Growing Stuff

Lemon Tree Update

2016-10-31T19:40:00.000-07:00

Well it's been years, but here's an update on the lemon tree I started from seeds that I got from a grocery store lemon.

Yeah, look at that. I've actually had to prune it down several times so as that it would fit in my sisters window seat. I took the two strongest saplings and twined the smaller one around the larger and it's looking pretty cool.

They're beginning to fuse together and the whole thing is really doing well. I'm hoping for fruit this winter! Further updates as events warrant.

Ficus Benjamina On a Skull Update: Named, Repotted and Rewired

2014-03-25T15:55:00.001-07:00

This tree now has a name and that name is Skull Master, Master of Skulls! I've decided to call it an homage to Questionable Content because that sounds better than "I steal cool names from web comics". Anyway, I haven't done much to him since the last post other than a repot and a little shaping. I moved recently and have kind of let the two trees I brought with me go wild. The other tree I brought was the Mother Tree (also, holy crap she's changed since that post, need to write her an update, too) and she's been half wild from the get go but I have serious plans for Skull Master.

Firstly, I re-potted him since clear containers don't seem to work as well as opaque, I learned. When I did that I put him at a different angle to encourage the trunk to grow how I want it. I'm going to do a whole post about pot tilting and such later, I think. I also recovered his left side with dirt (makes the roots grow thicker/stronger faster, it seems) and a couple other spots, too, then wrapped the skull portion in a humidity tent. That's a grand way of saying a cut up freezer bag.

Works great, though. I just slice it open, wrap it how I want and gently secure it with bonsai training wire.

Make sure a little air can get out so stuff doesn't get moldy and it keeps things nice and humid and that, my pets, encourages air roots.

This one is going from the base of the trunk down the back of the skull. It will look very cool, if it survives.

I also re-purposed one of these weird two fixture lamps into a grow light.

Lined the upper lampshade with foil and attached it to reflect down and used the other one to point straight at the humidity tent.

I use compact bulbs so you can get them right up close since they don't put out much heat.

They do, however, put out enough heat to warm the tent up and that also encourages air roots. And, once again, air roots are cool

So there's an update on this guy, you can see the change in shape pretty well in that next to last pic. He's filled out quite a bit which I attribute to the lights I've been using and the beginnings of the umbrella shape are coming together. This spring I plan on doing a major pruning/reshaping for him and I'll definitely post about that. The lemon trees I posted about last are doing well, too, I'll update about them soon. Probably. Heh.

Growing Lemon Trees From Seed

2013-07-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

I'm growing lemon trees! It's wicked easy so far, even from seed. I pretty much followed the instructions from this site except I tossed the seeds into a cup of water instead of keeping them in my mouth before planting. Plus I left them in the water for about two days before I planted them, so it's good to know that that's ok. But basically, this is what you do.

Fill a pot with wet potting soil.
Take a lemon (apparently organic ones have the least chance of being sterile) and take out the seeds. I strongly suggest you use the juice for something like souvlaki, but I'm definitely biased.
Do not let the seeds dry out, they don't like that.
Plant them about half an inch deep in the pot.
Keep the soil moist until the seeds sprout. You can cover the pot with plastic to help this, I just watered it when it started looking dry.
Once they sprout make sure they have ~8 hours of direct sunlight or use a grow lamp. They will enjoy up to 15 hours of light I'm told, I'll do another post about all that when I know more.

But look:

Sprouts! In less than 2 weeks, none the less. I'm going to let as many shoots come up as want to and then pull them together with the goal of having one tree with multiple trunks. I'm not going to bonsai it though, I want it to get big and give me many lemons. Further updates as events warrant.

Wiring a Ficus Benjamina for Shape

2013-03-19T12:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, first off please note that my wiring method is not traditional, elderly asian bonsai artists would probably faint if they saw it. But once again, I don't really care about tradition, I guess I'm iconoclastic like that. Also my pictures are kind of cluttered in the background, I need to set up some kind of area for picture taking that doesn't have all my cds, SNES games and Godzilla for the backdrop. I'm going to post it anyway.

Here is what this tree looked like before wiring, branches all over the place. I'm going to try to shape it into a umbrella/ball shape, we'll see how well it works.

First things first, trunk. I have the wire doubled up because of the size of it, plus I'm going to use one of those wires to also wire a branch. According to many things I've read this is totally the wrong way to do it. However I also read a book that showed the guy doing it with even more wires, I'll dig it up and do a post about it, it's my favorite bonsai book so far. I just formed the end of the wires into a hook and secured it to a large root.

This is also not the "right" way to do it but since my tree isn't huge I'm not too worried.

Wrap the wires loosely around the trunk, too tight and they can damage the bark, too loose and they won't do the thing you want them to do. I usually leave ~3/4 - 1" or so between the wires.

Once I got the the first fork I shifted one of the wires to the branch and just gently wrapped the end of the other wire around the trunk so I didn't stab myself with it.

One thing to note, always pass the wire over the top of a branch where it comes out of the truck or other branch. If you run it underneath you can choke off the limb when you shape it.

Next I took another length of wire, doubling it again, but this time to send one end up each branch from a split.

Then I just continued wrapping until all the branches I wanted were wrapped (well, most of them. Some were too thin yet) and then bent the branches down into the shape I wanted.

That's pretty much it, it's not very difficult, just time consuming. Don't rush it or you will snap off small branches or leaves, wrap the wire poorly or damage your tree in some other way. Besides, it's supposed to be a meditative activity so relax, take it slow and don't stress yourself. Nothing done while wiring is really permanent you can always reshape it later. Well, unless you snap things off. Oh and don't forget to take the wires off after a couple weeks! Leave them on too long and they'll bite into the bark leaving gouges and possibly hurting the tree.

Spider Plant Flowers

2013-03-04T12:49:00.002-08:00

See that?

Apparently spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) make flowers. I had no idea. I wish I knew what happened to make them bloom, they're kind of pretty and I would like to have it happen more often. They appear on the ends of the thick shoots that the baby plants grow from and don't seem to last very long. I had three flowers appear over three days and none saw the sunrise twice. If anyone has any info about this phenomenon I would love it.

Unorthodox Root Over Rock... or Skull

2013-02-05T10:09:00.000-08:00

I've been growing this bad boy for almost 4 years but it's finally ready for display.

Well, almost ready, I still need a good pot. It's very much a non-traditional bonsai, I don't think most real bonsai growers would use a skull designed as an aquarium decoration to do root over rock on. But I'm not concerned about that, I just think it looks awesome. It's one of my ficus benjamina cuttings that I rooted in water, so here is proof that they can thrive. I've also wired it and once I go through all the pictures of that I took I'll do a post about it, too. I'm also going to be doing a more orthodox root over rock this spring so I'll do a big how-to post about it then. Lots of fun stuff coming up in the next few months, stay tuned.

Some Bonsai Miniatures

2012-05-17T08:53:00.002-07:00

Nothing really exciting is going on with my plants right now, although I'm going to be doing some shaping/training this summer and I'll get pics of that. But I have made some miniatures/decorations for bonsai that I can talk about. I've made three so far, for scale they're on standard 3"x5" index cards. This is a little arch, although it didn't quite come out like I wanted. Here is a section of "field stone" wall. And lastly a slate path. Or wall, whatever I decide to do with it. I made the wall and arch with craft pebbles and superglue and the path is a broken up slate flooring tile. Also with super glue (SG). Because they're held together with glue I think I'm going to make sure to take them out of the pot before watering, once I have them set up. But I think SG is waterproof, I mean they use it in aquariums. But I guess we'll find out. Heh.

How to Propagate a Jade Plant

2012-04-01T12:42:00.003-07:00

A buddy of mine gave me a little jade plant recently. One of the leaves had fallen off and started putting out roots and leaves all by itself. Really. It's that easy. Take a leaf, lay it on some dirt. Wait. Then pretty soon (in plant time) this. Love it. Jade plants are not only wicked easy to propagate, but they are eay to care for and can be turned into bonsai as well. I'll do another post at another time about care for them.

How to Propagate Ficus Benjamina Part 4: Success!

2011-12-24T07:19:00.000-08:00

I know it's been almost two years since I've posted here and who knows when I'll be posting next, but I thought I'd share how this guy was doing.Not too shabby, huh? He's about 3' tall now and doing fine. The plan is to just let him do his thing and see what happens.

Here are links to the complete "How to Propagate Ficus Benjamina with Water Rooting" saga:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

It's really easy, all it takes is a little patience, some sunlight and basic houseplant stuff. It's a great thing to do with kids too, shows them how plants grow. Might not be as fast as a potato, but it lasts a lot longer and is more satisfying in the end. Heh.

How to Propagate Ficus Benjamina: Part 3

2010-04-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

This is it, putting the cutting in soil. After this it's just maintenance, water, food, all that.

So here's the cutting that I took about three months ago. Good roots, it's ready to go. Just fill a starter pot ~1/3 full of soil. Put the cutting down carefully, try to get the roots as evenly spread out as possible. Now carefully cover it with more soil, water it well and put it in bright indirect sun. You won't need to water it much for the first few months (over watering leads to root rot, repeat as needed for emphasis), it takes a while to get a good root system, but keep an eye on it and don't let it dry out all the way.

And that's that. Now bear in mind, ficus benjamina doesn't grow very quickly indoors. I have a small tree that I started a couple years ago that is still only ~1 1/2 feet high, so don't expect anything too drastic. I've found they tend to grow in spurts, putting out a few new branches/leaves all at once, then going dormant for a couple weeks, then doing it again.

Here are the other ficus benjamina propagation post:

How to Propagate Ficus Benjamina: Part 1

How to Propagate Ficus Benjamina: Part 2

How to Propagate Ficus Benjamina: Part 2

2010-03-24T09:59:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update: Roots! Yes, it took a long time to get this far, but if I had kept it in a warmer, more humid environment it would have gone much faster. Probably about half the time. Putting cuttings in a humidity tent isn't a bad idea, although you have to keep an eye on them to make sure it's not too humid and they get moldy.

But, we're halfway to getting the cutting in a pot, so that's good. This is what it looks like when they first start coming out. At this point you need to be very careful when you change the water, the roots are very delicate and can be broken off even by pouring water over them.

See part one in How to Propagate Ficus Benjamina.

How to Propagate Spider Plants (Chlorophytum comosum)

2010-03-07T11:07:00.000-08:00

Spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) are possibly the easiest plants to propagate. There are two really easy ways to do it, but both require a full grown plant that is putting out babies/nodes. Baby spider plants look like the large ones only they are coming off the main plant on a stalk and hanging down. What they are trying to do is reach the ground, at which point they would shoot off roots and become a separate plant.

The easiest way of all is to just take a small pot full of dirt and put a node on top of it, still attached to the main plant. After a few days it will start to put out roots and eventually be it's own plant. I'll cover that in more depth when the plant I'm growing now puts out nodes.

My sister in law has a large spider plant and my brother gave me one of it's nodes. You can root them in water with ease, so that's what I did. This is what a node looks like. Pretty Cthulhuian, huh? You just submerge that in some water, changing it every week or so, and after a couple weeks it puts out roots. You can let them get several inches long if you like, it helps the plant get started. But part of spider plants popularity is their cockroach-like survivability and I've found that an inch or two of root is plenty. Then you just take a small pot half full of dirt and put the rooted node gently on top. Cover it with more dirt, water it thoroughly and put it in a sunny, but not too direct, spot.That's it, pretty soon this one will be putting out babies of it's own.

How to Make a Starter Pot for Cuttings

2010-02-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

I like to make my own starter pots. Mostly because I always have little plastic cups around since I use them to freeze chicken stock in when I make that. But they are also good for rooting and starting cuttings. I like that you can see how the roots are doing without having to pull the plant out, possibly damaging them.

All you have to do is take one of these 8oz (or so) cups and cut holes in the bottom. You do however need to make sure that they go up the sides a bit, if they are all on the bottom they won't get proper drainage and you'll get root rot. But that's it, nice and easy and inexpensive.Now it's ready to be used.

The Mother Tree

2010-01-30T12:47:00.000-08:00

This is the Mother Tree. She's about 9" tall and 16" across the long way. My sister in law gave her to me, she had her at work but she just didn't have the environment to let it thrive. That happens sometimes, in offices particularly. She looks like a savanna tree because of the way she's been pruned, it's pretty cool.

She was really pot bound when I got her. When I repotted her I scraped away some of the top soil exposing these awesome nebari (nebari is a bonsai term for exposed roots, in case you didn't know). They look like frog legs.I've taken about eight cuttings from her, all of them were rooting in water as I mentioned in my first post about propagation. Except for one that met with a falling mishap all have been doing fine. At least so far as the people who have them tell me. Heh. The ones I have are growing quite well. One is ~14" high and one of the cups has two cuttings one of them ~10" and the other growing off at all kinds of weird angles. I'll do a post about them some other time. But, here is proof that propagating ficuses in water works. Well, internet proof anyway.

How to Care for Ficus Benjamina

2010-01-24T11:30:00.000-08:00

Alright, kids, this is going to be a constantly updated post. I'm going to be putting not only what I know in here (or suspect at least, heh), but also any reader tips I get. Eventually I'm going to go through my books and bookmarked websites and put some actual numbers up here, but for now I'm just going to run down the basics. If you have any tips you want to share just leave them in the comment section and I will add them, with attribution of course.

Ficus benjamina is a tropical, but it's very popular as a house plant since it can thrive year round indoors. It's also often used for bonsai. So, here's what I know off the top of my head.

Light: Ficus benjamina likes lots of bright, indirect sunlit although some direct light is ok. No more than a couple hours of direct light a day, though. I've had good luck with grow lights too.

Water: They like it moist, but not sopping wet. You should water them when the first 1/2" or so of soil is dry. I'll be putting better details up on this up eventually, since over watering is one of, if not the top killers of house plants. Now, you've probably heard this before, but don't put them (or any houseplant) on a regular watering schedule, that's wicked bad for them. Water them only when they need it.

Temperature: Ficus benjamina like it warm, being a tropical. I've always heard they need to stay above 55 degrees F, but I once had some cuttings sit in an unheated room in an apartment in Boston in December for a week and they all survived. It definitely dropped below freezing many times. I still try to keep them above 55, usually around 57-65 in the winter and who know what in the summer, maybe 75-90s. I live in New England, we get pretty thorough temperature fluctuations.

Humidity: They love humidity, freshly rooted cuttings in particular really want a humidity tent. If the humidity is high enough they will put off air roots too, which are wicked cool. Although I did once make a humidity tent that was too tightly sealed and almost killed one of them. It got all moldy, it was weird and gross. I washed the ficus off and gave the tent better air circulation and it survived just fine though.

Food: Honestly, I don't feed them that much. I've used liquid fertilizer but didn't like it. I've also used that MiracleGro constant feed potting soil. When I used that I used it cut with regular soil since I've heard that it's a bit much for ficus' on it's own. It's worked well for me so far, the tree's are all growing.

The picture up top is my first one, I call her the Mother Tree. My sister in law gave her to me, all my benjamina cuttings have come from her.

I like ficus benjamina a lot, partly because of the one in my dining room when I was a kid. My mom has always been very fond of them and our dining room had lots of windows. There was a corner that got constant, bright, indirect light, it was perfect and the tree loved it. Heh, I remember my dad complaining once that it was too big when it was hitting the ceiling, which was really pretty high. My mom said that that's the way she liked it. It was almost always touching the ceiling. One of my childhood cats liked it too, but for a litter box. We eventually had to cover it with rocks too big for her to dig at easily. She wasn't very well behaved.

How to Propagate Ficus Benjamina: Part 1

2010-01-22T11:29:00.000-08:00

Ok, this is going to be a real time houseplant blogging extravaganza. Excited yet? Heh, it helps that it's going to take months. This afternoon I took a cutting off my largest ficus and put it in a cup of water. This, my friends, is the first step towards propagating a tree in water. Not too far fetched, I know. Heh. I am going to blog it's progress over the next several months. First though, I'm going to give a quick overview of how I do this whole thing.

Now, I've read a lot of articles, blog posts, etc on the differing ways to propagate a ficus and this is the only method I've used and had work for me. I've tried just plunking a cutting right into the dirt, with and without rooting compound, and it didn't work. I've tried air layering and it didn't work. But rooting them in water has worked every time.

All you have to do is cut off a piece of new growth from your ficus. You want it to not be completely green, but not barky yet. You can kind of tell in this picture. Heh, plant photography is a bit different than food photography. I've had the best luck with branches that have 4-5 leaves, around 5-6" long. I cut off most of the leaves, leaving the two at the top. Then you just put it cut side down into a cup full of water and put it in bright indirect light. And wait. There's a lot of waiting. But within a couple weeks you'll see little white roots. I'm keeping it in front of a south facing window, next to it's mother. They get some late afternoon direct sunlight, but not too much. Ficus benjamina don't want too much direct sun, but some isn't bad. If the leaves start looking bleached the tree is getting too much.

You want to change the water every 4-5 days, making sure to be really careful when the roots start coming out to not hurt them. Once you have good roots you just transfer them to a pot. But we'll get to that later. So, that's how you do it. Further updates as events warrant.

Other ficus benjamina propagation posts: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Post One: In Which I Introduce Myself and Explain My Deal

2010-01-20T09:31:00.000-08:00

Hi, I'm Bob. I usually blog about cooking over at Cooking Stuff. This, however, is going to be a blog where I catalog my limited knowledge and continuing experiments with growing houseplants in my apartment. I've had a certain amount of success with ficus' in particular, both keeping them alive and propagating them.

Propagation is what most of my posts are going to be about since it's really my favorite part. I tend to have more cuttings than space, so most of the people I know have been pressured into taking at least one. I've rooted ficus benjamina, ficus elastica and pothos successfully, all in water. I'm focusing mostly on the benjamina because I like them best. Eventually I intend to branch out into bonsai, but first I'm learning the ins and outs of keeping plants alive in a drafty apartment in New England. I don't want to spend all that effort in shaping a tree just to have it die in the first winter.

But that's it, really. Soon I'll be putting up a post about propagating ficus benjamina.