did stuff with houseplants

I've actually had this in mind for a long time. My tall, leggy dracanea in the corner I felt needed a larger pot, but it's behind a bunch of stuff so I have put off doing that for months. Yesterday moved the plant benches so my husband could access some cables, and then took the opportunity. Repotted the dracanea:

Yes it's almost touching the ceiling. Soon I will have to decide if I'm going to re-home it to someone who has higher ceilings, or take the risk of cutting and replanting the top. Doubtful if I would succeed with that.

Then I took it's old pot, and repotted the asparagus fern into that. 

It was quite root-bound, many circling the inside of the pot, and when I untangled, tons of those fat bulbs that store water hanging down

It's been looking rather pathetic lately, fronds only on one half of the pot, and they keep turning brown or yellow. I'm probably doing something amiss with the watering, or it needs better light, or more misting . . . 

But I hope it perks up from this

While I was in that corner, I saw my 'ponytail' succulent was looking bad, too- tons of withered, dropped-off leaves. I cut all the best pieces out, stripped the lower stems, dumped most of the soil and replaced with cactus mix, repotted anew the cuttings. I think I just forgot to water it too often, over the winter months.

And replanted into my zebrina pot, its cuttings I'd rooted in water over the past few weeks.

Next to pot up some coleus cuttings of my favorite.

how some are doing

I have quite a few houseplants that still need moving up, but need to get more potting soil and keeping what I have for the garden plants that will need space more urgently. Meanwhile I've spread the fronds of my asparagus fern held in place with halved chopsticks- thinking by the time I get around to repotting the plant, the stems will hold themselves in place- more evenly spaced and attractive.

I keep peeking under the mulch wondering if my rhubarb made it through the winter- and it did! 

I did not protect my camellia at all this winter- once or twice just knocked snow off it when the branches were getting bent down. Seems it did fine- there's plenty of fat buds and I'm hoping for blooms- I see a hint of pink color!

One of my newer plants, the st. john's wort, also came through the winter just fine:

and the borage I moved into a pot is okay too (though it looks like slugs have found it)

I never gave this 'wild' mint any special attention, but this spring moved it into a larger pot with some better soil. It's already responding well

Potted up the leaf beet chard seedlings. Ate the extras I pinched off from sprouted clusters. 

Next to go into paper pots will be the second set of marigolds, and the sweet peas. But I'm holding off a week or so for reasons in next post.

shelves

There was scrap wood left over after building my greenhouse, so I threw together some shelves for the seedlings. So they can be in vertical tiers and have more light, when in the house.

Keeps them from sprawling across the floor space, too. View from window side. Just happened the main shelf turned out exactly the same height as the shelf that's here permanently for my houseplants!

Zebrina has really rich colors right now.

Smaller seedlings still in trays are nearest the window for max light.

Cuban oregano cuttings are out of the way under the main shelf, but that keeps me from overwatering them, as they're not so easy to reach.

My asparagus fern had to move.

Here's the potted bay, in for the night. I've finally used up all my store-bought bay leaves, so thinking of trimming the two stems that sprawl outwards, to hang and dry. 

It's quite a crowd, but will be manageable if next week I can plant  the lettuces, kale, chard and collards out into the garden. Then will have space to move the next batch of seedlings from their trays into pots.

fern and jade

My jade is having problems.

It looks fine at a glance- but the asparagus fern kind of hangs over it so not as easy to admire-

Its pot feels heavy to heft, yet it's dropping withered, flat leaves. Have worms made the soil denser again?

(at it's base I found one small kalanchoe baby, with one plantlet on its margin- so I still have those!)

I moved the asparagus fern here because I saw one growing in a greenhouse with short fat plumes and it was in direct sun. I wondered if mine would change its growing habit if it got more light.

Seems to have. All the new plumes coming up are shorter. I might start trimming off the older, trailing ones and let it fill in thickly with short stems, then it won't overshadow the jade anymore.

I fear my jade might have mites or tiny aphids again. I had cut the tarragon to ground (to eat it) a while back, and it has regrown marvelously with no sign of ill. But I wonder if the pests that were on tarragon jumped ship to the jade plant?

Closer investigation, maybe some treatment and repotting, are in order.

plants

Weeks ago I cut the kale almost to the ground- we weren't eating it, having plenty enough of the collard greens, leaf beet chard, swiss chard and tatsoi. It was just another plant I had to keep monitoring bugs on, so I cut down and composted them. Tiny new leaves grew back on the stumps. Might pick them while tender, for a little salad.

I was going to take down this makeshift fencing that supported the peas, but the cantaloupe is growing and growing so I let it be. Still doubt I'll get a cataloupe from it, the remainder of the growing season just isn't long enough.

Indoors, I moved my asparagus fern into a sunnier spot. It responded by throwing up a new shoot!

new green on a few

of my houseplants: asparagus fern has sent out another new frond

Philodendron in the pot has quite a few new leaves. Which is nice, because it looks like the cutting on the angel tank is dying.

My lovely cyclamen died.

45 relocated

Here's my angel tank in it's new spot, main floor living room. To the right is the fireplace (not in use, television is in front of it) and to the left, sliding glass door out to the deck- forward, just out of the picture frame. Some of my houseplants around it- dracanea to the left, asparagus fern to the right.

Closer photo, just as the tank light was coming on

Stepping back a bit- realized when moved the tv out of this corner, and had ten-year-old dracanea on the floor (it used to sit on a low table) the plant is over five feet tall! Perhaps I ought to find it a larger container.

Yesterday morning was kind of frustrating, catching the striped kuhli loaches. They are not as bold as my black ones, took several hours for Tiger to finally go into the trap (baited with one of their favorites- shrimp pellet- after two days no feeding).

The angels seemed to ignore what was going on until Tiger was in there eating, then M Beautiful came and tried to bite at the food. Her color looks great here- except you can see some scrapes on the stripes.

After Tiger, two other striped kuhlis entered, and then it took forever for the last one, Sassy, to approach. Finally crept up to the entrance, stuck its head in, backed out again. I actually yelled "nooo!" It crept up again, slid halfway through the entrance, with head and pectoral fins hanging down into the trap, and just rested there for long minutes! My husband was watching with me and we just laughed. But then as I lifted the trap and slid a net over it, somehow Sassy escaped again. I put the first three kuhlis into the 20H with the others, and just left Sassy until the tank was completely empty- even of leaf litter- then caught it again with a net. The kuhlis have settled in well, all in the other tank now.

Angels took longer to calm down from their ordeal. I re-introduced them to the tank when all was re-planted and temperature back to normal, then left the lights off rest of the day. All next morning- even with the lighting low the female was pale and nervous-

Male has sustained some injury. Mouth is messed up- from his previous collisions with the tank wall- and now he's lost both caudal extensions. My largest fish net is not quite big enough to handle the angels anymore- I tried to be gentle but when finally acclimated and released them into the 45 again, saw that Skye's caudal fin extensions were broken. They just fell off later in the day.

M Beautiful lost hers months ago when they were fighting- her lower one is just starting to grow back.

I've reset the light timer, to come on in late afternoon through the evening, 6.5 hr photoperiod with an hour ramp up/down. When it first comes on, there's still ambient daylight so the background looks gray-

When it goes dark outside, the tank looks great.

I tried to arrange everything just the same as before, so the fishes would not find it unfamiliar. I did switch places with the heater and the pothos roots- because of outlet location for the heater cord. And moved the crypt balansae into corner, switched places with filter. It's much easier to get short end tank shots now-

Here's the other side. I tried to move the planter baskets a bit forward, so the fishes can slide between them and the back wall, and hide completely. Which they do.

Female appears to be more nervous than the male- she's often washed out. They both hide frequently. But not once since moving the tank have I seen them bash into the walls in panic!

And- again to my surprise- it is seven days since they lost their last batch of eggs and they went through a ton of stress just now with the tank move- they are in breeding mood again. The male has golden color showing on his forehead, they are cleaning leaves and other surfaces (male keeps going at the heater, and the tallest balansae leaf) and if I look close I see both their breeding tubes showing.

I am feeling dubious about letting them breed. I still don't know if the male's bent dorsal and the female's deformed gill plate are caused by mistakes I made raising them, or if it's genetic. If the latter, would be a bad idea to have offspring . . . I certainly don't have plans to get another large tank just to raise fry, and I know how much work that is- and I don't have any idea where I would distribute them after. It is super exciting to see them take care of the eggs and I was so thrilled that one time they got to wiggler stage. I don't mind that most of the eggs appear to die of fungus (or predation- we'll see now that the kuhlis are all out)- because I had a notion if they only managed to get twenty or so fry, maybe that small number could grow up in the home tank ok? I mainly want to see if my pair would tend to their fry, knowing that a lot of angels have lost the instincts to care for their young . . . If it turns out they're bad parents, or the fry have lots of defects (though not at all sure I could detect that) I'll probably get bottom-dwellers in the tank again (maybe brochis splendens instead of kuhli loaches) for some population control.