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Dear Plant Pimp

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Zero_1RR said:
oh great pimp of plants. my apartment is very dry and stuffy. is there a type of plant that will make the air not so stale?
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This is a great question! There was something called the NASA ALCA Clean Air Study a few years back and they came up with a list of plants that do the best job cleaning air. NASA was interested in this as part of developing a system maintaining air quality in space stations.

Here the wiki link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_air-filtering_plants

Here is the list of plants. These are all mostly easy plants to maintain and easy to come by.

Anyone can keep a golden pothos plant alive. Who knows, maybe it helps keep you alive, too.

English Ivy
Spider plant
Golden pothos
Peace lily
Chinese evergreen
Bamboo palm or reed palm
Snake plant or mother-in-law's tongue
Heartleaf philodendron
Selloum philodendron
Elephant ear philodendron
dracaena
Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina)
Gerbera Daisy
Chrysanthemum
Rubber Plant (Ficus elastica)
 
codger said:
I have a spider mite problem in my herb garden. I have tried several insectisidal soaps and even lady bugs but cant seem to do these little pests in for good. since the plants are used in cooking I dont want to use heavy insecticides.
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Spider mites can be a real drag.

How established is your herb garden? Are these plants you've had for years? What plants, specifically, seem to be attracting the mites?

Generally, spider mites seem to infest vulnerable plants, ie, plants that may not be doing too well. Conditions in the garden could be causing the problem, too. You may want to focus on thinning out the older, weaker looking plants and then give lots of attention to proper watering and fertilization. You may find that the new growth is not infested.

So, start by trimming off the areas with infestation. If the newest growth is coming back infested, then you might want to tear everything out, recondition the soil, and start over. It might be less work in the long run.

If you do start over, as advised above, buy good quality plants. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people buy plants that are already loaded with pests.
 
wiffledaddy said:
Okay, I'll give a more serious answer for the bermuda grass question. Bermuda grass is invasive and powerful. It will defy logic and chemicals and it will outlive you. If you try to till it, it will come back ten times stronger. Essentially, I think you can't win.
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So, I'm back to my original plan of potassium perchlorate, 600 grit aluminum powder, and gasoline, huh? :devil
 
I had to kill all the Bermuda grass (my entire lawn) and wait till some came back and killed it again! then I dug down 18" and had all the soil removed (not really soil more like river rock with some dirt) and waited some more to see if any Bermuda grass grew back.. when non grew I had yards of super soil brought in and mounded it 24-in to 36-in above grade. it been 4 years and no Bermuda grass yet... the new grass loves the soil
 
faster7575 said:
I had to kill all the Bermuda grass (my entire lawn) and wait till some came back and killed it again! then I dug down 18" and had all the soil removed (not really soil more like river rock with some dirt) and waited some more to see if any Bermuda grass grew back.. when non grew I had yards of super soil brought in and mounded it 24-in to 36-in above grade. it been 4 years and no Bermuda grass yet... the new grass loves the soil
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I don't quite follow the last bit....the dirt your grass is on sticks up 2-3 feet? Does that mean your lawn is now a "hill"?
 
faster7575 said:
I had to kill all the Bermuda grass (my entire lawn) and wait till some came back and killed it again! then I dug down 18" and had all the soil removed (not really soil more like river rock with some dirt) and waited some more to see if any Bermuda grass grew back.. when non grew I had yards of super soil brought in and mounded it 24-in to 36-in above grade. it been 4 years and no Bermuda grass yet... the new grass loves the soil
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Holy crap!

Wouldn't it have been easier to just move to a new house?

Seriously, for those who asked, this is how you get rid of bermuda grass.
 
Here is the first round of dirt leaving.. we dug up about 3 x what you see there.. it looks sweet now.

And all those rocks came from the yard.. we never brought any in.. I still have tons of rock

Work in progress
yard2.jpg



2 years later
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well these Herbs are annuals and growing nicely at this point they are about three months old. I have considered just ripping them out and starting over is there a way to be sure the spider mites are gone before replanting? thanks very much!
 
codger said:
well these Herbs are annuals and growing nicely at this point they are about three months old. I have considered just ripping them out and starting over is there a way to be sure the spider mites are gone before replanting? thanks very much!
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Send me pics of the affected plants if you can.
 
I just wanted to post a confirmation of my plant pimp status.

Recently, I successfully transported a phalaenopsis orchid in my tank bag without causing the plant any damage. Not one overbent or folded leaf. The trip was about 30 miles, all in commuter traffic.

That's the shit, right there, definitely not for amateurs.

To be clear, the plant was not in bloom. I'm a plant pimp, Jim, not a miracle worker.
 
Hello Dandy, I wonder how your Marginata is doing? Were you able to find a happy place for it?

The pic below is of a stump Marginata that I rescued (named Stumpy Marge). This thing had been indoors getting poor care and had gotten completely infested by spider mites. The owners then moved it outside during the dead of winter, where it was nearly killed by a frost. It completely defoliated and remained dormant for a long while.

I'm just coaxing decent foliage out of it this year. It's a crappy pic, but this plant is about 7 feet tall.


stumpymarge.jpg




Dandelion said:
Okay Plant Pimp here is my ailing dracaena next to a west facing window. It gets indirect light all day and watered once a week.

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Dear PlantPimp
Do you have an orchid rescue facility? I have several that are not thriving would love them to go to capable hands
 
Hah! I honestly have an orchid in every room in my house that has a window. People are always giving me orchids.

But, the truth of the matter is, I can *teach* you how to make it thrive! Maybe even here, on the cold, sterile internets.

Wouldn't it be satisfying to learn how to make it thrive?

Do you know what type of plant it is? Do you have different varieties?
 
The orchids are all of a very rare Trader Joe variety.
The ones on the boat have gotten very tall with roots coming out of the stems
The ones at the store had big purple flowers now they are just leaves have been that way for 8+ months.

The money tree, elephant plant, and ficus are thriving
 
Well, let's just run down the very basic things about orchids, then to the more specific.

First of all, your plants want bright light, but no direct afternoon sunlight. An east window is very nice, a south window is great as long as the light doesn't hit the plant directly. West windows may spell doom.

Orchids don't like to sit in water. The way to water one of these plants is to run warmish water over the roots and potting medium -- usually bark or moss -- until everything is nice and damp. As you do this, the water should be freely running out of the bottom of the pot. The plant's roots require both moisture and air, so you want to be sure not to leave them sodden.

The plant with the roots growing out of it looks like this one? This plant likes brighter light and a warmer environment.


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Do any of the plants have leaves like this? This is a very easy plant, and extremely forgiving. It can take a cooler environment and lower light. As a rule, though, warm temps and bright light is good for orchids.

334n6kp.jpg


Hit me with specific questions. If you haven't had any spikes or flowers in a year, then we can discuss how to fertilize orchids.
 
Bingo on all accounts!
Will talk to them and explain I am attempting to do it correctl7y.
Thank you Plant Pimp
 
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