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

[Honored guest]

Human action fucked things up; human action will be required in the un-fucking.

It's interesting to see the waves of different weed species take over the area and then be supplanted by the next weed, though. Last year this fake Queen Anne's lace really gained ground and now it's absolutely everywhere, beside the highways and in vacant lots.

I don't know what it is exactly; the taproot smells like a carrot when you pull it, the bloom is like Queen Anne's lace, and the seeds are awful burrs. Pulls up really easily, but I wear gloves in case it's one of the toxic members of the parsley family.

The carrot smelling taproot should confirm that its a wild carrot(Queen Anne's Lace), as poison hemlock won't have a pleasant scent.Do the flowers have a red or pink tint to them? There is a variety of Queen Anne's Lace that is red with some flowers being a deep red and other almost being pink

They've been around for awhile, but just a few years ago several seed companies started offering the seeds for sale, I picked some up and enjoyed the flowers, the seeds stick like burrs, and I've seen several people complain to the companies selling them as they can be invasive.

As for new weeds popping up in the yard, this year its pokeweed, last year I let one plant fruit and now they're everywhere, damn birds probably dispersed the seeds.

 

[Swagstika]

I am once again asking for your advice and support.

Back when I repotted and re-poled my Pothos, there was a single vine that had some sad and saggy leaves. But it rebounded in just a few days, so I assumed it was just the general stress of being rehomed, so I didn’t bother any further.

Yesterday I went over the plant to weave some of the new vine-growth back in under the other vines and remove some of the pins I had used to hold it in place.
Down by the roots I found a funny little offshoot, but when I went to investigate: Disaster!
Right after the offshoot, the vine was almost broken clean off and was hanging by a thread.

Crap. So, I grabbed some surgical tape to hold it together and some of the padding cotton you use under compression to keep the vine moist under the tape. I intended to patch it up first and ask for advice later.
But it broke off the second I touched it.

I pushed a tall shot glass into the dirt, directed the broken vine into it and have filled it with water.
The vine seems to be totally fine today, but I could really use some advice. So far I have just checked on it and topped off the water a few times.

First off: Should I cut the two ends to create clean cuts, or leave the frayed ends alone?
Second: Should I add something to the water? Plant nutrition, coffee?

My plan is to wait for it to sprout some roots in the water. Then gently and methodically pull it backwards through the weavings and push the new roots into the soil.

Propagate: It’s my English vocabulary word of the day.

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

It's pothos, it'll be fine.

You should cut it just below a node (the little wart-looking bits on the stems.) The node is what the roots will grow out of. If you leave too much of the green part underwater it can turn black slimey and rot.

If it's a really long vine you can propagate it into multiple pieces. Each piece should only have 1 or maybe 2 nodes on it. Like under 3 leaves. The more plant there is, the harder it is for it to have the energy to build roots while sustaining itself.

Don't try to force it into the dirt too early. Wait until the roots have roots (Google it if you don't get it). I wouldn't do any "slow weaving", I think this would lead to rot. When it's ready, just put the whole thing in the dirt.

You could maybe add liquid plant fertilizer or rooting hormone but I honestly wouldn't recommend it since you're using such a small volume of water it sounds like. It's just way too easy for people to add way too much. It would need like a literal drop or perhaps even less: I know my liquid fertilizer, I only put half a dropper full into a gallon of water. Some plants need hormones to root in water but again it's pothos. You could probably pour a soda in there and it'd be happy.

Tldr:

Sharp cut below the nodes
Let the roots grow from the node until the root has roots on it
Put it into the soil all at once

Also after you put it back into the soil, don't overwater, but also don't let the entire pot go bone dry for the next month or so.

 

[NoReturn]

First off: Should I cut the two ends to create clean cuts, or leave the frayed ends alone?

Cut. Nice and clean and between the nodes.

Lines are where you cut.

Second: Should I add something to the water? Plant nutrition, coffee?

Nope, just keep the water clean and topped off. Change it out and clean the glass/bottle if you see scum growing. If there's anything else you want to root at the same time (e.g. a plant cutting, herbs) put that in the same water.

My plan is to wait for it to sprout some roots in the water. Then gently and methodically pull it backwards through the weavings and push the new roots into the soil.

It's ok to pull it out so you have more slack at the bottom even if you have to sacrifice a few leaves, wait until the roots are a few inches long.

 

[The Skeksis Emperor]

I bought a tiny Myrmecodia Tuberosa at a train station (impulse buy and yes, I don't know why they were selling them there either). It's an indoor plant here. No idea what to expect, just hoping I can keep it alive at all. Mine is about as big as the wiki image example. Does anyone have experience with these things?

God! Damn! It!

I'm sorry to hear that, it sucks. Sucks even more because family/friends do usually try their best, they just mess up all the same. I hope you can find a new lemon balm soon.

 

[Swagstika]

Thank you @bliblblblbbllb and @NoReturn I have done some changes after your advice!

I come with pictures this time.

First up: The Pothos in a full length picture.
I'm 5'7" and the top leaves are almost eye height with me 8)
It looks a little bare right now. Okay, a lot actually from what it used to look like! But I hope it will "grow into" the pole soon enough.

Close up to show the sad little broken vine down at the root and its little offshoot.

Here was the old solution with the shot glass.
Look how sad it was with those few little fibers keeping the whole vine alive!

New solution with a clean cut and a bigger glass.
I will change the glass often and look into some sort of plant fertilizer tomorrow.
I honestly can't tell how long the vine is because everything is so interwoven, but I really, really want this to work instead of having to take the whole structure apart and having to chop the vine to pieces.

Bonus picture: The husbando has bought several of those little Ikea greenhouses to have the meat-eating plants in.
This one has my favourite, the tubby red one on the right.
It also has an impulse buy non-meateating plant that I got for my own computer desk (second from the left) and the husbando confiscated "because it matches the red one".

 

[NoReturn]

New solution with a clean cut and a bigger glass.
I will change the glass often and look into some sort of plant fertilizer tomorrow.

Is pothos, you don't need fertilizer. In the wild part of how they propagate is by having their vines ripped off and fall on the forest floor. If it gets fertilizer it will get confused.
"How am I in the ground? I got pulled off my tree, but now I'm underground? How?"

That said, make sure the water stays clean and that it has enough of it. You can also put the fan on in your house (or put a desk fan nearby) during the day to help with transpiration.

I honestly can't tell how long the vine is because everything is so interwoven, but I really, really want this to work instead of having to take the whole structure apart and having to chop the vine to pieces.

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By having more "slack" then when you grow roots you can "unfurl" the vine and put it directly into the soil without needing to unweave/re-weave.
Another thing you could do that is very silly, but I've seen done before, is to get a teeny-tiny planter to raise the dirt up to where the vine ends.

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

Something that's unintuitive but true is that plant fertilizer is stressful to plants, especially houseplants. It's not like a "health boost." And sick plants especially can't really stand being fertilized. More is typically not better and I recommend beginners just not use any fertilizer at all unless they've identified an actual deficiency or some other reason to use it. Because almost everyone's impulse is to fertilize wayyy too much and wayyy too often.

It's better to invest in learning how to mix your own potting mixtures. Or namely, almost every houseplant benefits from having some perlite added to the soil, and this also tends to help the chronic overwaterers. Both tropicals and succulents typically come in pretty shit soil mixtures without enough drainage to withstand overwatering. Imo. I am a perlite stan.

 

[Gay Mouth]

but I really, really want this to work instead of having to take the whole structure apart and having to chop the vine to pieces.

If it’s worst case scenario and the vine doesn’t root and dies- you don’t have to take the structure apart or unweave. That will only disturb the living vines. If it dies, the vine will turn yellow, the leaves will brown and shrivel up and die. Then you can just cut the dead vine out in pieces to keep the rest of the structure intact and undisturbed.

I’ve personally not had success rerooting a long broken vine. The energy to push roots out is too much- alternatively I’ve had complete success chopping the vines into 1 or 2 leaf-and-node sections, and rooting in water or directly in moist soil. Pothos is a very forgiving plant and yours is looking great already.

 

[Lichen Bark]

I honestly can't tell how long the vine is because everything is so interwoven, but I really, really want this to work instead of having to take the whole structure apart and having to chop the vine to pieces.

You know how we SCIENTIFICALLY proved that pothos cuttings speed up rooting of other plants.......what if you put a couple of pothos pieces into the shot glass with the pothos vine, could the pothos cuttings speed up rooting of other pothos!? @NoReturn

I am a perlite stan.

How do you feel about vermiculite though.....?

 

[glioblastoma multiforme]

My mom was supposed to water my plants, and generally take care of them while I was on vacation. Unfortunately, I think she didn't turn off the plant light, or didn't water my lemon balm, or something because my lemon balm is dead

i feel your pain. left care of plants with my partner while away for work. explained deadheading and that if there's no water in the trays under the pots, the pots need watering. the first thing i saw when i got home was the pot by the door looking very thirsty and many flowers gone to seed.

thankfully he didn't kill anything but he also didn't water anything inside while the weather was pretty hot.

 

[Lichen Bark]

My Snake Plant is blooming again. This makes it 3 times this year I didn't know they could bloom that many times, this is a first. I walked into it's room, and was greeted by the familiar sweet fragrance. The bloom was actually hiding between a couple of the leaves so I couldn't even see it, but the aroma tipped me off, and I freed the flower so I could see it. The smell only happens in the evenings/night, I think, to attract moths, which is kind of romantic interesting. Behold!

The flowers always give off some sticky nectar which you can sort of see here.

 

[Coffee Druid]

I've had several casualties due to the southern US summer here. My mints and lemon balm are hanging on. Ruby, my rubber plant is doing well, at least in that she's still growing a new leaf here and there.

I planted some mango seeds after eating store-bought fruits. They sprouted and are growing lots of leaves. But they're pots are way too tiny for them now. I'm debating whether to plant them in-ground or move up to large pots. I got some malabar spinach that needs the same rehoming treatment. Now that fall is allllmost here I'm thinking of replacing some of the herbs that died from heat.

 

[NoReturn]

I've been taking and making "sticks" from things like the branches of a dill plant and the vines of black berries and drying them in the sun, then I set them up in things like my pots and rail planters.
It has been a MASSIVE success in attracting spiders to the garden, and if you aren't afraid of spiders I strongly recommend it.

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

malabar spinach

How do you situate this stuff?
I got some that was labeled as a climbing plant, because I thought it would be good to go up a trellis. But it didn't climb the trellis, it sprawled all over the ground and climbed other plants until I stuck some random skinny dowel rods against the trellis, which it happily climbed. The leaves are teeny weeny, but the vines are very long and I don't know what went wrong.

Not my picture but mine looks like this. The pale vine.

 

[Coffee Druid]

How do you situate this stuff?
I got some that was labeled as a climbing plant, because I thought it would be good to go up a trellis. But it didn't climb the trellis, it sprawled all over the ground and climbed other plants until I stuck some random skinny dowel rods against the trellis, which it happily climbed. The leaves are teeny weeny, but the vines are very long and I don't know what went wrong.

Not my picture but mine looks like this. The pale vine.
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The short answer is: I don't know. I got two baby plants from a coworker a little while back. They're trailing along my porch where they are sitting in pots. I have a hanging planter I think I'll put one into, and then with the other do a trellis or bamboo rod type of deal.

 

[AnOminous]

I've had several casualties due to the southern US summer here. My mints and lemon balm are hanging on. Ruby, my rubber plant is doing well, at least in that she's still growing a new leaf here and there.

About the only plant I grew this year were impatiens which were killed in a single day when I was out of town and couldn't water them. It's just as well I didn't grow anything. Last year, I had basil, which grew bushy and was beautiful, but I couldn't ever harvest significant amounts of it (for the basil pesto I usually like) because the plants would visibly suffer and not recover. So they were basically decorative basil.

I probably could have grown peppers again, because they actually seem to like the hot, dry treatment within reason, and get nice and hot.

Oh well there's always next year unless it's going to be another of these miserable scorchers.

 

[fishercat]

A huge storm came through my town and knocked a ton of trees over. One landed directly in my garden and crushed everything. I'm just going to start over next year.

 

[SpiceyHuman]

I've had several casualties due to the southern US summer here. My mints and lemon balm are hanging on. Ruby, my rubber plant is doing well, at least in that she's still growing a new leaf here and there.

I planted some mango seeds after eating store-bought fruits. They sprouted and are growing lots of leaves. But they're pots are way too tiny for them now. I'm debating whether to plant them in-ground or move up to large pots. I got some malabar spinach that needs the same rehoming treatment. Now that fall is allllmost here I'm thinking of replacing some of the herbs that died from heat.

In my opinion, mangos grow to fit the container they are in, so if yoy want your mango to continue to grow larger, repot it into a larger container. Good luck on your mango! They are one of my favorites to grow from the seed pod. Here ones of mine, about a year old and over 3 ft high.

 

[877-CASH-now]

Hello plant pals!

Does anyone have experience with using LECA, specifically on a pancake plant? No matter what I do, I kill these suckers and I'm desperate for attempt #4 to succeed - but I am incapable of figuring out what they need. Attempt #3 was my longest lasting yet - I bought a moisture meter and diligently waited until it was fully dry! - and it started growing new leaves until it dropped them all.

I of course measure my effectiveness as a plant mom by the plant that dies the most and not the ones I'm keeping alive.