Radishrain's Houseplant growlog

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Posted by Radishrain Radishrain
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So, I just finished potting my cuttings and repotting some holiday cactuses that needed it. I gave them lots of perlite. All of them have no more than one plant per pot, except for I have two Christmas cactuses in a 2-gallon trough (which is probably a temporary spot for them, since I didn't have any other containers).

Here's what I have in my six 13" resin pots:

• A Thanksgiving cactus (pink-flowering; repotted, today)
• A Thanksgiving cactus (pink-flowering; repotted, today)
• A Golden Pothos (potted from a cutting in the recent past)
• A Golden Pothos (potting from a cutting, today)
• A Christmas cactus (pink-flowering; repotted in the recent past)
• A Christmas cactus (pink-flowering; repotted both today and in the recent past)

In the yellow ceramic 8" pot that used to have all the pink-flowering Christmas cactuses crammed into it, I now have one of those pink-flowering Christmas cactus (a fairly small one, but the greenest and healthiest ones) in it; it was repotted, today. I'm planning to give this one to my mom when it's bigger.

I have a 2-gallon trough with 2 pink-flowering Christmas cactuses in it (repotted today).

I have a few Karoun yogurt containers with plants in:
• A small Golden Pothos (potted from a cutting in the recent past)
• A Thanksgiving cactus (red-flowering; this was a cutting from a plant that I gave to my mom, which plant used to belong to me; the cutting had four segments coming out of one, so I figured it might be good to select for that and take a cutting; I want to put this in a 13" pot when it's bigger; it was potted from a cutting in the recent past)
• A Christmas cactus (pink-flowering; the one that is now in the yellow ceramic container broke off of this, otherwise, they'd be the same, but they both have roots; this was repotted today)

I have a grapefruit tree in a 14" ceramic pot. When I repot it, I'm thinking about planting the small Golden Pothos at its base so it can climb the grapefruit tree (if the Golden Pothos turns out to be quite healthy and the new pot is big enough for both of them to flourish within).

I have a rubber fig in a 20" plastic pot.

I have an umbrella tree in a ~14" ceramic pot.

I have cuttings rooting for a Christmas cactus and a Thanksgiving cactus both with more edges than each type normally has.

My mom is planning to give me a snake plant (a solid green one, as in no patterns, with lighter green or yellow on the edges) when she splits hers up, and a larger pot for my grapefruit tree. When I repot my grapefruit tree, I plan to put the snake plant in the 14" pot. It's my observation that snake plants seem to like large pots; plus, they multiply (so, they should fill it in time, no matter how big the pot is, if it's width we're talking about). Or, if I can find two half-donut shaped plant pots and just put them on top of the soil of the grapefruit tree (instead of actually in the grapefruit tree's soil), and I can have a couple Golden Pothos plants climbing it, with their pots forming a ring around the base of the tree (one full donut-shaped pot would be less practical, since I'd have to get my tree the hole.

After I receive the snake plant, I want to take a leaf cutting of it in order to try to get one without the lighter-colored edges (just a completely solid green snake plant, such as is hard to find in a Google image search).

I also have a number of Golden Pothos leaf cuttings that I'm attempting to root in soil. They say you're not supposed to be able to do that, but my sibling did it once (although I recently learned that some of the stem may have come off with the leaf; so, that may be why it rooted). Anyway, the leaves are still alive; I hope they root, and that I get a solid green one (no variegation) out of it (it's pretty easy to root stem cuttings; the main reason I'd want to do leaf cuttings, other than proving it can be done and not wasting leaves, is to get a solid green plant). It might be worth trying leaf vein cuttings, too. When you don't feel good about buying new kinds of plants, you can always be resourceful with the ones you do have. I don't feel good about ordering new plants online, currently, and I'm not going to the store; so, yeah. I don't have compunctions about ordering seeds, as long as they're from certain stores, though.

All of the plants are in my room where they get plenty of sun, except for my rubber fig and my umbrella tree. I'd like to put them in my room, but there's only so much space for the moment, and I need to figure something out. They really need the extra light, though. I'm thinking what I'll do is try to fit another one of them in my room, and when it's big and healthy from all the sun, switching it with the other one, and just switch them periodically to keep them nice and healthy.

I have two troughs left, which are somewhat larger than two gallons each (they're not the same kind as the first trough I mentioned). I plan to put garlic chives in one of them, and bunching onions in another (probably Crimson Forest or He Shi Ko). I plan to grow them like houseplants (houseplants that I trim once in a while; I intend to eat the trimmings). I want to put another kind of bunching onion in another trough.

All of my holiday cactuses and Golden Pothos plants have been zapped with one or more zappers, at some point. The the Golden Pothos plants (and the leaf cuttings) and the red-flowering Thanksgiving cactus got zapped longer (as long as I zap my seeds).

I want to take leaf cuttings of my umbrella tree and my rubber fig. Spring is the time to do it for the umbrella tree, I've read. I know you can take leaf cuttings of both of those.

FYI, these posts are about the pink-flowering Thanksgiving and Christmas cactuses when they were younger (I edited them so they don't call them by the wrong names anymore; I used to have it say the Thanksgiving Cactus was a Christmas cactus, and the Christmas cactus was an Easter cactus):
https://vegetables.boards.net/thread/94/zapping-thanksgiving-christmacactus-cuttings-z4ex
https://vegetables.boards.net/thread/331/electric-horseradish

I plan to water most of my plants pretty sparingly, since they have plenty of perlite, several are in pots that are larger than is necessary for their size, and some of the pots don't have drainage. My grapefruit tree needs about half a gallon of water every week, though (and it has drainage). My rubber fig and umbrella tree both have drainage, too. The plants in yogurt containers will probably need water more often, since they're smaller than the others. There's a strong fan going in my room; so, that probably causes more evaporation than usual, though. I want to get a watering can with a shower nozzle to make it easier to water the soil in a uniform way without giving them too much.

I added PermaGuard food grade diatomaceous earth to all of the plants that I potted or repotted today and recently, except for the Christmas cactus in the Karoun yogurt container. I ran out of the stuff I had in a glass, and I didn't want to pry open a 5-gallon bucket to get more, today; I'll have to do it another day. In the meantime, it's on top of a 5-gallon bucket (so the risk of ants getting into it is pretty slim).

I put the plants that are in 13" pots and the red-flowering Thanksgiving cactus on one of the tables I had been using for seed-drying (I put all my seeds I had them away a few to several hours ago). I put that table by a south window. More plants are just north of them on 5-gallon buckets (stacked two high), and my grapefruit tree is just north of those.

My grapefruit tree has lots of pretty new leaves, now. I pruned it a while ago, and I've been fertilizing it with foliar sprays of ammonium sulfate (it had a good dose of monopotassium phosphate and other nutrients in the soil weeks ago).

growlog_

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Re: Radishrain's Houseplant growlog

So, I noticed today that my two biggest pink-flowering Thanksgiving cactus plants are growing lots of the three-edged segments (at least three per plant). I'm excited about that. Those two plants also flowered for Easter (with the first flower blooming on Good Friday).

My red-flowering Thanksgiving cactus is growing a new leaf for the first time since I potted it.

Most of the holiday cactuses are growing new leaves nicely. Some of them still haven't started their growth spurt, yet (e.g. the newly potted cuttings).

The holiday cactuses and the Golden Pothos plants really seem to appreciate foliar sprays of calcium nitrate (that's a fertilizer you have to be careful with, though, as it can be dangerous to humans; you might want to wear goggles and a mask when spraying it). My grapefruit tree appreciates it, too. My rubber fig, however, did not seem to appreciate it (although it did start growing faster afterward); it was fine with foliar sprays of ammonium sulfate, however.
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
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