Mississippi Squad

[JohnAndSancho]

31 minutes ago, Hu Palmeras said:

Great channel, my friend. Thanks for sharing.

Lol it's really not that great, but thank you! There are way better channels but at least you can see what I did in a tiny apartment, and Sancho makes a few cameos..

[JohnAndSancho]

On 9/10/2025 at 1:18 PM, MrTropical said:

John, have you considered starting a YouTube channel to document your progress in video form? I'd watch. 

I've got some packages coming and some stuff to migrate to the back room and some stuff I overpotted because I'm lazy. I also need to mix some soil up, germinate some more seeds, and all of this would be a lot easier if I had someone else to hold the phone while I did it. But I'm sure it'll be more interesting than 14 minutes of me walking around in tall grass sounding like I'm suffocating to death from the heat and humidity. 

 

I also have no idea how to edit videos, so the production quality is gonna be absolute 🐕 💩, and my new work space is.... Let's just say it could use some cleaning. But I think I can manage to squeeze out some videos in the next few days. And now I know that pretty much everything I had posted over the last decade was hidden because I marked it as "not for children," but those kids have to learn these 4 letter words from somewhere. Might as well learn it while I talk about my plants. 

[Hu Palmeras]

Come on, Juan and Sancho, you should already have your own channel. Great initiative, my friend.

[JohnAndSancho]

7 minutes ago, Hu Palmeras said:

Come on, Juan and Sancho, you should already have your own channel. Great initiative, my friend.

Uploading a quickie as we speak. The upload speed on my Internet at home is terrible, so if I make anything 5+ minutes long again I'm gonna have to go to town and use the library Wi-Fi 😂 it took me 20 hours to upload a 14 minute video. 

[Hu Palmeras]

I remember that I used to use the library's internet connection years ago.😄😄

[JohnAndSancho]

9 minutes ago, Hu Palmeras said:

I remember that I used to use the library's internet connection years ago.😄😄

I'm trying to do math in my head - we have 2 cell phones, 3 tablets, a desktop computer (and my brother is a gamer), a smart watch, a home phone, and 3 smart TVs all connected to a DSL. We cut the cable and we're too far out for antenna TV so we stream everything we watch. 

 

As long as I just watch TV and don't try to do anything online it's ok, it sucks but it's not as bad as dialup. 

[JohnAndSancho]

 

 

New video is up, I'll try to do more if I can get more than 20 views per video lol. I'm not trying to get rich or monetize this but it's like, what's the point if nobody's listening? 

[Hu Palmeras]

Well, you'll be able to connect at a good speed. Or at night when internet traffic drops.

[Hu Palmeras]

9 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Estoy haciendo cálculos mentales: tenemos dos celulares, tres tabletas, una computadora de escritorio (y mi hermano es gamer), un reloj inteligente, un teléfono fijo y tres televisores inteligentes, todos conectados a una línea ADSL. Cortamos el cable y estamos demasiado lejos para la antena, así que lo vemos todo en streaming. 

 

Mientras solo mire televisión y no intente hacer nada en línea, está bien, es una mierda, pero no es tan malo como el acceso telefónico. 

 

4 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

 

 

Ya está subido un nuevo video. Intentaré hacer más si consigo más de 20 visualizaciones por video, jaja. No pretendo hacerme rico ni monetizar esto, pero ¿de qué sirve si nadie me escucha? 

Good video, my friend. I think you'll have to buy another thermal mat.

[JohnAndSancho]

1 minute ago, Hu Palmeras said:

 

Good video, my friend. I think you'll have to buy another thermal mat.

Or move one of these out of my bedroom and put it out there. I'm gonna keep one in here for the bananas and banana seeds though. 

[Hu Palmeras]

Wow, congratulations. You've got quite a bit germinating there. I think I'll have to buy a heating mat. I have one for reptiles that's very good. I've used that to germinate all my tropical palms.

[JohnAndSancho]

17 minutes ago, Hu Palmeras said:

Wow, congratulations. You've got quite a bit germinating there. I think I'll have to buy a heating mat. I have one for reptiles that's very good. I've used that to germinate all my tropical palms.

Yeah, I've got just a little bit going lol. There's 20+ baggies, I've got 5 or 6 community pots outside, 2 containers with banana seeds, and I've got banana seeds and canna lily seeds soaking. Oh and some Howea Fosterina on a shelf. 

 

Just a little bit. Nothing near @happypalms though. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Big box of love showed up from the RGV for an early Birthmas. More will be here tomorrow. Thank you @5am and my friend Laura isn't on here but she is inmyplantyera on Instagram. 

[Hu Palmeras]

Congratulations on the gift, friend

[Hu Palmeras]

Hace 20 horas, JohnAndSancho dijo:

Llegó una gran caja llena de amor del RGV para un cumpleaños anticipado. Mañana habrá más. Gracias.A las 5 a. m. y mi amiga Laura no está aquí pero está en inmyplantyera en Instagram. 

What a clever cat, my friend. Come on! To that great teacher. Thanks, John and Sancho.

[JohnAndSancho]

7 minutes ago, Hu Palmeras said:

What a clever cat, my friend. Come on! To that great teacher. Thanks, John and Sancho.

No, they're jerks lol. There are probably 30 of them, they used to terrorize me and my palms before something killed a few of them off. They're the reason all of my indoor plants have been in my bedroom, they're forever fighting and breeding, there's entirely too many of them. I'm just glad we stopped letting so many of them in the house, they pee and poop and vomit everywhere, they're horribly messy eaters, they destroy everything. 

 

There's maybe 2 or 3 I can tolerate in small doses, they actually have personalities. But most of them are just obnoxious kitten and noise factories. 

[Hu Palmeras]

It's unfortunate, my friend. The kittens damage the palm trees. Then many of them die.

[JohnAndSancho]

1 hour ago, Hu Palmeras said:

It's unfortunate, my friend. The kittens damage the palm trees. Then many of them die.

Yep. They killed a lot of very rare stuff. I'd be fine if there was just 3 or 4 of them, but we've had around 30 before they start dying and/or running away. But for every one that leaves 3 more come back. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Got some goodies from @5am - instead of just posting the same stuff in 2 places, here's a link. The Sabal got leftover soil amended with palm food and worm castings, topped off with the $5 Lowes crap in the ugliest pot I have because it's the only pot that would fit it. 

Everything else got Fox Farm Ocean Forest and the nanners got top dressed with the only good product Miracle Gro makes, orchid bark. 

https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/91199-5am/

 

YouTube is uploading. 

[JohnAndSancho]

 

[JohnAndSancho]

And another one. 

 

[JohnAndSancho]

I did something without making a YouTube of it. And I dunno what happened, I'm by no means a social media clout chaser, maybe it's because I didn't know I had marked all of my videos as 18+ for years, but I'm actually getting a few views now. 

 

Anyway, I've been soaking what I HOPE are Musa Sikkimensis "Red Tiger" seeds and when I went to file them down, it looks like someone had already done that? I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but they're on the mat. I also checked my seed baggies and some Sabal Minor "Washington County TX" have sprouted, about 10 of them. I put the 6 that have their nub in a cup and watered them and put the rest back in the baggie.

 

Maybe at some point I'll do some laundry and clean this bedroom a little and do an indoor video, it's been about 3 years or so - and y'all can drag me for the stuff that needs to either be outside or in the grow room. It's a fair amount. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Anyway, after I made a post about not making videos - as soon as the game is over I have 3 to upload. 

[JohnAndSancho]

3 more videos uploaded at YouTube.com/dbljzzl 

Also pics for those of you who... I dunno, like pics. See my whoopsie doodle thread about why I had to repot these Butias at 9pm. 

I keep forgetting that I have the Tanks soil for seeds and sprouts. I'm just gonna hide the Fox Farm and amend the cheap stuff and use the Tanks. Just hide it from me. Make me save this stuff for plants big enough to take advantage of it. 😑

 

How many Sabal Minors did I say I put in here? 6? 8? I don't remember. 

 

Bedroom germination rack is looking a little bare. But there's another nanner tent. These aren't on a thermostat but they get switched off at night. 

Oh god. Everything is all laid out, I don't have to roll or unroll anything, just check it and flip it so the damp side stays down. This is nice. Probably the next best thing to having tons of timer/temp controlled mats with plastic tubs. 

Ok this thing is just cool as all get out. I'd love to keep it, but I'm gonna send it to a buddy in PHX along with some plants for his wife. He's a fabricator and he builds full custom wild VWs in his garage. True homey.

Plus I bought myself an early birthday gift from Wellspring Gardens. 

 

They do a free plant on your first order and I guess I lucked out on the coupon code. The free plant selection was kinda meh but free is free. 

[JohnAndSancho]

 

[happypalms]

On 9/10/2025 at 12:58 AM, JohnAndSancho said:

Ok. I sold some stuff and instantly threw money back into this hobby. I found a 48x20 heat mat on Amazon - with a thermostat unlike my others - and I bought some more grow lights to put in the workspace/fake greenhouse... So we'll see where this goes. At some point I'm going to have to start cutting up my stockpile of soda bottles for all these sprouts. And at some point all the other bags of seeds will sprout. 

Keep on selling stuff good work. It’s not that hard a little bit f marketing and away you go. You will find you can make more money out selling seedlings than advanced plants if you do the maths with your time and costs involved. Also you germinate tropicals in a cold climate and sell them to those tropical growers.

[JohnAndSancho]

10 minutes ago, happypalms said:

Keep on selling stuff good work. It’s not that hard a little bit f marketing and away you go. You will find you can make more money out selling seedlings than advanced plants if you do the maths with your time and costs involved. Also you germinate tropicals in a cold climate and sell them to those tropical growers.

I've heard people say both - some say sell seedlings (that's easy on here) and some say that for non-palmy people they're not gonna be impressed unless there's some size to it. I can also sell a 5 gallon plant for a lot more than a seedling, but with Sabals that's a long time, more fertilizer, pots cost more, etc etc. Like the Bermudana seedlings I sold were in like 16 oz cups, I think I spent $4 and I still have tons I haven't even drilled holes in yet. Even if i use big box store buckets instead of nursery pots, they're $5 apiece. 

 

But I think it's safe to say I already have more palms and bananas than anyone in this county. I mean, the whole county only has ~10k people but still. I do wanna take a bunch of cuttings of native stuff too just because it's easy and my cost is $0. I just really really really hate the fact that my best option for marketing here is Facebook. I despise Facebook. 

 

And I'm gonna hold off as long as I can. We've still got 2 more months or so before it gets cool here and most of this stuff I'm growing is cold hardy anyway so we're good. I'd really like to be potting up seedlings when it's cold vs now where it's 95°F with the humidity in there. This room is working out tremendously as a faux greenhouse. Just needs a TV and more fans and more shelf space. 

[happypalms]

25 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

I've heard people say both - some say sell seedlings (that's easy on here) and some say that for non-palmy people they're not gonna be impressed unless there's some size to it. I can also sell a 5 gallon plant for a lot more than a seedling, but with Sabals that's a long time, more fertilizer, pots cost more, etc etc. Like the Bermudana seedlings I sold were in like 16 oz cups, I think I spent $4 and I still have tons I haven't even drilled holes in yet. Even if i use big box store buckets instead of nursery pots, they're $5 apiece. 

 

But I think it's safe to say I already have more palms and bananas than anyone in this county. I mean, the whole county only has ~10k people but still. I do wanna take a bunch of cuttings of native stuff too just because it's easy and my cost is $0. I just really really really hate the fact that my best option for marketing here is Facebook. I despise Facebook. 

 

And I'm gonna hold off as long as I can. We've still got 2 more months or so before it gets cool here and most of this stuff I'm growing is cold hardy anyway so we're good. I'd really like to be potting up seedlings when it's cold vs now where it's 95°F with the humidity in there. This room is working out tremendously as a faux greenhouse. Just needs a TV and more fans and more shelf space. 

Start small think big, go eBay as well. Native plants sell well you might be surprised it could develop into a big business one day. And the next thing you know your a you tuber love it! 

[JohnAndSancho]

2 minutes ago, happypalms said:

Start small think big, go eBay as well. Native plants sell well you might be surprised it could develop into a big business one day. And the next thing you know your a you tuber love it! 

Richard, as a friend - I want you to make a promise to me. 

 

If I ever say the words "please like and subscribe," I want you to fly over here and kick me in the balls as hard as you can. This goes out to everyone else on here as well. 

 

Anyway I think selling things like crape myrtles and magnolias should be pretty easy to pitch to realtors and home builders if I get licensed. Esty, maybe. eBay no - I threw a listing on eBay and if it sold they get a chunk, they determine my shipping prices based on god knows what, my listing was up for a month and less than 20 people saw it and if I wanted them to push it that's another 12% of my selling price - so when you factor in I have to drive 65 miles round trip for UPS because our postal service is so god awful, if a buyer files a complaint the seller loses 99% of the time, and I sell 2 seedlings and I've lost money. 

 

Meanwhile if I sell local, I can either make plant friends or god forbid I get someone to drive out here and give them a free cat with every purchase. 

[SeanK]

On 9/19/2025 at 1:42 PM, Hu Palmeras said:

 

Good video, my friend. I think you'll have to buy another thermal mat.

When I was in Cleveland, I bought cspire for 6 months. Okay during the day, but at 8PM, the Internet traffic was so high, I couldn't watch YouTube videos. I did better tethering my phone to the PC. The phone uses T-Mobile.

[JohnAndSancho]

2 minutes ago, SeanK said:

When I was in Cleveland, I bought cspire for 6 months. Okay during the day, but at 8PM, the Internet traffic was so high, I couldn't watch YouTube videos. I did better tethering my phone to the PC. The phone uses T-Mobile.

We have AT&T and it's still DSL. The power company took advantage of the govt money and ran fiber lines out here along all the power lines, but up until recently you had to buy the equipment up front. Why we haven't switched over yet is beyond me. Nothing is in my name, so all I can do is listen to everyone complaining while doing nothing about it. ATT has data caps, costs more, the modems keep dying, it's slow, everything buffers constantly, it's pretty terrible - and we stream all the TV we watch, and my brother is a gamer. Maybe they're just that dedicated to not having to change email addresses? 

[SeanK]

4 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

We have AT&T and it's still DSL. The power company took advantage of the govt money and ran fiber lines out here along all the power lines, but up until recently you had to buy the equipment up front. Why we haven't switched over yet is beyond me. Nothing is in my name, so all I can do is listen to everyone complaining while doing nothing about it. ATT has data caps, costs more, the modems keep dying, it's slow, everything buffers constantly, it's pretty terrible - and we stream all the TV we watch, and my brother is a gamer. Maybe they're just that dedicated to not having to change email addresses? 

I used a USB cable between the phone & PC for the tether. 

[JohnAndSancho]

59 minutes ago, SeanK said:

I used a USB cable between the phone & PC for the tether. 

No cell service out here, either. The last time we had to call an ambulance for my mom, they had to send one from the next county over and they had to follow me to the hospital because they had no service. 

 

We're COUNTRY country out here. I had a buddy who used to joke that they had to pipe in sunshine out this way. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Ok I've put this stuff in other threads but wanna keep everything here too. Anyway Red Latan was struggling, so it got reported into fresh soil. 

 

Store bought coconut, gonna try RickyBobby's method. Been soaking for 24 hours now. 

 

Bought a Red Abyssinian banana from Wellspring Gardens, and a freebie Chamaedorea Elegans came with it. 

 

Actually a pretty tall bunch of Elegans. They also sent me a coupon for another free banana, so I ordered a Musa Acuminata Cuban Red. 

Also bought a papaya just for the seeds. 

 

And I ordered a power strip and a better bulb to add to the grow table. This will let me move one of the smaller heat mats out to the grow room, use the thermostat grow mat for overwintering, add a space heater back there, and right after the AC crapped out, my mom ordered some of those garbage "personal air conditioners" and apparently it's too late to send them back. They're just humidifiers, so I've got that covered for back there as well for when I have to bring stuff inside. 

 

Also, all of the landscape timbers I was hoping to get to build raised beds are apparently no longer available, so I've got 2 left and I found a bunch of peg board, so I think I'm gonna use that to keep plants off the ground in spring to hopefully deter the fire ants a little and help with drainage. Anyway maybe I'll feel better and do another YouTube and take some pics tomorrow. A couple of my banana videos have surprisingly got 1500 views, mostly from Indonesia for some reason? 

[SeanK]

Will a coconut germinate without the exocarp?

[JohnAndSancho]

5 hours ago, SeanK said:

Will a coconut germinate without the exocarp?

No idea. Supposedly it helps retain moisture and fight off infections though. This is my first journey into cocos and I've done almost zero research here. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Ok. I didn't intend to do anything except move the coconut to the grow room, so I didn't document anything with pics. Anyway 

 

Moved the coconut to the grow room. I'm using the container from my birthday cake as my water bucket and it's in a Ziploc with just a splash of water and open per RickyBobby's videos, on the heat mat. I had it set at 95, I don't think it's actually 95 so I bumped it up a hair. 

I brought my mystery nanner inside earlier because it looked kinda unhappy. Welp. I had some thoughts that maybe the soil I mixed for the nanners might have been a tad heavy and I dunno about the bigger ones, but it was heavy for this baby. So I repotted it with Fox Farm and added a bunch of perlite and put it in a Wendy's cup. 

 

The Wendy's cup came available when I repotted the Fishtail into a 2 liter bottle which tbh might not have been enough vertically. Sure it's got room to spread its roots out more, it had just about filled that giant cup up, but it's still staked since it was leaning so bad because it had outgrown the 3 foot of vertical space it had in the Palm Condo™. 

 

I pulled a bunch of dead leaves off of the pothos cuttings, their... I dunno, stems, branches, whatever the hell they're called - they looked fine, all green and firm but the leaves I guess didn't like going from a 70 degree house to this sweat lodge. One of them had rooted and I didn't feel like digging out a baby pot for it, so I just plopped it in with one of the Butia for now. 

And now I'm nervous about maybe having to repot the bigger nanners, the soil in this one was super soggy. It's much happier now, and I found what I think were either mealybugs or spider eggs so smush smush. I didn't see anything else on anybody else so fingers crossed 🤞 I really don't wanna have to buy one of these 

https://a.co/d/e47byEo

 

Anyway I did get off my butt and do plant stuff today even if there's no evidence and I did it at midnight. 

 

Oh. And I used my coupon for the free banana for a Red Cuban. The Ensete and the Chamaedorea Elegans are still in the bedroom, maybe I get them potted up tomorrow after I go pick up my pills. 

 

It really sucks trying to mix a balance of soil with heavy organics that doesn't stay soggy. And I know I've said this a thousand times since I have been growing stuff, but cheap soil is always garbage. I probably went a little heavy on the cow poop, but I really thought the perlite balanced it out and I guess I was wrong. At least for the tiny one. 

[JohnAndSancho]

I do not understand the YouTube algorithm and how it works. Some videos will get 1500 views and some will get 15. The one with Sancho walking with me got like 10. 10! That's a travesty of justice. 

 

Anyway here. 

And I have no idea how many seeds were in this papaya. Dozens fell down the drain while I rinsed them for an eternity getting all the fruit and pulp off. I should have enough to give every person that I've ever talked to at least 3 seedlings if about 300 cubic yards of soil dropped out of the sky. 

 

And here's a pic of Sancho. He will ALWAYS be a puppy, I don't care how long I've had him. He's always gonna be a puppy. 

 

[PalmsandLiszt]

14 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

And I have no idea how many seeds were in this papaya. Dozens fell down the drain while I rinsed them for an eternity getting all the fruit and pulp off. I should have enough to give every person that I've ever talked to at least 3 seedlings if about 300 cubic yards of soil dropped out of the sky. 

Whenever I've tried to grow these, the seedlings have had a very high mortality rate. They are very sensitive to cool temperatures, draughts, too much/little humidity, fungus, sunburn, you name it; put lots of seeds in many community pots and let the strongest ones prevail. Once the stems get a good deal thicker they become much more resilient. I dare say only a tiny minority survive in nature.

[JohnAndSancho]

28 minutes ago, PalmsandLiszt said:

Whenever I've tried to grow these, the seedlings have had a very high mortality rate. They are very sensitive to cool temperatures, draughts, too much/little humidity, fungus, sunburn, you name it; put lots of seeds in many community pots and let the strongest ones prevail. Once the stems get a good deal thicker they become much more resilient. I dare say only a tiny minority survive in nature.

Yeah, the general consensus (I've watched piles of YouTube videos) seems to be put 3 in a small cup and cut off the weakest 2 and go from there, weeding out the weakest. And I know they're annuals here unless I find big enough pots, but my real need for them is shade in the front of the house. i think I'm fine with them being annuals unless I end up really liking them. I can grow more infinitely.