Losses

First I will say of a recovery. I thought my boston fern, which has been sitting ignored under the deck for months, had got fried in the heat. Walking past it the other day I just stopped and started pulling out dead fronds and stems, and then gave it a big drink of water. Now it's perking up again, but the center is all brown and the few fronds still green are pushing outside edge of the pot. I'm tempted to upend it, cut out and discard the dead center, repot the living sections. But all the times I've tried to divide a boston fern and repot in the past, I killed it. So I'm hesitant . . .

I had two parlor palms. One finally died, and I also gave up on the madagascar palm and tossed it out. So disappointing I couldn't keep that one happy.

But my other parlor palm is doing okay- though a bit dry and pale at close inspection.

And now the sad news. Which I'm feeling rather miserable about, as it must be my fault. I lost most of my fishes yesterday. I was doing a water change, larger than usual- thirty percent when usually I do fifteen to twenty percent. I think it had been two weeks, and I know that before that I had long neglected the tank, so I thought: more clean water is better! Except it wasn't. 

It started out fine- the fishes were acting perky, flitting around the siphon hose- one even got sucked into the bucket and bruised up, I put him back in the tank with regret, not sure if he'd survive that physical trauma. Last time I did a wc I had dosed some plant ferts, even though they're old and probably expired- and I was admiring how the plants look better- I hadn't noticed they were doing poorly, but now some of the crypts have redder stems, and stand up taller

-I tried to get a picture of a minnow by the crypt undulata-

Some anubias leaves had melted, and lots of vals, so I spent time cutting out the dead bits. But the green leaves still there on the vals looked healthier than before, so I think those plants were just ditching the old leaves and growing new in response to the changed conditions. Even my bolbitis fern looked greener and more upright.

Large anubias

Attempt at a quick full tank shot-

Then I noticed the water line wasn't quite up to the lower edge of the rim yet, so I went in the kitchen to fill another gallon. I poured it into the tank, and things went bad immediately. The minnows started looking super stressed, bending their heads and tails up, gaping at the surface, or crashed on the bottom not moving. Only one was swimming with normal posture. Their bellies bloated white (burst swim bladders?) and then some started spinning, randomly darting into corners and running their heads into the substrate. Disoriented? Starved of oxygen? I could only think that something was bad in the water, so my immediate reaction was to do another water change in hopes of diluting whatever it was. 

I changed another ten gallons. One fish died. Several of the others relaxed a bit, and the paradise fish- who'd been hiding under the bolbitis driftwood- came out to breathe at the surface. His fins clamped, but he wasn't writhing or swimming erratically like the others. I tried to figure out what went wrong. My first thought was the old ferts were gone toxic, but I'd put a bit in the shrimp bowl, and those guys were fine. And aren't shrimp more sensitive. Then I thought maybe something wrong with the tap water- the test showed very little nitrate (5ppm or less), zero nitrite but some ammonia (barely green in the tube). But again: the shrimps and snails in the bowls were fine.

Then I happened to smell my fingers. Strong sulfur odor. Realize if the prime had dripped on/from the cap, I got some on my hands. I thought I'd wiped or rinsed it off, but not good enough. And maybe I miscounted and that last gallon had an extra drop of prime in it, three instead of two. I didn't think one extra drop would matter in a thirty gallon tank. In fact I used to double dose prime in my first tank a long time ago- and while that wasn't the best thing to do, none of the fishes died suddenly like this. 

Because the minnows were dying, one after the other. While Tucker hid alternately in corners and under the driftwood. However much prime was on my skin could have been extra concentrated. (I know I didn't have any sunscreen, insect repellent or lotion on my hands). The other factor is that earlier in the week we had a power outage. It lasted hours. I was about to pull out the battery-operated air pump to run the filters overnight, when it kicked back on. So I thought the tank was fine. But maybe it was out long enough that some of the good bacteria colony died off, and it hadn't recovered all the way yet? Also, I hadn't vacuumed the substrate in a long time, and a few stems got disturbed, releasing some mulm into the water column. Any one of these factors don't seem like disaster on their own, but altogether I think it's what sent my little fishes into shock. Low bacteria strength, sudden release of ammonia from the substrate, accidental overdose of dechlor . . . 

The minnows all died by nightfall. 

Tucker was not looking good. Every time he went up to breathe, there was an odd raspy sound. Injury to his gills? I don't know. I thought this would be my last picture of him alive.

Surprised and relieved to find him still here in the morning. Even came to greet me at the glass, fins alert.

And his color looks good. 

And he's relaxed- more than I've seen in ages. I suddenly wonder if he found the minnows bothersome- all their quick activity. I'm inclined to think he's just happy to be alive, but it's probably that he finds the tank environment more calm now.

He even wanted to eat this morning. This past week I'd been giving him small crickets out of the garden- which I figured was safe- but he looked a bit overfull. So I gave him half a chopped up cooked pea. He snapped those bites up. I'm so glad.

winter spot

Most of the plants I've been overwintering by the basement sliding glass door have been doing well. I have not paid much attention to them this year, aside from weekly watering and once in a while misting the palms. In previous years I had moved the cardboard that blocks the draft on sunny days, and closed the curtains between plants and glass on the coldest nights. This year I had a taller sheet of cardboard and didn't shift anything at all.

Only lost one geranium, not a big deal. Here two geraniums, the cuban oregano between them, grown back from a severe trim when some stems got nipped by the cold (I brought it in too late back in the fall).

Citrus geranium doing really well- I'll just cut it back come spring and replant some of the stems.

Bay leaf is lovely, glows with health. I didn't cut any to dry for cooking this past season but will soon.

Arp rosemary looks pale to me, but definitely survived its first winter! Have used a few sprigs for tea to fend off colds in the past months.

My parlor palms might look sad, but they're actually doing much better. All the new green growth is since I repotted them with wood ash for potassium boost (um, a whole year ago). The older leaves are fading now and I'm hoping any new foliage remains green- there's new fronds unfurling on each.

Happiest is to see one of my fig trees breaking out spring leaves! Just yesterday. It feels time to start planting stuff, now (indoors).

houseplant work

I did some potting up.

First the parlor palms. More because I wanted to try giving them potassium via wood ash rather than they strictly needed larger size pots yet. As they like to be rootbound. I sifted some wood ash from my fire pit and mixed it into the new potting soil. Looks like I've done better than I'd suspected at watering them more sparingly- the soil was so dry it just fell out of the roots when I exposed them!

Next was the chives. They were very rootbound. I had no idea. When I loosened the root mass, it was twice as long as the pot's height!

I trimmed the roots, 

added new soil and hope to see new growth soon.

My plain spider plant was ready to move up-

roots growing out of the drainage holes

Room to grow now-

Could have potted up its baby but I like seeing it here

My brighter crassula moved up one size too.

That's the older jade plant on its left, arrowhead syngonium on its right, and purple undersides of tradescantia zebrina in the background.

Thanksgiving cactus isn't looking happy. Some leaves turning pale. Light? Watering? I don't think this one needs a larger pot size yet but I put a layer of fresh soil on top, and moved it out of direct light

Well, that was fun! Some are still waiting- my second creeping charlie, several of the african violets, asparagus fern and the sansevieria need to move up too. Maybe even the large corn plant. Another day!

green inside-

Snow, ice and cold outdoors. Inside some new growth is sprouting. My figs have a lot of fat buds

and what looks like nascent fruits forming. I don't remember them starting fruit so early before? Will have to begin setting them outside on warmer days (next week maybe).

Not new, but in the same space down there by the large cool basement window, my citronella and lemon geranium are doing fantastic

and the new (reddish) leaves on bay laurel have almost reached the height of the older stems.

I have been somewhat concerned about my palms. The newer leaves have kept their green, and a younger shoot is growing in the center- but they always seem kinda poorly. Learned something in a book I just read about tropical plants. Palms need higher levels of potassium, and that deficiency shows as browned leaf tips and yellowing. Maybe these brown tips aren't from dryness or over-watering like I had assumed. The parlor palms need larger pots soon, so I will mix some ash in with their new potting soil and top-dress to give them a potassium boost, see if that helps.

Smaller jade that I trimmed lately, has new leaves sprouting

Pot of chives has looked sad since the last time I cut it to eat. Guess I overdid it. However one new leaf has come up! Will refresh the potting soil soon and see if it does better, or start new seed.

One more violet cutting is growing! Can't see the leaf nubbins yet but I see the signs of soil pushing up. Here it's sitting on my plant shelf in the living room- surrounded by lettuce and collards seedlings, spider plant, coleus cuttings, arrowhead, tradescantia zebrina and crassula.

some houseplant notes

Potted up one of my smaller african violets- from its small paper cup 

 into a regular pot

Took a cutting from the pothos in a sub-irrigated planter, added it to the pot with the one that came from the angelfish tank, and braided cord around the pot to hang it. Thicker on the line from the pole hook to where it divides to go around the pot, idea is maybe the vine will climb the braid and then I can train it to grow along the pole. Always wanted to have a pothos vine climbing around near the ceiling, never had it work before.

It's immediate neighbor is the tradescantia zebrina- I stuck all the rooted cuttings into the pot so it looks a lot fuller now-

and the new stems grew upright this much in just a week

Also removed two small bits of creeping charlie from a regular pot and added them to the hanging one

which got a new string as it was crooked before

It looks better now. Seems to prefer hanging. Stays a lot drier I've noticed.

Aglaonema has gotten leggy. I moved it to a different spot, guessing it needs more light.

Finally, my two parlor palms weren't doing so great again. I suspected spider mites and sprayed them twice for that over the past month. Older leaves have drying tips but the younger ones appear fresh green entirely, so I hope they're doing better.