Indoor Jungle Renovations

[JohnAndSancho]

Ok first off, I don't know who needs to hear this, but when your air conditioner is broken and it's almost 90° inside, watering your indoor plants once a week or so isn't adequate. Second, it's becoming painfully obvious to me that some of these plants are outgrowing their current living arrangements. 

Anyway, what started all this was me wanting to free up space in the Future Spider Mite Factory™ for the taller stuff - I added an overhead light to the ceiling a while ago, and while it's only about a foot from the ceiling, it's a beefy bulb. I'd have to go back to look up the model number if anybody cares, but it's currently like a $50 GE lightbulb. I don't think I paid $50, but everything costs more now. Anyway ---

 

And it's a literal jungle. 

All the colorful stuff is over here! Speaking of 

This one is my mom's favorite, and it's been buried and neglected. I think I pulled about 12 dead black leaves off of it and gave it a deep soak and some Osmocote. I never remember the right name, sellers call it a dozen things - I call it an orange spider plant. 

The gymnastics I had to do to get this picture - I don't know what kind of Sansaveria it is, but I'm glad it only grows on one plane like the Traveler's Palm because JESUS Mary and Joseph this thing is insane. The stupid part is it still has virtually no roots and if I take all that crap off of it, it'll flop over in the pot. It's held in place with a chunk of a bamboo stake, a fork from Wendy's, and the drawstring from a Crown Royal bag. Anyway it's so small but takes up so much space...

My Cordyline propagations did NOT take. I was ready to just go dig a hole and put it in the yard and sacrifice it to the sun, but lookit here! It's growing new leaves after I guess going into shock or something. Let it recover and get some color back.... 

Fishtail looks like it's trying to escape. Well, I guess technically it is. It's pretty rooty and it probably needs to go into a 3 gallon.... 

I know I've been saying this for a minute now, but I really need to split these Sabal Etonia up before they get any wilder. At least get them into 2 or 3 smaller pots. These came from @kinzyjr

 

This one is probably ready for the ground in all honesty. Thank you @teddytn

 

And I untangled the Philo Brasil. Shameless plug but I'm giving a good size cutting of it with all the Sabal Bermudana I'm trying in vain to sell. 

 

I can't wait for summer to be over. I've got the window open with a box fan blowing hot air out and 2 fans blowing on me. It even feels like a damn jungle in here. Just to keep myself in perspective, I also need to top my Monstera off and root the cutting, I think the rest of the big bag of Louisiana seeds have sprouted and need community potted, and one of my Sabal Minor has finally sprouted. Time to start carving up all the Diet Coke bottles I've been hoarding, too. 

 

But right now it's time to get some food and some fluids and some pills in me. Thanks for reading. 

[SeanK]

They must think they're in the understory of the Amazon.

[JohnAndSancho]

13 minutes ago, SeanK said:

They must think they're in the understory of the Amazon.

They're growing like they are. All we're missing are giant snakes and those fish that swim up your boy parts. 

[Harry’s Palms]

Looking good there! Harry

[Jdash]

what are your techniques for fighting off spidermites? along with other pests and any pathogen issues in the winter? seasonal regimes? appreciate any info.

[JohnAndSancho]

3 hours ago, Jdash said:

what are your techniques for fighting off spidermites? along with other pests and any pathogen issues in the winter? seasonal regimes? appreciate any info.

Lots of misting. Mites like it when it's warm dark and dry. I've had a few plants get bad mealybugs, and I tried the shower and alcohol and neem oil and sometimes it works and unfortunately there's been a few plants that I couldn't get them under control that had to end up in the dumpster. 

Nothing has messed with my succulents, and my Philodendrons don't like to be misted but I wipe them down every few days with a damp rag. The biggest pest I've had to deal with is the fungus gnats, and those usually are caused by overwatering. You can use the sticky traps for them, you can top dress your plants with something like rocks or LECA pebbles and water with hydrogen peroxide as it kills their larvae in the soil. 

Every time I get a new plant that's coming inside, the first thing I do is hose it off. But so far all of this has worked pretty well for me. Don't wanna jinx it. I've lost a lot of plants over the few years I've been doing this and some of them very well might have died from pests, I can't say. i've also got a systemic insecticide but I don't think I've ever had to use it, it'd be worthless against spider mites anyway.

But if I see anything that looks like cotton or webbing it goes right in the shower and I keep it away from everything else in the bathroom. Let it dry and give it another shower and that's seemed to work. I've got a handheld shower so I can get on the underside of all the foliage and in all the nooks and crannies and crevices where they like to hide. 

I've just made it part of my routine though. The misting everything every night, weekly watering schedules, etc. 

[happypalms]

Like the man said in jaws you gunna need a bigger (boat) greenhouse!

[Dimimelbourne]

The Spider mite Factory 😂 impressive setup you’ve got going on. I had an room indoors dedicated to all my tropical plants because I couldn’t grow them outdoors back in the day which was full to the brim so I know the labour of love involved!

[JohnAndSancho]

2 hours ago, Dimimelbourne said:

The Spider mite Factory 😂 impressive setup you’ve got going on. I had an room indoors dedicated to all my tropical plants because I couldn’t grow them outdoors back in the day which was full to the brim so I know the labour of love involved!

There's a couple older threads on here of everything that I had crammed into a dark studio apartment. It was somehow a lot worse than this. 

 

I had to move back in with my family and this house is run by feral and semi feral cats so I had to hide everything in here to keep them from killing it - THEY KILLED A LOT. I dunno what happened, maybe some kind of virus or maybe the power company sprayed something when they replaced a pole, but I buried 5 or 6 cats in a week and now they mostly leave my plants alone lol. 

[Mazat]

21 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

There's a couple older threads on here of everything that I had crammed into a dark studio apartment. It was somehow a lot worse than this. 

 

I had to move back in with my family and this house is run by feral and semi feral cats so I had to hide everything in here to keep them from killing it - THEY KILLED A LOT. I dunno what happened, maybe some kind of virus or maybe the power company sprayed something when they replaced a pole, but I buried 5 or 6 cats in a week and now they mostly leave my plants alone lol. 

☹️ cheeky cats

[Hu Palmeras]

Very cool my friend 

[JohnAndSancho]

On 9/16/2025 at 12:24 PM, Mazat said:

☹️ cheeky cats

They can be sweet and they can be horribly destructive. There's thousands of trees they can mess with. Why it gotta be mine?