Aglaonema Rehab Candidate

Click to enlarge. This overgrown Aglaonema is a good candidate for "candle glass" rehabilitation.

Aglaonema (No. 461 in the GreenScaper Consumer Lab) was created from cuttings and potted up into Supersoil on January 10, 2004. It is sub-irrigated with an AquaPad.

The good news is "Oh my how you've grown". The bad news is the same thing. It's even more overgrown and out of control than the photo shows. No big problem!

I'll start cutting the stems and installing them in candle glass 'hydro-propagators". The "mother plant" will, over time, grow new leaves and create a new more compact plant. Cool eh?

Progress pictures will follow at a later date.

Candle Glass Propagators

Click to enlarge. Empty votive candle glasses are proving to be excellent hydro-propagators. I’ve used them very successfully in rehabbing outgrown Aglaonema stems. One of the first plants in the Greenscaper Consumer Lab is an Aglaonema Amelia potted up in September 1998. After 7 years, the plant grew too tall and leggy. I cut all the stems and stuck them in the candle glass hydro-propagators. They all rooted in a few weeks. None lost! The center plant in the photo is a Dracaena Janet Craig Compacta cutting.

The two on the left are in Grow Rokz from Atami and the one on the right in Hydroton. Both are expanded clay pellets. My opinion is that there probably isn’t much difference between the brand names you can find on the web such as Hydroton, Terra-Lite, PrimeAgra, Aliflor and LECA.

I much prefer the irregular shapes of the Grow Rokz. They lock together to provide better plant support and they don’t roll if you spill some on the floor…and you will. I also like the earth tone color of the Grow Rokz better than the Hydroton pebbles that have more of a terra cotta (orangy) color.

To each his own. Take your pick. I don't think the plants know the difference.

Status Report

I’m getting back to posting with regularity now that some personal issues including illness have been resolved. Thanks for your patience and please accept my apology for not posting a status report long before this.

In the future, I will separate content between InsidePlantsLive.org and GreenScaper.net as originally intended. InsidePlantsLive.org blog will contain information about the care of plants in buildings and related topics. The focus is on consumer information.

GreenScaper.net blog will contain news and information for those with business interests regarding plants in buildings. This includes interior plantscaping, green building, architecture, interior design and facilities management.