Temperature control and a bit of humidity can't hurt!
In the past, growing plants under domes hasn't worked that well for me.
The climate inside tends to be too moist.
Self-confessed hoverers tend to over-water?
Condensation is generally excessive.
I looked at 2 trays side-by-side on the shelf the other day and realized Tiger Trail babies under a vented dome were growing faster than than those in open air.
Well, what do you know?!
I went and found an extra dome for the tray without one. I do have the ends propped open with clothespins for maximum venting.
And I'm trying hard to resist watering too much!
Temperatures are below seasonably cold right now and the wood stove gives the thermostat a false sense of what's "warm enough" for the rest of the house.
I'm stubbornly nurturing ALL of these as treasured prizes and ignoring the "limit your collection" resolution for this variety.
Never mind pointing out how big they'll get!
The cream colored variegation seems to holding well for the ones that started that way. The pink tinged ones seem to be consistent as well.
I like them all!
I think I put one in a box I was packing to send home with Sara after Christmas.
And then I took it back. How stingy?!
Nobody asked me, but ...
The latest issue of AVSA's magazine is out.
People are putting it down asking for hugs it's that depressing.
It was probably not by design that so many of the articles are about dead plants or terminal AV diseases that there's no cure for.
It's the dead of winter for many of us.
A little Hope & Hurry up Spring would have gone a long way to lift the spirits!
Even the lady who took over the Miniature column showcased what she called "mistakes".
I'm sorry... those are some seriously neglected plants.
The Thinking Small column was always my favorite of the magazine when written by Pat Richards.
Small Talk seems to suffer from "it's all been said before" syndrome.
Or "confession is good for the soul"? (For goodness sake... snap out of it!)
A mistake is accidentally ruining the center of the little plant in a thumb pot just as it's about to bloom.
Over fertilized, over watered or over zealous repotting. OR all 3!
I'm letting it bloom and trying to ignore how I crapped it up so fast.
A mistake MIGHT be planting a "strawberry" Mickey Mouse Jar full of plantlets you could not bring yourself to throw into the compost bin.
Mickey Mouse (H. Inpijn) Double dark blue. Dark green, pointed/red back. Miniature.
I might have gotten carried away with deciding which Mickey Mouse plantlets to keep.
So I kept all of them! Shut up.A few "Mickey Mouse" extras went into the terrarium that's been coasting along since it was blogged about here a very long time ago. (2009?) These were the "too little to bother with" plantlets that totally should have been discarded. And I would have too. Except the terrarium was nearly empty.
And they're living... for now!
One of my terrarium's biggest mistakes was using perlite in the soil and not getting around to fixing that after killing the moss that was going to hide it originally. All of the other plants have come and gone, too. Except the possible "Ming (false?) Arailia" growing in back.
It fills the jar now, but I still don't know what it is!
My biggest 'gripe' with most people who are 'admtting mistakes' is that they seem to thrill to the guilt, but never really intend to fix those mistakes! ... just remain in the LOW of the mistake!
ReplyDeleteYou, on the other hand, just give yourself a pinch for punishment, and spend the rest of your time, trying to fix it for the offended (plant or person) !!! :)
I have not grown TT under a dome, except for the first few weeks after transplanting from mama leaf. ??? I guess it was just because I usually put TT in window light??? My TT leaves look different than yours... even the plant growth is a bit different. ??? My leaves always look a bit folded until they reach adult size, and the entire plant doesn't lay as flat, but wants to 'point up' in the center top. ??
Last week, I took four TT babies from mama leaves... and I will make sure to leave half of them under domes!
P.S. My sentiments exactly about the latest AVM... but then I realized the articles were written possibly last fall... and it was a hard, hot summer for me. Fall is usually when I 'get back to the violets' and they have suffered from all summer's neglect... and I am beating myself up for the ill treatment.
Maybe there are more AV growers who go through the same 'summer slaughter' of AVs that I do! :(
What's wrong with using perlite in a terrarium? Enlighten me please!
ReplyDeleteI think I only meant that the perlite in the terrarium "looked bad" once the moss hiding it died. My only problem with perlite is the stuff being sold around here is crushed dust and teeny bits. It really needs to be the larger chunks I think!
ReplyDelete