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

[Swagstika]

Uhm, no, actually.
Let me explain (and powerlevel I guess)...
So Swagling #2 had to do a biology project and had just learned about what makes an organism an organism.
He asked if he could make a project about removing the thrips and not the plant and I agreed because I thought it was a good idea and showing he understands the difference between plant and animal.
So we decided to go with trying to drown them instead of gassing them, for reasons I guess I don't have to explain.
Weeeeeeeeell.
I was at work and Swagling #2 and mr. Swagstika who is a househusband, decided in their infinite wisdom to use hot water, to really-really kill the pests....
...
The burn damage is still developing.
And I'm applying my nursing to amputate the dying parts as they show.
It will survive for sure, it is a monstera after all. But it does look miserable.
Swagling #2 got lots of praise for the project and mr. Swagstika is a good dad. That is the important parts.
(Should have picked some smarter dna for my offspring, but good God is he pretty...)

Guess who found freaking thrips on her monstera?
*twitch*
Yep. They're still there.
All the fucking damage my spawn and husband did to it, and the pests are still there.
So I'm channelling my inner Rochambeau and have set up a gas chamber for it.
If this doesn't work, I will chop all above-grounds parts off it and will see if it survives.
I'm actually super tempted to skip ahead for this, because it looks so sad it makes me feel bad.
The only thing keeping me from this is the fact that the monstera really seems to fight for its life.

 

[a hapless toad]

So yesterday I bought a few plants off the Walmart garden center clearance rack for $1 each. I figured if the deer had them for a snack then I would know not to plant those in the future and I'd only be out a couple bucks.

I got two pentas and two crossandra (both of which are supposedly be deer resistant) and left them on the railing of my deck yesterday afternoon.

And this is what I found this morning.



I wish I'd taken a photo of them yesterday because they were quite healthy plants before!

So thanks for letting me know that pentas and crossandra are tasty morsels, deer. I hope you enjoyed your discount snacks!

(Note: I wasn't really planning on planting these out, as they're only hardy to zone 9 and I am zone 6.)

 

[Pickman's Modeling Agency]

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I hope you enjoyed your discount snacks!

Petition for an Official Kiwi Farms Deer-Hate Thread.

(I don't hate them, I just might have to try that pointy stick deterrence method from earlier in the thread).

 

[a hapless toad]

Petition for an Official Kiwi Farms Deer-Hate Thread.

(I don't hate them, I just might have to try that pointy stick deterrence method from earlier in the thread).

It's not a bad idea, especially since I think deer palates vary from place to place as well as by species. I swear most of the "oh this plant is totes deer resistant" stuff I see online relates to white-tailed deer and I've got mulies, who seem to be far less picky about what they eat. We could keep a databank of preferred deer snacks by general region.

(I don't hate them either - in fact a doe and her fawns just came round for dinner and even though I need to take the garbage out I'm sitting inside patiently waiting until they're done.)

So far I haven't seen them in my backyard, so there's a chance I might luck out if I keep most of my gardening back there. But I need to test that hypothesis. Maybe I'll go back to Walmart for more clearance plants and set them out in the middle of the yard and see if they disappear.

 

[AnOminous]

(I don't hate them either - in fact a doe and her fawns just came round for dinner and even though I need to take the garbage out I'm sitting inside patiently waiting until they're done.)

I don't hate deer, nobody should. Even hunters don't. They love them. They only shoot the best of them and eat them.

That doesn't mean it isn't really annoying when they eat goddamn everything in your garden but whatever, haven't had that problem this year (because I have not had a garden).

I just got four oddly-formed tomatoes from the actual gardener I know (I can't really grow anything currently) which are probably the last of the year, and made marinara from the other batch of plum tomatoes. Ugly heirloom tomatoes are the best though. What to do with four of them?

 

[a hapless toad]

Ugly heirloom tomatoes are the best though. What to do with four of them?

This is what I did with my first glut of tomatoes this year, once I got utterly sick of BLTs. Since you've only got four, depending on their size, you might have to supplement with additional tomatoes or halve the recipe.

https://smittenkitchen.com/2009/08/tomato-and-corn-pie/

 

[Pickman's Modeling Agency]

What to do with four of them?

Caprese salad sandwich, if that's a flavor profile you like and you're a sandwich guy. Toasty bread of choice, basil pesto, fresh mozzarella (the kind they sell in wet slab form), and a fat slice of tomato. Ideally the mozzarella and tomato should be single slices that cover the bread kind of like a double-decker burger. The only greens that normally come with are some fresh basil leaves but I like adding spinach and letting the pesto handle the basil flavor.

Obviously this won't take care of four of them, though. Your burden is heavy.

 

[Lichen Bark]

and have set up a gas chamber

You just need to remember that you want as little air as possible in the bag, and mostly CO2. If you can keep it from leaking out it will work. I'm very curious how you set it up, did you modify anything from my setup?

 

[glitterglue]

I started growing tomatoes this summer on my balcony, and i have about 10 plants. Have anyone tried moving them inside, during winter, put them under a plantlamp? Does that work?

 

[Snack Cracker]

Not trying to be annoying but I hate Reddit and the women here are so much more intelligent.

I have this cactus, but it’s completely overtaken the small pot I had it in but it’s healthy and could keep growing with room (not my cactus picture).

It has teeny tiny red micro spikes all over that easily break off, and I’m genuinely stumped on how to handle and replant it but time is ticking until that first frost.
I’ve gotten some needles stuck in my finger before and I used the same exact technique as splinter removal to get it out.
Not fun.

Plz take pity on me

 

[instant]

I started growing tomatoes this summer on my balcony, and i have about 10 plants. Have anyone tried moving them inside, during winter, put them under a plantlamp? Does that work?

For like, short-ish periods (maybe up to a month?) they ought to still manage to even bear fruit. If your target is to make sure they just stay alive then yea, they ought to still be able to make it. Watch out they don't get too dry in winter though.

 

[NoReturn]

Not trying to be annoying but I hate Reddit and the women here are so much more intelligent.

I have this cactus, but it’s completely overtaken the small pot I had it in but it’s healthy and could keep growing with room (not my cactus picture).

It has teeny tiny red micro spikes all over that easily break off, and I’m genuinely stumped on how to handle and replant it but time is ticking until that first frost.
I’ve gotten some needles stuck in my finger before and I used the same exact technique as splinter removal to get it out.
Not fun.
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Plz take pity on me

Got any long tweezers like the ones people use for dioramas/aquariums?

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

Not sure how fragile you mean by fragile spines, but I always repotted cactuses with a doeskin glove and merely flipped the entire thing upside down to pop it out the pot and directly into the new soil. The "bed of nails" effect keeps the spines from getting crushed while upside down in my hand. If you don't have leather gloves you could totally use an oven mitt. And if you don't have fancy diorama tweezers, you probably have kitchen tongs....

 

[Lichen Bark]

I started growing tomatoes this summer on my balcony, and i have about 10 plants. Have anyone tried moving them inside, during winter, put them under a plantlamp? Does that work?

Yes! If it's an indeterminant plant (which many in my area are), then the thing just keeps growing. The tricky part will be managing its size, so you will have to prune it somehow to keep it manageable. I grew some kind of cherry tomatoes indoors. I attached fishing line from the pot to the grow light, then tied the tomato the line as it grew taller and closer to the light. I got about 5 golf ball-sized tomaters over the winter......sooooo....totally worth it. One thing to watch for in the two weeks after you bring it in is bugs, kill any that show up. I find that certain thing's like aphids can go crazy indoors, I think, because their natural predators aren't present indoors. You really need to be closely inspecting things early on.

It has teeny tiny red micro spikes all over that easily break off, and I’m genuinely stumped on how to handle and replant it but time is ticking until that first frost.

If you have some leftover bubblewrap from packages you could wrap it in some bubble wrap. Yes, the spines will pop some, but it might provide enough cushion to protect the spines. You could go a few layers of bubblewrap and a layer or two of packing paper/newspaper. Maybe even scrunch up saran wrap, or use some old rags to make it more cushiony, then wrap with paper and grab. Usually I just use barbecue tongs and try to grab it as low as possible to preserve the spikes, but my cacti have less spines than yours.

Similar to this method, but you're adding more padding around the cactus before grabbing it with paper.

 

[Swagstika]

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You just need to remember that you want as little air as possible in the bag, and mostly CO2. If you can keep it from leaking out it will work. I'm very curious how you set it up, did you modify anything from my setup?

I couldn't add your original instructions to the reply, but I pretty much followed it to the letter. Zip tie, big plastic bag. The only thing I changed was that I have topped off the gas daily for three days.
However...
The monstera looks like absolute shit now and I really want to just completely chop it down and restart it.
I mean, look at this poor thing!
Messed up leaves, burn damage, thrips damage still visible, one leaf propped up with a chop stick and tape to keep it from breaking completely and one weirdly folded new leaf that just can't seem to turn itself correctly.
What argument is there against chopping this thing all the way back?

 

[Lichen Bark]

I couldn't add your original instructions to the reply, but I pretty much followed it to the letter. Zip tie, big plastic bag. The only thing I changed was that I have topped off the gas daily for three days.
However...
The monstera looks like absolute shit now and I really want to just completely chop it down and restart it.
I mean, look at this poor thing!
Messed up leaves, burn damage, thrips damage still visible, one leaf propped up with a chop stick and tape to keep it from breaking completely and one weirdly folded new leaf that just can't seem to turn itself correctly.
What argument is there against chopping this thing all the way back?

Honestly I'm surprised it looks this good after you said it survived some kind of therapeutic boiling water treatment, I was expecting a plant that resembled that guy from RoboCop, who got burned by the toxic waste. I think you should give it a couple weeks as a reward for surviving the abuse. Maybe craft it a purple heart medal.

Hopefully the thrips are dead. You said you had to top up the bag, did you find it was deflating? I can't say I had to refill things when I did it, the bag stayed the same volume once I sealed it. I wonder if they are dead........time will tell.......

 

[(The REAL) Jack Torrance]

What argument is there against chopping this thing all the way back?

Personally I would chop everything but the very best couple of leaves so it can focus its energy on regrowing (hopefully without thrips), while you still get to enjoy the leaves it has left.

 

[Swagstika]

Officially FML.
I just found a massive thrips infestation on not one, but two other plants (same kind).
So I'm going for the tactical nuke. I have no particular attachment to the two newly infested plants, so I'm cutting all above grund parts off and if they die, they die.
Question for the plant experts though: Would I have to replace the pot soil? From what I have read, the thrips live in and on the leaves, not stalks and not soil. Maybe some pest-spray on the soil to make sure.
But should I replace the soil anyways?

Edit.
Okay, so I just had a minor freakout over the damned thrips.
I have cut the monstera completely down to below soil level. No leaves left.
Same with the two spotted-leaf plants with the new infestations.
All three are now outside in a big plastic bag.
I have sprayed the soil down with pest killer, then closed the bag with a zip tie.
I intend to open the bag 1-2 times a day, top off the pest killer and close it again.
I will repeat it for the upcoming week to make sure all egg state thrips have hatched and come into contact with the poison.
Godspeed, monstera.

 

[one_time_user]

you
should definitely treat the soil with beneficial nematodes or the like, something to eat any larvae

 

[Swagstika]

I brought a silver pothos home today.
My intent was to evict one of the plants I had tactically nuked and cut down to under soil level from its pot.
Think it was called something along painted leaves-something?
Anyways, as I tipped it out of the pot, which is one of my favourites, it looked... good?!
Healthy roots, lots of activity and new growth pushing up for light.
So I couldn't do it.
I have washed and cleaned the roots and pot for potentially contaminated soil, got a new bag of soil and re-planted it.
I belive it will be just fine.
The silver pothos got another pot and now lives in the office with Pandora the pothos, the one who released my plant obsession.
But it made me curious to see how the monstera's roots were doing, so I repeated the process with that one, and... two more surprises!
First of, I thought I had four monsteras in the pot. I have three.
The biggest one has made a really weird little baby in a way I didn't think they could?
I thought monsteras could only make one, main vine and wasn't able to split like this?
I had to go back and check the pictures from my repot back in march, and nope, the weird little offshoot has happened since then.
Second surprise was a lot less welcome.
When I potted it back in march, I had added a bottom layer of leca stones.
Thinking back, I remember it was part of the self watering pot-kit, but now I know better from having read up on plant care.
So good thing I took a look, because the monsteras and pot have now been cleaned for crappy old soil and repotted in new.
I'm feeling optimistic.