2015-2016 Winter Indoor (Tomatoes, etc.) Garden

[applestar]

I think it's way past time to start this thread.

In the past, I started the thread when I was starting my seeds so other people who might be interested in starting will have their chance, but I have been SO BUSY and the project had a disorganized, stumbling start.

I have these seedlings growing and plan to grow just a few more. I do want to see what the next generation of my crosses are going to look like so I'll try to grow seeds from the dwarfs and maybe some of the really tasty ones.


MR x ZCMWF, F2 #4B and WS x FFSlv, F2 #7M... Reference indeterminate BS x PBTD, F?... I'm growing a couple of micro variety Mohamed to hopefully try crossing with it this winter.

100% germination Dwarf Arctic Rose x Utyonok, F1 -- one of them grew taller than the others but all show the dwarfish compact growth as expected. Leaf is not PL like DAR which is good indication that the cross took since RL is dominant. The cute leaf shape is recognizable as similar to Utyonok's.

[applestar]

Update. I'm completely random this year -- started a few more seeds and am also waiting for seeds for another variety ... A micro cross that is being stabilized ... Which I really want to grow this winter

[applestar]

Although this is in the Tomato Progress forum, I'll probably post about all my Winter Indoor Garden here. Tomatoes and peppers will predominate.

The plants are being gathered back inside as the temperatures are getting colder, and some brand new seedlings are up, too.

[applestar]

Container grown as well as dug/potted up mostly hot peppers with green and ripening fruits have been moved inside under the Family Room Winter Wonderland lights. also pictured on the right are four Dunkel Violetter variegated purple/black pepper plants that have just started to bloom and fruit in the Winter Paradise indoor greenhouse shelves

- Naga Seasoning, Bolivian Rainbow, Peppadew, Bolivian Rainbow (4)
- Phal orchid, Peppadew, De Arbol (2), Diamond eggplant
- Thai Dragon & Sun Thai, Alma Edes/Feherozone/Szentesi Feher, Fish (4)


Smaller plants are in the Garage V8 Nursery along with seedling Winter Indoor Tomatoes and some winter herb garden, curry plant, etc.: One of Dwarf Arctic Rose x Utyonok has started to bloom already

...I couldn't resist bringing in the tiny Mini Paprika plant, even though another plant in the pepper SIP grew to a HUGE size....


Recently started Maglia Rosa, Dwarf Mr. Snow, and two selections (MMF-8 and MMF-10) of Red Robin x Rose Quartz Multiflora F5 tomato seedlings have sprouted

[applestar]

After having been subjected to the 50's and even occasional 40's low temps outside for a couple of weeks, the peppers respond to the replenished fertility of the new potting mix they have been planted in as well as the warmer indoor temps by rapidly ripening existing green fruits and bursting into new blossoms:

...after they are finished with the fall flush of fruiting, I can expose them to lower temps and let them go dormant. Then they don't need as much light or water and will be easier to keep over the winter, until they start budding and leafing out in late winter/early spring.

After this weekend's frost and freeze, I'm going to keep an eye out for aphids, etc. in the indoor garden and order my first batch of ladybugs in November.

[applestar]

GREEN ROOM CORNER a.k.a. Winter Indoor Bio-Airfilter and Oxygen Generator Room

Now that all the plants that were vacationing outside for the growing season have been brought inside, we will have our fresh air production going on in the house as it gets colder and it will be rarer to open the windows... And eventually they will be tightly closed/sealed against the cold.

Last year, I became concerned about what the moisture from all of the daily misting and occasional spills were doing to the carpet and underlayment. Not that they were damaging since these are old and I would much rather get rid of them (sooner if stained and damaged LOL) but that they might foster damp and mold/mildew.

So this year, I'm using two washing machine drain pans in the Green Room Corner and three boot trays which fit together to solidly cover the Cool Gang floor space.

[applestar]

In addition, we will have GENUINE 100% natural air fresheners -- none of those artificial fragrances for us

The big pineapple Sage is by the back door where we would brush against it every time we use the bottled water fountain or walk into the Green Room. Smaller pineapple sage is in the Green Room Corner where My knees would brush it, and the tea is blooming in there every day to emit the delicate Camelia fragrance.

One of the Jasmines is in the room next to the front door and it has been blooming sporadically with intoxicating scent, and hopefully the 2nd plant in the Family Room will start to bloom soon, and there is the big Rosemary among the floor-level Cool Gang where we brush against it to turn on the lights.

DD's room got the big lemon verbena as well as sweet marjoram and french thyme, and I put one of the older seed grown lemons in there hoping it was the one that had a single first blossom last winter. If it blooms that would provide a lovely fragrance as well.

[applestar]

• All my container plants that have been brought inside are getting treated with Bt (the same strain as for mosquitoes) soil drench. Mosquito Bits in their water 2x @week.

• Also using chamomile tea in their daily misting bottle. (I mist thoroughly once a day -- usually in the morning to simulate morning dew. I've found it makes a difference particularly during transitioning from the humidity of outside to drier heater dried air inside).

• I've ordered the brand of yellow sticky traps juliuskitty recommended (Seabright labs -- She said another brand was overly sticky and trapped lizards and other small animals) just in case. -- I *think* I'm seeing whiteflies here and there but these fleeting glimpses are maddening because at first I thought I was seeing things.

• And I will be ordering first batch of ladybugs in November.

• I also need to put down ant bait since I'm starting to see some around and just discovered a cluster of aphids on one of the eggplants they were hanging around on.

... In the flurry of moving all the big container trees inside at the last minute before frost/freeze last weekend, I accidentally brought in a tree frog. It's been making chirpy noises kind of like creaky wooden wheel in the Green Room and twice the kitties caught it and brought it -or found it wandering around- in the kitchen -- a little tan-colored fellow. — So far have been putting him back in the GR on the banana. (1st time it was the night when temp was going to be mid-20's. 2nd time was in the middle of the night when I came down to make last cup of tea before going to bed. )

[applestar]

Bonda Ma Jacque pepper started blooming while in the Garage V8 Nursery, but it's supposed to get colder now, so I brought it inside. Sitting on the Cool Gang floor level next to the T-12 shoplight for now, though I may put it at a higher up/warmer level:

Buzzing with the e-toothbrush every day

...I'm starting to see heavily infested aphid outbreaks In the Kitchen Window Bench and Winter Wonderland (those DRATTED ants! -- ant bait beat them back for now ) -- the live ladybugs have been ordered and will be arriving next week (at which point, I will take down the yellow sticky traps that are helping to manage the fungus gnats and go back to just watering with the Mosquito Bits.)

[applestar]

Here's another pepper I'm excited about.

Last year, I was given seeds for Bhut Jolokia, Peach Bhut and Seasoning Naga. I sowed seeds for the Peach Bhut and Seasoning Naga, but had difficulties and they either didn't sprout or lost seedlings until I only had one left. But by then I lost track of which was which. The poor nameless plant remained rather small, and I _of course_ kept it indoors over the winter.

I planted it in the ground this year, and when it didn't reach blooming stage, I dug it up and brought it inside, and it has been taking off with a spreading canopy... here it is -- it is finally blooming!

The blossoms are rather small and oddly pale green in color. Can anyone tell if this is Peach Bhut or Seasoning Naga from the blossom color?

[applestar]

Well, that was fast! -- I wasn't expecting the ladybugs until next week, but they arrived at 9PM last night.

The doorbell rang at such a late hour I thought it was some kind of an emergency -- last time, my neighbor's sick cat had managed to get out, the entire family had been searching everywhere since before sunset worried to pieces, and I joined them with a flashlight (I found her hiding in a shrubbery in MY fenced backyard.)

I saw the package on the doormat and someone getting back into a vehicle in the dark, and when I called to them, a woman said it was a package delivery. When I responded, "at this late hour?" She said it was an express and had to be delivered.

When I opened the box with vent holes in the side, there they were in their net bag, alive and "kicking", so I spritzed them with a bit of water in case they are thirsty, closed up the box and put them in the garage for the night. I'll take some out in the morning to put on Indoor Garden Patrol, and then the rest will have to go in the bait fridge in a padded envelope to hibernate so they can be doled out over the next month or two.

[applestar]

First teams of ladybugs have been deployed

[applestar]

The Garage V8 Nursery is burgeoning with seedlings and plants -- not sure if I might not be being a tad over-ambitious. In my mind, I'm thinking peppers are going to go dormant when it really gets cold, some of them as well as seedlings are bound to fail, some of the F2 seedlings are only being mass-grown to find the specific recessive traits....

Tomatoes -- mostly crosses including (Yellow Dwarf x Sungold) and (Patio Song), and sampling F2's of my little experiments to look for Whippersnapper-like sprawling basket-worthy growth habit and Maglia Rose like 2-3 gal container-worthy growth habit.

GORGEOUS Maui Purple pepper seedlings from peppehrhead212
in the back row next to Yellow Dwarf x Sungold in the top right photo

Etc.

Petit Nigra fig has dropped its leaves and will be spending the winter in the garage in front of the V8 Nursery lights, which it seemed to like last year. It's on a plant dolly so I can roll it out of the way as necessary.

[applestar]

The "Lady Patrol" (DD's name for them) are proving themselves already.

Yesterday, I was keeping an eye out for them, but they had mostly seemed to have disappeared.... Except that I would occasionally see one or two determinedly walking the perimeter of a pot or up and down a stem.

Then I noted that there were quite a few of them in the Fish pepper foliage... In the morning, Pm and in the evening, too. So I looked closer, and it turned out that the Fish peppers were pretty heavily infested by aphids.

It's not hard to spot aphids on pepper leaves once you get your eyes adjusted to "aphid detecting mode/filter", but the mottled colors of the variegated Fish pepper leaves effectively camouflage them.

The Lady Patrol were still working on the Fish peppers this morning, but now, they seem to have been satisfied and moved on.

[applestar]

As long as I have been doing this, I STILL sometimes forget which ones I watered when. And for some reason, some of my container mixes (or containers) look and feel completely dry on the top surface and down to the first knuckle test, but when I water them "thoroughly", I end up with a swamp in the drip tray.

Sometimes this merely means that the potting mix had dried out completely and the water has run down the inside wall of the container and right out the drainage holes without saturating the essentially dried up rootball. So I let the water remain in the drip tray for 1/2 hour to 1 hour to see if it gets soaked up.

...but if the water is still there after a reasonable amount of time -- hopefully no more than 1/2 day, I have to get rid of it so there is no root damage, especially with some plants that are more sensitive.

I mentioned before that I use pipettes and turkey basters. Here, the situation allowed me to siphon the water off

[applestar]

Pics from the Family Room "Winter Wonderland" -- well, the pic on the right is the NOT Bonda Ma Jaques among the floor level "Cool Gang"

Some more peppers developing and ripening

...flowers, too

[applestar]

Recently uppotted Winter Indoor tomato babies

{L} A Mohamed that went down from TRM is trying to come back in front of the photo

[applestar]

At this time of the year with the garden mostly done, it's not so much a lump "harvest" to be processed, as "foraging" as needed. So I made a collage of some of the currently ready to forage things from my Winter Indoor Garden --

Peppers, Kaffir Lime leaves (Not pictured but I also have a potted up large clump of lemongrass by an upstairs bedroom window), Rosemary, Marjoram, Alpine strawberries, Ginger root....

Winter Indoor Tomatoes are a little late this year since I didn't meet my normal deadline of early August to start them, but first of them should be ready soon

[applestar]

Over the weekend, I was tending to the plants in the Green Room and accidentally touched the treefrog. It was hiding on the plastic bag covering one of the seed-grown avocados I tried grafting with a "Day" avocado scion. I felt it under my finger, then it PLOPPED down onto the bench. I left it alone to find a new hiding spot.

Later on, I was so relieved to hear it calling in there, so I didn't hurt it. Whew!


It's time for musical plants again.

It's getting cold in the garage -- upper 40's -- and I have to migrate all the tomato seedlings which are getting stem-purpled from the cold and some other cold sensitive plants into the house.

Some of the peppers that have finished fruiting can be moved into the garage for the time being to go dormant, but they will have to be moved back inside once the temperature starts to fall below freezing if I want to be sure that they survive. But at that point, they can go in relatively dark, chilly corners on the floor until they start leafing out. If the timing works out, by then some of the tomatoes will be on the decline and can be moved out to make room under the lights....

[applestar]

SEEDLING JENGA!

image.jpg (51.85 KiB) Viewed 16556 times

[JasonFL]

Wooooooow, that has got to be the most intricate winter indoor garden I've seen, well done Orchids look beautiful!

[applestar]

Thanks, @JasonFL



Did your kids used to play Boomwhackers when they were little?

Mine did, and I kept the tubes because they are really fun. But since my kids aren't really interested right now, I found another use for them.

I use them to direct the water as needed for watering my Winter Indoor Garden.

They are supposed to be something like1.5" diameter, but ours have flattened out over years of whacking to about 2" x 1.25" oval, making them very easy to pour into. With their varying lengths, I can station different note tubes that are suitable for different locations.

[applestar]

Tree frog is squeaking in my Green Room every day...
I'm glad I let him stay -- I think he's dong well even if he might be eating my Lady Patrol....

[applestar]

Look at the new generation Winter Indoor Garden Patrol I found hanging around -- actually very rapidly roaming all over -- the Hungarian Szentes Feher Paprika (White from Szentes pepper)

Since I harvested the finally solidly turned red (from pale white/ivory/green) single fruit and it's on it's way out to rest up for the winter, I moved the little one to protect the current favorite from a beginning of an aphid infestation:

Subject: Learning • Practicing to Cross Breed Tomato Varieties

WS x FFSlv F2-7


...looks like I need to uppot to a final container

[applestar]

First one to ripen, but I'm not even going to try tasting this one. It won't be an accurate appraisal of its potential. I'll just collect seeds from it for the next (F2) generation I will grow in the summer.

Subject: Learning • Practicing to Cross Breed Tomato Varieties

Dwarf Arctic Rose x Utyonok F1

...this one was started early -- in fact on schedule for Winter Indoor growout. But it seems like that was actually its undoing, because this one and another variety I started on time were rapidly overcome by severe TRM (tomato russet mite) infestation.

I can't tell if the stress was the reason that all of the seedlings ended up with a single fruit before deteriorating. First one barely managed to ripen its fruit.




Consider the history of the Dwarf Arctic Rose mother -- It originally grew a terminating floral truss with a mega fruit, then was overrun by TRM, then grew new side shoots and grew on with normal growth structures and masses of loaded floral trusses.

Subject: 2014-15 Winter Indoor Tomatoes... + sugar snaps and cucumber

Here's another look at the two Dwarf Arctic Rose plants. One put out a megabloom while still small and set a single fruit very early on, then stayed out in the cooling garage V8 Nursery and took a long time to mature the fruit, but when the garage temp fell into 40's it was brought inside while the large fruit still green. The other plant was brought indoors relatively early on, but became infested by TRM and struggled to mature the first cluster of three fruits.

They are both still in the 1/2 gallon rice milk cartons.

The three smaller fruits are 1.5", 1.75" and 2" at widest diameter. The mega fruit is 3"

Subject: 2014-15 Winter Indoor Tomatoes... + sugar snaps and cucumber

Can you believe this is the Dwarf Arctic Rose that had the mega fruit on terminating main trunk?

I kept it in an isolated but less ideal location, so it's a bit spindly but the new sucker is free of TRM. I buried the rootball that was in the 1/2 gal rice milk container all the way at the bottom of this 2 gal bucket, so I think it will sit and take stock, then take off in this new location in the upstairs SE facing window. I'll top the container with additional fresh potting mix in another month or so.

You can also see the double-OJ containers planted with Utyonok which has replaced the Coyote. It has two tiny floral trusses starting to grow.

...and perhaps you can also see that the outer window is frosted this 14°F morning and there is snow on the ground outside.

[applestar]

Re-organized Winter Wonderland today:

Festive Jalapeños on the kitchen window bench

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[applestar]

This is the miserable time of the year when some of the plants I posted about earlier have suffered rapid decline -- usually due to russet mites (TRM's) though some are also suffering from aphid infestation.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I tried to obsessively treat the plants for mite infestation before (two spotted mites as well as TRM's) and decided it's a lost cause (I have better things to do with my time ). I start and grow extras, try to and hope I brought in mite predators when I brought in all my overwintering plants inside, and I leave the infested plants alone to recover ...or not. Only actual effort I have been making is to buy, store in fridge, and dole out ladybugs every few weeks for the Lady Patrol.

As bad as some of these look, I do have a couple that seem to be coming back. I'll take a close up picture of one or two plants later, so the recovery process is more obvious.

I can't say with any kind of certainty whether the recovering plants/varieties are more resistant, are better adapted to the winter indoor conditions, or simply lucky to have been discovered by some effective predatory Indoor Garden Patrol.


This year, I have this eggplant (and a few more located elsewhere) that are also managing to survive the TRM infestation so far. It seems that eggplants have more common pests with tomatoes than peppers. Some of the peppers are also suffering slowly with no apparent cause, and I think it's possible they are being affected by the TRM's as well. Maui Purple seems to be particularly susceptible and I may have lost two out of four plants. You might be able to see the other two in one of the collage photos above.

[applestar]

Here's one photo of a recovering plant:

[applestar]

I mentioned elsewhere that we had a power outage.

It happened in the middle of the day -- maybe 3 hours in early afternoon... And -- I have said this before but -- WOW the house was dismally dark!

I have

-- Winter Wonderland and Cool Gang in the back corner of the family room which has a window to the SE and two windows to the SW
-- SE facing Green Room off the kitchen
-- kitchen itself has a window bench of peppers and citrus jostling eachother with CFL lights supplementing the SE window.

These are the rooms I spend most of my daytime hours in. All three rooms get the rising sun pouring in so very bright and cheerful in the morning, but increasingly dimmer as the sun goes around the corner. And on gloomy winter days, as I was reminded, it's very very dark without those plant lights on!

My Winter Paradise and WP Pent House are surrounded with mylar film and windshield sun visor into a mostly enclosed space, so some lights leak out but are not as significant sources of light, and I don't spend much time in that room anyway. But they do their part by staying warmer and allowing me to grow seedlings and other plants that need the cozy humid and warm environment.

So it's not just because of the greenery, tasty herbs, cheerful blossoms, and welcome fruits that my Winter Indoor Garden keeps the winter blues away. In addition, they handle air filtration and supply oxygen

I really think the expenditure for the lights are totally worth it.

[applestar]

Our Green Room treefrog whom my DDs named "Squeaky" came out of hiding for a while today.

I didn't want to scare it so I couldn't get too close, but here is a picture

[applestar]

So, this year's Winter Indoor Tomatoes have been a rather sad sight.

It all seemed to have started out well, but the TRM'S (Tomato Russet Mites) have been rampantly taking over. I'm not sure what is to blame....

-- I'm sure now that it is partly due to the late start. I had decided a couple of years ago that it was best to start them by August 1, using the earliest, cool weather tolerant varieties, and doing so had the best results, with blossoms setting Indoors within a month after frost, and green fruits starting to ripen by end of November and through December.

-- I did NOT limit myself to the varieties I have already identified as known performers.

-- Late December through January seems to be when the plants get stressed the most. They don't really think it's time to grow, and are susceptible to significant pest infestations.

-- This year, we had a rather warm fall. I wonder that's why the Winter Paradise indoor greenhouse shelves which is in the North West window is the worst affected by the TRM's? It kept getting way hot in there, even with the front flap open.

--

So far, out of all if them, only ones to manage to reach fruiting and mature harvest stage were the Dwarf Arctic Rose x Utyonok (F1)'s which were super early to mature. One of the Dwarf Yellow x Sun Gold (F3) and Whipper Snapper x Faelan's First Snow (F2) have green fruits on right now. So really, not much harvest to eat at all, though these crosses were advanced to next generation for growing out in the main season this summer, and that in itself is very satisfying.

...

The others have fallen victim to TRM's. Right now, it's turned into an interesting trial to see which ones will manage to recover --- Here are some...but by no means all...of them:

In the past, I have noted that many of the ones that are infested and overwhelmed all the way to the top, then grow new fresh green shoots from lower down like these will go on to grow without further problems. I don't know if that means they develop some kind of resistance to TRMs or that the original growths act as incubator for predatorial mites and now the plant has sufficient resident population of predators to keep new infestation at bay.


To my way of thinking, it's all good, because this year's experience seems to have confirmed some of my prior suspicions, and, for next year, I'm can try to follow what I think are the key steps for success and see if the process will turn out better.

And FWIW, this winter's Indoor Garden hasn't been a total disappointment since ---
- Almost all of peppers are doing great and have been taking turns producing green and mature fruits to harvest
- Some of the eggplants I'm trying to overwinter seem to be starting to recover from the TRM infestation.
- Some of the herb cuttings, especially stevia, have rooted and are growing really well (last time they struggled in an upstairs window -- I think they like it better in the cold/cooler garage and downstairs)
- I had success with a couple of the avocados I tried to graft .
- Alpine strawberries are growing well and even fruiting sporadically even now.
- Other minor successes, too.

[applestar]

Whippersnapper X Faelan's First Snow F2 -- although it had many more fruit clusters that started to form on the 4-5 upper branches, none of them opened enough to set fruits. I'm not sure if that was because of the sudden dip in temperature we experienced, the darkest days of the year, or what.

Now the lower cluster of fruits are finally starting to blush and the entire plant is starting to yellow, but this looks more like Determinate senescence that the Whippersnapper mother went through when I grew them last year. So it might just be that its time is up.

One other possibility that I can think of is that one of my DD's has been using the nearby computer every night and staying up until the morning sometimes, leaving the plant lights on all night -- I wonder if that could affect a determinate variety tomato to burn through its lifespan faster...?

Sure hasn't adversely affected the Orchid, though.


Here are some of the other eggplants:

...and these peppers are doing great!

[applestar]

In the eggplant photo, maybe you can see that one of the two plants in the nearest "quart" size ice cream tub has browned and died.

This is my 3rd year trying to over-winter eggplants, and each year some of them do this. I now suspect TRM's, though first year, insufficient light and tomato leafminers also contributed to their demise and wiped them out. last year, I had a lone survivor that *almost* made it all the way to last frost. Eggplants that go all the way down and dry up to the tip rapidly lose life in their main trunk and have not come back like some of the tomatoes.

I'm pushing my hypothesis about the dying old growth acting as predatory mite incubator because it feels/seems like if I cut the upper portion off too soon, the TRM's proceed to swarm the lower fresh growths and sometimes manage to take the plant down for the second time. Last year, I had a Tatjana plant that went through this cycle during the winter and into the summer, growing and fruiting once or twice, then getting wiped out, then re-growing from the base -- I don't remember exactly how many cycles -- maybe twice during the winter and three times during the summer -- before finally kicking the bucket.

[applestar]

More signs of recovery after TRM infestation

(If you look closely there are bottom halves of Yellow Dwarf x Sungold F3 fruits in one if those photos)

Whippersnapper x Faelan's First Snow F2

[applestar]

I was starting to see THESE on the leaves of two avocados by the Green Room window.

...the first time I saw one, I thought it was a mouse turd, but was confused because the kitties haven't brought a mouse in the house for a while now... And stuck on an avocado leaf, 4 feet in the air?

Then I started seeing more of them, and realized it must be Squeaky's poop. -- "Squeaky" is what my kids named the tree frog that is still alive and calling several times a day in the Green Room.

[applestar]

Sqeaky was out on the top of an Avo today ... "Sunbathing"? In the light from the high intensity photographer's True Daylight spectrum CFL

[applestar]

Found this. Hopefully Squeaky is getting the wavelengths needed from the CFL bulb light....

How to Care for a Gray Tree Frog: 10 Steps (with Pictures)
https://m.wikihow.com/Care-for-a-Gray-Tree-Frog

Provide a UVA/UVB FULL SPECTRUM sunlight bulb during the day, when the frog is sleeping. You can also use a night bulb to watch your frog hunt. You can change the bulbs by hand or get a dual light fixture.
Without a UVB bulb, your frog can get a vitamin deficiency called Metabolic Bone Disease that supplements alone cannot help! UVB light cannot pass through glass. You should still supplement your frog's food with Calcium WITHOUT D3. You do not want to overdose your frog with D3. It can cause kidney failure. That is why the Full spectrum light is best. The UVB light will help with D3 production naturally. Also be sure that the Multi vitamin and Multi Mineral is D3 free as well. (Only if you are using a UVB light bulb!) Otherwise, only one supplement should have D3, But in the long run, Full spectrum UVA/UVB light is best. No captive creature can live in full health without UVB "sunlight" Make sure the light passes through a screen top. Again UVB rays cannot pass through glass. Never put your frog's tank in front of the window! The sudden rises in temperature will kill your pet!

It's hard to tell -- a frog generally looks content....

[applestar]

Hahaha. Here I am again with more pictures I can't help it. Squeaky often disappears for days but has been out in the open for several days in a row. I actually ran back upstairs to get my iPad so I could take a picture of the camo pattern

-- made a new collage

I called DD over to see, and while she was watching, Squeaky did the treefrog thing and hopped from the branch crotch of this Avo to a blade of pineapple, then onto an Avo leaf beyond. It really made me happy to think this window side part of the Green Room is "jungle" enough to be a treefrog habitat.

[applestar]

TRM Survivors. Some of the ones that came back got overwhelmed again.

A few that I "cleaned up" the dead dried up leaves and pruned the tops early on definitely went down for the second time. Some of these are having aphid issues. Ones that are clear of aphids have resident Lady Patrol roaming around the container rim or foliage.

-- I realize you wouldn't be able to leave the dead debris on or at the base of the plants if they were in a high humidity fungal disease prone areas like basement or greenhouse....

[applestar]

BTW and FYI -- In my photos, containers that are marked with a "V" have been "Verm'ed" (as in "vermi"composted aka "1 or more worm/verm aka earthworm/red wiggler has been introduced")