Mississippi Squad

[JohnAndSancho]

There are 101 pots in here (including community pots and sprouting seeds) plus 12 bags of willow outside plus whatever is still in the bedroom. Jesus. 

[JohnAndSancho]

I didn't get any footage of this, I can take pics and I'll shoot another video when the new lights show up - but I bought a 1quart hibiscus for like 6 bucks, it's at least 2 feet tall, it was all root in the pot. Put that in a 1 gallon and THAT wasn't enough so now it's in a 3 gallon and this time I spread the roots out a little. It's still in shock but it'll be fine. The crotons still need to be separated. I took the Sabal Bermudana out of my mom's bathroom window and put them in 1 gallons, all of these plants were crazy rootbound. Still have rootbound bananas, more papaya seeds on the way from @WaianaeCrider, I still need to germinate some of the local Sabal Minor seeds and the rest are giveaways, more elephant ear bulbs are coming, I want to buy some shampoo ginger, and ohhhh @5am here - 4 pack (no thermostat though) for 33 bucks of 10x20 heat mats 

 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/LENDOUR-Seedling-Heat-Mat-Connectable-10-x-20-75-Waterproof-Warm-Hydroponic-Heating-Pad-for-Seed-Starting-Greenhouse-Germination-4-Pack/14813716082

 

There's some daisy chain options here and Amazon but the daisy chain cables are so short, but you can get a $3 extension cord and plug it into the thermostat, I've got 3 running like that already and no fires yet. 

 

Gonna snag some more shallow plastic storage bins too and just keep the bare plywood look on all the tables by now, I still have a 4 foot bench on the front porch I can bring in, I should have enough 5g buckets to pot up what I need, I've got 2 full of rinsed perlite plus a fresh yellow bag of cow poop ready to go when I need to mix more soil (very soon), I've got some guava seeds I need to sow, I'm gonna see if there's any more of the pink guava trees up at Lowes and see if they're discounted after seeing the freezes this week, I want to dig up some crape myrtle seedlings out of the yard since they're less effort than rooting cuttings, and I'm already making plans for the other half of the room. Plenty of cardboard stockpiled to lay down over the grass, get some bricks or lumber to keep pots from toppling over when they go back outside, then set up shop on Etsy and Craigslist ads and use my mom's Facebook account since I'm permabanned for reasons I don't know. 

 

Anyway things are blowing up and blowing up quick down here. Hoping to fill my bed of bastards and spread these Sabal Minors and Etonias around the yard, bananas, etc etc. It's a lot. And it's all being funded by selling old lotion and old haircare crap that's been sitting in my mom's bathroom for at least 15 years and so much of it is from seed. 

[WaianaeCrider]

shampoo ginger, is that the Hawaiian ginger?

I remember when younger hiking in valleys w/flowing streams and shampoo ginger, growing wild all around us.

 

[JohnAndSancho]

2 hours ago, WaianaeCrider said:

shampoo ginger, is that the Hawaiian ginger?

I remember when younger hiking in valleys w/flowing streams and shampoo ginger, growing wild all around us.

 

Yep! I saw some for sale in the blue big box store a while ago and not just the flowers, but the foliage is beautiful. Rhizomes are fairly cheap, and it'd be a dieback perennial here just like most bananas. Kinda falls into my plan with everything else I'm growing (or trying), keep a few and sell a bunch. 

[JohnAndSancho]

I'm too gassed to post individual links, but I just uploaded 3 more videos to YouTube.com/dbljzzl if anyone cares. And yes, as always, these are rated PG for sailor talk. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Outdoor watering before the cold 

101 pots crammed in here waiting for me to finish the new table 

And finally..... Ok these lights were really a letdown. Yeah the ppfd was higher but in such a tightly focused area. Like if I was trying to grow in a 6" strip they'd be amazing. But their customer service was great and they gave me a huge chunk of my money back. 

 

So I'm back to shopping for lights again and rehanging the shop lights for now I guess. Well not now now, but... I still have until January 31st to return them to Walmart and I basically got a $90 set of lights for $40. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Keeping it nice and humid and toasty and I can't believe that not one Aussie has noticed that my sole piece of wall art in here is an Australian license plate 

[JohnAndSancho]

Some fantastic scores today! 

[JohnAndSancho]

Ok if anybody cares or is keeping score 

 

The 63 qt Hefty storage containers can hold 3 5 gallon buckets if you stagger them, then 2 1 gallon pots as pictured here, and room in the corners for coke bottles/fast food cups but a 1g will not fit behind the center bucket. I've got these raised up on scraps of wood and 2 halves of a brick. I plan to repeat this process all the way down the bench, freeing up some table space...... So that I can put more crap on it. This and watering the willow cuttings was as far as I got today before my head made me slowly retreat to the LaZBoy. 

 

I might add perlite and drain hoses at some point. I don't think some mosquito bits are a terrible idea either for once it warms up. I say "when it warms up" as it's currently 75 degrees 🙄 

 

Anyway, this is what fits in these very specific containers. The buckets were a tighter squeeze than I had hoped since the bin tapers. I really hope these years of experimenting prove useful to someone someday. 

[JohnAndSancho]

I went to the Mexican market since I had to pick up some pills for Sancho and take Mom to the Dr. I think the lady at the Mexican market makes up prices based on how much she likes you - the first couple times the mangos were a couple bucks apiece but today, I was telling her and (I think her mom) I buy these to plant the seeds and grow trees, and we talked about my grow room and Sancho of course, and I got 3 mangos and 2 Mexican oranges and a can of Horchata for $1.77 today 😂

 

More incentive to finish my table since new heat mats are here. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Ok progress. YouTube forthcoming, I really like the one take option vs taking 20 pictures. Anyway I effed up. I thought my legs were 27. They're 30. So the center piece will have one leg but it's gonna be braced to hell from all sides and it's not like I'm parking a car on the damn thing. It's gonna hold a bunch of plastic totes full of 1g pots full of mango and papaya seedlings. And I've still got all the fascia pieces to add to the first table which will be much easier to do once I can move crap off of that table and onto this one. 

 

Inkbird thermostat w/dual outputs ordered. Found a deal.

4 pack of heat mats are here.

4 pack of 4 foot DymondGro lights are here. 

Barrina lights are doubled up over the banana bench, I just need to engineer something to hold them perfectly parallel. Probably cardboard scraps and duct tape because that's how we roll down here. Missippi engineering at its finest. And if I can find a plastic 55 gallon drum I'm gonna build parabolic reflectors for them so we're getting all Bill Nye up in here. I've got so many seeds to pot up and so much more fruit to eat to get more. 

 

But right now I just wanna take a shower. I dunno why I decide to do this stuff AFTER I've taken the night night pills, but I guess that's when I get the most manic. 

[JohnAndSancho]

 

Sometimes it feels like I'm not getting anything done, then I scroll through here and YouTube and realize that what... A month ago all I had was a folding table with some pots on it and now I'm psyching myself up to apply for USDA and SARE grants for disabled first time farmers in underserved communities. I'm growing so much from store bought and wild collected seed, I've got a few bucks sunk into it but when you consider how much I've got back here it's really not that much. My sales pitch is if I can do this with my issues in this room,.we can set up grow houses anywhere in the world in any climate and if I can grow tropical stuff in a spare room there's no reason why we couldn't build grow houses anywhere on earth with well water and solar power to grow crops in any climate. Obvs some of what I'm growing will take a while to set fruit but I could just as easily be growing tomatoes and cucumbers eliminating the need for imported produce with automated systems and water recovery, running the overflow water through an RO filter and reusing it, I've started a Bokashi compost setup to both feed the plants and reduce food waste and reduce greenhouse gas from decomposing food in landfills, and this could work anywhere from impoverished 3rd world villages to rural areas, this could be done in abandoned buildings or lots in urban areas, completely self sustained and almost fully automated completely off the grid even in brutally hot or brutally cold climates and functioning year round although obvs some climates will need more batteries, varying insulation, deeper wells, etc etc etc but all in all its viable everywhere to get fresh produce to anyone anywhere in the world and if a crippled idiot with vertigo can do this then anybody can. 

 

I'm a little proud and a lot anxious about all of this. 

[JohnAndSancho]

I don't understand why the first table, when I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, went together so smooth - and this one, which is so much simpler on paper, is absolutely testing my patience. I know it's on me for flubbing the measurements of the legs and it keeps wobbling 

WAIT WAIT WAIT 

 

Tomorrow I just drag it all outside and flip it upside down, that way it can't taco inward like it is. I dunno why I didn't think of this, I already had to flip the end sections upside down to hold them steady. And getting a couple more 30" cuts won't hurt. 

[JohnAndSancho]

For those keeping score at home - which seems to be nobody at this point - the table is wrapped up. Heat mats are laid out. Seedlings have been moved. It ain't pretty but I sat on it, and I'm ~210 pounds or so, so I think it'll hold anything I could throw at it. And after moving all the plants and everything onto the table I realize I'm going to need to get on top of it to hang lights and drill more holes in the ceiling, so just another example of me planning and thinking everything through thoroughly. 

[JohnAndSancho]

It ain't pretty but I can sit on it. Lights are crooked because I need to untie the power cables. I like these a lot. It's crazy that 2 months ago everything was on a folding table and it's all paid for by selling old lotion and shampoo. So after a night of cursing and swearing trying to stretch everything to fit, I found some extra 2x4 cuts I stashed. Neat. Anyway yes @SeanK I've made a couple upgrades 😂

 

Inkbird thermostat will be here soon, I learned the magic number for tropicals is 95. 

[JohnAndSancho]

 

Sancho and spider mites in the same video. I guess the jokes about the spider mite factory finally bit me in my culo. 😑

[JohnAndSancho]

Threw the hibiscus outside, misted everything really good. I'm shocked since the RH in here is 60% and it's not even remotely dark in here, the lights are on 18+ hours a day. Went back and hit everything with insecticidal soap and let that dry, then I took the portable vacuum out there and yes. I vacuumed foliage, walls, floors, ceilings - I mean, the room sat empty for 17 years, it's dusty. But I just don't want a full on outbreak in there. Maybe I do like I said, and fill the storage totes with perlite and water. Maybe I add humidifiers. I'm just worried that too much will lead to mold and mildew since literally everything except the floor is bare wood. I don't think the crotons or colocasia are at risk (please correct me if I'm wrong here) since their foliage is thicker but they're still hiding spots for these little 8 legged pricks, and there's a lot of stuff in here. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Threw the croton outside too. I'm hoping I got the majority of them, but the damn things are like herpes and cockroaches. Once you got 'em, you got 'em. Sprayed wiped and cut a lot of leaves off this morning. Filled up a plastic grocery baggie - it wasn't ALL spider mites, just some old fronds in there, the colocasia are rootbound and unhappy, I stupidly listened to an AI bot when it told me it was fine to use willow water without diluting it and it'd be harmless, etc etc. And honestly I still need to repot a few bananas and my Ti plants have completely defoliated, they REALLY do not like being inside even though it's warm and steamy. 

 

Anyway on another frustrating note, I noticed that some of my Kahuka papaya seedlings were getting taller, so I started rearranging the pots to give them more light. Of course I play favorite so preferential treatment for the taller ones. Then I noticed a few had snapped and I guess it never occurred to me that something as light to us as a Ziploc baggie could snap these guys when they're so little. The heat mats are on a thermostat set to 95 (more on that in a sec) but I guess when it cycles, the baggies collapse. I also noticed a bunch of white mold in some of them, not the worst thing in the world I don't think but not ideal. 

 

So the thermostat. I had the probe plopped into the soil in one of the pots and I guess somewhere along the way it slipped out. So it's reading room temp air. And I put it back in the soil and uhhh it was 105 so let's... Positive vibes? Anyway cracked all the baggies open to start venting them and I guess I need to get a bunch of bamboo skewers or something that'll hold baggies up for the next batch. Ofc I'm hopeful but I don't think the snapped off guys are gonna come back. 

 

This is how we learn.... By effing up. 

[JohnAndSancho]

I do drop an F bomb in this one. 

 

[JohnAndSancho]

I hate these manic late night episodes when I'm exhausted. 

 

Anyway, my Monstera is in a 1g, the healthier of my Blue Java bananas is in a bucket. I might have gone a little rich on the soil again but I added soooooo much perlite, and it didn't drain quite fast enough for me so I started over and just dumped a bunch more in there.. and I cleaned probably 100 grocery store papaya seeds. The crooked lights are killing me. It's crazy how when I bust out the tape measure and straight edge they're off, but when I just eyeball it they're perfect. 

 

And somewhere in here is a little jumping spider. Normally  I'm one of those if it's got more than 4 legs you gotta go, but I told it if it eats some bugs it can hang out. I guess I'll name it Paul. Paul the spider. 

 

[JohnAndSancho]

Welp 

I had just fallen asleep last night when my brother came and woke me up to tell me Mom fell in the shower. (She's ok now) After listening to him panic and talk about how we both can't fit in there and she keeps saying her legs aren't working for about 5 minutes, I just said the hell with it - grabbing you by your armpits on the count of 3. Donesies. Ok make sure she's alright no concussion no bruises and all that and I fall asleep again somewhere after 4:30. She wakes me up at 5 to tell me Sancho got sick in the carpet. So long story short, I got maybe 15 minutes of sleep and decided to be productive in the grow room. I am once again asking the master of naming things, @DoomsDave, to name this room. The name of my nursery is Sancho's Green Paws if that matters. 

 

Anyway - potted up my Monstera and the Dypsis Pembana, probably waited about 3 months too long on them. One looks great, one looks bound for the Bokashi bucket. 

 

That wiped out the last of my soil bin. So this time I thought I'll just do all of this in an 80 degree room carrying buckets of water to hydrate a brick of coir rather than standing outside where it's 65 and there's a hose. I mean, the tradeoff is I didn't turn it into soup this time. I also tried a new method of breaking the brick up and just beat it with a hammer and, while that was fun, it wasn't the most efficient method. 

Anyway - fresh batch. 

 

I think it's like a 40 or 45 gallon tote? Anyway. Came in, cool off and hydrate, and decided that I don't want to just throw 1 gallon pots all willy nilly this time, so I busted out my stash of upcycled coke bottles. After about 2 minutes of dealing with this janky old box cutter, I just duct taped it so the blade stays out. Safety 3rd! 

 

That got kinda old kinda fast, so I went and checked the mail. No papaya seeds from @WaianaeCrider yet, but something else showed up. 

This is wifi capable, app controllable supposedly from anywhere, alarms and buzzers and 2 probes and 2 outputs, supposed to be really nice. I got it for $20 on eBay and I doubt I set up half of the features. It's on a hook because not a single freaking screw I have is small enough for that hole, but I bought a 50 pack of hooks because it was cheaper than buying 10. 

 

Hacked off some more foliage honestly just out of fear of spider mites, and these stupid effing colocasia are so rootbound they can't support themselves so they're growing these huge leaves and dropping them almost daily. Speaking of colocasia. 

 

I don't think it's been 2 weeks since I split them up. I'm just gonna have to hang a light on the other side of the room for these jerks and put them in random large pots. Just throw them on Craigslist or marketplace as bare root, bring a truck. Free up some space on the tables for sure and let everything else get some light. Oh I fertilized the hell out of this thing, too, because I hate myself. 

While I'm potting stuff up....

 

I think this was the pup from the pair @5am sent me. I thought these buckets were 5+ gallons. They're not, but that honestly isn't a bad thing. It means I can squeeze a little more over there. Like that sad looking pot of green onions. My brother had water rooted them from kitchen leftovers and tbh I let them sit there a little too long but I'm convinced they'll grow. They've got tons of roots. 

 

Yeah, y'all didn't think I knew about that one, did you? Anyway since I'm not sure how well the supermarket papayas are gonna do, here's another cup full of seeds. I'm not doing 1g pots for everyone this time. Them and eventually the Sabals can have coke bottles. 

 

They can have 1g pots if they live and prove their worth. 

And I know I mentioned this in other threads, but I also snagged some Black Friday deals and got another brick of coir (which apparently is all going to these damn colocasias), a couple 48x20 heat mats ($9!!!!! For a name brand, not like the Hyuploefsfrushzhfejshsjerhdhzh brand) and, because I hate myself, I bought a couple dragonfruit cuttings. And because I'm a conversationalist, and had a chat with the seller (tastydragons.com), I have no idea what kind of goodies are being thrown into this box. I just hope I have room for it. Well, I have the room I guess. I broke down God knows how many years worth of boxes and went out there with contractor trash bags to start cleaning up 17 year old garbage.

Some of these toys are going on eBay. Some are already on there, and I honestly think that it should be acceptable that after the 3rd time someone offers me half of my asking price I should be allowed to just send them a picture of my butt. 

 

So, in the mail I have papaya seeds, dragonfruit cuttings (the pictures he sent me were 2 feet tall which gives me massive anxiety), 2 Red Lady papayas and a Mona Lisa banana, all of which are gonna hang out in the bedroom until I am confident the spider mites are under control. The gas man will be here Tuesday to fix the pilot light on this stupid heater, and I'm switching us over to a faster cheaper internet so it won't take me an hour to upload a 3 minute YouTube.

 

That was a productive day, and if you've read this far I will send you some Sabal seeds if you pay postage. Literally begging people to take some of these. 

 

Oh yeah. I potted this nanner up, too. I am literally gonna have a 9 foot wall of well fertilized heavily watered bananas growing all winter. Between that, the papayas, the colocasia, and the dragon fruit, not to mention the 15 willows literally sitting in trays of water outside, wish me luck. Or come shoot me, whichever. 

I still need to cut about 9000 more coke bottles for seedlings, clear off space for heat mats, split up crotons, it really looks like I'm gonna be splitting up even more colocasia pups soon, Nate is sending me more bulbs, I've got Philodendrons I can take cuttings of now, I haven't cleaned half of that palmetto inflorescence yet, I haven't even started soaking any of the seeds, I found an unassembled trailer for the lawnmower that's been sitting in the shed for so long the box has rotted into the ground - sweet merciful crap that'll make things so much easier for me in a few months - and I'm apparently addicted to mangos and germinating every seed I don't destroy when I'm dehusking them. Once I finish eating what's in the kitchen I think I'll have 10 or 12 out there. 

 

And I really need to save up some of this energy so I can adequately hate the Atlanta Falcons this weekend and hate Ole Miss even more than normal for the next week. It's time for the Valium. 

[JohnAndSancho]

The fun part about these manic swings is, I crash. I just slept for like 18 hours, but I woke up to an envelope addressed to Sancho with strawberry papaya seeds straight from Hawaii in the mailbox. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Welp, for those of you who've read this and watched the YouTubes, the Hot Wheels table is cleared off. I might have mentioned this, but I scored a couple 48x20 heat mats for $9 on an early Black Friday deal, so imagine my shock when I find out this entire table is 47x24. And the shelf above it fell apart when I lifted it off. I guess the good news is I've got 2x4 scraps and now I've got some cedar I can make shelves with? 

Potted up a couple more colocasia to 3g or the biggest pot I could find. I guess it's a good thing I also bought another brick of coir. 

Ummm... What else. Oh. I went to check on my hibiscus, I threw it outside when it was covered in spider mites - I looked at the soil and saw how light and fluffy it was, and I was all like "Hey good job John, you really mixed this 💩 up good this time!" and brushed my hand across it. Anyway, it's full of fire ants. So I sprinkled some Amdro on it and pissed them off, then went to Google and read that fire ants absolutely destroy spider mites. So I hope they did their job. And maybe next time I find spider mites I just stick a Jolly Rancher in the soil and put it in the yard and wait a week or 2. 

 

Not pictured but I also filled up one of those monster contractor sized trash bags and could easily fill up 2 or 3 more. I was kinda hoping this table was a little bit bigger since I bought like, giant heat mats and now it looks like I'm gonna need to buy another thermostat, some more Fire Marshal Bill approved extension cords, and see if I can't get the old folding table hammered out straight and at least mostly level. 

 

I honestly can't wait until spring when I can move everything established back outside for good, hopefully some of the mangos and papayas do what they're supposed to, and I can throw some stuff up for sale on Etsy and whatnot. All of the colocasia are trying to pup but they're already all so rootbound, and the OG Mama is gonna be an absolute forest of pups by Christmas. Hell, at this rate they all will be.

Also potted up 3 more mango seeds, 2 of the ones I potted up the other day already have roots showing so that's cool. I've seen some people sprout them horizontally and some sprout them vertically and some wait until the root starts and then turn it, so I don't know. I hate the paper towel method but I've been told coffee filters aren't as bad for root tangling, so I'm gonna try that with some papayas to experiment. And I hate to admit this, but there's a bunch of them I need to cull. 

[WaianaeCrider]

18 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

The fun part about these manic swings is, I crash. I just slept for like 18 hours, but I woke up to an envelope addressed to Sancho with strawberry papaya seeds straight from Hawaii in the mailbox. 

SUNRISE not strawberry

[JohnAndSancho]

1 hour ago, WaianaeCrider said:

SUNRISE not strawberry

I blame my ADD. They'll be labelled properly after they soak and this time we're trying baggies with coffee filters. 

[kinzyjr]

It looks like a mix between a gardening channel and Bob the Builder    Keep up the good work!

[JohnAndSancho]

14 hours ago, kinzyjr said:

It looks like a mix between a gardening channel and Bob the Builder    Keep up the good work!

With just a dash of profanity thrown in. I don't think I'm done and by the time I'm done it'll be time to put everything out in the sun. Let's see how my health holds up too. But muchas gracias. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Well, I went to the land of Quality Wi-Fi (ie Anywhere outside of this house) and forgot to upload my last 2 YouTube videos so here's some pictures. 

 

This is tragically what's left of my mom's once glorious ficus elastica burgundy that's came back from the dead once already. I've been "gonna" repot it for a while now. Jesus, I absolutely cannot trust my family with any plants at all. It was massively overpotted, it hasn't been getting watered regularly, getting no light, the pot had no drainage, and for reasons I'll never understand there was about half a roll of paper towels in the roots. The good paper towels too, the Viva. I could tell because they weren't even close to breaking down because there was such a mass of them. I cut off everything that wasn't rotten. 

 

I uhh, I put a dent into that Palmetto inflorescence. Only like 68,000,000 more seeds to pull off. 

Cuban Red getting some color!

This is the best looking of the grocery store papayas. Some of them broke, some of them got damping off fungus (at least I guess that's what it was, I could see it on the soil), some of them probably got steamed when the thermostat probe came loose and was reading air temp and not soil temp. Anyway I've got like 1500 more germinating. 

The best looking Kahuka from @WaianaeCrider. I've still got a few that haven't sprouted, 4 or 5 that look about like this, and uhhhh I think I need to give him a gift card and a roll of stamps for Christmas. 

I think this pink guava is happy here. This one was outside at Lowes during the cold snap, so I know it's tough. I've already cut one branch off and started rooting it (and confirmed that it's starting to root) and I think I'll trim a couple more and do the same. It's responded by getting taller. I'm gonna have to raise this light just for this one. 

This thing is live. I don't know how I feel about a thermostat that knows my address so I used a house 2 roads over on the map. 

The bananas all seem happy. They don't know I got a treat for them! 

 

Lol this fishtail... It's so stubborn I have to love it. It was growing crooked and leaning so I staked it up, and now it's leaned out of the stake and the new frond is growing perfectly straight up and went around the zip tie to do so. 

 

Wellspring Gardens - I'm a fan. So far all the plants I've got from them have been great, there's always a freebie involved, and they throw in an extra bonus if they film your order, and they ask you to request them to film it! I got a handwritten note that said they didn't have time to record an order, but here's a gift for my wall of bananas (they watched my YouTube). 

I ordered these 2 Red Lady papayas ----

 

And on last week's list of returning customer freebies was this Mona Lisa banana. It's leaned over in its pot, but who cares? It's not gonna stay in that plug pot for more than a day or 2, and once I'm sure I've gotten rid of the spider mites they'll all go to the jungle room. 

 

I brought the folding table back out just so I'd have room to put my new heat mats. I need to figure out how I'm gonna arrange everything, Wally World had some really cheap extension cords, I've got a lot of zip tie work to do once I figure everything out. My other early Black Friday block of coir showed up, I think I've got enough perlite left to make another good mix, I still have a few bananas to bucket up, I'm still gonna need to build another table, I'm probably gonna need to buy another 4 pack of lights, I've still got mountains of trash and yarn to get rid of. I think I'm gonna just tear down the rest of the bookshelves and reuse that wood and just build frames. It's cedar, it's nice. Maybe make them a little shorter this time, flush with the other windows on the other side of the room so I can take advantage of the natural light when it's there. 

It's just aggravating that the shallow storage bins I want to use cost so much more than the tall ones with the same width. Or just keep rocking these $15 Hefty jokers like my bananas are in. Also want to start experimenting with uhhh... What are they called... Parabolic reflectors for the lights, get some flat white paint and some foam board insulation around the stuff I really want to bulk up. Maybe my eBay money will hit before my next therapy session and I can go give all that money to Lowe's. Also got some more duct tape to seal up the drafts around the windows. 

I want the state inspector to be just flabbergasted when he comes out here. I mean maybe I'm biased but I'm a little proud of myself for all of this mess. 

 

Anyway, these are delicious and I highly recommend them. 

 

[JohnAndSancho]

Also think I'm gonna rip the shelves down out of the closet in here. It's mostly pine, but there's some hodge podge patchwork wood almost like my grandfather just used whatever he had left over. There's a few 7x1ftx1 inch planks, some 6x1 planks, I've got some scraps from another shelf that sort of fell apart on me, but here's the cool part. 

From behind the door to the end of the south wall (where I haven't built yet) is 11'8 or 140 inches and these hefty totes I'm using for my banana buckets are exactly 35" so I could squeeze 4 of them in there. 

 

Y'all. I might need someone to come down here and stop me. I also got some kiwi and just scraped a bunch of seed out of it for reasons I don't think I need to explain at this point. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Oh. 

 

And a few mangos are sprouting. I dunno what it is, but it seems like the Kiett and Big Red seeds rot in place, but the Tommy Atkins are doing well and I've got hope for the yellow one. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Mmmmm. Yeah I'm gonna get some 2x4s ripped up when I go to my therapy next week and buy some more screws and just tear down these shelves and repurpose the wood. The shelves - even without anything in the closet, there's barely room to walk in there anyway. Nobody but me goes in there. So I'll just do the other wraparound but this time keep everything short enough to get some natural light from the windows. Just use some shop lights or something cheap - ironically or hilariously, probably the same Walmart shop lights that I returned so that I could get the money to buy the $100 grow lights that I was _gonna_ return until they gave me a $50 refund. So get like 4 more of those and I guess I'll try and do some cutesy little shelf at the end for Philodendrons or something.

It'll give all of the plants some more breathing room, and I'm gonna finally bring the short bench from the front porch in there, now that I've cleaned all the cat poop and Black Widow spiders and wasp nests out of it. I also learned that not only do black widow spiders get big, but they can't survive getting hit with a brick. 

Anyway gas man came out early and blew some kinda crap into the pilot light of the heater. I got the thought that maybe one of the fans was blowing it out so I moved the fan, since the pilot light went out about ohhh 15 minutes after he left because of course it did. 

Didn't take pics, but I separated the crotons into 1g pots. I also FILLED filled my whole tote with coir and the rest of my perlite so I won't feel bad about buying a ton while it's on sale. I actually had to pot some stuff up because it was overflowing. I have no idea how much it weighs, but I use about 9 or 10 gallons of water per 10 pound brick, 2 bricks, it's... It's a little heavy. 

Swapped out the shop lights with the Dymond grow lights I got off Amazon, they're not as nice as the ones off eBay but they'll work. And I used a different fire ant poison in the Hibiscus since we're supposed to get another freeze and I don't want it to die. I already need to pot the Aloe Vera pup from my mom's plant up, the cool thing about using clear cups/pots is you can see the roots. I guess I need to read up on the agaves and see if maybe my soil mix of "a handful of cactus and soil and the rest all gravel" is the reason they haven't grown much, maybe they just want more light, I don't know. 

This stupid wifi thermostat - I finally figured it out. I had the "on" temp set to 32°f and the off to 85, so - if it ever gets down to 32 in there we've got much bigger problems.. so I changed the on temp to 75 and now I don't hate it as much. 

[JohnAndSancho]

More manic stuff 

My $5 Philodendron white princess had 2 plants in it. Separated and potted them up in the finest fast food cups available. Pink princess was massively rootbound so she got a cut off 2 liter Diet Pepsi bottle. Big Cindy Crawford energy there. I didn't realize how much these things sell for 😯 they're huge and could easily go into 1g pots right now. $5 Walmart specials. 

Split up a small community pot of Sabal Mexicana - these were the ones that grew sideways in the baggie so only 4 were still alive so it made sense to put them in Solo cups vs leaving them in a 2g pot for space purposes. 

And I did lots of duct taping to seal up gaps around the windows for winter. And I fixed my own damn heater because the gas man just kinda ruined it in. I do think there's an audience if I had a live cam watching me talk to and play with and cuss at my plants when I'm working with them. 

[JohnAndSancho]

This might not look like much, but this is A LOT of progress. 

 

These shelves are gonna get repurposed, along with as much in the closet as I can possibly reuse. 

 

My dragonfruit cuttings showed up. I'm just gonna fill some pots and let them sit in the bedroom for a week along with these drama queens. Tuesday I'm going to Lowes and buying a sprayer and some Neem Max and just hosing down the whole grow room. 

 

Literally bought a $3 pineapple to sprout it. 

 

$5 philodendrons look great. They'll look even better once they fill out 1g pots. I still can't decide if I want to propogate or sell them big. Or both? And the white one was a surprise hidden in the pot with the bigger one. 

 

Hibiscus seems to be recovering from the climate change/repot/spider mite attack/fire ant deal. 

Cuban Red banana getting some AWESOME color already. 

Big box of bulbs and seeds from the ever benevolent @N8ALLRIGHT

 

This one here needs to chill out. 

It's like 40 degrees outside. I guess the low humidity means it's time to water the bananas. THAT MEANS BANANA FUEL! I'm really excited to use this stuff. 

[JohnAndSancho]

 

[JohnAndSancho]

Okie doke. I found some old insecticidal soap in my stash, and I sprayed and wiped every single leaf in this room with it... Stupid spider mites. I also ripped the old shutters off the wall (this room was built after the house was completed) since they were hiding all kinds of dust. 

I ordered a sprayer and some Neem Max concentrate, a few 2 foot 2x4s (yeah yeah I got the pre cut so I didn't have to wait), a bunch (6) 27 gallon totes ($6 on Black Friday at Lowes), and I'm going to experiment with light refraction. I bought a couple white shower curtain liners to taper from the ceiling back down the wall, I'm going to straighten the lights over the banana wall, and I'm going to SUPER experiment and make my own reflectors with cardboard, duct tape, and some grow bags made of panda film. 

Against everyone's advice, I'm going to go ahead and throw some soil in the totes and start rooting some of these bulbs, put them on my new bench, reinforce the folding table, put the new heat mats on that and get some lights to hang over that for the papayas, fill another of the totes with water in hopes that a 27g bucket does more than a 5g bucket, I'll now have a 2g sprayer that will make misting everything so much easier, I threw the palmetto seeds in the freezer to kill the weevils and I'll at some point pull those out and pull the floaters and dead bugs out and sow what's left, still haven't started germinating any of the local Sabal Minors,  I should probably check all the palm seed baggies at some point, repot the Agaves and Aloes, keep splitting up the surviving community pots of palms into cups, add another light or 2, keep tearing down shelving, haul about 18 bags of trash to the curb, vacuum the whole room about 657 times, I'd like to make something to hang all the garden tools on the wall, get some cheap soil to add to my bokashi compost..... 

 

And by the time I get all of this done, it'll be time to put everything outside. I'm hoping to get a head start on selling elephant ears and having them in huge sizes before anyone else around here has them big. Some of the willow cuttings are starting to root out pretty well. Some of them are not. 

I found an unassembled lawnmower trailer in the shed, so that'll make moving stuff and composting way easier. It's a good size, 10cu ft, so when we trim branches and cut the grass it'll make it super easy for composting and getting to the burn pile.... 

 

Anyway, yeah. There's a lot going on. If I can just get my body to cooperate. I've got therapy in a few hours and I've been in bed for the last 4 days so it is what it is. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Welp, I had one of the absolute worst customer service experiences of my life at the blue box store today, so lol.... We'll see, last time I got a $15 gift card, this time I think I want a new refrigerator. 

 

Anyway, today's haul. 

 

Another shop light - yes, hilariously, the same ones I just returned. Some shower curtains, insulation, a magnetic screwdriver drill bit to make my life a billion times easier, some clear plastic cups, shower curtains for my experiment, a bunch of big totes, a couple little totes, and there's some 2x4s inside the tote along with a pump sprayer and some Neem Max to nuke these spider mites. 

[JohnAndSancho]

And more papaya seeds, some musa acuminata banana seeds in the mail, a Sabal Uresana will be here soon. Gonna I guess retry these old banana seeds and the other eBay papaya seeds. I really just want @DoomsDave to tell me I'm insane again. 

[DoomsDave]

13 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

And more papaya seeds, some musa acuminata banana seeds in the mail, a Sabal Uresana will be here soon. Gonna I guess retry these old banana seeds and the other eBay papaya seeds. I really just want @DoomsDave to tell me I'm insane again. 

You’re insane!

(As the people in white suits pound on my door.)

[JohnAndSancho]

1 hour ago, DoomsDave said:

You’re insane!

(As the people in white suits pound on my door.)

Just wait. 

All this because I wanted a plant to make my apartment look less institutional 6 years ago........ 

[JohnAndSancho]

I really wish I took more before photos of what this room looked like.... Because Jesus. 

Anyway I've been out here for at least 8 hours, cleaned out the closet, the floors are clean the walls are clean the ceilings are clean, I tore down 2 shelves and pulled out more nails than I can remember, and I figured I deserved a break. 

 

Laying out the lumber. This new bench will be 93" long for the colocasia and a couple totes for bulbs. 

 

The colocasia DEFINITELY want more room. Ceiling is marked for the lights already, I just need to drill some holes and hang some chains and slap it all together. I want to get this done before I spray the neem so I can spray more of the room, if that makes sense. Anyway I'm gonna sit on my butt for a little bit.