My (not so) Little Experiments

They say "curiosity killed the cat," but what they don't know is that satisfaction brought him back.

Here goes the introductions into my plant experiments, my wins, but more often my failures and the great big learning curve.

We'll start with past failures:

Project pineapple -

I was told by a friend that if you took the top off of a pineapple you purchased at the grocery store that you could get it to grow.  This naturally made me want to try it, but first I did my homework.  After many bing searches and reading tons of articles by so many people sounding very confident in their ability to grow a pineapple plant, I decided it would be terribly easy to grow one, after all there were so many ways to do it.  Heck it was even described as an easy elementary school science project...no problem, I'm in college, if a kid can do it, I can do it.  So I headed out to my local grocery store and purchased two pineapples (I wanted to make sure I got at least one to work).  Headed home to have a snack (I fricken love pineapple), I put one top in water and the other in soil (the top two ways I read about on the internet) and I waited...and waited...and waited...nothing.

All I got out of this was two nasty pineapple tops rotting in my room.  I don't think I've ever felt like a bigger loser, a child could do it! I was so angry at my complete and utter failure that I have yet to try it again, maybe some day when it no longer stings to think about it.

Project avocado -

I think we've all heard of this one, take the pit out of an avocado, rest it in some water and let it sprout.  Then plant the pit in some soil and you too can have your very own avocado tree...or not.  I've tried this every time I've gotten and avocado for the last couple of years and I still have no avocado tree.  I don't know why, but they just never sprout.

The picture is of my current attempt at getting one to sprout...we'll see how that goes.

Propagating a begonia -

Although not a complete and utter failure, I still feel pretty lame about it.  I rooted two of my begonia's leaves in water (not the best way to propagate a begonia I know, but I'm not that confident in myself to try the wedge cuttings).  Then I planted them in soil after they had quite a few roots and before you knew it there were little tiny begonia leaves coming up.  One of them was given to a friend as a gift and the other I saved for myself.

Not an advertisement for Aveeno, it just happened to be there

 

One would assume that since I had an established begonia that was doing well, I could help this one survive...I couldn't.  It died shortly after this photo was taken.  However, the one that I gave to my friend is still alive and kicking with lots of tiny little leaves.


Now onto my ongoing experiments...most are looking like they will shape up to be failures as well.

Project pomegranate -

A little less than a year ago I bought a pomegranate and decided to put some seeds in a pot just to see what would happen.  Well the next thing I knew they were sprouting up like crazy.

Then they grew, and grew and all was looking well.

Then they stopped growing.  I thought they had just spent so much time and effort growing that they might need a break just to chill and gather strength.  But then something awful started to happen, they started dropping their tiny little leaves.  I was hard at work researching to see if there was anything that I could do, but nothing.  There isn't much literature on growing an indoor pomegranate plant from seed.  However, I did find out through my research that they are deciduous trees, so I still have hope that they'll bounce back soon.

Project ginger -

Before you ask, no I'm not trying to grow a red head, but rather the delightfully tasty rhizome/root that is used to flavor Asian dishes.  I'm currently working on take two of project ginger, the first attempt ended with a rotting piece of ginger in some dirt. 

Take two started much the same way as take one, with a nice firm, fresh piece of ginger I purchased at the grocery store.  Then I buried it in some dirt, wet it down and this time I covered it with plastic wrap to keep the moisture in.  I just checked it yesterday and sure enough there is growth, although you can't see it at the surface.  We'll just have to wait and see if anything really happens with it.  I'm hoping that soon I'll be able to see growth above the soil surface.

Project potato -

This experiment didn't start like any of my other projects.  I never had any intention of trying to grow a potato in my apartment before I started, and there was no research beforehand.  I went to grab a potato out of the bag and the potato had ripped a hole in its bag with its ginormous sprouts.  I thought it was cool and stuck it in some dirt to see what would happen.  A few days later...

Then the research started, I found a few sites that seemed to know what they were talking about...keeping the soil moist but never wet, mounding the dirt as the plant grew and so forth.

Sure I can handle that, no problem...then I left for a week...

Wow, how did that happen? Nothing I read said that a potato plant would shoot up like that.  Well so much for mounding the dirt up, but the plant looks pretty good and this was just an experiment to see if a potato placed in some dirt would work I'm not gonna stress out about it too much.

So for any of you that have ever thought about planting a potato indoors, beware of that.

[And in case you noticed, yes the potato plant is in an aquarium.  I had a 10 gal fish tank that was unusable for fish.  Unfortunately a very stupid pet store sold me a fish that had a very virulent type of ick and every thing I tried couldn't get it out of the tank, so the tank was transformed into a container garden.]

Now only time will tell if I end up with another potato.

Project cat grass -

You might be asking yourself what's the experiment, you go to the pet store, buy some cat grass seeds (which are usually oats of some sort), put them in a pot with some dirt and water, a couple of days later you have sprouts...no experiment there.  Except when you're getting tired of purchasing the cat grass seeds. The hope is to get the oats to go to seed so that I can harvest them and stop buying cat grass.

I took a pot with some soil, planted the seeds and kept it away from the cat.

 The grass seems to grow the best outside and I've been fertilizing every so often, but at some point it started to look not so happy...

It's still too soon to tell, but it's a possibility that the manufacturers modified the genome so that it wouldn't go to seed.  This is something a lot of seed producers do to make sure that you're buying seed every year and not harvesting your own, an evil thing to do if you ask me.

My Green Roommates

I suppose since I talk about how much I love my house plants, it's time for their introductions.  I've decided that this post will only be about my established plants and I'll leave my cuttings, experiments and tiny babies for another blog.

 

This here is Rex, he's one of my favorites.  I've had him for more than 2 years and last fall he even bloomed for me.  He's a favorite because begonias are suppose to be very difficult plants to grow, but as you can see from the picture he's a very happy camper -Yeah I'm awesome.

This is Humphrey, I have no idea what kind of a plant he is.  I bought him several years ago and didn't bother keeping the tag or committing it to memory.  Despite not knowing what he is, he seems to be doing fine.

 

Fittonia. Here's my mosaic plant. Unfortunately I've let her faint a few too many times so she's a little more scraggly than she should be.  

Gerbera Daisy.  I cut off the full bloom and stuck it in a vase (the next picture show the color of the bloom).  I currently have 5 small blooms popping up.  She's also my newest edition to my plant collection, my local hardware store had them for sale in the garden center...Just another reason to love spring.

This picture shows the color of my Gerbera Daisy flowers.  I also put some purple velvet cuttings in the vase as well to add a little bit of depth and keep the daisy from falling in the water.

 This is one of my purple velvet plants, I have quit a few because it grow quickly and rooting the cuttings is a cinch.  Unfortunately this one has some bug issues so it might not last long.

No plant collection would be complete without a spider plant or 7.  I have been given many baby spider plants recently and this is so far the biggest and best looking.  I can't wait to have little baby spiders for myself.

 

Cuban Oregano. Unfortunately he's not doing so hot.  I always research how to take care of my plants so I can give them the best life possible, but this is a hard plant to find out how to care for and it shows.

  

 My very 1st cactus.  I'd always had a fear of cactuses, not because of the spines and fear of impalement, but because there are some desert tarantulas that lay their eggs in cacti and then the babies hatch out in these huge swarms of tiny spiders. I was always afraid that I'd buy a cactus and there would be tarantula eggs in it.  I think needless to say, there were no tarantula eggs in my cactus unless it takes them more than 3 years to hatch.

My very lame orchid.  It hasn't bloomed since i bought it several years ago.  The leaves are still growing and green, but I think my apartment is just too cold for it to bloom. 

I have no idea what kind of succulent this is, but I like it...I reminds me of a flower.

 Philodendron..or at least the remnants of my philodendron that was brutally murdered by fungus gnats.  I was able to take some cuttings before the plant totally died, I rooted them and planted them up so my plant lives on.

 

The philodendron cuttings that are still in water

 I love my snake plant, it's pretty and requires not much light and little water...so easy.

My Ponytail Palm is probably my most neglected plant, but I think he likes it that way.

I'm not sure what this is, I thought it was a snake plant, but then it didn't get very tall at all.