Plants, Pitties, and Power Foods

I love these plants….definitely not the insect. I started with a very small spider plant from Lowe’s and couldn’t get it to grow, yet my friends plants were thriving. I couldn’t figure it out. I then realized that once needed to look at my lighting, soil mix, how often I watered, etc, would provide me with the success for these plants to pup. For these little love bug plants, medium to bright indirect light is key. Mine now sit or hang on the north side of the house by a window and love every minute of it. Watering – make sure the soil is dry in between watering and sometimes, depending on the season, may mean a week, may mean four days. It also depends on the humidity outside as well as inside the house. Humidity is key…..as one of my later posts will address with different plant species. The soil for these plants in my house may be a little bit different than the norm, however, they seem to love it here in Tulsa. I use generic potting soil, perlite, vermiculite, and very little pine bark. This is my general mix for almost all of my plants. I do not repot spider plants until they are completely root bound in their pots, and only go 1-2 inches up each time. Watering is key – not only when you water but what you water with. For a long time I would use tap water an let it sit for over 24 hours but still the ends of the spider plants looked burnt or brown…..couldn’t figure it out. Tap water has a lot of chlorine and chemicals and so sitting for 24 hours SHOULD remove those chemicals, however, I have found out, it doesn’t always work . I run my tap water through the Zero water filter system when its in the dry season in Tulsa, otherwise, I use rain water which I catch in my Araiozora Rain Barrel. My plants thrive more with rain water but thats not always an option so filtered water will work. Tap water is last resort and it needs to sit for at least 48 hours before using. These plants make me happy and eventually will propagate by pulling the pups off their stems and letting callous for 15-30 minutes and then put into the propagation station. Until then, I enjoy their beauty.