Lighting

In the interest of optimizing growth, I have decided to inventory all of my plants and group them by lighting requirements.  That is, lighting requirements based on my interpretation of the various terminology used to describe each plant's ideal illumination.


Bright/Direct Sunlight:

For me, this means in the sill of an east- or west-facing window.  It would probably be best to be in a south-facing window sill, but I do not have any.

Aluminum Plant (I tried setting this next to an East-facing window and it seemed to stagnate its growth.  Placing it directly in the sunny window launched a significant growth spurt.)

Polka dot plant (If not in direct sunlight, the leaves get too green thusly kabashing the whole allure of the plant.)

Kalanchoe

Sedum

Echeveria

Gerber daisy

Cyclamen

Amaryllis


Indirect Sunlight:

For me, this means within a few feet of an east- or west-facing window.  Or, in a north-facing window sill (in the summer, some of my North-facing windows get evening sun).  There could be some direct sunlight exposure, but only briefly, like during the wee morning hours or towards the end of the evening.

Palm

Braided umbrella tree

Rex begonia

Ivy

Christmas cacti

Jade jewel

Caladium


Low Light:

For me, this is on the sill of a sun-less north-facing window, in a corner near a window or against a wall a more than a few feet from a window.  

Snake plant (I've read this can pretty much go in any lighting condition, but since I have an excess of indirect and low light, I put it up on the shelf.)

Wandering jew (These can really go in any lighting condition.  They get really full in total sun exposure, like outside during the summer.)

Orchid (In the winter, I may put these in an east-exposure, but in the summer I definitely keep them in low-light conditions.)

African violet (I'm not totally sure in what conditions this plant thrives, but for the moment, low light hasn't appeared to have killed it!)

Unidentified ivy

Chinese evergreen


And here is where the majority of them now live:

Thinking about making some changes

I tried placing my newer polka dot plant cluster outside for a few days, to give it some extra direct sunlight and hopefully turn those leaves anything but green (or crispy brown!).  It seemed like keeping them outside only helped to dry them out quickly, so I moved them back inside to an East-facing window sill.  Now I'm facing with almost entirely green leaves!  Granted, I pulled all my blinds down to half-way this week because of the blistering sun and high humidity.  But now I'm thinking maybe I'll put these suckers outside again?

What I'd really like to try is just straight up pruning this sucker so it simmers down its growth.  This is the second polka dot plant I have purchased and it seems to be growing in the same manner as my first one, i.e. growing out table and weak rather than short and full.  I may give this one some snips and see what happens!  In a subsequent post of course.

Also, it seems to have been a few months since I attempted my african violet propagation.  As such, I have decided to remove them from their zip-lock shrouds and expose them to the "dry" air (the relative humidity has been in excess of 75% the past few weeks, even with the AC - granted I keep the AC pumping as little as possible!

I'd like to prune back my gerber daisy somehow.  It's on its 3rd bloom (maybe 4th?) since I bought it, so whatever I'm doing seems to be working ok, but it is just getting a little too long and floppy as far as the leaves and bloom stems go.  I'll post a photo of that in a subsequent post.  Just wanted to check in and make my first post of the month!

Checking in on some propagation

A few weeks ago, I took the seeds from a gerber daisy blossom and planted them in some soil, which I have kept pretty wet.  (Gerber daisy seed post)  Below are photos at almost exactly 3 weeks later.

I had them outside for a little bit, on my stoop which faces South.  But I was a little weary of all that exposure and wasn't sure if the little sprouts would take well to a blasting of sun 16 hours a day, so I moved them up to an East facing window sill, which gets pretty strong sun from about 5:30 or 6 till about noon.

Additionally, my sedum clippings appear to be sprouting some new growth as well!  You may recall a post back in May where I showed some sprouts that I removed from the "mother trunk" and some "leaves" that I plucked from the trunk, in an attempt to propagate.  I believe all of the sprouts have taken root, because when I tug on them, I either pull too hard and hear roots tearing, or I get enough resistance that I stop tugging!

In this photo you can see the new cluster of leaves forming at the base of the leaf where it meets the soil.  I am pretty excited to see how this one develops!  Of the half dozen or so of these that I am trying, this is the only one I have noticed to show such growth.  This is about 6 weeks after I initially plucked the leaf and stuck it in soil.

Because these cuts are in a tiny terracotta pot, I try to water it every morning or every evening.  It seems that succulents root better during propagation attempts when they are kept on or near consistently moist soil.

Sun Burn

A new thing I'm trying this summer is to put plants outside by my front door.  This may be a little aggressive, because with the way my apartment is laid out, all my windows face East, North or West, and my front door faces South.  So plants that are used to brief periods of sunlight are suddenly fully exposed all day long.  And it's been a little bit warm out there.  So I am finding that after a few days, no matter what plant I try, there is sun burn.

I've read that you should really stage this, like do 4 hours the first couple days and slowly increase exposure allowing plants time to adjust.  However, I work a full-time job and somehow I think that exposing the plants to the sun between the hours of 5am and 8am won't really help it transition to all day.  So I've been trying this all or nothing approach.

Below you can see some examples of the sun burn.

Wandering Jew:
(I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to let this one ride it out or if I'm going to move it to a shadier spot or just bring it back inside.)

Sedum clippings:

Kalanchoe:

Jade Jewel (Dracaena)

I don't usually purchase plants of this size (I like to start them from itty bitty babies), but since I had a gift card I decided to splurge on something a little further along!  The plant did not come with an instructional tag, so after a bit of research I have deduced the following:

1.) Propagate:

2.) Water: regularly, do not overwater

3.) Light: indirect light

4.) Fertilize:

5.)

As you can see, I don't have much figured out with this one!  But it appears to be making progress with growth.  My understanding is they can reach a decent height, such that I may be able to trim back the lowest leaves, exposing the "trunk" to make it look like a palm.

April 2014:

June 2014:

After just two months, we already show signs of steady growth!  Granted, we are in the growing-est point of the year, approaching the summer solstice.

Weekend Clean Up

When I returned home this weekend I went around to check on my various babes.  It looks like I may have gotten some sprouts out of the gerber daisy seeds I planted last week!

At least I hope that's what the growth is and not some miscellaneous plant that came in from the soil or more likely the rainwater.   I noticed this past week that a few of my pots have fungi growing in them!  I can only imagine the rainwater batch I was using had some spores.  Luckily they don't seem to last long, I think they get fried in the sun.

My original polka dot plant was looking like it need a new pot.  If you recall, that thing got pretty tall last summer/fall then fell into a deep dormant state.  Now it is starting to grow again, so I want the new root system to expand in fresh new soil in a new pot.  And hopefully divide the plant in the process!  So I dug it out of its pot and found quite the massive root ball:

I divided the ball and stems into two chunks, since there are essentially two stems coming out of it.  The one was a little larger than the other, so in the end I used three different sized pots.  The ittiest of bittiest pots is for what appears to be a new stem/baby altogether.  Observe:

In other news, my super ultra dense bajillionth generation wandering jew looks to be doing very well!  

This wandering jew appears to be making a comeback from its leggier, stringier beginnings.  I've placed it outside in what I hope will be enough shade behind this pot of future sunflowers.

You can see I moved my ivy outside, too.  It wasn't doing so well inside for some reason.  Half the leaves on one side were getting droopy.  I'm not sure if it was because I neglected to water it or if its this weird infestation that appears to have covered all the leaves in a cobweb like coating.  I didn't take any detail photos of it before I shook it off and attempted to drench the plant after setting it outside.  I'll have to keep you posted on those developments.  Not sure if it's a good idea, but something tells me putting the plant out in the fresh air and sunshine might help ward off whatever those creepers are.  Or the environmental shock may just put the plant out of its misery!  We shall see.

Planting Gerber Daisy Seeds

A couple days ago my Gerber Daisy's second bloom was starting to droop and drop its petals.  The prior weekend my parents had helped me transplant some various flowers and also gave me an Oriental Poppy spent bud, and said that in time the bud would open to reveal a boat load of seeds.  As I took a closer look at the dropping daisy, I pondered if this plant spread seeds in a similar fashion.  With a little help from Google, it turned out my suspicions were correct!

Below is the daisy as it is dropping and dispensing seeds.

From what I have read, most of the seeds are "infertile."  You should look for the larger ones that actually appear to have a seed-like element in its shaft.  In the photo below, that would be the two at the top.  The rest, you can see, are very narrow.

So the idea is to plant these seeds, with the white tufts at the surface of the soil.  So, I poked little holes in the soil, dropped in the seeds, and packed the soil around the seed's top.  Then I watered very gingerly.

Plunging a hole:

Dropping a seed:

Watering:

 I found about 6 or 7 of these seeds, so I have 4 containers set up, some with two seeds, some with one.  I read that germination takes about 2 weeks, so I will have to follow-up this post at that time.  The thought of having 4 more pots of gerber daisies is pretty awesome!

Here's the original bloom I bought back in late March 2014: