end of the kiwi

It appears to be dying. I just can't seem to give it the right kind of care. The leaves keep shriveling. O well. It was a fun growing experiment, and looked so pretty back then.

houseplant progress

My little Geraniums are taking shape again, from their last trimming. Here's the older, bonsai one:

and the younger one I grew from a cut stem, that finally has the beginnings of a tree shape:

Look how my little baby crassulas are growing!

and the "kiwi" leaves just keep getting bigger and bigger.

repotting

A lot of my houseplants and seedlings "moved up" today.

First, I finally went out and bought a big pot for my Avocado plant. A ten-incher. I was very careful when repotting it, as I know if you break the taproot off the plant has no chance. I couldn't get a photo of the roots because the plant felt so precarious tipped upside down in my hand I was moving quickly. But it looked fantastic, all wiry strong and curled at the bottom (although compressed, no wonder the plant was sad!) Very strange feeling that as I held it upside down, the original avocado pit in my hand, picking out shards quickly with the other, I felt the pit jostle against my hand and for a second thought something alive was in there! but it was just the pit wiggling as my other hand moved against the roots. A very strange sensation. Anyhow, the plant is settled in nicely and didn't suffer any shock at all; far from being droopy it has started to open little new leaves out of those two nodes on top!

Then I repotted this little miniature Geranium that didn't have the right shape for a bonsai.

I figured I'll just let it grow the way it wants to, and maybe one day it will flower for me.

My little "Kiwi" plants were looking unhappy, and their leaves getting scorched.

I've repotted them, removed the damaged leaves, and set in a different spot with only indirect light.

Next I moved young Marigolds from seed tray

into cardpots

and also some of my already-started fall crops: the Broccoli

I ran out of toilet-paper tubes, so the Cauliflowers are still in their tray. They look good, though!

bug battle

My houseplants have gnats. I think they're fungus gnats. They're very annoying - they try and fly into your nose and mouth, and generally circle around your face in an irritating way. I really don't want to repot all my plants, so I've tried some other strategies to get rid of them.

The first level of attack is to smack between your palms every gnat you can. This doesn't make much of a dent in the population, but can be satisfying to get rid of one that's bothering you at the moment.

Second thing I did was to let my plants dry out, as the gnat larvae need moist soil to live in. All my large houseplants I'd been watering once a week; they seem to be doing just fine now on their second week staying dry. Always were a little moist before, that was probably my error.

Some of my plants didn't survive this treatment. The "charlie plants" dried up and died.

My "kiwi" plants had some leaves shrivel up. The rest of the plants seem to be doing okay.

Third strategy was to put out shallow dishes of a liquid that attracts the gnats. First I tried rice vinegar, then white wine, only got a few or none at all. Then I tried apple cider vinegar, and I get a lot of drowned gnats in it. Every few days tip out the dishes and refill. Glad to use it, too, as the cider vinegar has been just sitting in my cupboard- I don't cook with it much. The source I read that gave me this trick said to cover the dish with plastic wrap and poke a few holes in it; the bugs would crawl in but not find their way out. This didn't work for me. None went in. After I peeled off half the plastic

it got much more effective.

 I've also done this thing of putting slices of raw potato all covering the soil around the plants. Apparently the gnats will lay their eggs on the potato instead of dirt, and then you throw it away. The potato slices soon had whitish patches on them, but I couldn't tell if it was gnat eggs or mold! It was so yucky looking I threw them all out today. Just as well; they'd been on there three days and gnats hatch in four or five, so if it was the eggs, I got some!

Final strategy is now that I'm starting to water again, put a little dishsoap in the water. It doesn't hurt the plants, but might hurt the bugs. Not sure if this works, but doesn't hurt to try. So far, some success, there are far less gnats flying around here now. I think the most effective thing has been: A) drying out the soil and B) apple cider vinegar. So, if you have gnats in your plants, try a few of these tricks. One of them might work before you have to go buy an insecticide spray.

windowsill

It's been a while since I paid much attention to the plants in my windowsills, apart from watering them. Today I checked up on them all more closely.

The creeping plants brought inside are doing well, only a few stems died.

They're filling in nicely.

Funny, where the stems hang over, once they hit the ground (or here, sill) new leaves grow up at a right angle. I'm guessing this is where they would root themselves again.

My jade looks nice, too.

Its little scions show no signs of growth, but I know there are roots in there.

The plants I grew (I still think) from a kiwi are getting bigger!

This is the geranium bonsai I started from a clipping. It's almost big enough I'll cut the top off to make it branch.

The one I let grow of its own accord is full of leaves, but the moss (I should have figured) got moldy.

Took that all out; cleaner now.

The third one, with the best shape also had mold.

I took out all its moss, too, and trimmed the leaves a bit. Didn't get a good picture the second time round, but you can see the shape of stems a bit.

My carrot-top dishes did not go well. They grew plenty of pretty foliage. But the ones stuck straight in the water, the pieces of root began to disintegrate into orange slime.

And the other one, white fuzz grew on top of the root piece.

So they all got tossed into compost.

 I've seen people do this both ways- with gravel, and without- or at least, seen pictures. I changed the water, but not often enough? or are they only supposed to last a week and then get discarded. Maybe the shards were too big, I should have used fine gravel. Or set the root-pieces just atop the gravel, instead of nested in it? but they they wouldn't have the support... which I suppose is the reason for it. O well. I want to grow some more, because I like looking at the leaves, but I can't stand mold in my plants, so out it went.

kiwi

Moved the four remaining little plants which I still believe to be kiwi,

into a larger pot with fresh soil. I had put them out in the coldframe on a sunny day, but the leaves started wilting and two plants (now gone) began looking poorly. Already now they seem to lift their leaves higher.

kiwis?

Now I still don't know if these are Kiwi, but they look so nice. I've pinched out all but the best ones, six plants are left.

The first lot of plants I thought were kiwi turn out to be just a bunch of weeds. I've tossed them.

kiwi doubts

What I thought was Kiwi, grown from a rotted fruit? Now I'm not so sure. I took the second tray and moved all the little seedlings into a pot, and then noticed that they all look exactly the same.

 Not only that, but I've spotted some of those red-stemmed plantlets growing in other places where I definitely did not put kiwi seed. So I'm pretty certain the first pot I have is nothing but a bunch of weeds. I shouldn't have been so smug about getting kiwi to sprout. This second pot I'm more hopeful on. As they all look like the same plant it's more likely they're from what I actually planted. But I'll have to wait for their first true leaves to find out.

kiwi

The second bunch of Kiwi seeds has started to sprout.

I moved all of the earlier ones into one larger pot, as they were running out of root room in the shallow tray.

Did a bit more reading about Kiwi- found that the two different-looking seedlings I got are probably male and female plants, but apparently the only way to tell the difference is when they mature and make flowers. Also, kiwis can grow fine in our climate, but they spread and cling as much as kudzu, and can pull down structures- one guy on a forum said his neighbor's kiwi vine growing up their house pulled the gutters off! However, our winter cold might kill the vines, so perhaps if I cut them down each fall, mulched over and let grow again in spring they'd never get too large?

Anyway, I'm not expecting kiwi fruits (don't even like to eat them much), just wanted to see if I could grow them. Funny, a lot of the info I read online said kiwis are difficult to germinate from seed taken from fruit bought in the grocery store- have to be kept at a cold temperature for four months or so! I don't know what I did that worked- just stuck them in damp soil, put in a warm place and waited. Maybe because I let the fruits get slightly rotten first, not removing the seeds when eaten fresh had something to do with it?

tiny kiwi plants

Those seeds I planted out of a Kiwi? A few have grown- from teeny tiny seedlings to teeny tiny plants. Only a half dozen, out of the fifty I must have sown. So not very successful, but all I was curious about was to see one grow! The largest here was the first to come up- it now has several leaves. There are also some straight-leaved plants with reddish stems, that grew in the same tray. I think from some seed sitting dormant in the soil, no idea what it is. Probably a weed.

seedlings

The yellow pepper seeds I planted are beginning to push above the dirt. There's two or three in each pot shoving their heads out. Kiwi seeds have also begun to sprout- they are the smallest seedlings I've ever seen! Encouraged, I planted another two trays of them from yet another overripe kiwi (I don't like kiwis so if A doesn't eat them, they just get composted). I realize it's pretty ridiculous for me to be trying to grow from seed indoors in a nearly-basement level when it's a blizzard outside. Low light, and short hours of it. I don't have any grow lights, either. So I've set my old drawing lamp above the seedling trays atop the fridge, to give them some extra light where it's warm.

kiwi seeds

Daughter and I squished seeds out of the flesh of a slightly overripe kiwi, and scattered into damp soil in a tray - actually the original plastic container the kiwis came packaged in at the grocery store. It has a lid, shut and set on top of the fridge right under a ceiling heat vent where it will stay warm. See if we can grow some kiwi plants for decoration!

In the same vein, I've also put up there atop the fridge an avocado pit wrapped in damp paper towels and sealed into a plastic bag, and some yellow bell pepper seeds between two layers of damp paper towels, to see if they'll sprout.