I think it would be fun for the people I "blog" with to tell others what they find are the most important objects or tools used for their plant addiciton. I believe we could all learn some pretty neat things.
I am going to tag a couple people and hope they return to my blog to share with me and others what they use the most when it comes to your houseplant hobby.
Here are my top 5 handies that I use.
Dixie cups (plastic or paper) for plants that have small root systems or for cuttings. I put holes in the bottom for drainage.
Baggies for putting your cuttings in, and the Dixie cup fits perfectly in it.
Butterfly clips to train several plants on a trellis or to control vines and pin them up.
Plant saucers for my plants so that watering doesn't turn into a disater ( you can't really see it too well in the picture, but it is in the bottom right hand corner under the Dixie cup that doesn't have the writing in it.)
And last but not least, ceiling hooks to obviously hang plants everywhere to save space.
I hope someone learns something new from this post, iI hope others will get ideas from other peoples answers.
Enjoy everyone
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Houseplant Handies......Tag your it!
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3 comments:
1. Moisture meter. Invaluable when dealing with cacti and succulents.
2. Tweezers. For removing dead organic matter from cacti, and also to take out glochids!
3. Pumice. Must have for soil mix when many cacti and succulents.
4. Since I have so many specimens, I use plastic plant tags to identify and list when and were purchased.
Aiyana
1. A good, solid, small metal rake. Excellent for untangling roots from rootbound plants. The one we have at work that I like is priced at $11, which is too much, but we have one in the potting room which I use more or less constantly.
2. Eight-inch acrylic rods. I don't know where a person would get them (I fished some out of the trash where I worked, a few jobs ago; it'd be hard to explain what we used them for.), but they can serve as stakes, make holes in soil for cuttings, mix systemic fertilizer granules into soil, and a few dozen other things. Basically just a stick, sure. But a really good stick.
3. 48-inch shop lights. Lots of light, relatively cheap (I got some of mine for about $8), reasonably efficient. Failing that, fluorescent lights in general. The kind manufactured for seasonal affective disorder are close enough to sunlight to fool cacti.
4. Microsoft Excel. What Aiyana does with plastic tags, I do with MS Excel. I can sort lists by how long I've had the plants, botanical name, family, what room they're living in, and where they were purchased. I also maintain a spreadsheet so I can keep track of when they were watered. This makes watering take longer, but I at least know that I'm not going to miss anybody.
1) I use large popsicle sticks to label all my plants. 100 of them costs me 3 dollars as opposed to 4 dollars for 10 plastic labels in home depot.
2) I do only indoor gardening at this time because of my living situation, but I use a set of what look like dentists tools but are listed as clay working tools on ebay. For teasing roots, cleaning pots, moving soil around they can come in really handy.
3) I cut soda bottles in half and remove the label, I root a lot of my things just by setting them in water and this container seems to fit perfectly on my window sill and allow light to come through it so I'm not creating a wall in front of my window.
4) A good watering pitcher with a long spout. I used to think i could get away with using old containers or a pitcher (the lemonade kind) but after using a real watering can (actually a plastic one) it has become invaluable. Well worth the few bucks to be able to precisely pour the water and control the amount. I still use other containers for mixing in nutrients but I'll never go back.
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