zombiefetus
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Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2010 10:07 pm
Location: Illinois

Lots of questions! New to indoor gardening.

My boyfriend bought me an Orchid about a month ago, and since then I've acquired quite a few plants. I have some questions on a few of them.

[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/moistgreentoast/Orchid2.png[/img]
This was when I first got it. After about a week the lower leaf with the brown looking spot turned yellow and fell off soon after. When the second leaf started turning yellow I did a bit of googling, I thought it might just be getting too much sun, so I moved it to a spot getting less light, but the other leaf on the bottom has gotten worse and looks like it'll fall off any day now.
I fertilize it once every two weeks with Orchid food from Miracle-Gro (30-10-10).
The rest of the leaves are all still green and healthy, and the flowers all seem healthy and normal too.

[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/moistgreentoast/40098_1411807532153_1141440145_31076463_6910706_n.jpg[/img]
My second question is about my recently purchased Hibiscus. It doesn't seem to be adjusting well to indoor life. I'd keep it outside, but we have a lot of Japanese beetles here that seem to love nibbling on it (I tried keeping it outside, but within a few hours I found about 5 beetles on it).
Anyway- The problem I'm having is that the leaves in the center of the plant are turning yellow. Is it just not getting enough light? I've had it about a week now and fertilized it yesterday with a 10-10-10 fertilizer. It seems to need water every 4 days or so, the dirt drains rather quickly. I always make sure to empty the dish the pot drains into after watering it so it's not sitting in water.

[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/moistgreentoast/plant.png[/img]
And finally, the bane of my existence. I've had this guy for about a year and a half and he's just been slowly dying since the day I got him. I've never done much of anything with him other than water him when I notice the dirt is dry. I gave him a bit of the 10-10-10 fertilizer yesterday.
I have no clue what kind of plant it is. I'd like to repot him in a better pot tomorrow with better soil. Any tips?

I also bought a bamboo plant ("lucky bamboo") what kind of fertilizer (if any) should I use for him?

And then I have 8 Bird of Paradise seeds I got two days ago. Following some instructions from online I soaked them in water and stuck them in the fridge (they're supposed to stay in there for two weeks, then scarify them and plant them). Any tips for growing these?

Thanks in advance for any info/tips :)

:edit:
one more question!
I have some very large marigolds in my outdoor garden right now. If I were to dig some up and bring them inside would the survive the winter?

Green Mantis
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Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 6:52 pm
Location: Alberta, Canada zone 1a

Sounds? like you MIGHT have overwatered the orchid? As for the Hibiscus, go to container gardening, we're having a great discussion on hibiscus there. Don't know about the rest of them? Hopefully someone with much more knowledge than me will come on with help.

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rainbowgardener
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Lot of questions! I'll just take one. The viney plant in the bottom picture, I believe is pothos. It's somewhat of a mystery to me what has happened to it. It clearly is not doing very well, spindly and straggly. But most of the things you would do to pothos that might cause that, would lead to the leaves being paler or yellowish and yours has mostly nice healthy dark green leaves. Odd.

It is usually quite easy to grow, but it does need some light... bright indirect light is good, not sun directly on it. Pothos like most house plants is a tropical and likes humidity. In dry indoor air, it helps to mist it once a week or so. House plants benefit from having the soil "recharged" every once in awhile, because they use up the nutrients from it, it can get full of minerals/ salts from hard water and fertilizer.

Since I have a bunch of them, what I do is at least once a year, sometimes spring and fall, I take all the plants out of the pots. Then dump all the soil from the pots into a wheelbarrow. Add at least half that volume of fresh new potting soil, mix it all together and repot everything. That's because throwing away (even into the compost pile) all the potting soil seems too expensive/ wasteful.

zombiefetus
Newly Registered
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2010 10:07 pm
Location: Illinois

Thanks guys :)

I moved the Orchid to another location and it's doing better now, I think the lighting was just wasn't right for it, but the yellow leaf is starting to get a little color back, so hopefully that's all good now.

I repotted my dying mystery plant, after doing some googling, I'm guessing it's a Heart-Leaf Philodendron. If nothing else it at least looks nicer in it's new pot.
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/moistgreentoast/plant2.png[/img]
Hopefully it'll come around now.

My Hibiscus is still yellow leaved. I'm thinking it's from the stress of moving from an outdoor area (Menerds Plant section) to my living room. I'll take a look at the other topic about Hibiscus.



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