Every now and again, plants need to be trimmed, pruned, and cut, for the sake of the health of the plant. This is no different for the plants within what I refer to as, “The Tank”. This is especially true for any instances of neglect, major or minor, as well as general care for the plants in there.
There are quite a few varieties of plants that I have in there, it’s often difficult to just cut what’s in there. When you have plants that have the tendency to grow continuously like a vine, you already know that those need to be trimmed.
I wasn’t feeling well, and when I was sitting out a month ago, I had some time to look at what I could not address right away. For one, during this time, my grow light wasn’t working properly, so I turned it off. As a result, because the plants didn’t get proper lighting, the leaves became a pale green, which isn’t a surprise. However, they continued to grow, because they still had their humidity. That eventually began to dry up, because of the continuous growth of the plants. Also, the plants weren’t getting enough light, and some of them trapped underneath one another, some leaves were withering away. Other plants and their leaves continued to grow without a problem.
The end result of it all became a decision of where to start trimming, and cutting. Most of the vines were of course the first priority to cut and trim. They were all over the place. Normally, letting these plants grow isn’t a problem, but because of a month’s hiatus, I had to go back to assess the situation. The issue comes with seeing just how much humidity was left in the tank. Surprisingly, there was still enough in there for the plants to thrive, prior to trimming and cutting.
While trimming and cutting, I of course reset the grow light to stay on 24/7, not because this is the plan, but because the light is damaged and needs replacing. It’s better for me to leave it on like this, and not to just leave off the light altogether. This way, the plants won’t be as pale as they are currently.
When I was finally able to see soil in enough areas within, “The Tank”, then I rehydrated the soil a bit more. I grabbed my pump sprayer to mist the area quite well. Then I replaced the lid on, “The Tank”, to keep the humidity inside and consistent.
My biggest challenge was to keep from trimming or cutting the wrong plants. It still happened, but not in such high frequency. There are some plants that are still quite tall, and are beginning to widen quite a bit. I have to make a decision of what’s going to happen next. I can trim and propagate, but that will mean removal of other plants that are especially growing tall, where I don’t want to remove nor replace. So, this will take some time to think about.
Until then, I’ll keep watch of the progress of re-growing some of these plants, and deciding potential locations to place some other plants. As long as they can be reacclimated properly, it will be a good result going forward.