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.

Bonus Blog

Shameless self promotion, I'm on twitter now @KikoToTheMoon

Earth Day

Today is a perfect day to pamper your greenies!

I know this is probably really weird to most people, but I like to pamper my plants.  I like dusting their leaves with a damp cloth, evening out the top of the soil, and yes even talking to them.  I enjoy admiring their beautiful leaves and telling them how pretty I think they are.  I used to pamper them with watering, but I've since learned that's not the best idea because I tend to pamper a little too much. 

I also take pictures of my plants to keep track of their growth and I root for them to get bigger (hehe get it..root).

I found today to be a perfect day to plant a philodendron cutting I had left in water a little too long.  He's now planted up in some soil and I'm sure he'll love it just as soon as he acclimates to soil.

Unfortunately where I live it's still too cold for my plants to go outside, otherwise I would treat my greenies to some nice warm sunshine.

What do you do for Earth Day? My dad always plants trees and I'd love to do that too, but I don't have a yard.

The Begining

I have decided to start a blog, well that should be obvious, it will ultimately be about my never-ending battle to keep house plants alive, along with the little experiments that can be attempted in a tiny apartment.  Here is where I’ll share my newest projects, the hurdles my not-so-green thumb and I face, and my epic failures along the way.

I’ll start with some personal background about my life with house plants:

Its very simple actually, it all started about three years ago when I left my parents plant-free nest and ended up in a sh*t hole (aka college dorms).  I was always use to having pets and since the university frowned upon having furries in the dorms, I naturally turned to fish.  This turned ugly despite my best efforts, and I quickly tired of the flushing carcasses routine and decided that maybe plants could be my dorm room friends.  The two years I lived in the dorms I had the same three plants, I loved it, they lived and they brought much needed color and life to such a dreary space and if I forgot to water them they actually started to look sad (If I forgot to feed my fish, all I had was another dead fish).  When I moved out of the dorms and into another sh*t hole (cheap, tiny apartment) my fondness for plants started to grow into a borderline obsession.  Unfortunately the plants that had accompanied me through college housing had passed on and I was forced to find some new leafy friends.  Things quickly exploded and before I knew it I had reached double digits on the number of potted plants taking up residency in my living quarters, much to the dismay of a couple of roommates (who apparently do not share my fondness for green).

Just recently I’ve discovered what amazing things plants can do.  Like rooting them in water to get a whole new plant, or growing a pineapple plant from just the crown (an epic failure by the way).  And I’ve even learned about the physical and mental health benefits to people who own house plants.  I had previously known that the air inside the home was often more polluted than outside, but I had no idea about the air filtering capabilities of ordinary house plants (and according to that my bedroom should be the most pollutant free room ever, oh the green…its…its…its everywhere!).  Since my knowledge has begun to flourish my borderline obsession has turned into a full blown obsession, the little experiments that I try and fruit seed that get planted, the time and money put into this is…well for lack of a better word…obsessive.  My days are filled with not only normal folk stuff, but researching cool things you can do in the plant kingdom (like my latest experiments: growing a pomegranate plant from a seed and growing ginger from a chunk of  ginger purchased at the grocery store).

I need this blog as a way to talk about my plant obsession without driving my friends to madness with my incessant rants about how cool plants are. Or perhaps I just need friends who share my love of Mother Nature’s leafy greens.