Tag: propagation

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Soil/Media.

Often, it’s decided when growing plants, which type of medium to grow them in. I bring this up, because it’s not always the case that you should use soil or soil varieties to grow plants. It’s true that plants can grow in a variety of settings, including without any type of media.

I can attest to using a variety of soils, and other mediums to grow plants. I can also attest to the ones I haven’t used yet, but may in the future. I’ll discuss this in better detail.

For most of my plants, the standard regular plants, they often are planted in peat moss, often referred to as sphagnum peat moss. It is made from sphagnum moss, but I can’t explain the procedure other than allowing it to decompose, and it’s basically reused as soil, which is what I’m using for most of my plants. It seems to be quite similar to regular soil you would have trees and plants growing outdoors, which is why many are good in this medium.

I have had some failures due to external factors, some of which may involve premature or constant transferring of plants from one setting to the next, but other than that, they have worked well in peat moss.

For other plants, you have a mix of mediums, and we do know of others, that aren’t often used by themselves. There are reasons for that. It’s not to say that it can’t happen, because there are some people that can prove that certain mediums can be used separately. Perlite, often is mixed, because of its light texture. It’s as light as Styrofoam, but is often mixed with heavier mediums like peat moss and sphagnum moss. You may have to experiment with perlite, but just know how light it is.

NOTE: When preparing perlite, wear some type of protection over your mouth and nose, because the sediment can get into your lungs quite fast.

It’s not good breathing this stuff in, so be careful, and should you decide to use perlite, get masked up, for using this even for light and short term uses.

Perlite is known for aiding in proper drainage, to most plants, when especially mixed with other mediums like peat moss.

Various mixes of mediums, can have bits and pieces of lava rock, and when using rocks like lava rock, in much bigger sizes, they can be used for providing a spot for plants to have roots grip and grow onto them. The bigger pieces are used more for decorative purposes, but it’s ability to have plants attach themselves to these rocks, are beneficial to an extent. This is best to have them in terrariums because of the moisture and humidity inside. With the pieces, which are often as small as pebbles and gravel, to dust, these mixed with other mediums provide the ability to have better drainage, compared to those other mediums alone.

Let’s look at sphagnum moss, and how it’s often used. In this journal, I’m referring to the dried tan colored variety sold in many different stores, often long fibered. You will see them in pet stores as well, either in tan or green. This is most commonly used for lots of tropical and carnivorous plants. Many recommend using this because of its ability to hold water, and keep the plants hydrated for longer periods, compared to other types of media. It’s not good for all types of plants, and you may have to ask an expert, and do your own research of how not to use sphagnum moss, in this manner.

I did discuss rocks, lava rocks previously, but when it comes to a planting medium, small rocks can provide a good way to keep plants stable, if they have difficulty to stand on their own, after growing tall. Notice with other mediums, you may see these plants droop because the leaves are heavy, but the stems are light. In many instances, you have to add some rocks to keep them upright, or have them lean against something like a bamboo skewer, or if it’s sharing space with other more sturdy plants, use them to balance the plant until they grow strong enough to be on their own.

For the former, having them surrounded by rocks, will help, and it can also help with having less water, to prevent over watering. I currently have two “lucky bamboo” plants in individual containers, with rocks and water only. The roots are fine, they aren’t so much that the roots are all over the place, but, it’s doing well enough for the bamboo plants to grow leaves. Maybe over time, if the conditions are good enough, I might see some flowers.

Fingers crossed!

Special mixes, often are sold for a certain price, depending on where you choose to go. Personally, I recommend for the better price, some hardware stores, compared to plant stores, may sell them for a lesser price. Some may go as much as half the cost. This is just from shopping around. You may get a good set for example, for around $7, where in some plant stores, and even other hardware stores, you might pay near double that, or three or four dollars more.

With that said, make your choices wisely. I use a tropical mix, for my terrarium plants in, “the tank”. I use a good enough set, where the plants and their roots can spread enough to be satisfied with the settings. That mix, has the lava rock pieces that I mentioned previously, throughout the entire mix. I use this mix with other plants, but I try to keep this mix away from my carnivorous plants.

For the carnivorous plants, I may alternate from time to time, between sphagnum moss only, peat moss only, or a mix of peat moss and perlite. I do know that many carnivorous plants sold, will often be on displayed for sale, and are often covering the roots with soil, usually peat moss wrapped and covered with a light paper covering, and the rest being sphagnum moss. Growing them at home, it’s actually the reverse, but without the light paper covering. This can result in the plant getting more water and moisture. This is one of the methods I used previously, when keeping most of these carnivorous plants, VFTs especially, in smaller terrariums.

Air plants of course, are plants that need water, but no mediums, because they have no roots. I don’t know of other plants, that don’t need plant mediums of any kind; not yet anyway.

To add to this, you can grow some plants with simply immersing them in water. I’ve seen this done, and for some it works just fine. My mother had a very viney plant that grew in a big bowl of water, and it kept growing until the water evaporated, and eventually the plant died, due to our absence from the residence. Otherwise, no type of medium was needed for stability of any kind. In fact, water is often a good source for propagating leaf cuttings, which is also why this is good all on its own for maintaining most (if not all) plants.

Just like with rocks, you do have options such as leca, which can be used similarly to how I used the pepples and gravel for my “lucky bamboo” plants. They are generally lighter, because they are clay pebbles, which may not work for all types, but for the ones that do, the success rate may be quite high. I haven’t used this just yet, but I hear them recommended regularly, from plant vendors and online recommendations. At some point, I may check this option out, and then I’ll follow-up.

You have also coco peat, which I haven’t pursued yet, but if I do get some, I’ll use it and document my findings.

There’s also sand. Many say that it’s not a good medium, or substrate to grow plants. Yet, it’s good to mix with peat moss and other types of media, for better drainage. There are a variety of sources that show plants successfully growing in sand. Wait! How can they say that’s not possible, when we tend to see some plants growing at the beach? One day, I will try that for myself, just to see it be possible, with my own eyes.

There are much more, and I could not add anymore to this list. Over time, that will change.

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More Successes With My Plant Care.

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.

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My Successes With Plant Care.

I’ve had my share of failures, and often it takes enough failures to result in success, eventually. For some plants more than others, it is more of a trial-and-error process, in order to succeed in growing, or at least maintaining plants.

There are a handful of plants I’ve maintained for a good year or so, so I can say that some have been on the verge of growing and multiplying in various ways. There are others that will simply grow slowly, and they aren’t fickle about having the simple things needed for standard growth. No fertilizer, just water and sunlight.

Now, granted, it’s ideal for most (if not all) plants to be watered with distilled water, but there are some that are quite content with simple tap water. I’ll elaborate in a bit.
I have a TDS meter to measure the quality of the water, and this is needed to say whether or not it’s safe to drink, and to show that it won’t be harmful to you, or to your plants. Right now, where I’m located currently, the reading is just below 30 ppm at cold temperature, but closer to 50 ppm, at either warm or hot temperatures. Usually higher than that, may be a cause for concern, especially if you are watering carnivorous plants.

My current success happens to be the coleus plants, and I have both the red leaves with green veins, and the green leaves with the red veins. I can’t remember when I bought it, that’s also how I know it’s a success. It started out as a small 5″ or 6″ plant, in a small pot for each of them. I do remember growing some when I was younger, and I had the leaves grow to nearly a foot long – each! Since then, I figured, maybe I would have some different success with a new set. That’s an understatement.

Right now, I have a good set of coleus plants, to fit into window planters, as a result of some successful water propagations. Some I’m trying for moist soil propagations, and I think it will be just fine. I know this, because of the amount of time it does take to develop roots from cuttings, which can vary from a few weeks to a month. Water propagation is much faster, and that’s close to near half to three quarters of a month.

For the first set I’ve propagated, and allowed to grow, it took a while for it to spread out, to the point where it’s reaching out through the window guards. To add to that, in recent weeks, I saw something I didn’t see in my previous planting experience with coleus. It’s beginning to flower, while going into the fall months. I barely noticed this, because part of it was covered by the window curtains and blinds. I just thought that this was amazing! Not only that, but it happened with two of the plants (I have a total of seven cuttings at the windows; four in one planter, and three in the other planter). I’ve made sure it gets enough water, so there’s no need to worry about that.

Sometimes, for plants like the coleus plants, it’s more like a no-fuss plant. As long as it gets those essentials – proper soil, water, and sunlight – it will be just fine.

As far as watering, it’s not hard, but spraying to get the leaves some dampness, it can be tough, so I decided to go the route of looking for those pump sprayers needed to do the job, without wearing down my finger from pressing the trigger of the spray bottle too long. This was needed because the coleus in both planters, were getting very, very bushy.

To me, it’s just crazy to know just how well this worked, because I didn’t have to worry about doing anything. At times, some leaves every now and again would fall off, but that’s okay. It does happen from time to time, and it hasn’t hampered the growth of the rest of the plants. Besides, what I don’t pick up, will become fertilizer over time.

I did have a cactus, that I chose to buy, and there’s a word of warning about getting a cactus. Once you have one, you have to repot them, and because of the needles, it’s not that simple. This is why I got some decent leather work gloves from the hardware store. This made it easier to handle maneuvering the cactus when preparing it to move from one pot of soil, to another.

This particular cactus didn’t have a flower glued onto it, like most people tend to see, thinking it’s real. No, it’s plastic, hot glued onto a cactus. Is it possible for a cactus to grow flowers? Yes, but often you’ll know what they look like when it happens.

Since this didn’t have that issue of having a fake flower glued on top of it, there was no worry of the plant having any issues. The needles stayed bright white, and the flesh of the cactus stayed green throughout its stay in my home. So far, so good. I water it maybe once or twice a week, and it’s seems to be keeping its vibrant color. it is by a window, but nearest to my air conditioner. The sunlight shines from the window, since I didn’t anchor down the blinds above the A/C unit; and it shines right onto the cactus, giving it a decent dose of sunlight. I can say I’ve had this for maybe three to four months, maybe longer.

I have some other plants that I have hanging at the window that gets the most sunlight, and some of them also do even better in tropical environments. Now when I say tropical, I mean high humidity areas. Anything measuring 70% humidity or higher, would make these and other plants deemed tropical plants, very happy. These seem to be just fine with 60% or lower, but it will show some drying out, if it goes anywhere near 40% or lower.

These plants that I have hanging at my window, currently are the “baby’s tears”, and the “creeping fig”. I’m not really sure the latter is that, but this is what I was told, so I’m going with it; I’ll research the name later. These are plants that will grow, and hang, which makes it interesting. These are good for trimming every so often, to place the cuttings in a variety of areas. I have some small terrariums, a big one which is a fish tank setup, and some other pots, where they aren’t the kind that hang by the window. The “baby’s tears” are great and keeps itself with small leaves, even in the humid areas in my home. Both types seem to grow well in either grow lights, or sunlight. They are watered regularly, maybe two to three times a week, depending on the types of planters being used. Those that are sealed with its own false bottom, I water maybe less frequent to prevent any root rot issues from occurring.

I mentioned previously, the fish tank setup I had as my large terrarium, but not in such detail. This is where most of my successes, besides the coleus, has taken place. This is an interesting one, because it revolves around lots of plants, many of which I forgot the names of most of them. For the ones I do know of, I’ll mention by name.
This tank setup I had to go through a few scenarios until I got the right one. In another journal, I’ll explain what I have, and how it works for me. For now, I’ll scatter some details here and there.

For the plants inside, there are many that are growing quite well, and are happy being in this environment. How do I know they are happy? Well, for one, they root much faster after being transferred from the pots I purchased them in, into there. Most (if not all) of the plants inside the tank, are seen as tropical plants. Once they begin to root and adjust to the soil, the leaves begin to spread, and for some more than others, flowers may bloom.

Now, it also results in new growth, and I found this out recently with the parlor palms I have inside of the tank. I started to see new shoots reveal themselves, well after maybe five months after purchasing them. There was another that grew ridiculously fast, and I had to cut and propagate them within weeks of transplanting them into the tank. After a few months, I had to transfer them to pots outside, because they were literally outgrowing the height of the tank.

I have two types of nerve plants; one green with red veins, and one green with white veins. The latter I got last, and wouldn’t you know it? It did something a bit strange, at least I thought so. I had some separated in a few terrariums, so I brought it over to where I normally buy most of my plants (this one I didn’t buy there). I wasn’t sure of the scent it emitted, but from what the plant shop owners suggested, it was somewhat of a minty scent, but it was showing how happy it was, by emitting such a scent. I was relieved that it wasn’t a bad reaction to the humidity, but it was the opposite.

I also bought the plant known as “string of turtles”, and these were quite fun to grow. These tend to also like humidity, so the tank, and other terrariums were perfect settings for these viney plants. These, along with other plants like the ones I have hanging by the windows, are good in the tank and the terrariums also, as mentioned previously.

One other thing I neglected to mention earlier. For the plants inside the tank, the humidity range is in the high 80% range, closest to 90%, which is a very tropical setting for them. It’s closer to 90% depending on how much water is sprayed, and every week or so, I let it air out maybe for a couple of hours on the weekend. When it’s closed, the plants get that strong humidity, which is great. Also, for some plants, and actually for most eventually, they begin to develop air roots, which shows that they are really getting a strong dose of humidity. At first, I thought it was a cause for concern, but no, it’s actually a good thing.
I also have some large pieces of lava rock, and I placed one into the tank, and a few pieces in the smaller terrariums. Any of the viney plants growing on them will have their roots growing onto them, and the roots will feel as if they were hooked onto it. This doesn’t inhibit the growth of the plants, but it gives those plants a place to anchor themselves to.

The tank literally looks like a jungle in there. “It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under.” (I couldn’t resist!) If I were to have maybe a turtle, or a lizard, I’m sure it would enjoy that setting, and have lots of places to hide.

There was also a remnant from a lady luck nepenthes that was a small plant, and eventually after growth in a smaller terrarium, where I salvaged and placed it, from a previous failure, it began to grow and it grew fast. Once that happened, I moved it to the tank. Within some months, it grew to the point where I had to cut and propagate it, because it nearly outgrew the height of the tank. After that, the propagated cutting rooted, and before you know it, it began producing flowers. It was the first set of flowers I saw growing in the tank, and so far the only one that has done so in there, outside of the red dragon VFT I once had.
For the most part, I’ve seen great things from these plants especially.

There are a few others, and they are the standard pitcher plants which are of the nepenthes variety. These were the wild nepenthes that are made available only certain times within the year, and are available in a certain flower district in NYC. Finding the right store was my toughest challenge, but when I did, that’s when I saw a pitcher plant in action.

After a while, because of the lack of humidity, it started to lose its traps, but it kept growing. I did have some success in propagating this, but it didn’t always work. I eventually bought another pitcher plant, and had this hang by the window, but not the one where the “babies tears” is hanging. It’s getting plenty of sunlight, and I water them as best as I can. I repotted all of these pitcher plants with sphagnum moss for a growing media for them. Since it’s lighter than soil, it’s best for hanging plants, so that it won’t weigh down the rod it’s hanging from.

There are a few others I can’t name, but these are still growing and have been for a while. Along with a small fern, right now, I have a good set of plants in my home, that are growing, and growing quite well. Just about every window in the house has a few plants on them. The only one that doesn’t have one, even hanging, is the bathroom window, with the frosted glass. That may change. I did try that, but that’s explained better in the failures section.

For now, these show just how I’ve been able to grow lots of plants quite nicely. There are some that are still works in progress. Should they be successes, I’ll add to them in a second installment of my successes. Should they be failures, I’ll add them in a second installment of my failures. Only time will tell, I guess.