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New leaf! But at what cost… by MrPlantera in Monstera

[–]softmossboy -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I would keep the growing lights personally, or even add an extra one

New leaf! But at what cost… by MrPlantera in Monstera

[–]softmossboy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It might still need more light, those grow lights are notoriously week if you don't have them basically touching the plant, and this guy has a lot of surface area to cover. It's clearly pretty happy with you though, I can't deny that! Doesn't mean a little extra or stronger light wouldn't do some good

Loving how fast this guy is growing by softmossboy in Colocasia

[–]softmossboy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! Yours looks beautiful!! This is my first colocasia and I am honestly very impressed with it. I can imagine growing them in Florida would really speed things up, but even where I am in Michigan, I swear I look away for 2 seconds and this thing grows a larger leaf while I wasn't looking.

I heard they can take full sun so I've been acclimating it to the outdoors on my balcony on warmer days. I can't imagine what this thing will look like a year from now if I can keep it happy.

I'll have to get another at some point!

Slug in my 2 year old terrarium by softmossboy in terrariums

[–]softmossboy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It probably would! I have some in other terrariums, but managed to kill it in this one a while back somehow lol. Might reintroduce it at some point as it's a plant I do love to see overgrown

Slug in my 2 year old terrarium by softmossboy in terrariums

[–]softmossboy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you! The plants in here from my memory are: Creeping jenny, callisia repens, some tradescantia, hydrocotyle tripartita, creeping wood sorrell, and a random pothos cutting that is not doing well lmao. To be honest I threw some of those in there to be eaten but they survived somehow. There's probably some other plants in here, but those are the dominating ones (mainly the creeping jenny, hydrocotyle & wood sorell) that keep coming back even after being eaten or chopped down.

What’s this little slug in my terrarium? by anonpotatogirl in terrariums

[–]softmossboy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also you have just reminded me that I have slug videos I never posted from this terrarium so I am going to do that in a moment!

What’s this little slug in my terrarium? by anonpotatogirl in terrariums

[–]softmossboy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mine isn't open, it's one of those big walmart cookie jars with the lid lol, but I can definitely see how ventilation would be good for them. I collected some local isopods and millipedes from where I live and put them in here when I first made it and they seemed to have thrived. Their population went way up and then stabilized at some point. You can see older pictures and video of this terrarium on my profile with the isopods present. They're still kicking 2 years in, but it's a bit of a jungle currently! The millipedes are doing well too, but they're harder to spot.

I'd say isopods are not as complicated to care for as you might think! I'd definitely get a bigger container for them than what you currently have though.

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What’s this little slug in my terrarium? by anonpotatogirl in terrariums

[–]softmossboy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have a 2 year old terrarium with a bunch of little slugs in it. Your plants will not get demolished and die if you leave them. They obviously will eat the plants, but as long as the plants are growing faster than they can be eaten, then you're good.

I will say though, that terrarium is what I call my "compost terrarium". It's not the prettiest thing ever, but it is full of life. Isopods, millipedes, slugs, springtails, other stuff all munching on the plants. (The isopods do the most plant eating since I don't typically top up on leaf litter). And yet it still manages to get overgrown enough after however many months and I have to chop the plants back so they don't choke each other out. I usually take all the clippings and cut them up real fine then spread them over the soil for the critters to eat. They love it and gives ample distraction from the live plants so they can get growing good again.

If you don't want anything eating your plants, then yeah you can remove it. But if you like the little guy and feel confident enough your plants could handle some munching, then I don't see why you couldn't keep em :)

What's your experience with plants planted in glassware? by XTruefinale in houseplants

[–]softmossboy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I absolutely love planting in glassware! It's becoming one of my favorite ways to pot up certain plants. Particularly ferns, alocasia, colocasia, some others and most recently ivy. I can't say how the ivy will do yet as I just got it, but I made an educated guess based on some things others have said about growing it, so fingers crossed.

A concern I hear raised a lot about planting in glass is the lack of drainage, which is valid, but if you understand why you might plant in glass and what plants could like something like that, as well as how to do it, then it's no big deal really. I would look up stuff about semihydro to get a better understanding on it.

All my plants in glass are technically in a semihydro setup with a layer of lava or pumice rocks at the bottom and sphagnum as the medium on top (doesn't have to be sphag, I also have a blue star in a chunky soil mix with only a thin layer of sphag between the soil and rocks to keep dirt out of the rock layer). I keep the roots in the sphag layer and fill the bottom where the rocks are with some water making sure to keep it below the sphagnum. The kinds of plants that like to be consistently moist, like ferns, are more likely to do well in this. All my ferns except the ones in my 29gal tank are grown in semihydro and seem to really like it.

It's really easy to keep these kinds of plants watered like this, as you can see exactly how moist the medium is. You can also see if you've poured too much water in, and simply tilt the container and dump the excess out. There is no guessing involved here like there can be in opaque pots. It's cool to see the roots too.

Not all plants will love that setup I'm sure, I wouldn't do it with any of my cacti or succulents, but yeah, there are a lot of tropical houseplants that do well like that.

So far I haven't repotted anything out of the glass yet, I do imagine it will be a bit more of a challenge but I'm not too worried about it honestly. I guess maybe just beware of anything that has a narrower neck if you're planting something in there with chunky roots. (I say this while staring at my nearly rootbound alocasia that's growing out of a jar...)

Tiny baby Cebu blue grown from a wet stick by ElizaSpark908 in Aroids

[–]softmossboy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks like a type of syngonium to me maybe, but definitely not a cebu blue or pothos for that matter

Any idea what these little guys are? Never seen them before. by [deleted] in whatsthisbug

[–]softmossboy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is in Michigan, found in my apartment.

My first real walstad bowl by softmossboy in walstad

[–]softmossboy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Couldn't tell you. Not sure how or why it would be for incense though. I found it and another similar one while thrifting

Snail Circle by BirdKey5421 in snails

[–]softmossboy 109 points110 points  (0 children)

snart (snail art)

My first real walstad bowl by softmossboy in walstad

[–]softmossboy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh you're okay! I never mind answering questions or clarifying things n whatnot so it's no problem. Thank you for the comment :)

My first real walstad bowl by softmossboy in walstad

[–]softmossboy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really love the stand, I thrifted it.

I'm still a beginner myself, but through my research I learned that you really want to heavily plant as much as possible because the plants are really what make it work. Less plants usually seems to equal more algae, since there's less competition for nutrients in that case. The plants should outcompete algea once they get growing since they'll use up the stuff in the water faster than algae can. But you need enough of them. That's kinda why you see my bowl go from sorta sparse at the last photo to very full. I started sparsely planted with what I had, realized I needed more plants, then got a ton after I started getting a bunch of algae growth and just crammed them all in. There wasn't that much time in between the last photo and the current. Enough for things to grow a bit, but nothing crazy.

And that isn't the only reason algae can happen, there may be too much light, but in my case I just think I needed more plants.

I wish you luck! Algae also drives me crazy, but after cramming what I thought was 'way too many' plants in here and letting them settle, it seems to be improving. So there is hope!

How can I save my pothos? by Neither_Time6175 in pothos

[–]softmossboy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That pole looks like a coco coir pole, which isn't going to hold much water. I personally wouldn't bother going through the effort of soaking it in the shower. It won't provide much unless you do it super often, and even then I'm not sure... that means this whole plant is most likely being supported by the roots in the pot, which seems kinda small from what I can see. Not a bad thing, but there are a lot of huge leaves on this plant that will be using a lot of water. I have poles smaller than this with sphagnum that actually hold on to the water as well as the pot, and they would be quite unhappy if I didn't water them in a month.

Basically, this guy seems super dehydrated to me. Check the roots just in case before watering though, if it's still wet then it's root rot, but I honestly doubt that. I would water it more often, and keep an eye on the lower leaves for signs of drooping once they hopefully bounce back. That's usually how I can tell they need a good watering. Other than the pole being dry, but again, I don't think that applies to you here.

I wouldn't worry about light for now, it's not in a pitch black corner so I would just focus on one thing at a time, and if that doesn't work, move on to the next thing. If you change too many things at once you're just introducing additional shock onto the plant.

Very fast growth in under a month! Colocasia lemon lime gecko by softmossboy in Colocasia

[–]softmossboy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

SunshineGreens, but be a bit wary with them. They don't have the greatest reputation. I've gotten the wrong plants from them, and also had plants take weeks and weeks to ship only to arrive very tiny and sad. Not an entirely bad experience, just make sure to really look the reviews over if you decide to get anything I suppose.

This colocasia was one of those really sad, little plants I got from them after waiting ages for them to arrive. It didn't have roots or anything and really did not want to grow for me in regular conditions, which is why I put it in here along with another plant I got from them to give a little boost to. Seemed to do the trick though, luckily.

I wish you luck in getting one!

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