I'm new to this. Any advice?

I am new to this website as well as plants. I would love read have any advice you guys have to offer! I am currently housing numerous spider plants, 2 snake plant, wandering jew, 2 pothos, wax vine, 4 english ivy, watermelon peperomia, philodendron, christmas cactus, 2 ficus elastica ( one black, one creamy white and red), 2 schlefflera, twelve apolstles, jade plant, 2 moses plants, 2 ponytail palms, 2 aloe veras, 1 mysterious curly black ponytail palm.

1. My wandering jew that I am propogating in water has become wilted and weak. I want to plant it in soil, but will that make it die?
2. I want to propogate my plants. How should I go about doing this? Is it the same for all of them?
3. When I water my plants, it isnt absorbed by the soil; instead it immediately comes out the drainage hole. Any suggestions or ideas as to what is going on?
4. I have a hanging pot in my northfacing bedroom I wish to fill with the spiderplants I am propogating. The baby spiders are small and the spiders already in my pot can be pulled up easily from the dirt. Help?
5. I love my wax plant and its thick hardy stems. Are there other tough, easy plants such as this?
6. How to get rid of white many legged little bugs on some of my plants that are propogating and in soil?

Thanks so much guys! If you have any other advice or suggestions, all is greatly appreciated!

1. I always plant mine right in dirt, make sure that you keep the soil wet. And it will grow.
2. depends on plant on how much light and water and sometimes soil you should use. But if you are like me i experiment and see how they do.
3.I always water my plan ts and let the water sit in the saucer just for bit to give them a chance to suck water up but depending on soil and plant usually just watering it is fine.
4.They grow pretty good, I just did this in December just bury them enough to cover the roots and keep watering them. Try not to let them go dry. I watered once a week but the room was cooler.
5.not sure, I love my snake plants. I have eight different kinds! I also like my burgundy rubber plant. :o)
6. Changing the soil and/or using an insecticide (i always do this outside) I would find out exactly what you are trying to get rid of and then find some insecticide to use. or you can try organic.

Hope this helps some!

thanks so much tishrh! i really appreciate it and i also have some more questions...i just got a succulent that has leaves like jade but gets succulent like "blooms at the ends of the hard woody stems. i'd love to show you a picture to help with identification, but don't know how to post a picture. i'm propogating my jade, pothos, draceana tricolor and ponytail palm. do you know how to propogate a wax plant? thanks again!

Here's a link to tell you about propagating a wax plant!
Good Luck! Elizabeth
http://www.botany.com/hoya.htm

Wow. So many plants for a new gardener!

On #3, soil that has become very compacted and/or totally dried out will not absorb water well. Often it can help to fill up the sink or tub and soak the pots, so they can soak up the water from below- once the top soil surface is wet... they're done (this can take a few hours). After that, they should be able to absorb the from above if you get to them when they're dry-ish, not bone dry. Not absorbing can also mean that your soil mix needs to be lightened up.

For the insects- do try to identify them if you can. A small amount (1/4 t. or so) of dish soap in a spray bottle full of water is what I try first as an insecticide - I step up to harsher insecticides only if that doesn't do the job. A weak solution of hydrogen peroxide (maybe 1/8th peroxide or less) on the soil can help with the larvae in the soil.

wow thank you guys so much! that website was amazing, and my plants are soaking up water now! But they're still drying out after a day or so (I checked the root systems and they're not too big for the pots) Any ideas? Do you guys know any succulents or plants like them that don't need much sun? I live on the northside of my building and don't get direct rays. Also, how do you guys suggest going about stem and leaf cuttings for propagating? I've read all about it, but have no idea how to actually do it! Thanks so much again, I don't know what I'd do without this site!

If they are drying out quickly, more organic matter or peat moss added to the potting mix helps retain water. Though potted plants will often just need water every few days. Cacti and succulents will want a mix that drains better and says less damp... if you are starting with bagged potting mix, you'll want to add perlite or coarse sand to the mix for those.

Plants that dont need a lot of water are typically desert plants, so those do usually need a lot of light. Shady plants are often understory plants that like to be moist. Plants that like dryness and shade both are rare, though there are some.

As for propagation, a search for instructions for each particular plant you want to propagate is probably the best place to start.

do you have any suggestions of plants in general that would do well in shade? I do have some pretty good light near my window, but have all my succulents there. you guys are awesome!

Maranta (Prayer Plant), Fittonia (Nerve Plant), Anthurium (Flamingo Flower), Pilea (Moon Valley Friendship Plant), Pepperomias (some), and Hedera Hellix (English Ivy). Those are my "shady" plants. I am sure the are others. Here is a list of the low light plants in the Miracle Grow Complete Guide to Houseplants: Spathiphyllum (Peace Lily), Chamaedorea (Parlor Palm), Aglaonema (Chinese Evergreen), Philodendron (Heart Leaf) although low light will encourage the variegated varieties to revert back to green, Aspidistra (Cast Iron Plant), Zamioculcas (Zeezee Plant), and Dieffenbachia (Dumb Cane) to name a few. I am not saying that these are shade loving plants, some are, but they will adapt and grow under a wide range of conditions. Anyway, good luck!

i had my english ivy across the room from my window and it started dropping leaves and thinning out. do you know why? thanks so much, i plan to invest in these plants as well!

I'm not sure what is going on, but a lot of people have trouble with their ivies in the winter, especially towards the end of winter. My personal opinion is that it is a humidity issue. I keep mine in the bathroom and it is doing much better than it was in the place where I had it. Anyway, I wish you the best!

Is your ivy leaves yellow or brown? Normally if they are yellow they are too wet (they do not like alot of water especially not to sit in water) if it's brown then too dry. Also check for bugs, ivy gets them alot so watch.

I'd like to leave a piece of advice, but without enumerating my answers to correspond with your questions. The soil in the pot is the foundation of every conventional planting you will ever have the pleasure of tending. The key factor, that is to say the most important consideration affecting the potential vitality of your planting is your choice of growing media. Without a solid foundation to build on your plantings cannot grow at as close to their genetic potential as they are capable of in containers. It's as simple as "Chose a poor growth medium/choose to limit your plant's potential; choose a superior growth medium/ offer your plants the potential to grow at as close to their genetic potential as possible, within the limits of other cultural factors.

If you initially focus the efforts you expend seeking to learn the ways of plants on what makes a good growth medium (which goes hand in hand with what makes a poor medium and what to avoid) and how to make one w/o relying on heavy out-of-the-bag mixes, you'll soon be growing plants superior to those who have been struggling along for many years under the burden of a poor medium choice - in most cases w/o even realizing the impact that choice has on plant vitality. The reason I can say this in such absolute terms w/o concern for the fact that it does seem like an absolute statement is because it makes perfect sense from a scientific perspective; but more importantly, I have seen the fruits of grower's transitions from a poor medium to a superior medium literally thousands of times.

Good luck. ;o)

Al

barefoot- I've had one of my Marble Queen pothos across the room from a window for a while now. Granted the LR isn't very big but it has done OK. Maybe it just needs time to adjust? Here is a picture of mine, I'm hoping it will eventually drape over the pictures:)
Elizabeth

wow i love the picture ejennings! how did you get your leaves that big? and tapla, how do i know if my soil is okay? i buy organic potting soil from my local plant store and assumed that was fine, but now im second guessing..

barefoot- I bought this at HEB last July and most of the leaves were already that big. They were on sale for 7.99, when I saw how big the leaves were I had to get it. So far it has survived and it has gotton long.
Here is a picture of another I got there in August.
I water maybe every other week and I mist with a spray bottle

I just want to add a comment about your concern with having to water your plants every couple of days. Since you are in PA, is it safe to assume your heater is still running a lot? Even though most house plants are dormant in the winter (therefore needing less water), the heating systems in most houses dry the air so much that most of us find we have to water as much (or more!) in the winter. I live in North Carolina, so I especially notice a difference because our humidity is so high in the summer.

BFH - your soil choice should allow you to water copiously at every watering without having to be concerned about the specter of root rot. It should also be durable enough to retain that property for as long as your plant will be in that soil (between repots). The practice of watering to beyond saturation flushes excess salts from the soil which would otherwise build up, progressively making it more and more difficult for the plant to absorb water and the nutrients dissolved in it.

You may find this thread over at the Houseplant Forum of interest: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/796311/

Al

tapla- I read the thread you linked. I am probably causing more harm than good by going so far in between waterings? I should try to water it slowly more often, otherwise my roots might be slowly dying? Your "technical" writing did confuse me a bit, but I'm hoping I got the gest of it? Thanks, Elizabeth

Basically, I'm saying that the convenience of out of the bag soils has no direct correlation to their value as a growth medium for your houseplants. We often go much longer between repots (and I'm drawing a distinct difference between repotting and simply potting up. Repotting includes removal of old soils and pruning of roots, which guarantees the opportunity for maximum vitality, while potting up is simply moving the plant to a larger container and adding a little soil. This procedure guarantees that the plant will forever grow at reduced vitality - at least until root issues are corrected. Not only is this thought supported by my own observations as I go about repotting hundreds of plants each year (bonsai), but you can find the same information in multiple reference texts used by nursery/greenhouse ops, including Plant Production in Containers by Dr. C. Whitcomb.) than we should, so we need to use a soil that will retain its structure (remain well-aerated) from repot to repot. Peat/compost/coir-based soils are very water-retentive as they come out of the bag, and can be counted on to collapse within the first growth cycle.

There really is no way to work around these soils, because if you have to water in sips to avoid root rot, you assure that salts will build up in the soil. You actually cannot change drainage characteristics or ht of the perched water table by adding perlite or pine bark, unless you make these amendments the largest fraction of the soil and at least 60-70% of the o/a volume. Adding perlite to heavy soils only reduces the amount of soil in a given volume and reduces the amount of water the soil will hold. To illustrate this, imagine adding 1/4 cup of perlite to a cup of pudding, then ask yourself if the pudding will drain any better?

For plants to grow with the best vitality, they need a certain amount of air and moisture in the soil, air being the most important because you can adjust the amount of water by varying the frequency, but the o/a pore space cannot be appreciably changed for the better once the planting is established. You can achieve the durability and aeration your plants want by using ingredients that are of a larger particle size than peat/compost/coir as the primary ingredient of the soil. This can be as simple as mixing a large fraction of suitably sized pine bark and some perlite into your bagged soil, or you can learn to make your own soil from ingredients like those listed in the thread I linked to above.

I grow all my houseplants in the soil you see in the picture. Essentially, it is the soil I've been using for bonsai and houseplants for about 20 years. It won't collapse (structurally) and it will retain excellent aeration for far longer than it would be prudent to go between repots. It is extremely easy to tend plants in this soil, and because of its physical properties, it offers the grower a wide margin of error when it comes to watering and fertilizing.

Al

This message was edited Apr 18, 2010 10:44 AM

so theres no dirt in that soil al? ive brought more questions.. ive found mealy bugs on all of my plants and have tried soapy water for several weeks, as well and a store bought insecticide for mealy bugs. any ideas? also, im in love with hoyas! any that you particularly enjoy? where did you purchase your hoya? i have a primarily green with some white specks plant and i beleive its a hoya. it has a waxy fake looking stem and im so excited i might have a hoya!

Tapla- What all is in your mix? I just bought a different kind of potting soil. It's called Landscapers Pride potting soil from New Waverly, TX. Have you heard of it? I got it at the nursery I went to.

Barefoot- Were you talking to me about the hoyas?
Elizabeth

I'm not familiar with that soil, Elizabeth - sorry. They don't offer much of a description on their website.

There's no dirt in the soil, BFH. ;o) Here is the link I left upthread that gives the particulars about the soil if you're interested: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/796311/

Al

Al- The bag is real plain and vague also. I just thought since it was at a nursery, it must be good.? I got 40 lbs so I guess I'll see if it's any good.LOL