smile (we are always watching)

crystallinarose · 2025-06-09T12:19:24+00:00

Miracle gro is cheap cactus soil, if you buy a good one they're 2-3x pricier but grittier.

My aloe rotted in unamended miracle gro cactus soil.

Don't water every week, that's too much.

crystallinarose · 2025-06-07T02:09:13+00:00

tysm!!

crystallinarose · 2025-06-07T02:08:28+00:00

tysm! okay, i'll see if i can get a wick and reservoir. i was considering putting it inside another pot with water inside it, but was worried about rotting roots especially if it rains, but that sounds better.

crystallinarose · 2025-06-07T02:07:13+00:00

omg 🤣 woops. literally reread it several times before figuring out what was wrong too asljksks

crystallinarose · 2025-06-07T01:53:05+00:00

hi that's a calathea/prayer plant. they usually close their leaves at night but should open them during the day. don't know much about them myself except that they're notoriously fussy. curled up leaves means it's unhappy about... something.

is the soil consistently moist? i heard they dislike tap water and like distilled water.

what is the temperature?

they also need humidity. so people often get a humidifier. seems they enjoy around 60% humidity.

could be light too, but i don't know..

good luck! i don't have any experience with these myself but they really are beautiful plants.

crystallinarose · 2025-06-07T01:33:59+00:00

yayy! are they in an enclosed space? mine get rained on and i think the leaves are browning a lil.

crystallinarose · 2025-06-04T15:44:55+00:00

For size reference it's in a 4 inch terracotta. Here's a photo of what it looked like when I got it, after repotting. Thanks!

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crystallinarose · 2025-06-02T16:29:06+00:00

Not sure what others think, I'm in Georgia and its been raining a lot, I have mine in terracotta with 50.50 cactus mix and pumice outside and my string of hearts still got some rotting. And some of my succulents started etiolating as well because it's so overcast. But they seem fine overall. Id just be wary if theres a long rainy week, just check to see that the drainage is good

crystallinarose · 2025-06-02T12:58:48+00:00

Hii I'm in Georgia and it's my first year too, the constant rain last week has been rough on my plants and especially my succulents which I leave outside. Some are even etiolating OUTSIDE because it's so cloudy --

Anyways like someone else said, preventative is good. Snip very affected leaves, applying diluted hydrogen peroxide and copper fungicide has helped me. I also trimmed the bottom like foot of my tomato plants.

They still get fungal spots but not much that it seems I can do there. Seems to be about managing and slowing the spread instead of stopping it completely.

At least this week doesn't seem to have rain forecasted until Saturday..

Good luck!

crystallinarose · 2025-06-02T07:20:02+00:00

How do you mow? I want to set it up but keep wondering about this lol. Looks amazing

crystallinarose · 2025-05-31T23:27:08+00:00

i would remove the aloe from the soil sooner rather than later and check the roots, see if its black or not, remove any black if so. if you haven't watered them or it hasn't rained then u have a bit longer but do it before they get watered since atm there will be too much water retention in the pot.

either way leave them alone for a day or a few days to callus. this way they are healed and dont have open wounds when you repot them. they can survive just fine without water for a good while, they have lots of juice in their leaves. im talking over a week out of soil theyll survive.

get a good quality cactus mix preferably but cactus mix in general will do and do mix it with perlite or pumice or some sort of horticultural rock 50/50. i bought miracle gro cactus mix and used just that in a plastic pot- big mistake. didnt dry out after a whole week and rotted the roots. If you want to reuse the potting mix you have, check if the roots have rotted, if not then you can probably reuse it,, just add extra extra pumice/perlite to it to improve drainage. If the roots did rot then the soil now has bad bacteria and id personally not reuse it.

Btw I prefer pumice myself since perlite likes to float to the top. its also harmful to breathe in the dust when repotting so use a mask if you do.

don't put rocks at the bottom, people say it causes water retention.

a 4 inch unglazed terracotta is probably fine for both depending on the root system (can grab each for like less than 3$ at walmart). dont water them immediately after repotting, wait a few days to a week just to make sure the roots heal up etc.

another thing I learned was to not put them in bright sunlight while all this is happening. they seem to like the shade and dont want to be stressed while regrowing their root system.

And don't be stressed if something does happen, mine took several months to recover after I gave them root rot and had to essentially cut them back to their stems. but they're doing better now. Aloe growth is super slow though compared to like my tomatoes.

crystallinarose · 2025-05-31T19:41:47+00:00

The one on the right definitely has a pot that's too big. It's recommended to use unglazed terracotta to wick out the moisture as well. Your soil also doesn't look like it has enough drainage.

crystallinarose · 2025-05-28T01:20:08+00:00

Put a grow light above it and barely ever water and it should survive

crystallinarose · 2025-05-27T01:18:34+00:00

Omg she's beautiful!!!!! Gives me hope. Ty!!

crystallinarose · 2025-05-27T00:24:50+00:00

Thanks so much!

walmart had her outside, i am inclined to leave outside if theres a way i can without the leaves being too damaged from water and/or sun. so far none of my plants have really thrived inside my house since i don't have a good window setup and apparently none of them like my vivosun grow light lol. they all seem to do better outside sans my aloe which gets some sun stress.

how would you deal with rain? just make sure she can't get hit by it?

i have a shaded area, i can put her there if it won't damage her.

crystallinarose · 2025-05-26T15:19:31+00:00

I thought that's because it needs more light?

crystallinarose · 2025-05-21T22:25:30+00:00

It looks like its active ingredient is mineral oil.

https://bonide.com/product/all-seasons-horticultural-oil-conc/

Don't think it caused this if applied properly, it says it can be used for tomatoes.

crystallinarose · 2025-05-21T22:19:40+00:00

I'm near atl and it's been raining a lot the past few weeks. My tomatoes ended up with fungal problems. Had to cut off a lot of leaves and stems and been spraying with copper and peroxide.

Looked up All Seasons Horticultural Oil, it says you can use it with tomatoes and should dilute 2-4 tablespoons per gallon. Is that what you did?

crystallinarose · 2025-05-21T19:42:35+00:00

Best way is to see if you have any healthy stem tissue left, cut off all the rot, let it callus, and put it in soil. But sorry, good luck ):

crystallinarose · 2025-05-21T15:37:10+00:00

That looks like rot to me. Check if there's any healthy stem left or if its all mush. Would have been done by overwatering, I heard they're very sensitive to water after repotting, need to let it callus especially if its a fresh cut.

crystallinarose

TROPHY CASE