Some things I need to add to my successes in this area. I mentioned in the previous entry, that my coleus, was growing so well, that it started growing flowers at the top of a couple of them. That’s what I said previously after discovering two. It turns out, it’s three of them now. Two of the original red plant and propagations, and one of the original green plant, in the same window planter.
Also, using the pump sprayer aided in some instances, gaining extra humidity when spraying the plants. The temperature hasn’t changed that much in the apartment internally, so I’m quite certain spraying these plants like the coleus, rose the humidity significantly. The day before I saw the humidity at around 40%, which happens from time to time, but it’s now at 70%.
I’ve noticed this in other areas in my apartment, where the humidity dropped near 50%, no temperature change indicated. Using that pump sprayer added humidity for the plants in that window as well. The humidity around the plants there, including the “lucky” bamboo plants, both of them, the nepenthes plants, both grounded and hanging, and the other plants, all saw some slight improvements. That’s because the humidity increased to near 60% to 70%.
Obviously, this has to be continuous, with the aid of a humidifier or an evaporative air cooler, which does work quite well.
In regards to my current crop of sundews, specifically the spoon leaf variety, there are a few, because of the grow light settings, beginning to turn red, and push out flower stalks, which are also red. As far as the cape sundews, they are starting to create some visible dew on a few leaves, so that’s a good sign.
My previous instance with spoon leaf sundews, I saw flower stalks push out, long before they turned red, but they stayed green, and it was quite interesting, but that didn’t last, because it dried out way too fast, and died possibly because of shock derived from being in a strong humid environment, to just airing out, in an already dry area, for a little over a day. I didn’t make that mistake again. This time, these sundews are placed in open area pots, where they can adjust and grow much easier.
I can add to this, from one of my hacks, to a successful set of results. This one wasn’t really expected on my end. I initially tried sowing some pitcher plant seeds, and I expected to see something after several months. I didn’t see anything from the seeds, but I did see this happen with the sphagnum moss.
Sphagnum moss is normally sold dried, but not necessarily dead. Leaving them to soak and sit in water, eventually after several months. Some advise to squeeze out the excess, which will make sense in order to not have any mold issues occur. This is especially good if the quality of the sphagnum moss isn’t processed all that much. This is the case for what’s often found in the pet stores (see Hacks entry).
I’ve began seeing what looks like weeds sprouting, and I’ve seen that before, and dismissed them. These “weeds” look closer to lemongrass, which shows more good things to come. What I’ve also seen, and still see to this day, are live sprouts of sphagnum leaves, in little patches scattered around the moss. I wasn’t expecting this, but I was welcome to seeing this, knowing that normally, I would have to buy live moss, in order to get enough to propagate, in order to get any long term. So far, there aren’t enough sphagnum sprouts for me to begin trimming just yet, but now that I know this method does work, I’ll definitely go a bit further, and push for something more.
That’s leading to the best results that I’ve seen with these plants. I hope for those results to only continue. If I play my cards right, I’ll be able to propagate some of them successfully. Once again, only time will tell.