Q&A Episode 8

[Music] [Applause] [Music] hi and welcome back to Swedish plant guys now on our channel we make videos to help you take care on all of your plants both indoors and outdoors and we get a ton of question from you subscribers which is so much fun thank you we promise you we read all of them and then because we don't have the time to all see you in writing because that takes a lot of time so we take the questions we try and bundle them together and make QA videos like this one to be able to answer as many questions as possible now in this description below you have which on which questions will be answered today and if your question were similar then you might know that your question will also be answered in that question so check the description below and the time stamps as well now if you haven't made a question for us you can also check to see if there is a topic that you're interested in so you can get a lot of new information on that topic and as always if you haven't subscribed yet please do and hit that bell as well so you get a notification every time we put up something new now we like the thumbs up as well and leave comments if you have questions you want us to answer in q and A's like this starting off with question number one and this is concerning our all you need to know about the CC plant video would this plant do well in terracotta or would it eventually break out of the pot first of all CC plants as I say that video likes to live in a constraint environment you should have a small pot that is so that the roots live very constraint but it would love a toccata pots because the terra cotta tosses air through it through the walls of it it actually breathes a little bit which is perfect for any type of plant so almost any plant likes to be in a terracotta pot however the terracotta can break quite easily which means that eventually the roots of assisi plant will become so thick and so hard that it will break the terracotta pot so if you planted in a terracotta make sure to check regularly so that it won't break the pot and usually if you if you even if you have a terracotta pot that has this type of a shape a little V type shape what actually happens is that eventually you can see that the whole plant is starting to move upwards in the pot because the roots are pressing on the sides of the walls and it's actually pressing it upwards when you see that happen then you know it's time to report it in a little bit bigger pot but if you have a terracotta pot that maybe is round or something and you can't see this make sure to report it at a regular basis because eventually it will break the pot moving on to question number two and this is concerning or all you need to know about the ficus lovato the fiddly fig video does liquid dishwashing liquid get rid of the mites now we say in that video that one of the pests that can attack your focus Lata is mites and mites are a type of pest that actually bites into the plant a lot of the pests that we have is that type of pest it bites into the leaf and it tries to get all of those sugars and starches to feed on that now to be able to do that since it's biting all the time on the plant it actually breathes through a type of give it a breeze through the scales of the body of the mite so what happens is that when you add when you mix liquid dishwasher with water and spray that on the plant or if you spray some neem oil or other type of oil on the plant what happens is that when that comes in contact with the mites they can't breathe it's the same way with oil as with the dishwashing liquid they can't breathe so they have to let go because they will die and when they let go they are all in that oil or that dishwashing liquid and they eventually die however the liquid dishwashing mixed with water there will not kill the eggs that is why you have to go back one week later or two weeks later you have to do it over again because you've killed all the mites that were on the plant but now the eggs have hatched and you have new mites so when you go over the plant one more time you will hopefully get all of the mites so that is why we do this a couple of times and not just one time question number three and this is concerning also are all you need to know about the fiddly fig video should I avoid buying all tropical plants in fall or winter or just the fiddly fig good question here I say in that video that I recommend you to buy the fiddly fig during spring summer or even autumn and not doing the winter months and that has different meanings from it one of the one of them is that it's very easy to get cold damage on the fiddly fig and another is that this actually grows quite differently in the greenhouse if you buy a fiddly fig that has been standing all summer in the greenhouse it will have had a lot of light high humidity a lot of new from the grower as well it has had all of those things that it wants that it needs which means that the plant will be thick lush perfect however if you buy a planter has been standing in winter time in the greenhouse even if it's in the greenhouse it won't have the same amount of light it won't have the same amount of heat or same amount of humidity as it would have had during summer so the plant will be a little bit thinner it will not be as lush and it will not have the same energy stored within it that it would have had if it grown in the a during the summer or spring time that is why if you can wait I would buy a tropical plant all the tropical plants during spring summer or autumn and not during the winter now usually a plant stands about eight to 16 weeks in the greenhouse depending on which type of plant it is because it grows quite differently in the greenhouse but between 8 weeks and 16 weeks it will be in the greenhouse and then it will go out to the shops and you will buy it so if it stands in the greenhouse during the winter time there is a likelihood that the plant will be a little bit weaker that is why I say I would recommend to buy the fiddly fake not during wintertime question number four and this is concerning our all you need to know about the monstera deliciosa video I live in Canada and I was wondering if you could put a humidifier near the plants I was also wondering if damaged leaves should be removed now this is two questions so the first one in that video I say that the monstera loves to be in a humid spots it likes that so if you get very dry indoors during wintertime you could try and do something about that now one thing is definitely to put a humidifier next to the plant but if you do that make sure to check the plant regularly to see that it doesn't react to too much too humid or that something happens to it so it should be a very good thing but make sure to check the plant regularly to see how it really reacts to that human humidifier and the other question was what should I do with damaged leaves should they be removed well it depends on the damage if you have a leaf that it's a little bit split and not split like the fenestrations on the monstera but it has a tour on it that really doesn't matter much to the plant but it might matter to you if it doesn't look as well as you want it to look so this is completely up to you because that plant is that leaf is still photosynthesizing so I would leave it on if you can accept that you have a leaf with a damage on it same way if you have a leaf that has a little bit of brown edges on it or maybe a brown spot in the middle or something it doesn't look that nice but that leaf is still photosynthesizing it's still helping the plant to become better healthier stronger so if you can live with it keep it on the plant but if not you can remove it and you don't hurt the plant by removing one or two leaves but it would be even stronger if it had more Sun panels to be able to photosynthesize so it's completely up to you question number five and this is concerning our video all you need to know about the Cece plants I have a pretty old Cece plant and it grows fast the stems stand up and then tip over is this normal or should i replant it and put the stems deeper in the soil or do I need to add support to the plant the plant is otherwise happy and keeps on shooting out new steps ok this is very very common concerning this easy plant as this easy plant gets older it will become fuller lusher if there will be less room for each stem so just by that it will be start to move out of it will start to move outwards because you have it so dense in here but also you have another thing here optimum for this plant is actually to have cooler in the night so it because when it lives where it lives usually it gets a little bit cooler at night then it gets hotter in the day cooler at night and so on but when you have this in your home that doesn't happen you have the same the same temperature all all day almost all year round what what actually differs is the humidity you have indoors which goes down a little bit in wintertime but when it doesn't get that cold nights and worn days cold nights and warm days it actually grows a little bit faster than the plant wants to which means that it becomes a little bit longer than it should have been if it got in that cold in the evenings it comes a little bit thinner as well and what happens then is that it becomes a little bit gangly it wants to tip over a little bit this is really really normal nothing to worry about and you should never put the stems deeper into the soil because that will kill the plant you should keep them where you have them but you don't have to worry about this because it is normal it's just something that happens because of the climate you have inside of your home but you can't cut them off if you have stems that are too long and hanging out too much from the pot cut them off and cut them off all the way down to the soil bit here that won't hurt the plant as well it will just keep on shooting out new new stems now there was also a little added question here or do I need to add support to the plant you can support the stems if you want to but you don't need to the CC plant works that out by itself but if you don't want it to become very bushy and very worried you could support it by using some some type of metal wire or something that's fine as well it won't affect the plant anything question number six my federally fig has been in my house for two years I believe all the conditions are grow for growth or ideal and the placement is very good however the plant has not dropped or added one new leaf in two years am I missing something this is also a very very common question now the fiddly fig as same as the cz plant can grow very fast when it grows but then it can have a very long rest after that and it can be up to two or three or even four years before you get any new leaves this is not because you have done something wrong this is just a plant's way of saying I have enough energy to be alive to be well but not as much as I want to add something that is why it's it goes a little bit dormant it doesn't send out any new leaves this is nothing to worry about because if you just keep on giving it what it wants you keep on fertilizing it during the spring and summer months or autumn just keep on watering as you do eventually it will start to shoot new leaves and when it does it's telling you now I have enough to be well and add I have enough to keep on growing and giving you new leaves so as long as the plant is not if you can't see that anything is wrong with the plant don't do anything different don't try and force it to grow again just keep on doing what you're doing and you will get rewarded later on so just keep on giving that long what it needs and when it's ready you will get new growth question number seven and this is concerning our three easy ways to propagate this easy plant the leaves cuttings look pretty packed in that glass when they start developing tubers and roots do they need more space in a glass perfect this is something that we did not add in the video so a very good question now I actually have those here and I think that there was the leaf cuttings that is referenced here and I have them here I still have them I think it's almost four weeks ago now that we put these into water in that video and this is what it looks like I'll take up a few of them and show you now during that four weeks which is a complete month this is the only thing that has happened we have started to develop a small small root here and also if you can see that from the cut it's starting to bulge a little bit its rounded and that is the tuber that is starting to begin to develop now over four weeks this is all that I have that has happened but your concern here was if they were too close together none of the leaves are turning yellow all of the leaves are starting to develop small tubers some of the leaves are longer than others and so on but all of them is well but yes when you have started when you have a complete little bulb here when you have a tuber that has started to grow out a little bit of roots from it then yes separate them and put them individually in a gloss so that it has the room to grow because if we have them this tightly packed some of them will probably not make it so yes perfect question and yes do that now I would like to also show you the steps we took stem cuttings as well from that video so these are all also a month old here now this is what has happened from the stem cuttings almost nothing no roots no tubers starting to form nothing but I think that it will take at least one two maybe three months more before we see something here however it's still green it's still lush you can see that it's feeling well so we just keep on doing what we're doing we exchanged the water as often as we can we put it in a light spot without sunlight and then we wait this is just a waiting game and but it will come I also have the cutting from the video we made on how to make a cutting from the monstera deliciosa they're Swiss cheese plant and here it's happened quite a lot now this is I think three weeks we put since we put this in water and what has happened here is that the air roots that we had in the water here has actually become now a water route it has transitioned from being an air route to being a water route and you can also see here that you have small new roots coming out the water route as well so this is thriving this is exactly what we wanted to see and what I expect on the next month or so is that if there will also come from the node here you will also get a few new roots growing here so you will get roots from the air roots which is now a basically a wall to roots and you will also get roots from the node the leaves everything still looks good so it's just keep on doing what we're doing exchange the water put it in a light spot without direct sunlight ok question number 8 I've made a few self watering planters as described in your earlier videos I've made mine using a liner pot that I filled with promise and wick into a larger pot beneath that is filled with water up to the bottom of the liner perfect that is exactly how we describe it now roots have grown from the liner pot down into the water reservoir the plant looks very healthy and is growing my question is it ok for roots to grow into the water reservoir and if so what should they look like is it ok for them to turn brown or black or should they be white will the roots die during the periods when the reservoir is dry all of these very good questions now this is exactly what will happen in a self watering system since you have holes in the liner part of your system the root there will be roots that will go directly down into the water and you want this the the plant will form something we call water roots and those roots doesn't need to look like normal roots normal roots in soil yes often we like them to be white a little bit yellow perhaps or you can see that they are healthy however water roots can look quite different I have a lawyer here that is been standing in a self watering for over ten years I have never reported this it has been in this pot for ten years so when I take this up you can see here that it has a lot of roots and all of these roots here are water roots they live completely submerged in water now I have left this plant dry out completely the waters it hasn't get be given water for a very long time to be able to show you here because the roots from the beginning when they when there was water here the roots here were dark brown almost black which is usually how a water route looks like in water but since it has dried out you can see that when that water route dries it actually becomes a little bit light brown or literally yellowish in tone it almost looks more like a root you would find in soil or in pomace but as you can see the plant is fine what will happen here is that when I add water again the water roots will kick along again it will start to continue dragging up water to the plant they haven't died just because this has dried out you'd never have to be concerned about that I would be concerned if I let it dry out say for a couple of a month or two that it gotten really really dried then these roots could die but since these have been dry only for I think one or two weeks now they will still work as I add water to that system so of course they can die eventually but they are not dead now so to all see a question here should they be white no they if they are in water they will probably dark brown or black if they are standing somewhere where they have been drying out a little bit they will look like this but they are not dead because they changed color and also as you can see here the Hoyer is one of the plants that we say likes to dry out in between watering now how does that work in a self watering system where you have water all the time if you have water down here in the reservoir all the time they will be waked up and you will have a little bit of moisture here in the soil and you will have water roots that are completely soaked in well how does that work because this wants to dry out in between watering well you have to consider why do we say that why do we say that it wants to dry out in between watering well it's because the roots of the Hoya and succulent plants as well if they stand in too wet soil they will not get as much air as they want for those roots the roots are sensitive in that way they need that perfect balance of water and oxygen all the time one way to get that is to plant this in a promise mix promise and clay and long-term nutrients however what happens in a self watering system is that you almost get the same as you do outside in nature when it rains a lot in nature let's say succulent succulents live in places where it rarely rarely rains but when it does it rains cats and dogs why doesn't the plant die them well it's because it gets moist and wet around the roots but then the water goes down to the groundwater and goes away same system here it's the same in this this type of systems when we water this plant yes the roots get moist but you have holes here in the bottom so the access water goes down in the rest of war which means that the roots always have the right amount of water water isn't bad is just that it wants water and oxygen at the same time and you will get that by the drainage holes here and then the plant sends out water roots completely submerged in the water down here now those roots are different they don't need all that air the plant gets the air from the roots within the soil and a lot of the water it needs from the water roots so these systems works perfectly for plants that we say wants to dry out now what I usually do in a self watering system like this is what I've done here now under them now and again I just stop watering for a little bit make it dry out completely for a little while and then I add water again for a couple of months and then I let it dry out a little bit again and so on which works perfectly you can't get it any easier than that question number nine and this is concerning our all you need to know about self watering systems in pots can you use an organic fabric like cotton or does it have to be a synthetic fiber now this is concerning what we use to wick up the water from the water reservoir to the liner where you have planted the plots now I say there we often use some form of microfiber cloth used for cleaning which is synthetic can you use cotton instead yes you can because cotton also wicks water very good however we have found that over time if you have a system that you know is going to be for a very long period of time cotton actually stops working after a couple of years or at least it doesn't work as well as a synthetic made fiber cloth that is why we used a synthetic one and not a cotton one yes it works fine with cotton however over a long period of time cotton actually stops working or it doesn't work as good as a synthetic one question number 10 this is concerning our Q&A video our cutting from a Dracaena hi I have a Dracaena stood near e4 for years recently it started making all of its leaves dry from down to up and then and even when I changed the soil that situation didn't change I figured out that lots of it lots of the roots have rotten and dry died or dried can I just cut the stems and put them into water and root and save my plum now the gesina has doesn't have a very extensive root system it's actually quite small concerning how many leaves and how much foliage you have on a plant there is quite little roots for a Dracaena so it's quite easy for this to happen that something happens to the roots they dry out or they get some type of fungus or something and a lot of the roots die what happens is that you see that all of the leaves are just starting to die and they die from the bottom up when something happens to the roots so you have a correct here gift that something has happened to the roots that is probably what happened now can you just cut the stems and make a new door sooner yes you can but the quicker you are the better because what happens when the foliage starts to die from the the oldest foliage up to the new leaves what is actually happening is that it's draining all of the stored nutrients inside of the plant so it's losing leaves as it goes so the quicker you are by making their cuts taking that cutting and doing exactly what we tell you in that video the more likely you are to have a high success rate in creating a new plant so don't wait too long for this make the cut and try and make a new plant out of that one now you could try also Metin up when you've made that cut and made that cutting try and revive your darsana because it can produce new roots so it's not over until it's over just try it question number 11 and this is concerning or all you need to know about Palmas or volcanic rock could you please tell us when we have to re water the plant I use promise today for my plant without the microfiber cloth this is so hard I really want to tell you exactly when to reward and this is the same in soil as in promise it's very difficult for me to tell you exactly when to reward because this is completely up to which type of plant you have what size of container you have there are so many factors in this so I can't tell you - you have to RiRi water every week and then you have where you live we live in Sweden I'm guessing that you are not living in Sweden you could be living in Thailand where you have a completely different humidity at home you have a completely warmer climate and you have here so if I tell you to water one way it wouldn't work in Sweden so I couldn't tell you exactly how but I have a small tip for you that might be able to help you because pumice has a color to it when it's completely dry when it's bone-dry it's very almost white it's light light gray but almost white but when it gets wet you can see that it changes color it changes color to darker form of gray or even a slight brown color to it so that is one way you can tell when it's starting to dry up now pumice can actually wick water at least the pumice we use because this is depending on the corn sizes you use of the pomace but it can wick water at least 40 centimeter in a pot so if you have a big pot it can wick water all the way up to the top but one way to look at their promise is to see the color of it when the pumice starts to turn white or starts to turn light light gray then you know okay the top portion is starting to dry out and then you would probably have a gradient of how much water there is an opponent to the bottom of the pot so if you have a very dry over portion of pumice you know that okay it's dry maybe 1/2 inches down in into the pumice then maybe it's time to water again so you look at the color of the promise that is one tip I can go I can give you but I can't tell you exactly how much to give another way is of course that you when you plant in promise you add a water level indicator now we have a video that tells you exactly how to create one yourself it's quite easy anybody can do it so go watch that video and put down a water level indicator in your pot which tells you exactly how much water you have in there question number 12 this is concerning our cutting from a monstera deliciosa where should we place the cutting in terms of sunlight and temperature good question because we actually missed this one in that video I have the cutting here that we made from that video it's actually started to produce some roots and it's feeling quite healthy you should put and this is concerning almost all types of cuttings when you've made a cutting placed it in water always think to place it somewhere where it's very light but no direct sunlight so light and quite warm but no direct sunlight because if the direct sunlight hits the leaves here this will stress the plots and it will have to deal with that heat and that stress rather than producing roots down here so put it in a light spot so that it can photosynthesize but not in direct sunlight and also if if you do this in wintertime make sure that you don't place this directly above a radiator where you can get a lot of dry warm heat because that will also stress the plant so move it away from that radiator a little bit but still give it a lot of light so that was all we had for this Q&A video if you like this video please give it a thumbs up share with your friends as well and if you're not a subscriber please subscribe to our channel and hit that bell as well so you get a notification every time we put up something new now thanks a lot for watching this video thank you so a lot for all the questions just keep them coming we read all of them and we try to answer as many of them in these Q&A videos as possible so until next time I don't

Channel: Swedish Plantguys

Views: 10,700

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Id: -xavgGD9H3E

Length: 36min 56sec (2216 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 05 2020