Trader Joe’s Sweet Basil

Click to enlarge.

And there it was on display outside the entrance to Trader Joe’s for just $2.99. Into my basket it went and now the Sweet Basil is living happily in a 3-liter recycled bottle. The bottle planter will be around long after the 1-gallon plastic grower pot is dropped in the recycling trash.

It took a bit of root pruning to get it into the bottle planter but that’s no big deal. I learned long ago that a sub-irrigation planter acts like an IV, delivering the precise amount of water based on the plants past water usage. Many times I've cut 1/3 to 1/2 the root ball of a plant before installing it in a sub-irrigation planter without the plant even blinking.

There’s no way that primitive top watering methods will produce such evenly distributed moisture throughout the root system—always remembering to never add so much water that it rises to the surface.

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Recycled 3-Liter Bottle Planters

Click to enlarge. The photo shows the size comparison between 2 and 3-liter recycled bottle sub-irrigation planters.

The 3-liter bottles contained Shasta Twist Lime-Lemon Soda. These planters will hold any 6” size potted plant. You could also use them to start vegetable plants such as tomatoes and peppers.

I would buy this soda just for the bottle planters; they are that good. This is not plastic that will end up in the dump or the recycle bin. These are sustainable planters for maintaining sustainable indoor plants.

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Recycled Bottles Herb Garden

Click to enlarge. If you want to grow herbs indoors, my first recommendation would be to buy an AeroGarden if you can afford one. Based on all the reviews I’ve read it appears to be a foolproof way to grow herbs even if you don’t have natural light from a window. Using an AeroGarden you can grow herbs in a dark apartment or even a closet.

My next recommendation would to use these recycled bottle planters. The herbs you see here were planted in recycled bottle planters on August 17. The growth rate is impressive. Roots have already spread down into the necks of the bottles. They’re located in a west window.

You can clearly see everything that is happening with the plants. The status of soil moisture and root growth are in plain sight. The biggest mistake made with sub-irrigation (aka self-watering) planters is adding water to the reservoir without checking the soil moisture. Over watering is the usual result.

It is most important to never add so much water that it rises by capillary action all the way to the soil surface. The top layer (approx. ¾”) should always be dry.

My belief is that if your natural light level is in doubt, auxiliary light from one or two CFL desk lamps would accomplish successful herb production. I have not tested artificial light herb growing but plan to in the future.

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Does This Look Familiar?

Click to enlarge. The Eva Solo planter may look familiar because I've posted about it before and it has been posted on a number of blogs. The design may be more sophisticated but doesn't it look somewhat similar to a recycled bottle planter? The big difference is that you can see the soil and root system when using a bottle planter.

The planter also appears on the website of a trendy plant store in an urban location. This is the description (bold type added by me).

The Eva Solo flowerpot has been made to extend and improve the life of your house plants and indoor herbs.

Just glance at the water level in the vase, and you will know immediately if the plant is thirsty.

The vase reservoir can hold enough water for the plant to only need watering once a week, and possibly less frequently, depending on the circumstances.

There are 3 reasons why purchasers of this planter will most likely experience plant failure...as in death.

1. The statement "Just glance at the water level and you will know if the plant is thirsty" is perhaps the most egregious misrepresentation. It comes directly from the manufacturer.

Filling the reservoir when it is empty instead of checking the soil moisture is perhaps the primary reason for misuse and failure of "self-watering" (sub-irrigation) planters. Frequent refilling of the reservoir without checking the soil moisture will almost certainly lead to over watering, root rot and plant death.

I see similar terminology all over the web. The sellers of these products are either ignorant of capillary sub-irrigation or they're being disingenuous. Neither is excusable.

2. The name self-watering is a misnomer. Anyone who understands plant physiology knows that a plant does not have intelligence to turn water on and off. If they did there would be no such thing as over watering and we know that isn't true. So, who is the 'self' in self-watering?

The term self-watering also immediately identifies the user as someone who doesn't really understand capillary action. If they did, they wouldn't use the term.

3. The flowering mini-rose in the planter has appeal particularly to women who love flowers. Unfortunately, it is a spider mite magnet and has a very high risk of dying when grown indoors. If you have lots of time and some money to waste give them a try.

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Cool Bottle Recycling Bins

These cool looking bottle bins from Israel could be a supply source for arguably the best sub-irrigation planters and propagators you can make. This is win-win recycling! What a great project for school kids.

Couple recycling with plant sustainability for a truly green world of indoor plants.

Via: designboom

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Recycled Bottle Propagators

Click to enlarge.

Here’s another application for recycled bottles . The tops are clear plastic deli containers. They happen to be a perfect press fit to the circumference of 2-liter plastic bottles. You couldn’t manufacture them to spec any better.

The shorter ones on the left (16 oz deli containers) are propagating Ficus pumila (Creeping Fig) cuttings. The medium is coir . The taller one (24 oz deli container) on the right contains 3 Schefflera arboricola (Dwarf Hawaiian Schefflera) cuttings.

They are located on a shelf under a 4' fluorescent shop light. I’ve observed roots on the Ficus pumila cuttings in about 2 weeks.

You could make them taller simply by using a taller top (cover) section. Also note air holes poked in the propagator second from the right. I don't think they're necessary. We'll see.

I now have 20 recycled bottle planters and counting. They contain a variety of plants including an assortment of herbs. I’ll post photos of the herb planters soon.

Of all the smaller size sub-irrigation planters I’ve designed over the past 9 nine years these are proving to be the best. I’ve watched plant roots making a beeline to the bottom like a dog chasing a bone.

The interesting aspect to all this is that these recycled bottle planters are so good they’re worth manufacturing. Someone could be recycling them on a larger scale. I have some ideas to pursue.

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The Changing Floriculture Industry

The Society of American Florists (SAF) has published a new report on the floriculture market, which includes potted foliage and flowering plants.

The domination of this market by women is not new news but it once again triggers the question of why.

The report says that men account for only a little over 20% of the purchases and women almost 80%. I suggest it’s even higher than that on a product usage basis. It is highly likely that half of the male purchases are for women. The actual use of these products could easily be 90% female and a mere 10% male.

So, we have somewhere around 150 million men who are absent from this market. With numbers like these, you'd think someone would be doing something about it. I can assure you that if these were corporate numbers, something would be happening or heads would roll. It's known as "time for plans and programs." Anyone steering this boat?

What is it that makes floriculture a female market? If you have an opinion, please share it by email. Thanks!

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Plant Light of the Future

The LED desk lamp I just bought doesn’t look quite as jazzy as this one, but it cost only $20. Unfortunately, I'm having some problems with it. It doesn't maintain its maximum light as measured with a digital light meter.

It's a cool little lamp and would be great for keeping a desktop plant alive in cube culture. It's cordless and runs on 3 AAA batteries. There's no doubt in my mind that this is the light technology of the future. It could have a significant impact on the use of plants in our workspaces and elsewhere.

I'm going to contact the importer and see if the problem can be resolved. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Via: Inhabitat

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A Wall Grows in Brooklyn

This is a living wall on a newly opened bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The name of the bar is Oulu, which is the name of a coastal town in northern Finland.

Yes, it’s an exterior plant wall but according to Marni Horwitz of Alive Structures it’s also available for interior installation.

What also got my attention is the fact that it’s in Brooklyn (my birthplace) and that it’s named after a town in Finland, the country of my late immigrant parents.

I am definitely going to inquire as to why they named it Oulu. This inquisitive Finn-American wants to know. I will visit Oulu when I move back to Brooklyn. That’s for sure.

Source: Dwell magazine blog

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AeroGrow Reports

AeroGrow management deserves significant credit for their accomplishments since the launch of the AeroGarden.

Their success is the most positive news I've found in the rather moribund indoor plant market including both consumer houseplants and commercial interior plantscaping.

I wish them continued success in the future and hope that the AeroGarden brings new consumers who are comfortable with technology into the plants in buildings marketplace.

Accomplishments for AeroGrow for the quarter ended June 30, 2007 include:

-- Launching the AeroGarden products chain-wide with Linens 'n Things, including a Mother's Day promotion that featured the AeroGarden on the cover of 41 million Linens 'n Things Sunday newspaper inserts.

-- The launch of the new AeroGarden Pro 100 on April 29th on the world's largest TV retailer, where it sold more than $1.7 million dollars in just 24 hours. The Pro 100 features stylish stainless steel trim and Adaptive Growth Intelligence(TM) that monitors plant growth to give plants exactly what they need at each stage of growth for maximum plant health and yields.

-- AeroGrow expanded internationally into Japan through an agreement reached with Japan's largest TV direct response/retail distribution company, Oak Lawn Marketing Inc. ("OLM"), headquartered in Nagoya, Japan. OLM will sell AeroGarden products through a wide variety of retail outlets and television (including home shopping channels and infomercials) along with web marketing and public relations initiatives. Initial airings of the infomercial in Japan should begin in September 2007.

-- AeroGrow was approved for listing and commenced trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the new ticker symbol AERO effective at market opening on June 13, 2007.

-- AeroGrow launched a full-line, 16 page, full-color product catalog for database marketing to existing customers and purchased mailing lists. The new catalog features 31 AeroGarden products and accessories, including 19 new products. The new products included 9 new seed kits, 9 new accessories, and the new AeroGarden Pro 100.

"We are excited by the consumer acceptance shown for our AeroGarden products as evidenced by a 664% year over year increase," stated AeroGrow founder and CEO, Michael Bissonnette. "We look forward to continuing our growth with the addition of nationwide distribution at Sears, Macy's and Bed, Bath & Beyond in September and our initial product launches in Europe and Japan." Read more….

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AeroGrow Technology Launched into Space

Teach the children.

AeroGrow International, Inc. (NASDAQ: AERO) ("AeroGrow" or the "Company"), makers of the AeroGarden® kitchen garden appliance, announced that the NASA space shuttle Endeavour, launched yesterday from Cape Kennedy, Florida, is carrying an experiment using AeroGrow's proprietary Seed Pod technology. This experiment is intended to advance the science of growing food during long-term space expeditions and may further the development of heartier varieties of tomato plants for farmers and gardeners on earth.

The experiment was designed and built by BioServe Space Technologies, a non-profit, NASA-sponsored Research Partnership Center located at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The NASA space shuttle is carrying a set of experiments to the International Space Station in an educational effort involving thousands of K-12 students around the world. AeroGrow's Seed Pods are being used to study the growth and development of tomato plants in space which will be compared with similar experiments being conducted in K-12 classrooms, involving as many as 15,000 students and teachers. Read more….

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USDA Foliage Plants Report

The National Agricultural Statistics Service of the USDA released the new 2007 Floriculture Crops report .

Potted foliage plants are one of the floriculture crops categories that includes cut flowers, potted flowering plants, potted herbaceous perennials, annual bedding/garden plants among others.

Following is a narrative about foliage plants from the report. There is no explanation or analysis of the figures. There is likely some significant impact from the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season that devastated many Florida nurseries.

There is no commentary about this report that I can find on the Internet. Both a news search and blog search resulted in no hits as of this date. Does anyone care?

I don’t see any signs of marketing leadership in this market which includes both consumer houseplants and commercial interior plantscaping. There's no buzz to speak of. It's about as exciting as Mirepoix.

Foliage Plants: The value of 2006 foliage plant production, at $543 million, is down 19 percent from the previous year at the 15-State level. Florida continues to dominate this category with 68 percent of the value. Potted foliage plants represent 89 percent of the total foliage value. The remainder of the value is from hanging baskets. The number of foliage producers decreased by 7 percent to 957 in 2006. For 2005, the 15-State program covered 95 percent of the 36-State total value.

Floriculture Total Wholesale Value: The total wholesale value of floriculture crops grown by operations exceeding $100,000 of sales in the 15-State program is $3.83 billion for 2006, down 3 percent from the revised 2005 total. These largest operations account for 96 percent of the total value of floriculture crops, but comprise only 46 percent of all producers. California contributed 26 percent of the total wholesale value in the 15 States. Florida ranks second with 21 percent; while Michigan, Texas, and North Carolina round out the top 5 States accounting for 9 percent, 7 percent, and 5 percent of the total, respectively. In 2005, total crop value from the large operations for the 36-State program was $5.08 billion, therefore the 15-State value was 78 percent of the larger 36-State total.

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Real World Watering Advice from the Pros

You may not know the name Ambius. It is the new name of the world’s largest maintainer of indoor plants. Its parent is a U.K. company and its revenue would rank in the Fortune 500 if in the U.S.

Over the course of 2007, Rentokil Tropical Plants and Initial Tropical Plants will be changing their name to Ambius. The rebrand is taking place in stages, beginning with the UK and Ireland in March 2007.

Our new name comes from the word ‘ambience’. We feel it better reflects the wide range of products and services we offer to create harmonious environments.

Ambius is not a consumer company but it’s worthwhile knowing about them. You will not likely find better information about watering indoor plants than on their parent company Research & Development website. Most interior plantscaping companies treat this information as "trade secrets" and will not publish it.

Here is the page devoted to Watering advice. Excerpts from this page follow with comments.

Watering is often blamed for indoor plant death, when the real killer is inadequate light. When in doubt use a digital foot candle (or lux) light meter. They are now very affordable. Since you only need it occasionally, share it with others.

Environment

The principal environmental factors affecting water usage are light, humidity and temperature. Generally speaking, plants in bright light will require more water than those in poor light because they are more physiologically active. Similarly a low relative humidity increases the rate of transpiration and plant water absorption. However the biggest environmental cause of water loss is temperature; evaporation from moist compost is similar to that from an expanse of open water and increases rapidly with temperature.

The soil moisture probe they mention is not one of those error-prone “moisture meters”. They’re talking about a soil probe like this.

Soil moisture levels

If there is some doubt about the soil moisture level it is sometimes helpful to adopt a more "scientific" approach and use a soil moisture probe.

Horticulturists using greenhouse growing as the basis for their advice write most of the information you read on Extension Program websites. A greenhouse is also where horticulture students learn about indoor plants.

They do not have labs like the Greenscaper Consumer Lab that replicate a typical consumer environment. That is why I started the lab 9 years ago. That is also why I'm now going to donate all of it to further public education.

Most published data on the water requirements of different species relate to glasshouse culture, where the plants are actively growing under uniform, ideal conditions.

This is of little relevance to the interior landscape and, in any event, takes no account of a plant’s ability to adapt to drought. Many plant species, if gradually "acclimatised" will survive on soil moisture levels that most growers would consider totally inadequate.

Read this about water quality very carefully. They are referring to the most overblown and misleading propaganda you will find about plants in buildings.

When you read soluble salts fear mongering, know that it is coming from ignorance or disinformation from those with hidden agendas.

It is the sole justification for that drainage hole in your planter. There is no other reason for drench and drain watering.

Yes, soluble salts should be mentioned but in context as they do here.

Water quality

Tap water may contain a variety of trace chemicals ranging from naturally occurring minerals (editor note: i.e. soluble salts) to the chlorine and fluoride added during purification.

In most cases their concentration is too small to have any damaging effect on plants, but if very hard water is used continuously salts may build up in the growing medium.

The resulting increase in pH and salinity can suppress water and nutrient absorption by the roots and lead to leaf damage, abscission, wilting and even root death. An unsightly crust of salts may also appear on the surface of the growing medium.

Sub-irrigation is clearly a superior method of watering container plants in buildings. It’s demonstrable and provable, assuming you have an open mind. All of these plants are watered by simple sub-irrigation methods.

Your green thumb friends are likely to say that top or bottom watering is a personal preference. “It works for me” is a favorite expression on houseplant forums such as GardenWeb.

They will never tell you how long it took to learn “poke, pour and pray” watering and how many plants they killed (and are currently killing) in the process.

Sub-irrigation Water is added to a buried reservoir through a pipe opening to the upper surface of the container and transfers to the growing medium via some form of wick. Small pores in the growing medium then lift the water by capillarity until the force of gravity matches capillary lift and equilibrium is reached.

The larger pores remain free of water and draw in air when the reservoir is empty, thereby keeping the roots well oxygenated. Although there are many different systems on the market all follow the same basic principles, and vary only in the way the reservoir is formed and the type of wick employed.

A sub-irrigation system should hold enough water to last several weeks. It reduces the risk of soil compaction and, provided it is allowed to empty completely before refilling, will improve soil aeration.

It may be “quick and simple” but it’s a dumb idea if you value your plants, your time and your money. You should know that your tax dollars have helped subsidize the “tail wagging the dog” propaganda that has resulted in the stagnation of the indoor plant (aka houseplant) market in the U.S.

With so much recent favorable publicity about technology like the AeroGarden and EarthBox, I believe this too shall pass. It will be none too soon.

Top watering (aka drench and drain)

Top watering continues to be popular because it is quick and simple. However, it is generally less satisfactory than sub-irrigation because it encourages soil compaction and is more likely to lead to overwatering.

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Planter Designs From Teracrea in Italy

These are some of the most creative planter designs I’ve seen on the web. Teracrea is a design firm in Italy. I believe the use of plants in buildings would be far more popular with interior designers and architects here in the U.S. if we had more designers like Teracrea.

Teracrea for greenery

Teracrea was set up in 2002 based on a project of Mauro Canfori and Emanuela Destro creating products designed to introduce greenery into internal architecture and offer new solutions to traditional pots for outdoor plants.

In the light of this, a number of important designers were asked to interpret and explore the concept of " greenery as a means of organising the space around it using different and alternative materials than terracotta.

New products and projects were conceived , based on a high esthetical concept linked to pure design features and to the use of particular materials, with the purpose of proposing creative and innovative ideas.

Note that they are not displaying exotic plants that have a low chance of survival. The plants they use are proven interior foliage plants. Healthy plants in well-designed planters are a winning combination.

I'm intrigued by the Fontaine system in the top photo above. Note the word 'capillarity'. That sounds like sub-irrigation. I will ask about it. Inquiring minds want to know.

Petite/Grande Fontaine is a set of three vases, autonomously fed by a simple and tested system: from a tank on a free-standing pedestal next to the vases, water flows through plastic tubes, lining the black rubber hoses that connect the tank to the vases, down to ceramic spreaders, which moisten the earth inside the vases by capillarity.

View their full product line and I’m certain their design talent will impress you. When you're on their site, just click on the links on the right and you will have a delightful photo tour of their work. Yes, those are specimen Pachira aquatica (Money Trees) on the left above.

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Site Searching Reveals All

Most of my information is now coming from RSS feeds which I scan in the Google Reader. If the item looks interesting, I visit the website or blog. Site searching then becomes very valuable. It tells me if the site has information about the subject of inside plants or plants in buildings.

I then want to know if the site author is keeping up with the times. The following search sequence tells me a lot about that. Google reveals all.

For example, if the blog is writing about gardening, container plants, or houseplants, etc and they have never posted about self-watering, sub-irrigation, AeroGarden or EarthBox they most likely have an aversion to technology or they’re living under a rock.

To make searching easier, I have the Google Toolbar for Firefox installed on my Firefox browser (this is the toolbar for Internet Explorer). As mentioned, the "Search Site" button is in constant use as I search for information.

When I visit a blog or website these are the site searches that I use the most to screen for information for this blog.

• This is a quick initial search to see if the site writes about plants.

Search terms: plant OR plants

• If I find that the site writes about plants, I then do this site search

Search terms: houseplant OR houseplants OR "house plant" OR "house plants" OR "indoor plant" OR "indoor plants" OR "interior plant" OR "interior plants" OR "pot plant" OR "pot plants"

• If there are hits on the preceding search, I may then search on one of more of these search strings.

Search terms: self-watering OR sub-irrigation OR subirrigation

Search terms: "container gardening" OR "container garden"

Search terms: earthbox OR aerogarden

Search terms: light meter OR lux meter

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Something Old, Something New...

Number one on the TriniGourmet blog Amazon Hotlist for August 2007 is the AeroGarden. The second most popular is a Clay Pot Meyer Lemon Tree.

Perhaps one day in the future the lemon tree will arrive in a sub-irrigation container inside the clay pot and have a real chance of living. As it is, the lettuce from the AeroGarden may well have a longer life span.

1. AeroGarden with Salad Greens Seed Kit

Description:Enjoy fresh greens at every meal no matter what the season. With AeroGrow’s AeroGarden garden kit, it’s easy to cultivate lettuce, cherry tomatoes, herbs, chili peppers, edible flowers, and more in an energy-efficient, organic-based environment right in the kitchen.

2. Clay Pot Meyer Lemon Tree

Description: Amazon.com has this great lemon variety planted in a terra cotta clay pot ready to ship. Excellent for gift giving! Fragrant flowers produce thin skinned, juicy lemons year round. Different than conventional lemons in that the taste is more sweeter, and less acid. Rind is thinner and more orangish in color than typical lemons. Evergreen. Full sun. Growing to about 8 to 10 feet tall, or pruned shorter. Makes great tub plant. Indoors the blossoms will make any house smell good.

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Delicious Design

Carly Stephenson of Northumbria University (U.K.) designed this cool looking self-watering (sub-irrigation) grow box system called the Ugro. No, she isn’t a horticulture student. She designed it as a student in the Northumbria Design for Industry course.

The final year Design for Industry student added: “This idea is aimed at people who are probably already into organic produce and would love to grow their own but simply don’t have the time. I set myself the challenge to redesign the allotment experience and build a brand to celebrate gardening and make it accessible again.’’

Highly flexible, the range comes with a variety of accessories that can transform the product into a vertical garden for a wall or a stackable tower - making this the ideal addition for any urban garden, courtyard or even a balcony. With a funky modern design, ‘Ugro’ comes in lime green, red and bright blue to create a vibrant explosion of colour that will brighten up anyone’s outdoor space.

It’s a welcome relief to see modern design incorporated in a gardening product. All too often gardening products have a utilitarian look when they don’t need to.

No offense to the EarthBox and other sub-irrigation planters, but in my opinion Carly’s design would be significantly more compatible with a wide range of residential home and deck design. To my eyes it looks like a go-anywhere planter box.

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EarthBox Flickr Photo Set

Look at this Flickr photo set. They are photos of EarthBoxes arranged on a deck by a gardener with in-the-ground gardening experience. Read the photo captions and you’ll understand this gardener’s newly found enthusiasm for the EarthBox and sub-irrigation.

The basic principles of sub-irrigation and capillary action in the EarthBox are no different from what you see here in this Flickr photo set. Unfortunately there is a disconnect between the misleading and inaccurate term self-watering in the consumer market and the more scientifically appropriate word sub-irrigation (or subirrigation).

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AeroGardening the Future

Searching for something else, I found my way to these photos on the Millennium Arts Academy (Bronx, NY) website. They are unmistakably AeroGardens. Scroll down on this page of photos that document their first graduating class this past June. You'll also see an aerial view schematic of the green roof they're planning.

When I find the time, I will try to find out how they acquired the AeroGardens. I’m wondering if AeroGrow International has some kind of program for educational institutions. If they do that would be great news.

The students who graduate with this kind of experience may well end up knowing more about growing plants in containers inside buildings than many of our college degreed horticulturists.

Perhaps there is hope for the future that we can get past the generations who have been stuck in the outdated world of drench and drain houseplant gardening. The level of understanding about some basic science such as capillary action is significantly lower than I ever imagined when I started this blog.

It gets very discouraging reading what I find in my blog research every day. However, I'm now receiving a stream of information via RSS instead of Google News Alerts and web searches. I just have to find the buried gold watches.

The best information about container plants in and around buldings is coming from blogs rather than the mainstream media where ill-informed garden writers reign supreme at this time. As with so many other things in life, this too shall pass.

In my opinion, the best hope of breaking through the soluble salts fear mongering is via commercial products like the AeroGarden and the EarthBox. These are becoming ever more popular in the new green world of sustainability and water conservation.

About the Millennium Art Academy from Wikipedia.

Millennium Art Academy (M.A.A) first opened its doors in September of 2003 in the Bronx. Originally located on the Herbert H. Lehman Educational Campus campus the Academy moved after its first year to the Adlai E. Stevenson Campus.

It is one of six small schools located on the Stevenson campus and enjoys the highest daily attendance rate of all - 92%. Its founder and current principal, a graduate of Cooper Union and former student of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, was named one of New York City's top principals when she was awarded a Cahn Fellowship Award for Distinguished Principals at Columbia Teacher's College in 2005. She and M.A.A have received awards for excellence in urban and intergenerational education.

M.A.A has appeared in the New York Times, on CBS evening news, and in numerous publications. Millennium Art Academy is one of many small schools established to help create a better school system in which students receive a better education through smaller classes, a high-expectations learning environment, and an intensive student support.

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Sustainable Sprayer

This is the Professional Plant & Garden Sprayer (32 oz) from the The Bottle Crew by way of Wal-Mart.

Professional Plant & Garden 32 oz. Sprayer
Item #PPG-32
32 oz. Capacity
Professional fully adjustable high output trigger sprayer
More chemically resistant
Includes a mixing scale for easy mixing
Ideal for the professional Gardner
Made in USA

I've used many spray bottles over the years. I've also had many spray bottles that stopped spraying. Most annoying!

This one is the best I've ever used. It's now the go-to spray bottle for neem oil spray. Any sign of a plant pest and zap! In addition, the look of the foliage after spraying is great.

Many of the plants in the Greenscaper Consumer Lab are growing in expanded clay pebbles with decorative pebble groundcover. Incidentally, there is no need for finger poking using the pipette water level guage. I spray the pebbles with neem oil and it really freshens them up. They look clean and natural after spraying, as do the leaves on the plant.

And no, I don't waste time spritzing the plants every day in a futile effort to elevate the humidity. As we say in my home town...fuggedaboutit!

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Sorry that comments don’t work. There's a software bug that I don't know how to fix. Please email your comments, questions and suggestions until I can get comments working again. Thanks!
e-mail Bob Hyland
bobhyland[AT]insideplantslive [dot]org

News Alert! - Martha Endorses Melamine

There will be something other than cake mix in a set of these bowls er, planters from the new Martha Stewart Collection very soon. When there are plants in them, I’ll post photos here and on Flickr. Melamine is one of the best planter materials I’ve worked with.

No, you do not need a drain hole, even if your mother (or Martha) said you need one. Many of the plants in the Greenscaper Consumer Lab are thriving in melamine planters without drainage.

You don’t need to take my word for it. Just read from the Inside Plants Live archives (here and here ) and try them yourself. If you still have a question, don’t hesitate to ask. Just email me and I’ll be glad to help.

An elegant necessity to match your modern kitchen, this stunning set of six mixing bowls planters is styled in a gorgeous taupe gradation (and colors too). Not only impressive for their convenience, these bowls are also exceptionally durable. Limited lifetime warranty.

Via: A Martha fan

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Sorry that comments don’t work. There's a software bug that I don't know how to fix. Please email your comments, questions and suggestions until I can get comments working again. Thanks!
e-mail Bob Hyland
bobhyland[AT]insideplantslive [dot]org