c/botany-lovers

1

danielm80•3d ago

I finally switched from plastic pots to terracotta for my succulents

Everyone in my local plant group swore by plastic pots for moisture control, but after losing 3 echeverias to root rot in 6 months, I had to try something else. Last spring I moved everything to unglazed terracotta from a shop on 7th Street, and none of my plants have rotted since. The clay really lets the soil breathe and dry out faster, which works way better for my watering habits. Has anyone else had better luck with one type over the other?

11

felixm29•4d ago

My neighbor insisted that talking to my plants does nothing. So I tested it for 3 months.

About 4 months ago, my retired neighbor Margaret saw me out on the porch talking to my monstera and gave me this look. She said 'you know plants don't have ears, right?' and laughed it off. I got curious so I decided to run my own little experiment. I picked two identical spider plants from the same nursery, same soil, same window spot. One I talked to every morning for 5 minutes while I drank my coffee, the other I just watered and ignored. After 3 months the one I talked to had put out 4 new shoots and the leaves were way greener. The quiet one looked kinda sad and only grew a little bit. I'm not saying the words made it grow, but maybe the CO2 from breathing near it or something helped. Has anyone else tried something like this and seen a difference?

8

williamw75•6d ago

Shoutout to the guy at the nursery who told me to stop overwatering my snake plant

I heard him tell another customer that most people kill houseplants with kindness and a watering can, and after losing two snake plants in a row I figured I'd try his trick of waiting until the soil is bone dry and now my third one is putting out new growth after 4 months.

17

corah75•7d ago

Warning: my peace lily got root rot because I babied it too much

Last month I found my peace lily looking droopy even though I watered it every 3 days like clockwork. Turns out I was drowning the poor thing because the pot had no drainage holes I forgot to check. I pulled it out and the roots were brown and mushy like old spaghetti. Had to trim off half the roots and repot it in a mix with perlite. Anyone else kill a plant with kindness like this?

10

danielm80•8d ago

TIL I was overwatering my snake plant for 2 years

Last month my neighbor stopped by and saw me watering it every 3 days. She goes 'you know those things are desert plants right?' Pulled it out of the pot and roots were all brown and mushy. Felt like a complete idiot. Anyone else kill houseplants by loving them too much?

7

fisher.thomas•9d ago

Found out my orchid was blooming because I ignored it, not because I babied it

Had this Phalaenopsis for 3 years. Barely bloomed. I was misting it, rotating it, talking to it. Then I went on a 2 week trip to visit my sister in Phoenix and forgot to ask anyone to water it. Came back and it had a 12 inch spike with 8 buds. Realized I was overwatering the thing all along. Now I only water it when the roots look silver. Has anyone else had a plant do better after you stopped fussing with it?

26

troychen•9d ago

Debate: Did my fiddle leaf fig really need 14 hours of light a day?

Honestly, I spent like 3 months thinking my fiddle leaf fig was dying because it kept dropping leaves. Turns out, I was giving it too much direct afternoon sun from my south-facing window in Austin. I moved it to a north-facing room and it perked up in just 2 weeks. So which side are you on - do these plants actually thrive on crazy long light cycles, or is less direct sun the real trick?

28

sammartinez•9d ago

Went to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix and completely changed my mind about succulents

I used to think succulents were boring, you know? Just a bunch of spiky green blobs that people put in mason jars at weddings. But I visited the Desert Botanical Garden last weekend and I don't know, something clicked. They had this whole section on agaves, and one of them was like 15 feet tall with these crazy curved leaves. The info plaque said it takes 10 to 30 years to bloom and then it dies. That really got me. Also saw a barrel cactus that was so perfectly round it looked fake. The docent mentioned how they store water for months in the wild. Now I'm looking at my sad little jade plant at home differently. Has anyone else had an "aha" moment about a plant they usually overlook?

21

hannahcraig•10d ago

Warning: I tried rooting cuttings in just water and lost 14 out of 20

I thought I could skip buying perlite and rooting hormone for my jade plant cuttings last month. After 3 weeks, 14 of them rotted at the bottom and never grew a single root. Now I'm stuck buying new cuttings from the nursery on Grand Avenue. Has anyone else had this fail so badly with succulents?

2

josephbailey•12d ago

Was totally against using grow lights indoors

I used to think grow lights were just a gimmick for people who didn't know how to care for plants naturally. But last winter I tried a cheap LED panel on my basil plant in my Chicago apartment because it was getting zero sun. After 3 weeks the thing doubled in size and got these huge dark green leaves I'd never seen before. Now I have two lights going for my whole windowsill setup. Anyone else get converted after seeing real results like this?

12

fiona_carr26•12d ago

Rant: Everyone says native plants are always better for pollinators, but I found out honeybees actually prefer some non-natives

I was reading through some field notes from a study out of the University of Minnesota Arboretum last night. They tracked bee visits across 20 different plant species over two summers. Turns out honeybees visited lavender and catmint way more than any native goldenrod or aster in their test plots. I know native plants support specialist bees better overall, but people act like planting anything non-native is a death sentence for bees. Has anyone else seen data that contradicts the common gardening advice?

26

thomas_price•13d ago

Warning: I see people watering their ferns with tap water straight from the hose

Had a buddy lose 3 Boston ferns in 2 weeks cause he was doing this. The chlorine and fluoride in city water will burn the fronds from the tips down. I switched to letting my water sit out for 24 hours before using it and my ferns look way better now. Anyone else notice this with their own plants?

26

quinn161•13d ago

The difference in my garden after switching to drip irrigation at a community plot in Portland

I had been hand watering my raised beds for two years and got tired of the daily 20 minute hose routine. Switched to a drip system last June and my tomato yield doubled by August with less water and zero leaf mold. Has anyone else seen that big a change just from changing how you deliver water?

15

the_brian•14d ago

Why does nobody talk about switching from store bought soil to making your own

I used to grab bags of potting mix from Home Depot every spring, but after my ferns kept dying I started mixing my own with compost from my backyard pile. It took me about six months to figure out the right ratio of sand to peat moss, has anyone else noticed a big difference after making the switch?

8

hannah_west39•16d ago

Met an older guy at a plant swap who told me to stop babying my succulents and just water them once a month whether they look thirsty or not

He said I was killing them with kindness by watering twice as often during summer, and after trying his method for 4 months every single one of them bounced back even the ones I thought were goners, has anyone else had a random stranger's advice totally change how you care for a specific type of plant?

3

the_viola•16d ago

Took me 3 years to realize I was overwatering my monstera by using tap water instead of letting it sit out overnight

Caught a brown tip on a leaf last month and a guy at the nursery said the chlorine was burning the roots, now I fill a jug and leave it on the counter for 24 hours before watering and the new leaves are actually dark green for once, has anyone else dealt with this or got a better fix?

22

tessa_carr•17d ago

Hot take: I hit 1,200 native plantings this spring and I'm not happy about it

I planted 1,200 native wildflowers in my yard over March and April expecting a big increase in bees and butterflies. Instead, the rabbits ate almost everything down to the dirt within two weeks, and now I have a patchy mess. Anyone else have better luck with fencing or repellents on a large scale?

33

young.michael•17d ago

Found out most poison ivy leaves aren't actually 'leaves of three'

I was pulling weeds in my backyard in Nashville last weekend and saw a plant with five leaflets. I almost grabbed it bare-handed until I remembered something from a ranger talk at the state park. Turns out, the old saying 'leaves of three, let it be' only covers the juvenile form. I looked it up on the USDA plant database and learned poison ivy can have 5, 7, or even 9 leaflets on mature vines. Has anyone else been tricked by the leaf count on these things?

17

troychen•18d ago

Fell for that fancy soil pH meter on Amazon

I spent $60 on a digital pH meter after reading all those glowing reviews. It gave me wrong readings for 3 months before I finally checked it against a cheap test kit and realized I'd been over-acidifying my blueberries the whole time. Anyone else get burned by a gadget that just didn't work?

23

wader71•18d ago

My old method for watering my ferns was total chaos

For years I just dumped a random amount of water on my Boston fern whenever I remembered, which was maybe once a week if I was lucky. Then last spring I got a moisture meter from a local nursery for like $12 and started checking the soil before watering. I found out I was drowning the poor thing half the time and leaving it bone dry the other half. Now I only water when the meter says the top 2 inches are dry, and my fern has doubled in size since June. It's crazy how a cheap little tool fixed my bad habits. Has anyone else had a plant bounce back after changing up your watering routine?

16

casey818•21d ago

I wasted $85 on a rare succulent that died in 3 days because I didn't check if my apartment had enough light

Bought a variegated string of pearls from a booth at the LA plant swap meet and it turned to mush on my north-facing window sill, anyone else impulse buy a fancy plant without checking their growing conditions first?

12

murray.robert•23d ago

That old timer at the nursery swore by banana peels for roses...

After 3 months of trying his method on my yellowing knockout roses I finally admitted it actually greened them up better than my store bought fertilizer.

17

paul_ramirez•23d ago

Blew a hole in my greenhouse plastic during a storm last month

I was out back in Lincoln checking on my tomatoes after a big wind came through. The tarp I used as a temporary cover had torn clean open right at the seam, so I lost half my seedlings to the cold that night. I patched it with duct tape and some spare plywood scraps I had lying around, but three more plants wilted by morning. Has anyone here tried those heavy duty greenhouse films from the supply store for winter?

26

phoenix_singh25•24d ago

Saw a stat that said 1 in 4 houseplants die from overwatering not underwatering

I was reading this article from some gardening site last night and it claimed 25% of houseplant deaths come from drowning them, not neglecting them. I always thought most people killed plants by forgetting to water, but the data said otherwise. That surprised me because I've killed more plants from neglect than kindness. What have you guys seen more of in your own homes - plants dying from too much love or not enough?

18

singh.harper•25d ago

My neighbor killed my prized peony with Roundup and now I dig a trench between our yards

Last spring I noticed my Sarah Bernhardt peony was wilted and brown on just one side. Turns out my neighbor sprayed weedkiller along the fence line on a windy day. I lost a plant I had been growing for 8 years. Now every spring I spend an afternoon digging a 6 inch trench and lining it with plastic before I plant anything near the fence. Has anyone else dealt with a neighbor's herbicide drift ruining their garden?