Coping with the Clutter of Houseplants | Hacker News Reader

Coping with the Clutter of Houseplants

dirtwise.substack.com

For some context on why this person is so keen on selling houseplants, New Zealand is currently undergoing an absolutely absurd houseplant bubble. Variegated monstera plants are selling for north of $20,000[0] in some cases, and well over $1,000 in ordinary cases[1]. I have no idea what is causing the houseplant bubble, but I can say in my opinion that variegated monsteras are ugly compared to ordinary green monstera plants which grow like weeds and can easily be propagated.

[0] https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/houseplant-sells-on-tra...

[1] https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/home-living/outdoor-...

Wow, thanks for sharing this.

I’ve seen a huge demand for houseplants in the States but New Zealand is taking it to the next level! Its Tulip mania all over again haha.

I could blame the pandemic but as far as I remember I always loved plants so it was really more of a reason to go crazy. I went from 4-5 potted plant to over 35 in the span of a year and half.

Actually taking care of plants in the sense that you fertilize them correctly, only mist the one that needs to be provide the right amount of sunlight, etc... is a really fun and inexpensive hobby.

Same here, though I’m in the lower tens, not quite as high as over 35. It’s a learning experience for sure, but he joy of seeing a living thing thrive in your home is wonderful.

That said, it really makes me anxious to be away from home for more than a couple of days now. Have you looked into any automation solutions to deal with watering etc.? I’ve resorted to buying a few bottles of wine for my neighbors so they agree to take care of them, but not quite dared to hook up an automated watering system, for fear of coming home to an apartment full of water everywhere.. :o)

Same here, I had to leave for 2 weeks and had a family member take care of the watering. As far as automated watering goes I don't think that there is a good solution that scales for potted plants. I do however have an hydroponic NFT system that is hooked to a larger pump and reservoir system with artificial lights. I use home assistant to manage the lights, pump and camera so I am able to control it remotely.

You can get glass bulbs with a straw that sticks down into the soil; air pressure prevents them draining quickly so the better ones take a week or so to deliver 150ml of water.

For that matter you can use an empty wine bottle.

My problem is that plants can usually be OK up to a week or so. It's when you get into the two week range that it becomes tough. I've never found the gravity feed options really worked for the time periods I've needed them.

Yeah, but it’s far easier to find someone who can check in and refill them once in a two week holiday vs 6-7 visits to water.

I left for two weeks, with a key and notes left to a friend on what to do with my plants in my absence. Two weeks later I return (my friend had completely spaced out and forgot to come over even once) and my herbs (thyme, basil) are completely dead, but everything else was perfectly fine.

Interestingly, on my trip away I bumped into a person who does professional plant tending for public buildings, or businesses that want plants but can’t trust themselves to take care of them, and we had a brief chat. She said the number one mistake people make with plants is overwatering them.

Root rot is a death sentence.

It's really impressive how fast it can kill a plant. Overwatering is the first thing that comes to mind tell me that their beloved plant is dying.

> number one mistake people make with plants is overwatering them

This is why I switched to aquarium plants. No need to water them. Just change some of the water evey now and then.

I'm fairly lucky in that my plant love of choice are haworthias, a kind of succulent. They do well going without water for long periods of time...

This is what I rigged up a while back. You can really go crazy with an RPi based monitoring system but just automatically squirting a bit of water in every day works well in my experience. This will keep plants going for a couple of weeks even if some usually end up a bit dry at the end.

You could always rig up a transfer pump from another bucket if you need more total water.

https://bitmason.blogspot.com/2019/01/keeping-my-herbs-alive...

my partner and I found ourselves in the 60+ zone and we have had some fairly wild pest interactions. spent about 8 months battling spider mites trying not to use commercial pesticides (we found a lot of plants don't tolerate them well) until we bought predatory mites as a biological control and haven't seen them since. now we are battling a significant thrips infestation and some fern aphids (tried CO2 gassing these with a modified soda stream!). We quarantine new plants, but it seems that some of these pests can just periodically come in from the environment. never a dull moment!

Yeah it can be overwhelming fast. I have these little sticky traps in about half my pots and they work very well: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00GYBCZN4/

They are non-toxic since it's just sticky and I cut them in two so at 24 traps/9$ it's pretty inexpensive. You also get replacement sticky pads (not affiliated I just really love those).

nice. I might give these a try :)

epipremnum is a good beginner plant if you want results:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epipremnum_aureum

it is not the type that will give good practice keeping plants, as its very tolerant of poor conditions, however it can be an index plant for light intesity.

What do you mean by "index plant for light intensity"? I have one and I've noticed that I've had pretty hard time keeping different vines of it alive, but the plant itself has done fine.

It's definitely touchier than my snake grass. I water that maybe every 2 weeks and it's growing like mad.

the leaf colouration will change dark green in lower light, or enhanced yellows and varigation in high light intensity, so if you have no light meter it is an index of where your light intensity is.

yes epipremnum will make trailers but is not great at being a vine, it is better at being a creeper unless you have rain forest like conditions. it will ^tolerate^ repeated dryouts rather than give up, if given time to heal between droughts

extremes of forced growth habit ive seen range from monsterous orchid like with aerial root structures, to life supporting tendrils of bare nodes running several yards away from a single gallon pot to find a slot of light and grow small tufts of leaves at the terminal.

I point people towards Dracaena, since it is colorful, happy with indoor light, and only needs to be watered twice a month.

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