Tropical House Plants

Here are seven short videos that I found to be really interesting. They are time-lapse videos that show plants recovering from lack of water, plants closing their leaves for the night, plants growing, and plants that move. All of the plants shown can be grown indoors.

Individual videos may be selected by clicking the 2nd button below, or you can let them run automatically. Here is a list, with a brief description of each:

1. Plant Recovering: This coffee plant was in need of some water.
2. Plant Closing Up: This “Praying Plant” is closing its leaves for the night. Pictures were taken every minute for 220 minutes.
3. Plants Growing: Some bush beans are grown from seeds. The video was shot over a 4-day period.
4. AeroGarden vs Dirt: This is a very effective commercial showing the growth of some lettuce in the Aerogarden kitchen garden system vs high grade potting soil.
5. Plants Growing: This time lapse shows some corn plants growing over a period of 10 days. It shows both root and leaf growth.
6. Plants that can Move: Shows a variety of plants that can move on their own volition, including a Venus Fly Trap.
7. Plant that Moves When Touched: In the Virgin Islands, we call this a “Sensitive Plant”. I have quite a few of these in my yard, but I consider them a weed, since they have very sharp thorns that even go through gardening gloves.

Something really nice happened to me the other day, so I’m going to post my first “rave” — kind of balance out yesterday’s rant.

I’ve been spending some time recently trying to find advertisers, or “sponsors”, as I prefer to call them. I’m not trying to get rich, but it would be nice to have a small income from Tropical House Plants to offset my expenses.

After a bit of searching, I ran across Yardiac.com. As you can tell by their name, they primarily sell supplies for outdoor gardening, but they also have an extensive line of planters which I thought might be of interest to indoor gardeners. I decided to order something myself, which I like to do with a new sponsor to make sure that I can fully recommend them to my viewers.

I decided on a Trough Planter to hang on my porch railing, and filled out the order form. The price was $34.95, with a shipping charge of $8.95 for US customers. However, since I live in the US Virgin Islands, I know from experience that this shipping charge was not going to be enough. So I was not surprised when I received an email from Yardiac, asking me to contact them. At the bottom of this email, it indicated that the UPS shipping cost would be an addtional $165.18.

I’ve lived here a long time, and I know from experience that UPS and FedEx grossly over-charge companies that ship to the Virgin Islands, whereas the US Postal Service always has a more reasonable rate. So I promptly sent an email to the shipping manager at Yardiac to explain this, and ask if they could please ship my order via USPS.

As I said, I have been through this before, and most of the time the US company will refuse to change their policy. I then cancel the sale, because there is no way I will pay 4-5 times the cost of an item just to have it shipped.

So I was surprised and elated to receive a phone call two days later from Yardiac informing me that they had looked into it, and would ship me the planter via USPS for an additional charge of only three dollars. Now that’s what I call service!

Hence the title of this post: Yardiac - A Superlative Sponsor. I highly recommend them to you for their outstanding service.

This is my first “rant”. Sometimes I get so vexed at the incompetence or laziness, or maybe just simple rudeness of the webmasters of other sites that I have to talk about it. Here’s the latest example .

I decided to join a few directories, to publicize Tropical House Plants … just trying to get the word out about us. So about a month ago I filled out an application on the WordPress Directory site in order to get listed. They are now charging a fee for this.

“Due to high volume of submits and maintainance, all submits from Today (02-Mar-2008) will have a minimum fee.”

A regular link with a reciprocal link back to them had the lowest cost, so I decided to go with this option. I put up the small badge shown here as a link to poweredbywp.com.

I filled out their form, which included a space to enter the URL of my link, which I did. After filling out the required CAPCHA, I was immediately presented with the following error message:

“A link to http://www.poweredbywp.com/ could not be found at the specified URL.”

Well, that was simply not true. The badge link WAS there! So I sent them an email asking them to please fix the problem with their form.

Three emails and three weeks later, I have yet to receive any sort of reply, even though it is clearly stated on their website:

“We will respond to you within 2 working days.”

So I would strongly advise any webmaster thinking about applying to this directory NOT to do it! Save yourself the frustration and find another directory that wants your business. There are some badges in the sidebar for a few directories which are easier to join, and are also free.

Too little water … too much water … either one can cause a plant to die. This article will help you decide exactly how much water to use, and what to do if you get it wrong.

What Determines the Amount of Water a Plant Needs?

There’s no general rule that works for every plant. It depends on:

1. The plant’s environment: Higher temperatures, lots of light, and breezes or drafts will dry out a plant faster. Plants in small pots will need more water, and those in unglazed clay pots also, since the porous sides allow moisture to pass through. The type of potting soil is also a factor — more about this in another installment.
2. The type of plant: Plants such as cactus that are native to a dry climate may not need much watering at all. Other plants with large, soft leaves need more water, as do plants that are blooming. I water my new cuttings daily, to stimulate root development.

Do all these factors mean that I just have to guess? … Not at all. Just use the “Feel the Soil Rule”. When the soil in the pot is dry to a depth of an inch or so, that’s the time to get out the watering can.

How to Water

Always give your plants a good soaking. It’s much better for them than small amounts applied more frequently. Every month or so, I like to just put the whole pot in a large bucket for a few minutes to make sure that all the soil is getting dampened.

Symptoms of Impending Disaster

How do you know if you’re doing it properly? It’s pretty easy to tell when a plant needs more water. Its leaves will begin to droop. Too much water is a more common mistake. It causes black spots, mold, or a “mushy” feeling in the stems.

How to Save the Day

If your plant is parched, just soak it for a while in a bucket. Mushy plants are more difficult to fix. Remove them from their pot and examine the roots. If they’re mushy too, it’s probably best to throw out the plant. Otherwise, replace most of the soil, and just keep it drier from now on.

Some Other Problems

• Root-bound plants will need more water than usual. It’s best to repot them.
• Ceramic pots with no drainage — just be conservative, and watch for symptoms of over-watering.
• After repotting a plant, the new soil will stay moist much longer, since there are no roots in it to take up moisture, so you need to water it less often.

Once you get to know your plants, it’s much easier. You’ll develop a pattern, and you’ll learn to recognize possible problems before they get too serious.