The indoor gardening thread and aloe cloning experiment

[owennewton]

Seeing that I lost some of my plants due to my lack of care last summer (one I had for over 5 years and it was amazing ) and having 4 aloe babies needing to be re potted and one of my older and 2nd largest aloe breaking its stalk I decided to do some major replanting today.

I bought 4 pots of new plants a month ago that I have not tried before as I was unable to find the same one I lost I split then in half and made two planters with the assortments, they are all climbers so when they are stable and the pots are full enough to keep Haineko from watering them they will be moved to the floor by the windows100_2361.jpg

Here is a pic of my mother aloe, she is 11 years old and sometimes flowers twice a year, 100_2359.jpgthis is the third cycle she has missed but she is adding a lot of bulk again so I expect a winter blooming this year.

This is a new aloe (on the left) I got this year replanted and the child from the one that broke,100_2360.jpg first new plant from one other than my oldest but I expect one or two of the next oldest to start having new ones pop up.

Here is the smallest of the young, it broke the soil only 2 weeks ago but it popped off the mother as I was taking the two older ones out of the pot so I hope it will make it100_2362.jpg

I did not take any pics before transferring but I am going to attempt cloning from the leaves I had to remove from the damaged plant so I could attempt to save it as she is 8 years old now and was the first one I raised from a start off of one of my own plants.

Here are the leaves as they sit, also some smaller ones that I had to trim from the re potted young ones 100_2357.jpg I will let them sit over night, add the hormones and plant them tomorrow (as per the directions I got from the hippie plant guy) and then I get to wait 6-10 weeks to find out if they take100_2358.jpg

Feel free to offer advice or post on your own green (or brown) thumb projects as this is a slow one and will have a bit of time from post to post.

[owennewton]

I forgot to add that I am trying 3 soil types on the cloning attempts so I will find out what works better, the cheap high acidic soil that I use most of the time for the aloe, miracle-gro soil that I have used before and liked and a brand for succulents that I have not tried. The plant the cuttings came from should make it but I think she will be dormant until next summer so I just need to just take my time and not worry about her for a while. I have replanted them like this before and got them to live so I am sure she will be fine

[luckydog]

i still have about a dozen christmas castuses that are all from one plant i had about 15 years ago, i;ve given quite a few away along the years.

i has a white african violet that i grew others from for about 20 years, they finally all died due to the really hot weather and no place inside with enough sunlite, i had to gorw them in screenroom.

my bird of paradise has another bud this year

[owennewton]

I brushed on the rooting hormones (trying to heed all the warnings about not inhaling any of the dust and warnings about not getting it on my skin as it can be absorbed through pores) and planted my leaves this afternoon. Now I wait and watch then shrivel up and die hoping to see new plants pop out of the dirt next to them

Here they are just after planting, I put the smaller ones in the miracle-gro as I know it works and I have starts from two genetically different plants so I am hoping all 4 make it and in a few years I may be able to start breading seeds.100_2383.jpg Other two pots have my high acid soil in one and my cactus mix in the other with a touch of composty soil on top of both.100_2382.jpg

I am interested in finding out if any of them make it and if they do what ones will do better

100_2384.jpg

[owennewton]

After re potting basically all my plants the last few days and picking up a few new ones yesterday (and re potting them this morning) I figured it was time to post the new pics.

Here are my old girls happy in new soil and more room for roots (the wood laying across the tops of the pots are to brace the plants and/or keep Haineko from trying to fertilize them himself) 100_2428.jpg100_2429.jpg

The three new aloe that I picked up this week to add some variety 100_2430.jpg100_2431.jpg100_2433.jpg

the three pups I found in the soil when I was re potting one of the older plants 100_2434.jpg

the replacement for the big one I lost over the winter that I found at last100_2432.jpg

and the first two shots of the dragons breath I got yesterday100_2461.jpg100_2462.jpg

more to come

[owennewton]

okay, here is the dragons breath as a whole 100_2463.jpg

the interesting hangy one I spent more than I should have on but I likey100_2464.jpg

first three here are an Echeveria "Metallica" 100_2465.jpg100_2466.jpg100_2467.jpg

and two Echeveria hybrids 100_2468.jpg100_2469.jpg

Lastly for now I give you the table and then a shot if the plant corner 100_2470.jpg100_2471.jpg

I will post pics of my old setup and some of the cool blooms I have had in the past when I find the folder

[logicprobe]

A sucker for succulents, huh?

Looks nice. Indoor gardening can soothe the soul year round.

[owennewton]

A sucker for succulents, huh?

Looks nice. Indoor gardening can soothe the soul year round.

I kill everything else and I had to stop getting cactus as I am sick of pulling needles out of my hand after petting the cat (idiots like to rub up on the spikey ones)

[owennewton]

I received my seeds and went ahead and planted them today, and I took pictures.

first pic is the seeds in the baggy100_2534.jpg

and all 63 laid out on the organizer 100_2539.jpg

the greenhouse starter as is and after adding water 100_2533.jpg100_2538.jpg

and after planting the little guys100_2540.jpg

I am hoping for 15 or so to make it and I would be happy with that as long as they are not all the same style but with my luck none of them will make it or all of them will grow and I will be freaking out on finding pots and places for them

I am a little disappointed in the assortment as all the white ones were claimed to be one each of 15 styles but I am thinking they are all the same and I see 3 or 4 breeds from the other ones. I had to put two or three in each planter but made sure that they were the same shape in together. I will find out sometime before Christmas if they are going to grow, I should have some green before Halloween but I know these can be rather slow to start.

Wish me luck!

[owennewton]

two of my leaf clones have died, other 7 look like I would expect them to be but I still don't know if they will grow. One of the pups I bought died but that I blame on over watering at Lowes, all the other starts but one are doing fine and it may just be part of the cycle on the sad looking one.

I sold my two larger pups and have seen no change in my other new pups yet but I am expecting 5 or 6 of them to not make it as they were pulled off too young but would not have made it at all if I had not pulled them as I was re-potting the mother plants.

The seed tray has no signs of life yet but that is expected as it can take 3 months for the aloe seeds to start growing

[naha13]

I will get some you some pieces out by this weekend so you can have something besides seeds laying around.

[owennewton]

I have 24 little sprouts so far in the seed tray, here are some (blurry) pics. (my camera dose not have a good macro mode, sorry)


Here are two of the pups that look like they will make it


and some flowers from the others

[owennewton]

Here are current pics of the seedlings, they seem to be doing very well sofar

100_2601.jpg100_2602.jpg100_2603.jpg100_2604.jpg100_2605.jpg100_2606.jpg

[takethecastle57]

So Owen is the Aloe Plant King of Oregon now ??

[naha13]

He will be soon! Here's a few pics of the full size plants I sent Hank samples of. My fav is the purple spotted variety(maybe type of manfreda). I donlt remember what the smaller pieces are, but in the spring they sprout out with wierd looking flowers. The best part - no spikes on any of them!


Aloe.jpgspotted.jpgsmall.jpg

[naha13]

I found a picture of what the flower looks like on the small cactus- it's a Carrion variety.

IMG_8148.jpg

[owennewton]

Plants arrived safely today Here are pics as soon as they were in a nice cactus blend in pots

100_2612.jpg100_2613.jpg

The aloe is a close relative of my large plants but the leaves have a different shape on the edges so in 5 or 6 years if I am lucky enough to get it to flower (and if I can get my older ones to flower again, the books say that you can't get them to this far north but my oldest one has 5 times) I will try to make a hybrid.

The samples all look viable with enough stem to root nicely and the aloe had started growing some roots into the newspaper it was wrapped in so again, it looks like it is just up to me to keep them going.

Here is the "cup O cactus" I picked up at a yard sale yesterday,
100_2614.jpg
I will transfer it to a pot that has some drainage and trim it down a bit and see if I can make a better looking plant of it. I remember my grandmother having one of these but she made sure it died a soggy rotting death when her dementia started setting in.

The aloe cloning from leaf cuttings was a total failure, 3 soil types and half with rooting hormones made little difference other than how long it took then to rot and die but I am glad I tried as I did learn that at least with the breed I have it can not be done yet the 2 inch chunk of stem that I burred is sprouting a plant and the large plant that broke it's stem (where I got all the leaves from) has rooted and looks like it will do just fine.
The others are doing well but for the "dragons breath", I think I picked out a bad one there as it started dieing as soon as I got it home but it was good looking while it was alive.