#plant info

[blooming-horticulturalist]

🌿What is wrong with my houseplant? // how to diagnose your houseplant 🌿

　✩ im definitely not a seasoned professional when it comes to houseplants, (i am a professional though) however a lot of basic plant care skills are transferrable, and i wanted to share my process for identifying "the problem" when i see a plant struggling, or my friends & family come to me for help✩

a) first identify the plant. take into account its natural habitat and what the growing conditions would be if it was in the wild. is it a tropical plant? does this plant come from the desert? does this plant usually live in the woods? if youre unsure, then look it up! this will help you get a bearing for what conditions this plant needs in order to survive.

- for instance, a tropical plant would generally need to be watered more often and cant stay dry for long periods of time, due to the natural humidity in that environment. a plant that naturally lives in the woods would likely need dappled or indirect light, due to the plant thriving under the coverage of trees. use logic to clue into the plants needs and research if you aren't sure

b) now that you have an idea of what this plant needs to thrive, compare that to it's current environment. is it getting too much sun? is it too close to the window during the winter and getting cold? is it too humid and keeping the soil too wet? try to match up the environment in your house/building to be as close to its natural environment as possible

c) ok, im pretty sure that its in the right environment, but it's still showing (x) symptom, what now?

i usually go through a mental checklist when diagnosing plants:

water—

- is it being watered enough? feel the soil with your fingers- is the soil bone dry? water it (you can't go wrong watering a bone dry plant, even succulents and cacti).

- is it soaking wet (dripping, pooling water, can be 'wrung out')? how long ago was it watered? a few hours ago, you're probably good. more than a day or two ago— there's a problem. plants need to dry out. check the container its planted in- does it have drainage holes? if not, repot that baby ASAP (and check for root rot)!! does the decorative planter it's sitting in have drainage? — if not you can remedy this by propping the plant up a few inches with a small piece of wood (or honestly anything you can find that's water resistant) so its not sitting in its drained water for days on end.

- is it moist up to a few inches down? it is being watered sufficiently 🌿 check if it needs to be watered when the top few inches are dry and go ahead and soak that baby if it does.

common symptoms of watering issues: drooping leaves/wilt, shriveled up and dropping dry leaves, rotting leaves (for succulents being overwatered especially), yellowing or browning on the edges

light- are the leaves turning a light yellow color? are you noticing leggy growth (where the stem grows long without producing a lot of leaves)? it's not getting enough sun! if its in low light move it to indirect or diffused light, and if you're still having the same issue after some time, move it into a spot where it will get hit by a sunbeam.

are the leaves turning a brown color? do they look burnt? are they getting dry and shriveled up? are they getting dull/dusty? could be too much light, move it to indirect light and see if that fixes it— if not, look for other symptoms.

potting space/ root issues:

DO NOT i repeat DO NOT repot your plants in autumn/winter

check your roots, like physically take the plant out of the pot or flip it over.

are the roots coming out of the bottom? not necessarily a bad thing, if the plant likes being hugged— definitely check for plant specific needs at this point and keep an eye on it. if you notice it dries out unreasonably fast, youre going to want to repot it. (ONLY if its spring/early summer). the plant doesnt have any room to absorb water. find a pot two inches in diameter larger than its current pot and, yk, repot it. plants get overwhelmed if its any larger and it wont have room to spread its roots if its too small. 2 inches is the sweet spot.

are the roots brown? take it out of the pot and smell it, does it smell rotted? most likely root rot. an easy fix— remove the plant, remove the soil, rinse it off, cut off rotted roots, repot it in new soil, and make sure its getting adequate time and drainage to dry out in between watering.

nutrients:

if you've checked for everything else and your plant is still wilting, it could need more nutrients. a really big tell of this is that its not producing new leaves or flowering, its staying stagnant and conserving it's energy. you can easily fix this by getting fertilizer sticks, powder, etc. from the store.

pests and fungi:

this one is the hardest and most complicated to identify.

if it's growing brown spots in the middle of the plant or you notice leaves rotting, there could be a fungus or mold issue. you can try spraying the soil with neem oil or hydrogen peroxide! if that doesnt work you're going to want to take steps to repot it in clean soil. a common cause of this is overwatering and humidity, so make sure youre letting your plant dry out (and even wilt a bit) before watering it again.

if youre noticing bugs, little brown or white spots on the back of leaves or stems, excessive wilting and misshapen leaves, holes/damage that you cant find the cause of, or what looks like little cobwebs (spider mites), you're likely looking at pests. you're going to need a chemical (or natural nonchemical) pesticide treatment. if youre unable to identify the pest on your own i recommend taking a sample or picture to your local nursery and asking someone experienced for help and recommendations! your best option for the time being is neem oil spray, as there's no chance of accidentally pesticide burning your plants.

✩　again houseplants aren't my specialty, and a lot of figuring out any issues a plant is having is trial and error and being observant of symptoms. you cant always identify one issue by one symptom, you have to be patient and see how the plant reacts to changes you make!

if youre a beginner, dont get discouraged!! taking care of plants is a learned skill and it takes time and experience to be able to notice patterns.

good luck :) i hope your prescious plant baby survives! feel free to ask me questions if you need help, but no promises I'll be able to. ✩

🌿

[a-new-ope]

[runixa]

Did you know that these

Are not dandelions?

They are a plant called "fuzzy cat's ears" amongst other names.

You can tell the difference first of all by the fuzzy leaves

They are shaped like this, similar to dandelion leaves. But rounder.

And here is a close up of the fuzzy leaves.

The other big differences are that it grows stalks with multiple stick and flowers

Also the green part under the flowers always points up

Like this.

Where s with dandelions they curl under.

Here is a seed ball. Since I found one. The seed ball is fuzzy like a normal dandelion but a slightly darker color and to me it looks a little spikier. But basically is identical

Also the stems are thinner and less round than a real dandelion.

In Washington State these are considered noxious weeds because they grow very aggressively and also they make horses sick if they eat them.

I just thought I'd share because I've always wondered about the two types of dandelion I was seeing and I finally looked it up last week.

These ones are actually related to daisies.

If anyone knows/remembers the scientific names for the plant parts could you please do an image description??

For anyone who needs one in the mean time each image is an example of what I'm describing in the text because I can't describe it very well. They are taken in my backyard kind of sloppily. Also the flowers and leaves look very very similar to a dandelion besides the difference I mentioned

[inusmasha]

Sometimes it’s hard to read fanfic when you’re studying herbalism.. when they have the character preparing a tincture to use that same DAY!!?

Baby those dried herbs need to sit in that jar with high proof alcohol for at LEAST a month!

That’s why before the use of calendars ppl use to prepare their tinctures either on the new moon or full moon. A a full moon cycle is usually 28 days or so. And they would give the moon names so it’s easier to remember when/what month said tincture was bottled.

This is also why herbal medicine is prepare in small batches. You have to take your time preparing your bottles. Making sure everything is clean so you don’t end up with mold. Diluting your grain alcohol. Heckkk knowing when to pick your herbs for max potency! Drying your herbs! That takes a lot of time too!

I didn’t mean to rant lol

[botanyshitposts]

dichotomous plants are so weird man. like they’re not even weird it’s the becoming the dichotomous that’s weird. i went to a talk once about a population of strawberries that were accidentally slowly becoming dichotomous and they didn’t even have sex chromosomes, like they had like a bunch of genes across a bunch of chromosomes that did a little bit of sex but not a lot and it added up to one whole sex kind of but not enough that they had all collectively decided to be one sex or the other, so there was still like, a sizable chunk of the population that was producing flowers of both sexes. like they were microdosing it. taking the sex genes for a spin in the strawberry patch

[my-name-is-apollo]

Martial's epigram on the statue of Apollo Sauroktonos (lizard-slayer):

The way this statue was seen as child Apollo playing with a lizard is adorable

Though, according to Pliny the elder this statue represented Apollo as an adolescent (as usual), not a child.

But like, this is such a child-like activity to do. Apollo was totally the type of kid to grab tiny creatures and examine them with fascination. I am mentally visualising lil Apollo running to Artemis in high spirits and proudly showing her the lizard he just caught.

[emdotcom]

Yeah, so while I was on my "I'm going to read into Vanny/Vanessa as much as possible" journey, I noticed an odd quirk in her animations in how she moves. At first, I thought it reminded me of a ballerina, 'cause she's kinda tip-toeing, & she has this way of keeping her head & chest in one place as she moves, but I looked again & realized --

That's not ballet! She's doing a tight-rope act. Like, look at this one:

This is like standing up on the wooden boards before you do the actual tight-rope walking, & the ring leader is hyping you up as you do some fun movement for the crowds. &, then, these:

These are all instances where she walks with one foot directly in front of the other. In that third, she's doing the "woaaah" wiggly-ass balance movements & everything, as if she's swaying up at the top of the tent, even though she's down on solid ground.

Idk, I feel like the way her feet are placed isn't accurate (pretty sure they should be pointed left & right, not both forwards...) doesn't make this 100% correct, but I like it. It also connects back with her first SB teaser, wherein she's up in the rafters.

[melyzard]

Okay, look, they talk to a Google rep in some of the video clips, but I give it a pass because this FREE course is a good baseline for personal internet safety that so many people just do not seem to have anymore. It's done in short video clip and article format (the videos average about a minute and a half). This is some super basic stuff like "What is PII and why you shouldn't put it on your twitter" and "what is a phishing scam?" Or "what is the difference between HTTP and HTTPS and why do you care?"

It's worrying to me how many people I meet or see online who just do not know even these absolute basic things, who are at constant risk of being scammed or hacked and losing everything. People who barely know how to turn their own computers on because corporations have made everything a proprietary app or exclusive hardware option that you must pay constant fees just to use. Especially young, somewhat isolated people who have never known a different world and don't realize they are being conditioned to be metaphorical prey animals in the digital landscape.

Anyway, this isn't the best internet safety course but it's free and easy to access. Gotta start somewhere.

Here's another short, easy, free online course about personal cyber security (GCFGlobal.org Introduction to Internet Safety)

Bonus videos:

(Jul 13, 2023, runtime 15:29)

"He didn't have anything to hide, he didn't do anything wrong, anything illegal, and yet he was still punished."

(Apr 20, 2023; runtime 9:24 minutes)

"At least 60% use their name or date of birth as a password, and that's something you should never do."

(March 4, 2020, runtime 11:18 minutes)

"Crossing the road safely is a basic life skill that every parent teaches their kids. I believe that cyber skills are the 21st century equivalent of road safety in the 20th century."

[ouzel-time]

PSA: FUCK CALLERY PEARS!!!

The callery pear, sometimes known by the name of its infamous domestic cultivar, the Bradford pear, is a HIGHLY invasive species throughout the US! At this time of year (late winter to early spring), callery pears bloom and leaf out before any other native tree species, which can lead to overcrowding.

The history of the Bradford pear:

The Bradford cultivar of the callery pear was introduced into the United States in the 1960s as the ultimate ornamental tree: it flowers and leaves out early, it is naturally straight and tall, and grows super quick. Its leaves are deep red in fall and its toxic fruits are candy to birds. But these attributes would lead to it being a highly invasive species. Where I live, these trees are already greening up when most grass is still barely colored. The fact is that these trees fill in before any others, crowding out younger native plants.

(image courtesy of Leslie Mehrnoff)

Then there are the growing habits of the Bradford pear. The Bradford was originally praised for its rapid, even growth. However, these trees grow so fast that they can't build as much strength as slower-growing species, such as oaks. The forks in limbs and branches are the weak spots, and any amount of wind sends down showers of twigs. When I was younger, I lived in a house with three of these invasive shits out front, and it was a hassle to constantly pick up branches and twigs from the lawn.

(image courtesy of Rebekah Wallace)

As a result of their accelerated growth, Bradford pears are HIGHLY susceptible to storm damage, and this can hurt houses, automobiles and other people's property. On top of that, they're not very pretty to look at whenever they're not flowering or colored up for fall.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Pull/dig up any suckers or saplings that you find. Beware that wild-type callery pears have thorns on the ends of their branches, so proceed with caution.

Cut them the hell down. Depending on where you live, you may receive payment or even a free native tree for pear trees you cut down. Note, DO NOT cut down trees on others' property without permission from the owner of said property.

Inform others! The best way to stop the spread of these trees is to teach others about the problem! More people cutting down callery pears means less shitty invasive trees!

Thank you for your consideration!

[twompweek]

PROMPT LIST ~ full release!

Hi all, the time is finally drawing near! Twomp week begins in just a few weeks so who's ready to see the prompts for the event? The answer will hopefully be everyone because the full release is here.

Reminder that every list of prompts is optional. Use these in any way you choose or ignore them entirely!

That being said, here are the prompts for each day of twomp week:

Day 1 - August 5th

Crossover : Video Game

Swap : Role Reversal

Fluff : Hand Holding

Angst : Saying Goodbye

Trope : Only One Bed

Ship : Plargos | Eye Love You | Mr Plant x Argos

Twomp Episode : Gardening with Argos (Part 7)

Colour Palette :

Day 2 - August 6th

Crossover : Horror Movie

Swap : Colour Palette Switch

Fluff : Baking/Cooking

Angst : Arguments

Trope : Accidental Baby Acquisition

Ship : Your Favourite Ship

Twomp Episode : A Roadtrip with Mr Plant

Colour Palette :

Day 3 - August 7th

Crossover : Favourite Show

Swap : Genderbend

Fluff : Date Night

Angst : Betrayal

Trope : Fake Dating

Ship : Flopsy x Lotus | the pink and green bunnies

Twomp Episode : Gardening with Argos (PART 3)

Colour Palette :

Day 4 - August 8th

Crossover : Any other Ashur Gharavi Series

Swap : Outfit Mixup

Fluff : Daydreams

Angst : Haunted

Trope : Time Loop

Ship : A Rarepair You've Never Considered Before

Twomp Episode : A Wednesday with Mr. Plant.

Colour Palette :

Day 5 - August 9th

Crossover : Fantasy

Swap : Quote Swap

Fluff : Cosy Clothing

Angst : Illness

Trope : Coffee Shop AU

Ship : Midnight Broadcast | the moon and the telly

Twomp Episode : Gardening with Argos (Part 5)

Colour Palette :

Day 6 - August 10th

Crossover : Superhero

Swap : Aesthetic Switchup

Fluff : Birthday Celebrations/Parties

Angst : Wounded

Trope : Hanahaki

Ship : Selfship or Canon x OC

Twomp Episode : Gardening with Argos (PART 4)

Colour Palette :

Day 7 - August 11th

Crossover : Nostalgic Media

Swap : New Setting

Fluff : Soulmates

Angst : Self-Loathing

Trope : Songfic

Ship : Garden of Love | Mr Plant x Mr Flower x Argos

Twomp Episode : Christmas with Argos

Colour Palette :

consider following the @twompweek blog or the #twomp week tag to see everyone's amazing creations when the event begins!

[gaywizardzone]

love this guy happy birthday to him (not a birthday post but it is his birthday). some jokes about trivia from one of hoshino's instagram livestreams that made me laugh and made my environmental scientist friend who wants to eat poisonous things without dying simply for the joy of studying the experience want to kill him

[ruporas]

Hello hello! I read your tidbits for plant ww au and if you don't mind me asking, how come ww is no longer able to verbally communicate? Did dying and reviving take away some of his physical capabilities? Or is that simply a consequence of becoming half plant? 🤔 ww being alive is all that matters but I'm so curious!

hello!! at the time, i think i made it that way because of him becoming half plant-ish? admittedly, i didn’t give the logistics too much thought but he doesn’t make a lot of sounds and doesn’t speak, like dependent plants. it Probably means that something physically has been affected, but i haven’t researched enough into what i want that to be :’] i also think since he woke up again, he hasn’t felt the particular urge to communicate verbally/found viable enough solutions to make do. he isn’t able to communicate with plants either in the shared consciousness way.

if i go deeper into this au, i might change more things around… i’ve already started adjusting what capabilities he should have as being a revived guy from a little less than half of vash’s power + love. ashamed to say i haven’t given too much thought into plants hcs and full capabilities either!! i always forget what they’re capable of in canon ;;

anyway, i hope that answers it!! and here’s some doodles i drew while thinking of how to answer this question!

a small comic - he has plenty of little feathers so i went and made use of them

[pancakeke]

hey just wnated to give a tip dont use tap water for the marimos, leave it out for 24 hrs, if possible use pond water or something with natural bacteria 🫡

I understand that you had good intentions by trying to give advice, but please understand that if I wanted advice I would have requested it.

and I'm really really not trying to be mean to you here, but this is a good example of how not knowing the context of someone's situation and then giving unsolicited advice can spread misinformation.

using pond/creek/river water for anything other than a pond jar is a bad idea. the contaminants this may introduce to an aquatic system far outweighs the benefits good bacteria may provide. potential water quality issues should be assessed by testing first. changes should be made based on test results, and only by means of safe chemical or bacterial additives.

good bacteria is most useful for eating up detritus and fish waste before its decay can create chemical imbalances in a tank. but I don't have any critters that poop and my marimo have never appeared to shed dead parts. if anything they generate more living tufts of algae that then start looking for a place to anchor themselves, which is a whole different problem.

again, sorry if this comes off rude but I see sooo much misinfo spread around the houseplant subreddits I follow as well as on instagram. a lot of it comes in the form of unsolicited advice that doesn't directly address anything at hand.

the (serious) fish/aquarium hobbyists are way more likely to be straight shooters, though I guess that comes with the territory when the hobby has a higher barrier for entry and it's easy to do tests that can back up your claims lol

my marimo have been cute and doing fine for the 6 years I've owned them. the only reason I killed one recently was because I neglected them all completely for months. I'm going a little more extreme with their setup now (like adding pumps and stuff) because this would either extend the time they can be left alone OR I'll want play with their habitat more, which means I'll check them more. also once I started looking at the types of aquariums equipment out there it all seemed fun and I wanted to get silly with things.

[ohno-the-sun]

I could not get @oobbbear mad scientist au out of my head I love it so much

[intrinsically-disordered-proxein]

still amazes me that scientists were just like what if we shot cells with dna coated mini bullets really really hard to insert that dna into the genome. and somehow that fucking worked