[Aunt Carol]

Just got my first maypop passion fruit flower last month. I started these from seed two years ago. Just thought I'd share because I don't know any plant appreciaters irl.

That's so pretty. I love how alien passionflowers look; it's like when people make "flowers" out of leftover wire and metal as a welding project.

When they're happy, I've seen them cover a whole carport, even in a cooler climate, but I've also had a passionflower just go from thriving to NOPE, DEAD in a month with no warning. Are you thinking you might get fruit, or just flowers?

 

[aphelion]

That's so pretty. I love how alien passionflowers look; it's like when people make "flowers" out of leftover wire and metal as a welding project.

When they're happy, I've seen them cover a whole carport, even in a cooler climate, but I've also had a passionflower just go from thriving to NOPE, DEAD in a month with no warning. Are you thinking you might get fruit, or just flowers?

They are very beautiful flowers. Im usually not much of a flower person. I tend to only grow herbs, fruit, veg and medicinal plants.
I thought they died after a day or two of freeze last winter and a move, but they came back bigger and better than ever last spring. They are supposed to be hardy to zone 6 and I'm in zone 8. I'm hoping to get fruit next spring. We'll see what happens.
Butterflies love to lay eggs on it also, so I was willing to sacrifice them to the butterflies. But they didn't do any damage so I hope, if nothing else the passion fruit vines help the butterflies to proliferate.

 

[Lichen Bark]

Butterflies love to lay eggs on it also, so I was willing to sacrifice them to the butterflies

You're far more forgiving than I am.