Hello everyone. I hope you don't mind me posting a question on my first post, but i have this problem. I should point out I'm not much of a gardener, but i am learning and trying my best. I am getting the hang of it outdoors but i have an indoor problem.
There is a huge brick planter in my house. Its 20 ft long, about4 ft high and about 20 inches wide at the top, but its design is such that its a lot narrower at the bottom, maybe
about 8 or 9 inches. It was built the same time as the house, about 40 yrs ago. Its in good condition, fresh coat of paint about 3 yrs ago and totally filled with earth. This is the family home and vines covered the whole wall at one time. But my father took them all out. Then i moved in. I have a huge 60 in tv. So i completely covered the planter with plywood and put my tv up there. Im sure you are cringing, lol. I had it that way
for about 8 yrs or so.
Anyway, i remodelled the house about 3 yrs ago, took the tv down and took off the plywood. Last year i planted a few plants. They are all vine types as i was hoping they would work their way up the wall, which is brick as well. The planter is there, then a brick wall and its attached to the garage, thats why there is a brick wall there. Anyway, these vine-type
plants rooted for me so i planted them. They got about a foot or so long and stopped growing. I also have another plant that has done the same thing in that i planted it but thats all. It hasnt grown and it looks about 10% dead. The plants were all planted at the same time.
I water these plants once a week. I use a few gallons of water as the planter is large and there is a lot of earth there. I don't think i water it too much. If anything the earth still seems to be a bit dry.
I am wondering if i did something to the earth by covering it for those years? Sounds a bit dumb but what do i know, lol. Or is there some other reason? What do i need to do to get these plants to start growing instead of sitting there? There
are 5 plants in total, 4 have larger, fairly broad leaves, likely a very common type of vine, i believe. The other one i bought in a store, don't know what it is, but its got small leaves on it.
As for light, they don't get a lot but they do get some light, the leaves on the plants are very green with the one exception listed. There are some fluorescent lights above the planter. I tried leaving them on for a few days to see if that helped. Didnt seem to. But it seems to me the lights are a bit too
high anyway, they are on the ceiling. Perhaps they should be lower? This is all guesswork on my part, you could say that i basically have the black thumb of death, although i have
learned a tiny bit lately and my survival rate has climbed on my outide work.
Can anyone help me out with advice?
Thanks in advance.