Hello everyone,
I am so excited. I just got back from Sam's with my new 5 chrome shelf unit, like the one pictured in critter's first post. Now I have to buy my lights and I will be all set to grow my AV babies. This is so exciting. I can hardly wait for my leaves to make a new baby. I will probably jump up and down the moment that I see a baby emerge from the soil. I have 14 leaves set down and I can hardly wait. Wish me luck. I bet you can't tell that I'm a little bit excited. Anyway, I have to take DH to Tiger Direct for some computer parts. TTYL
JesseK
Basement babies have moved uptown!
good luck Jesse!! I so excited for you!
Anita
Woohoooo! I've been having so much fun with my new plant shelves, and I know you will too! I'm really happy with the T-8 lights, BTW. I just read in my new AVSA magazine that they are more efficient... you can run regular lights for 12-14 hours, or your violets will be just as happy with T-8's run for 10 hours, plus they use 32 watts rather than 40.
Yippii Jesse :)) It took me about six months to get all my lights fixtures and tubes for my stands once I got my stand.I got one light fixture and tubes at a time :))
I'm so excited for you. I used the Special 32 watt gro lights and love them but replacing them latley about 10 so far ( they were going on 2 years old ) I had to buy cool white as the price was too costly for me this time around. But the cool white they still seems to be happy if you have to save money. Two for less than $5.00 and I think the others went to about $13.00 each.
Hope you have lots of babies !!!
I will be buying my lights one or two at a time also. I cannot afford to get them all at once. But it will get done. I will just have to let some of my other plants share some of their light until I have the money to buy all of them. But we will make it. Luckily, I already have a few sets of bulbs that I had bought a while back. So if all I have to get are the fixtures for just two shelves at least I already have the bulbs. So that is good. I will make sure that my babies are taken really good care of plus I have DH looking over my shoulder to see how his babies are doing. He would never admit that they are his babies too, I guess that is a guy thing. But he really does enjoy them and that just makes me want to jump up and dance.
JesseK
My fixtures were about $7.00 each for the double 4 ft. at Lowes and HD :))
I got curious, so I just pulled my receipt to check prices. My T-8 florescent fixtures (the skinny tube ones) were $7.98 each (4 foot, twin bulb "shop light" style).
Two-packs of Daylight Bulbs (Phillips F32T8/DX) were $6.97 each.
So that's a little more than the 4 ft. double tube T-12 florescent fixtures with regular 40 watt cool light bulbs, but it's not nearly as expensive as those "light stand" setups some of the catalogs want to sell you.
Yes, that is what I found at Walmart. Do you have one per shelf or two per shelf. By looking at the shelves, it seems that two fixtures per shelf is what I will need. We are going out today to see what we can find. But I think the Walmart ones is what I will buy. I already have a dozen of them and they seem to work for well.
JesseK
This message was edited Feb 2, 2006 12:58 PM
I have two on the lowest shelf since that shelf doesn't get any light from the window. It's a south facing window, with a lightweight shade drawn to filter the light a little, so I figure the other shelves can make do with just one light. Getting 6 fixtures and a surge protector to plug them all into cost me $105, so I stopped there, at least for now. (The top shelf is so high that I think I'm just going to use it to store extra pots or something.)
Oh Jill you have the Day Lights cool those are nice I thought you had gro lights.
I have two on most but my shelves are 24 inches across.
No.... I save the really expensive florescent bulbs for my aquarium! :-)
My shelves are 18 inches across, but I can get 4 nursery flats on each shelf. My seedling shelves in the basement are the same size, and I put two double tube fixtures over each shelf... Rule of thumb is that two 40 watt 48" florescent bulbs will provide light for 2 flats of seedlings... But my AVs seem to be doing great with less than that, although it may be that the more efficient T-8 bulbs make a difference.
I thought it was time for an update on new blooms...
'Apache Victory' started blooming last month, but now it's really showing off on my kitchen counter!
I think this is one where I lost the original plant but had an "insurance leaf" down.
Here are my first blooms from 'Rob's Cherry Soda'.
'Rob's Bunny Hop' is blooming again too -- what a charmer!
The first bloom on 'Candy Crystals' turned out to be pretty big for a miniature, and the raspberry edge just blew me away.
Check it out -- there's a nice little sucker forming on the back of 'Rob's Cherry Soda'!
I've got some more suckers on other plants to remove & pot up also... I think I'm propagating that way as much as by leaf at the moment.
Beautiful Beautiful :)) Thanks for sharing ! I love suckers too :))
Super...I can't wait for mine to start blooming. I mostly have ears...so it will be awhile.
I was moving some of my cacti and behind them on the end of the shelf I found an Optimara Evergrace, the 6" ones. I cleaned it up and gave it water and I think it will be okay. Now I can't wait for it to bloom.
JesseK
Oh my goodness Jesse you did noy know you had it ? WOW how long sense it had been watered ? Hope it does well for you :))
Jill I just love your pictures I like the buds in pictures too so cute :))
I love Cherry Soday and Candy Crystal!! Variegated are my favorites!!!
They are all gorgeous! Especially candy crystals and apache blanket.
Just stunning! Thanks for sharing!
~Lorry
wonderful pictures,thanks for posting them.
'Rob's Cherry Soda' should be crown variegated yellow & beige, but my plant just isn't showing it yet.
I'm not sure if I'll have extras of that one, but I have some little plantlets of 'Candy Crystals' that are looking pretty good... I'll add it to your wish list, Anita!
Lorry, I added 'Candy Crystals' and 'Apache Victory' to your wish list also.
I should add that I'll try to "play fair" with any that end up being in short supply this spring, but I'm not actually putting names on plantlets until they're potted up & looking good, and I've not been putting dates on my trade tracker lists to try to figure out who asked for dibs on what when. That said, I'm sure there will be enough plantlets for a bunch of fun trades! And if anything is at the top of your wish list (like Lorry's 'Silly Girl'), PLMK.
Great shots critter. your babies are so pretty! Yum on the candy crystals! beauty!
Thanks Jill!!
Does "yum" mean I should add it to your wish list too, begonia? (I just did.) ;-)
LOL..I am sure whatever you send come trade time will thril me critter :) So no worries :)
I love everything! :)
I also potted up some more persia prince leaves...so hopefully will have lots of those to trade come spring. He is sure on a lot of wishlists and seemed to sprout quickly :)
Sure Critter, I'd love one if no one is speaking for it first. ALSO, I just put down an order of leaves of the following from Blooming Jungle (she had a 2 for one offer in January) So as soon as they start making babies, I'll post them up for trades.
Atlanta Melody
Lil Rich Girl
Beachcomber
Green Dragon
Apache Charmer
Apache Gem
Arctic Frost
Apache Showoff
Fairy Queen
Mighty Fine
Laser Celebration
Lilian Sparkler
Plum berry glow
Shimmer Frost
Winter Ice
Plus Boogie Nights
Aca’s Tornado
Magic Blue
Ma’s Silk Flower
Ness’ Candy Pink
Sapphire Kisses
Perfect Angel
Von’s Elegance
Rodeo Hillbilly
Rob’s Boondoggle
Bud’s Melanie
Catherine Hunt (vintage?)
Crybaby
Arctic Frost
Lemon Crème
Mary Craig
Aca’s Coral Beauty
Music Box Dancer
Maveric’s Faded Jeands
Fancy Trail
Blue Nile
Petite Tart
WOW!
BTW, I have some newly potted suckers *plus* 3 leaf pots with quite a few babies coming up for 'Candy Crystals', so that's one that I'm sure I'll have enough of to go around (barring some disaster).
I think the only one on your list that I also have (and I've got a couple of leaf pots with babies) is 'Plumberry Glow'. You're going to adore that one! Just look!
PS I'm very excited that you have leaves for 'Lil Rich Girl'! That's one I've been eyeing since Rob put it on his Collector's Treasures page.
'Catherine Hunt' was registered in December of 1981.
I like Petite Tart Laurie !
Jill I like what ever you send me for trade. I have your Special Girlies babies :)) and any other you mentioned or want.
I like surprise boxes. So what ever anyone wants to send me for trade is fun !
Lorry sent me a fun trade box . And Bob . And laurie has one on the way/ Oh my :)) It is fun getting presents all the time !.
Laurie your list of leaves are terrific ! Linda has nice leaves . I did not get her Special this year but last year with the ones I bought and the 2 buy one free I got close to 200.
I have all kinds of babies. lol still. I love them all.
Oh, I know we'll all be happy with our spring trades! Gosh, I ended up with so many plants on my wish lists that if I end up with a quarter of them I'll have to find more shelf space, LOL! I know any subset of my wish list would make me very happy, and I'm sure we're all on the same page... I just have this fear that the one plant that *everyone* wants will end up being the one where none of the leaf pots or suckers do well, LOL!
Holy cow Laurie - do you have them in straight perlite?
LOL..I hear ya Critter..that is the problem I am having with Winnie the pooh :(
I am not having much luck propagating it.
I do Anita, and once they put out about 1/2" of roots, I transfer them to solo cups or most recently, I purchased the 2oz. plastic dixie portion cups from Costco (1200 for $10) So far, this method is working for me. BUT might not work for everyone's environment.
I started with a 30/30/30 mix of perlite, vermiculite and soilless mix but found myself overwatering my leaves (that Allison sent me) to death. Then in September, I went to Strybing Arboretum and my begonia guru was rooting in 100% perlite on a heating tray. Only at the time, the heat was off to their greenhouse and no word of it being fixed. So I decided to give it a try. I poked a lot of holes in the trays and found that I can't overwater. I water when the top starts to look dry. Sometimes this is every third or fourth day. So far so good. When I move them to the dixies, I now use a 60% perlite mix, with no vermiculite. AND when I move them over, there's no question as to weather they have roots or not. I know they do.
(But trust me, I pull leaves out of the perlite like every day checking for roots - like an obsessed mother hen!, and I get roots fast, in about two weeks.)
Be careful if you're thinking of trying it. I have had amazing results, very little rot or loss, I do this for almost all my plants now (Critter, I have a heliotrope cutting I just stuck in for you, hope it makes it) but I posted this to the hoya forum and others tried it with mixed results. So everyone's environment works just a bit different. It might dry out too fast for people with a warm house or something. I don't have anything for heat except a little space heater. So it doesn't get too warm in my bedroom or playhouse. Mine are on heating mats with a thermostat, kept at 72º
Here's two that had ears pop up in what seemed like overnight. left is a noid and right is Royal Wasp from Allison.
(I have a total of 5 trays like the three above)
ed. for spelling
This message was edited Feb 7, 2006 4:55 PM
I might have to give it a try
Excellent Laurie ! I know many people who grow just in perilite and vermic , or just perlite for everything !
I also use 60 percent or more perlite ! I have learned from others the lighter the soil the better the growth. Roots can breath and grow better, faster and healthier !
Gosh, Lorry, don't worry about propagating Winnie the Pooh! I just separated out 8 more suckers from a couple of little pots of it... That's one I should have in abundance this spring!
Yummmmm..... heliotrope! Can't wait to try some in my garden! I think Anita may be trying to stick some cuttings for me also. Fabulous!
Critter, my heliotrope is blooming in my greenhouse, right next to a blooming Daphne. It's like a lemony-vanilla-honey paradise on that end of the greenhouse. On the other end, Brug. Dr. Seuss is just about knocking me over with it's perfume. It's amazing in there at night.
I've never tried to root heliotrope since they sell it here like an annual, very easy to get. But it winters over just fine for me. Hope it takes.
On a side note, the 'project leaf' that I received from the AVSA meeting a few weeks ago was growing 'Texas Method' in a styrofoam cup with very chunky perlite and vermiculite (looked to be 70/30) perlite chunks were much larger than what I buy in those BIG bags from HD (you know the ones that are about 4' tall) - more on Texas Method in the sticky.
I've since repotted it into my regular 60/40 blend in a solo cup since it came to me well rooted. I wasn't ready to invest time into the texas method just yet so switched it to my own (knock on wood) successful method for now.