Termite Tenting Time Out

This old house is being tented for termite fumigation. All the plants (over 500) had to be moved out of the house. What a job!

I'll be back by Thursday or Friday.

Soup Tureen Spathiphyllum

Click to enlarge.This Spathiphyllum (Peace Lily) is growing in a clear plastic basket liner inside this soup tureen. The plant was a 6" pot plant from IKEA in June 2005 and the tureen from Target on clearance for $8. It was hydroconverted to expanded clay pebble media right after purchase. It could just as well be growing in potting soil in the same plastic basket liner with an AquaPad underneath. That is Pothos underplanting.

The only thing missing at this time are the white spathes and flowers. Next time it’s in bloom, I’ll update the photograph.

Once again, if you can make the microwave noodles you can do a good job of taking care of this sub-irrigated plant. You do not need a green thumb. Any color thumb will do nicely. All it needs is attachment to an open mind.

Large Scale Sub-irrigation

This is a schematic of the Solaire building in Battery Park City at the lower tip of Manhattan. It's from an article titled Putting Environmentalism on the Urban Map in The Business of Green: A Special Section of The New York Times. The other articles are also well worth reading. The lead article is To Revitalize a City, Try Spreading Some Mulch. I found this article about Chicago to be most informative.

Notice the similarity to subirrigation of an indoor plant in a container. It emulates plants-in-buildings subirrigation. It also emulates the way shrubs and trees get their water in nature.

I often read someone in a houseplant forum defensively attemting to justify drench and drain top watering by comparing it to nature. They erroneously state that plants get all of their water from rainfall. They should come to Southern California to gain a better understanding of how inaccurate that is.

Saving Water
The Solaire uses about half the water that a similarly sized building would by recycling it. Rainfall is also collected for reuse.
Rain Water System
1. Rainfall is held in layers below plantings on the 17th and 29th-floor gardens, which cool the roofs. It wicks up to keep plants watered.
2. In heavy rains excess water is stored in a tank for roof irrigation in dry weather.

In the Beginning...

My guess is that most of us have sat on one of these resin patio chairs at one time or another but few have used one of these planters. Grosfillex of France makes both.

Back in the late 70’s a Grosfillex planter was my introduction to subirrigation of indoor plants. The sample used was square and white. It didn’t fit the U.S. interior plantscaping container style of the time but the technology surely was impressive. We tested the planter in our interior plantscaping company office. I can vividly remember the Kentia palm with Pothos underplanting. After a few months, I was amazed that the plants did so well with so little attention. The rest is history.

A web search found that these planters are still in use but with no surprise, not in the U.S. Our macramé and granola culture resisted technology back in the '70s and still influences the use of plants in buildings technology today.

Aside from history, my visit to the Grosfillex website was most enlightening. Here, I found the advice missing from every U.S. “self-watering” planter instructions I have ever read.

When the water reservoir is empty, leave the soil to rest for 8 days, or even 10 to 15 days in winter, before refilling the reservoir.

This is the instruction that helps prevent the overwatering problems that plague U.S. “self-watering” planters. It isn’t the fault of the planters. It’s the fault of the manufacturers in not providing the right instructions. The “self-watering” nomenclature leads lay people to add water every time the reservoir is empty. The result is death by drowning.

An even better instruction would be to test the soil moisture with a soil probe. Add water only when the soil moisture level calls for it. Forget the finger probe and use a soil probe. It’s much more reliable.

It is much easier to feel soil moisture when you pinch a small soil sample between your thumb and index finger (forefinger) than it is to poke the soil. Try it and you’ll quickly feel the difference.

Note: I found this on a web search. London Garden Associates Ltd was a couple who used to exhibit at interior plantscaping trade shows. I bought the Grosfillex planter from them. Old timers who read this will probably remember them.

Anon. (Oct. 1976) Advertisement, "The Self-Watering Planter with Beauty . . . and Brains", Grosfillex (France) also, London Garden Associates Ltd., Ridgefield, CT 06877, (taken from Horticulture, vol. LIV, No. 10, page unknown).

Stacking Pots

It was surprising to find this planter system on the Interior Landscape Business website a trade publication directed to professional interior plantscapers.

There is no way I would recommend it for indoor plants. There is a high exposure to over watering unless you are very experienced at managing capillary action.

Ad copy - The cleverly designed self-watering feature allows moisture to be transferred from the water well within each layer to the growing areas via nine absorbent filament wick sticks, a superb capillary action. Providing life sustaining moisture for an(d) (sic) extended period of time.

It would be good if the inventors of these products understood more about capillary watering in low light and cut back on the over inflated hype.

Ad copy - You cannot overwater your plants as after the water reservoir fills excess moisture flows from one layer to the next.

"You cannot overwater" is a false statement frequently made by self-watering vendors. All you need to do is keep the reservoir(s) constantly supplied with water and your plants will drown. Unlike animals, plants have no brain to tell them to stop drinking.

Those who are successful with products of this type are typically using them outdoors on decks and patios where there are high light levels. The rate of photosynthesis and water usage is so high that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to over water. In typical low indoor light environments this is simply not true. Read more about the stacking planters.

SuperStake

If you need to stake an indoor plant, it’s usually a sign of insufficient light and humidity. With that said this looks like an interesting product for those who need to stake a spindly plant. Read more about Superstake...

Simply Stainless Subirrigation

Click to enlarge.This stainless steel bowl will probably be around long after I’m gone. With the use of simple subirrigation (including an AquaPad), there’s a good chance the palm will be too—and it’ll be a lot bigger. Unlike a tabletop Ficus benjamina, there’s no way to prune a palm to keep it a certain size.

This Chamaedorea elegans (Neanthebella or Parlor Palm) is growing in un-amended Supersoil (no secret ingredients added) in a clear basket liner—inside a stainless steel bowl from a big box store. Yes, you're right there's no drainage hole which is likely to give many outdoor gardeners apoplexy. And yes, it works beautifully. Happy plants, happy people!

It sure is a lot more fun to find housewares and dinnerware planters rather than looking in the “flower pot” department of a big box store or garden center. Do dropouts from design school conjure up these kitschy-cutesy looking ceramic planters, many with attached saucers? The indoor plant market isn’t likely to expand very much with these designs.

It's That Time of the Year Again

It seems so logical, but isn’t. One of the worst bits of advice from the many USDA Cooperative Extension Program websites is to give your “houseplants” an outdoors summer vacation. This is inappropriate outdoor gardening advice applied to plants in buildings. Professional plant maintainers would not even think about moving high quality carefully acclimated interior plants outdoors.

People who are serious about maintaining quality, pest free plants in their homes do not ever put them outside. The risk of permanent damage from too much light, plant pests and animals is simply too great.

The term “houseplants” is imprecise and I avoid using it. Many who grow “houseplants” are in reality outdoor gardeners impatient to see their plants grow. It’s more accurate to call their plants “backyard plants” or “patio plants” that are over wintered in the house.

The primary goal of plants in buildings maintainers is to maintain healthy plants for their aesthetic value regardless whether they grow significantly larger. Emphasis is on the word maintain.

Before you move your plants outside read these current threads on the GardenWeb Houseplant forum...here, here and here.

Less Work for Mother

Click to enlarge.Mothers have been growing African Violets on kitchen windowsills for generations. This one won’t fit on most windowsills but it’s a lot showier and needs less fussing over than those little pots. Your mom can keep this alive even if she doesn’t have a so-called “green thumb.” Mine didn’t and she would have appreciated this plant.

This AV bowl was made up from three 4” pot size African Violets almost three years ago. They’re growing in subirrigated Supersoil in a recycled clear plastic cookie container inside the plastic bowl planter. No, it isn’t special African Violet soil. There's an AquaPad underneath and special soil isn't necessary.

It gets about 2 pints (32 oz) of water every two weeks and has some flowers the year round. Snip the spent flowers and pull a dead leaf once and awhile and that’s it.

If your mom likes flowers, this is definitely a less work for mother plant. Is there anyone besides me old enough to remember who created the slogan “less work for mother?” It was Horn & Hardart.

Horn & Hardart Automats played a special role in my life when I was a young boy. Trips into "the city" from Long Island were always fun and a meal at an Automat was a big treat. It seems like only yesterday standing on the cashier line to get nickels to use in the coin slots by the little food windows.

Yup, I can see that lemon meringue pie right now. One time I was getting my lemon meringue pie from the little window when all of sudden the doors closed and swiped the meringue off the top of my pie. What a shock that was. The servers behind the wall got a big laugh and I got a free pie for my trouble.

Double Duty Dinnerware

Click to enlarge.This Fusion Wasabi 12” serving bowl caught my eye at Bed, Bath & Beyond. To my eye, it has a nice oriental motif and coordinates well with the palm.

The palm is a 6” pot size Chamaedorea elegans (common name Neanthebella or Parlor Palm). The easiest method of installing it in the rather shallow bowl was to use clay pebble subirrigation (hydroculture) with a top dressing of polished black stones.

It’s been living in the serving bowl next to a vertical fluorescent light since February 5, 2006. So far, so good. It appears to be doing just fine as it consumes about one ounce of water per day.

With hydroculture there's no need for noodling around with your finger trying to figure out if the palm needs water. Okay...bad pun, but preparing those noodles in your microwave is a lot easier than doing the "poke, pour and pray" thing with top watered plants in a soil mix.

Seeing More Clearly

Click to enlarge.Clay pebble subirrigation (aka hydroculture) offers a new way to observe how plants use water and light. You can easily watch the level go down in these clear glass containers as the plants use water.

If the light is insufficient, you’ll know because the water level will not perceptibly recede. Add more light and it will observably go down. You will be watching what horticulturists refer to as the light-water relationship of plants, indoor plants in this case.

Many sources cite over watering as the leading cause of “houseplant” death when, in fact, the cause is insufficient light. Plants must have adequate light for photosynthesis to take place. Insufficient light is the most common indoor plant problem I have observed over the past three decades.

These same sources offer no scientific method to measure light (such as a foot-candle or lux meter). The common recommendations are based on imprecise window direction.

With clay pebble hydroculture (and measured soil subirrigation), you are alerted to insufficient light before permanent damage is done to the plants. Waiting for the plant to develop physiological symptoms is foolish.

Symptoms such as reduction in stem caliper, reduction in leaf size, and increase in the space between leaves are most often irreversible.

After a child complains about not feeling well, would you wait for severe physical symptoms to appear before taking action such as calling your doctor?

Trash Basket Spider Plant

Click to enlarge.This is a Spider Plant (Chlorophytum) subirrigated in a trash basket. Some of the best-looking planters I’ve seen in the retail market are trash baskets. This one is from The Container Store and cost about $5.

According to those horticultural pundits obsessed with a soluble salts and drain hole fetish, this plant should be in the trash basket—but not alive. It should be either dead or disfigured with brown leaves by now. Spider plants are on their short list of 'houseplants' with a high susceptibility to soluble salts.

As you can see, it's thriving. Comparing the ongoing care of plants in buildings to greenhouse growing is like comparing Mars to Venus. I've called the Spider Plant the "Canary Plant" in the past. Here's why.

This isn’t rocket science folks. You can prove the benefits of soil or clay pebble subirrigation (aka hydroculture) to yourself in your own home. Just follow the advice you read here.

Oh,…the Sobe bottle is both a scale figure and an iconic reminder that the care of plants in buildings is more akin to ordinary kitchen skills and feeding yourself than gardening. You do not need a green thumb.