PEACE LILY WITH BROWN TIPS (FROM THE FAQ FILE)

Hi Y'all,

Got a new thing comin' at 'ya.

I thought I'd try posting some questions that I've received from people, and the answers I've given.  I figure a lot of other people probably have the same sorts of questions.  I also expect, in the future, to be making these common questions the subject of short videos.

Q

 I have both a Peace Lily and a Neon Pothos with browning tips that continue to get worse, but it's odd because I feel like I water them very sparingly already. My Peace Lily will sometimes even start to "collapse" a little, the sign that it needs more water. However, both are in non-draining pots. Was just wondering if you could help me.

A
Solving problems with plants is always a matter of trial and error.  First thing would be to get them into pots with drainage holes.  New pots should be the same size, or no more than 2" more in diameter.  New soil should have as much drainage as possible.  Don't use moisture retentive potting soil, use cactus soil, and add a quantity of perlite equal to about 1/4 the amount of soil your're using. Or if you want to learn some more about soil, here is a great place to start -

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg1221344425812.html?15

When repotting, cut off any brown or mushy roots, and remove as much of the old soil as possible, either by teasing it out from the roots with your fingers or a stick, or by gently washing it out in a bucket of water.  The old soil may contain fungus pathogens - we call it root rot - that is causing the leaves to tip.

One thing you may not know is that when you buy a plant, don't bring it home and repot it.  If you want it in a pretty container, just slip the plant and growpot into it - see our video #7.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG9PImILzh8

Now we need to consider watering, especially if you don't have the time right  now to put your plants into pots with drainage.

What has probably happened is that when you started watering them, the moisture accumulated in the bottom of the soil mass and rotted the roots there. That's why you started to see brown tips.  The reason you get wilty leaves is that the only live roots are in the top of the soil, so when those get dry, droop goes the plant.

What you want to do (if you can't repot immediately) is to encourage the roots to grow back into the lower region of the soil.  So try it this way.  Don't water until the leaves start to droop. Before you add water, check the soil in the bottom of the pot with a kebob skewer - it should be almost dry.  If it is, go ahead and water your plant with maybe 1/2 to 1 cup of water, (I'm making a guess here because I don't know how big your plants are,) just enough to perk up the leaves.  The next day, check the soil in the bottom again.  You're trying to get an idea of how much water you need to moisten the roots, but not wet the soil in the bottom too much.

If, when you check the soil before you water, it is anything but almost dry, put just a little water on the plants to moisten the roots, then test again the next day.  Hopefully the soil underneath won't be any wetter than it was before.  Your objective is to give the live roots enough water to continue functioning, but not add more water to the bottom soil, so that it will dry out enough that roots can reinhabit it.  Of course, as I already said, the best thing is to repot into a pot with drainage.

The brown tips won't go away unless you cut them off, which you should do, in an artistic way so as to preserve the natural shape of the leaf.  This is a good way to tell if the roots are getting healthier.  When the trimmed ends get more brown tips, roots are still troubled; when trimmed ends don't tip again, plant is getting healthy.

Changes you make in plant environments take awhile to become visible to you.  In other words, you won't see an end to tipping for 3 - 4 weeks, at least.

There are a few other things you can do to help your plants dry out/use extra water more quickly.  Move them to a spot with more light, but watch out for direct sun, it can burn leaves.  Place a fan to circulate air around them.  Take them outside to a shady spot, just remember to bring them in before it gets cold (below 40 F).

Hope some of this helps. I'd love to know how your plants are doing, or if you have any questions or any ideas of subjects you'd like me to address.  Comments space is at the bottom.  (hint, hint)

Marlie

                                                                                                                     (by Marlie Graves)

WHEN TO WATER? HOW MUCH TO WATER?

These are questions that people often ask, and it's important to understand that they're not really the questions that you need to know the answers to.  The when and how much are always dependent on the moisture in the soil, the light, the rate at which the plant uses water, the type of plant, and so on.   So I want to give you some tools that you can use to figure out for yourself the when and how much. 

As I said earlier, you can measure the water by using any container - 1/2 a pitcher, 1/4 of a bottle, etc. -  but you can also measure by learning to count!  This means that as you pour water from your watering can, you count at the same speed every time, and depending on how fast or slow you count, and the speed at which the water comes out of the spout, you can tell exactly (exactly enough for your purpose, anyway) how much water  you're pouring.  This is extremely useful.

It's easy to remember, and allows you to generalize to plants you've never seen before; it saves pouring into a measuring device then pouring into the plant; it's easy to make adjustments - for instance, if you give a plant an "8" count,  and it's too wet the next time you come to it, you know that "8" was too much for it,  so you might try a "4" to allow it to use extra water from the "8" watering, and then the next time, try a "6".  Trust me, it's easier than it sounds.
++++++++++++++++++++++
First reach well down into the soil with a spoon and pull up some to test its moisture and make up.  If your sample doesn't come from near the bottom of the pot,  use a probe also - you really need to learn the moisture level down near the bottom .  Don't forget to jot down the moisture level in your notes.  If the moisture level is 6 or under, go ahead and water,  making sure to count and record the amount of water you put into the plant.

When you pour water into a plant, you don't want to dump it all in one spot, you want to pour all the way around the plant at the edge of the soil.  If the soil is very dry and pulled away from the pot, push it snugly back against the side of the pot before you pour.  Lift up the leaves if you need to, to get under them and to keep from splashing.  Most of the roots are concentrated around the outside of the soil mass, close to the sides of the pot, and you want to make sure all of the roots are moistened.  The objective is to water enough to get a run-off into the liner of  1/4 -1/2" if you're watering on a weekly schedule, or 1/2 - 1'" for a 2 week schedule.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Remember,  consistency is a goal.  Plants seem to respond well to receiving the same amount of water at regular intervals, and to a constant cycle of abundant moisture and gentle aeration.   Always remember to check the soil moisture, though,  because water  usage can change throughout the year with changing seasons,  as the plant grows, or if it's dealing with some kind of stress.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 If the plant is too wet - hasn't yet reached it's recommended % of aeration - first check the liner.   Use a dipstick if it's a large plant, difficult to see inside.   If there's water in it, your work is done.  Don't add more water, but you can leave what's in there for another week.  Don't leave water in the liner for more than 2 weeks, though.  If there's still water in the liner after 2 weeks, you'll need to siphon it out.

If all the water in the liner has been used,  but the soil when you squeeze it has visible water coming out, again, your work is done, you don't need to water this plant.  If the soil doesn't have squeezable water in it, but the moisture level is still higher than you would like - say a 6 when you'd like to have a 3 or 4 -  water it 1/2 the amount you did the previous time.

                                                  

A plant that is too dry -  % of aeration is higher than  recommended - obviously, is going to need more water than you gave it the last time.  A good rule-of-thumb is to give it 1/2 again more water than you did at the previous watering

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

That's the end of this excerpt from The Color of Your Thumb Has Nothing To Do With It.

For those who prefer details and exactitude, and who like to have lists and tables to post in strategic positions, the book has some lovely ones showing  the range of possible NML's (Numerical Moisture Levels) under differing light conditions, and the adjustment to make in watering amounts.  

The book will be available for purchase at our website, along with full length video version of the text.  Keep watch for the announcement of the due date.  (Yes, it's something like having a child.)

Next time I'll be touching on the special watering techniques for low and high light.  As always, if you have any questions, or ideas for subjects you'd like to talk about, please chime in on the comments.

See 'ya soon.

Marlie

                                                                                                              (by Marlie Graves)

BACK AT 'YA --- YOUR PLANTS ARE THINKING WHAT YOU'RE THINKING

Long ago (1966) in the fabled land of Times Square NYC, a well known expert in lie detection and lie detection machines, Mr. Cleve Backster, finding himself with an idle afternoon, attached the electrodes from one of his machines to the dragon tree ( Dracaena marginata) in his office, curious to see if the leaves would register any reaction to the roots' being watered.

Instead of moving in the way he would have expected, the galvanometer was moving in a pattern reminiscent of a human's emotional response.

Intrigued, he decided to see what would happen to the response if he threatened the plant.  He decided to burn the leaf, but no sooner did he form the thought in his mind, than the tracing pattern took a dramatic upward sweep!  There was another surge in the reading when he got some matches, and a smaller surge when he actually burned the leaf.

However, when he later only went through the motions of burning the leaf, without any real intent to do so, the recording showed no reaction at all.

From that moment, Mr. Backster set off on a course of research to attempt to understand what was going on beneath the surface of the Plant Kingdom.

With his galvanometers and electrodes and recording pens, he observed many unusual things.  Leaves continued to cause readings even when they had been detached from the roots, or cut up into little pieces. When confronted with immanent catastophe, or a person who routinely killed plants, they appeared to "pass out," that is to say elicit no reading at all, much like an animal in the death grip of the predator.

They seemed to respond to a person's "lying" or "truthing" much as a lie detector could.   They could respond to the emotional states of a person with whom they had a relationship - the caregiver - even though that person was across the street, across town, or across the country.  And they responded at the exact instant that the caregiver experienced the emotional stimulus.

He observed that plants seemed to "pay attention" to any kind of animal life in their vicinity, and often reacted to the animal's actions before they actually happened.  Furthermore,  he noticed a marked reaction to the death of animal cells, even things as trivial as bacteria dying from boiling water being poured down a sink.

It seemed obvious to him that the plants were picking up signals through some hitherto unsuspected medium of communication. He tried shielding the plants inside Faraday cages or lead shielding, which didn't affect their responses at all.  From this he concluded that, whatever path of communication was being used, it was not within the electro  magnetic spectrum.

At about the same time, in California, an IBM research chemist, Marcel Vogel, began to replicate some of Backster's results.  While he did use a number of electronic recording devices to measure plant reaction, Vogel was also interested in the power of mind and emotion. and claimed to have kept cut leaves alive and green simply by lovingly exhorting them to be healthy, while a similar leaf which he ignored soon turned brown and dead.

He reported the experiment of a psychically gifted friend, Vivian Wiley, who picked two leaves from a saxifrage plant in her garden.  One she laid beside her bed, the other in the living room.  Every day when she woke up, she focused on the leaf by her bed and willed it to live; the leaf in the living room she paid no attention to.  After a month, the leaf in her bedroom was still green and vital, while the living room leaf was brown and dried!

He worked with the object of recording plants' ability to attune to and record the emotional states of people with whom they had a relationship, himself as well as others.  He found that different plants responded more or less strongly, even different leaves on the same plant could be more or less receptive.  He also found that his own state of mind was integral, requiring a sort of meditative awareness of the energetic relationship between himself and his test subject plant.

Vogel continued to work through the 70's, writing articles, lecturing, and appearing on TV.  He sums up his discoveries like this:

"It is a fact: man can and does communicate with plant life.  Plants are living objects, sensitive, rooted in space....They radiate energy forces that are beneficial to man.  One can feel these forces!  They feed into one's own force field, which in turn feeds back energy to the plant." *

Mr Backster and Mr. Vogel published articles, or there were articles published about their work, in The International Journal  of Parapsychology (1968), National Wildlife (1969),  Medical World News (1969), Argosy magazine, and Popular Electronics, among others.  Probably needless to say, the Scientific  Establishment dismissed their observations as basically nonsense.  The idea that plants could have emotions or perceptions of emotions does not fit with scientific understanding of how the world operates; besides that, very few of Backster's and Vogel's results could be repeated by other researchers.  Of course, Vogel's explanation that the mindset of the experimenter was vital to the outcome of any experiment did not help.  But it does explain a few things.

* Tompkins, Peter and Bird, Christopher.  The Secret Life of Plants. New York, Harper and Row.1973
                                                                                                      (by Marlie Graves)

PERSONAL NOTE

I'm not sure how interested anyone who might look in on this site is in hearing about my personal journey, but I'm throwing this in, mostly as an incentive to moi.

I'm making a determination to write at least 2 blog entries per week.  I'm making this determination public so as to help myself feel more urgency.  Also to make it easier to pass up the "easy stuff" - the FB meanders, the Pinterest dawdles, that kind of stuff.

Focus.  Focus. Focus.  If I were living in the future when my communication screen could float permanently in front of my eyes, I'd have that at the top all the time.  However...

Here and now is where we are.  Not a bad motto, by the way.  I think I may make the posts shorter, and covering a wider range of topics.  For instance, I'm going to pull commonly asked questions off the houseplant forums, and answer them at some length.

I'm also redoing what I laughingly refer to as a daily schedule, to add more but shorter blocks of time for instructional and inspirational reading, and defined blocks for each of my projects each day - maybe only 10 mins at a time, but each one each day.

I think I'll get myself a new timer and carry it with me around my neck.

I know the main topic of this blog is supposed to be plants, houseplants; but my thoughts, emotions, struggles as a human being are part of the environment of the plants I care for.  As such, these things are also a legitimate subject for conversation on a blog about plants and their "thoughts."

Which is, oddly enough, going to be the subject of the next post...the intersection of people's thoughts and plants' reactions.
                                                                                                      (by Marlie Graves)

Do you empty saucers after watering? Not necessary, if...

...you always check the moisture level all the way to the bottom of the pot before you water again.

Here's an excerpt from The Color Of Your Thumb Has Nothing To Do With It that explains more about this short video.

The most important part of this arrangement is the liner, which in effect becomes the reservoir for the plant.  Professional interior landscapers operate on a schedule, which requires the plants be serviced every week, every ten days, or every two weeks (for most reputable companies.)  The liner must hold enough water to fill the plant's needs,  making sure it doesn't get over-dry between waterings.  However, there must also not be too much water - the plant has to be able to use all of the water in the liner well before the tech's next visit, thus reaching its ideal % of aeration.
                            EMPTYING SAUCERS
If you understand the concept of liners and how they have been used in Interior Landscaping for over 50 years, you should understand that the emptying of saucers everytime you water your plants at home has now been proven to be unnecessary.  Some people will surely say that their plants die if they don't empty the saucers; to them I would answer that the problem is not the little bit of water left in the saucer,  but that they are neglecting to learn about the moisture level in the soil, at all levels, before they water.
Another problem with not emptying saucers,  according to some home growers, is that emptying gets rid of unused minerals in the soil that are washed out with the water, thus preventing a build up of soluble salts.  (More about minerals and salts a few pages down the line.)  This problem is answered by not over-fertilizing.  Plantscapers have found that fertilizing 1 - 4 times a year  (depending on plant specie, light, size, etc.) is plenty for almost all plants.  Again, you see, emptying saucers is an unnecessary waste of  time.

So there you have it in a nutshell...why you don't have to empty saucers.  I know some of you  don't understand this, or don't believe it.  Feel free to leave comments, ask questions, tell your own experiences.

Next time I'm going to talk about how to know when to water your plants, and how much to water when you finally get to pouring.
                                                                                                           (by Marlie Graves)

PLANTS DON'T HAVE BRAINS...HOW CAN THEY THINK?

In my last post on this topic ( 5/3/13),  I introduced this subject with some speculation on the meaning of "thinking," and how it might be defined in a way that could, conceivably, include the plant kingdom.  I proposed a definition of thinking as some type of integrational process that could produce an action (usually but not always movement) based on acquired information.

I also showed you some videos of plants moving;  what did you think of that last one, where the taller plant appears to be beating down its neighbor?   Who knew?

So plants CAN move, and often do quite vigorously.  Also,  sometimes with what appears to be discrimination, such as the carnivorous sundew, which does not respond to bits of dirt or leaf caught in its tentacles, only to a good dinner.

 Or the vining stem that grows toward a support, only to grow the other way if the pole is moved to the other side.  [Sorry, couldn't find a video of this, but several times I've read that it happens.  Could be a good project for someone...check out  http://www.chlorofilms.org/ ]

Evolution has equipped them to do many wondrous things.  For instance, they can design, color, and scent their flowers to mimic insects or insect food, thus attracting pollinators.  They enclose their seeds in packages appetizing to animals, or build them with cunning grippers that can't be avoided.  (Terence McKenna once said,  "Plants invented animals to move their seeds around." )  They can employ certain species of insects to protect them,  or selectively exclude predators while welcoming non-dangerous bugs.

Their construction principles of fibers wrapped in spirals,  and cells linked in almost unbreakable cords, principles that are still undeveloped by human technology, allow them to erect and provision structures over 350 ft. high.

 Or consider plants  that cover acres,  such as the  Pando aspen in Utah, which appears to our eyes as a grove of 106 acres, but which has been shown to actually be one plant weighing over 13 million pounds, all connected by an immense  webwork of roots.

Yes, evolution had equipped them to do these wondrous things...what if they've been equipped to do things  of which we are as yet unaware.  Take roots for instance.  Measurements of a single rye plant show over 13 million rootlets with  a combined length of 380 miles,  and if you add together all the roothairs on all the rootlets, you come out somewhere around 14 billion with a combined length of 6,600 miles,  nearly the distance from pole to pole.  And that's just one little rye plant;  imagine the numbers involved for your backyard shade tree.  Big numbers, but is there more?   Are plants doing anything with all those billions of roots besides growing and sucking up water and nutrients?  Is it just a meaningless coincidence that an image of a root system looks very much like an image of an internet diagram?  Check out this video of  Stefan Mancuso on TED.com.

http://www.ted.com/talks/stefano_mancuso_the_roots_of_plant_intelligence.html


Recent research using the most advanced imaging systems has found that the cells in the "transition zone" of the root apex - the area at the tip of the root hair - not only consume oxygen at a rate similar to neurons,  but they also have structures and chemicals completely analogous to those found in animal neurons.

           BALUŠKA, F., MANCUSO, S., VOLKMANN, D. & BARLOW, P., Root apices
as plant command centres: the unique ‘brain-like’ status of the root apex
transition zone. Biologia, Bratislava, 59/Suppl. 13: 1—, 2004; ISSN 0006-
3088.

Although plants are generally immobile and lack the most obvious brain activities of animals and humans, they are not only able to show all the attributes
of intelligent behaviour but they are also equipped with neuronal molecules,
especially synaptotagmins and glutamate/glycine-gated glutamate receptors.
Recent advances in plant cell biology allowed identification of plant synapses
transporting the plant-specific neurotransmitter-like molecule, auxin. This
suggests that synaptic communication is not limited to animals and humans
but seems to be widespread throughout plant tissues. Root apices seated at
the anterior pole of the plant body show many features which allow us to
propose that they, especially their transition zones, act in some way as brainlike command centres. The opposite posterior pole harbours sexual organs
and is specialized for plant reproduction. Last but not least, we propose that
vascular tissues represent highways for plant nervous activity allowing rapid
exchange of information between the growing points of above-ground organs
and the brain-like zones in the root apices.

      

[http://ds9.botanik.uni-bonn.de/zellbio/AG-Baluska-Volkmann/plantneuro/pdf/NeuroPlantTZ-Biologia.pdf]

People have known for a long time that plants communicate, using chemical substances instead of sound waves,  and recent observations have pointed to plants using the underground webs of fungus mycorrhzal structures as a message transportation system.

Can it be that there's even more going on?  In following posts on this subject,  I'm going to present some intriguing observations and speculations on plants and what may be going on with them.  Pandora may not be as fictional as you think!
                                                                                                                   (by Marlie Graves)

Setting up a plant for maximum ease of care and beauty

Excerpt from THE COLOR OF YOUR THUMB HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT


WATERING ONE-OH-ONE

Up to now we've been talking about how to determine the amount of moisture in the soil, as well as other factors to consider in deciding whether or not to water your plants.  But before we talk about how much water to put in, let's consider the mechanics of putting the water and your plants together.

Face it, your plants can't get to water on their own - you have to bring it to them.  Part of that bringing is the potting system the plants are sitting in, and part is the equipment and technique you use to pour on the water.  (Yes, if you can believe it, I even have something to say about how you pour water.)

                             POTTING ARRANGEMENTS

All plants are placed in one of two ways: either they're direct planted - roots are planted directly into a large soil environment, such as outdoors, or in an indoor atrium or large planter box; or they're potted - roots and some kind of medium to hold them are enclosed by some kind of container.

If they're potted, they may be single or double potted.  If single-potted , they're growing out of the visible container, which sits in a drainage saucer of some type, unless the container itself is water-tight.

If double-potted,  the grow pot  (the container, usually plastic, in which the plant was grown) sits inside a drainage liner, and both sit inside a decorative container.

The advantages of double-potting are many.  If you want to remove the plant from the decorative container, because you want to replace it with a different plant, it needs treatment, etc,  you just pick it up and there you are.  When watering, you just watch for the run-off in the liner, which allows you to regulate water more exactly (more about that in a minute), and also does not limit you to only using containers that have  holes in the bottom.


Professional interior landscapers almost always use the double-potting method.  When they do, they  cover the top of the grow pot, and often the entire surface inside the decorative container, with a decorative mulch, most commonly Spanish moss,  sheet moss, bark chip, or rock.

This mulch has no horticultural value, it is purely cosmetic, although most people find it works best when some of the soil is left exposed to insure good evaporation of water.  It's easy to do at  home,  and adds greatly to the attractive appearance, especially of larger house plants.

The most important part of this arrangement is the liner, which in effect becomes the reservoir for the plant.  Professional interior landscapers operate on a schedule, which requires the plants be serviced every week, every ten days, or every two weeks (for most reputable companies.)  The liner must hold enough water to fill the plant's needs,  making sure it doesn't get over-dry between waterings.  However, there must also not be too much water - the plant has to be able to use all of the water in the liner well before the tech's next visit, thus reaching its ideal % of aeration.

                           HANGING PLANTS

Let's consider  hanging plants, which are sort of a special class.   When you buy one from a store, it comes in a hanging commercial grow pot, which has open drainage in the bottom, and works perfectly in a greenhouse, not so well in a home.  Many people bring these home and hang them up as is, then take them down and carry them to the sink to water, and drain.   Fine, if you have the time.

If you're interested in less time spent on more beautiful plants, you'll want to use waterproof hanging bowl containers.  You can double-pot your plant into this, and when you want to water, just lift up your water can,  tip in the spout, being careful that it's not splashing off any leaves,  and pour/count.

Thus ends this excerpt from TCOYTHNTDWI 

(Sounds like something from a Sci-Fi story, doesn't it..T'coy Thndtwi, medical ofiicer aboard the inter-dimensional explorer Frglyss.)  (Soon as The Ficus Wrangler project is up and running on its own, I'll be able to turn my attention to completing and attempting to publish some of my SF.)

Speaking of which, you might be wondering, how is that FW project going.  I'm glad to report that the web site is nearing completion, and we hope to have it online by the end of June, with at least some video  available for purchase.

The text for the first - and longest - chapter of the book is done; all that remains is to add the graphics and photos. and it too will be available for purchase.

I know there are some folks reading this blog....have any of you ever commented anywhere?  Don't be shy.  Leave a comment in the comment spot!  You can't imagine how I'd love to hear from you.  As a member  of the Down With Dead Houseplants Movement (DWDHM? Wonder what I can make from that.), you are entitled to speak on up.

Till next time,
Bona Fortuna to you, and good growing always.
                                                                                                      (by Marlie Graves)