microb's blog: Business as usual and Aroids

Life is good. Nice steady showers, a few each day to keep the water tank full and the plants growing.
Still pushing wheelbarrows of gravel out to the distant forest paths. One per day is my limit, 14 minute round trip. I'm laying bamboo poles and tree trunks along the path edges where the distant paths have been muddy in rainy times. Then I'm tipping the gravel. I'm cherry picking the muddier areas first and will then fill in the remainder of the paths. Main goal is make it safe to take Max our dog for his twice daily walks even in the rainy times. Some of the paths closer to home are showing signs of returning mud through the gravel so they get new gravel as needed.

AROIDS! My new obsession, well its been going on now for about a year or two. Aroids include Monstera, philodendron and Anthuriums. These have become popular house plants since the start of COVID, but of course they grow great outdoors in our rain forest environment. Local garden shops and big box stores have been filling their shelves with ever increasing numbers of collectible plants. I started by buying starter plants from Etsy but they have taken 3 years to get to an acceptable size. Now you can buy a mature plant at the big box stores for the same price as a starter plant 3 years ago. Anyway as I age I cannot afford to wait for seedlings to mature. Philodendrons are my number one. I now have 45 different varieties, some are climbers, some are crawlers and some are clumpers. I hit maximum level of obsession this week by ordering 6 new plants from the California nursery linked to Ecugenera in Ecuador. Pricey varieties that you can't get locally. Fertilize does no good in the bag, like cash does no good in the bank. Just waiting for them to arrive.

Growing these climbing Philodendrons indoors requires the use of grow poles, usually made of moss or coconut coir stuck or tied to a pole 2,3,or 4 ft tall. We use trees in the forest. However I was so fascinated by these poles I decided to make one myself, just for the challenge. A roll of coconut coir was available on Amazon for $15. 80 inches long and 12 inches wide. I have a home grown bamboo pole 7 ft high and 9 inches around. So I glued the coconut matting to the pole and ended up with a 7ft grow pole (photo to follow as I did not upload it from my phone). I have put a fence post in the ground where the pole is located and zip tied the pole to fence post. Now waiting for the new plants

My stem cuttings from Philodendron Lynette are sprouting new leaves. Here is one of them


Real cute at this age. 11 more pots progressing nicely. Why do I need 12 more of these when I have 4 mature one already. I guess I do it to have something to do.

Begonia leaf cuttings have rooted. No sign of new plants yet. I will keep the cuttings in the sealed clam shell a few more weeks.

Made three more Begonia stem cuttings yesterday. They are sealed inside a plastic bag.

Must take more pics and vidoes. I'm spending more time walking around enjoying the tropical growth and seeing all of the out of control weeds. Will I ever catch up.

Probably won't waste time trying to propagate anthuriums from leaf or flower cuttings. I'm going to harvest the seeds and sprinkle them along the moss covered branches in the forest. So little effort for great rewards. There are always plenty of self sets under the anthurium clumps anyway.

I feel so lucky when I read all the blogs about preparing for winter and filling your basements with plants that have to survive until spring. But then there is no rest over here as everything grows all the time, just a little bit slower October to March.

When you are raking up leaves consider this 'leaf' that fell onto the lawn the other day. Just one leaf weighs about 40 pounds and just don't be underneath when it falls




Another orchid bloomed this week




And here are some of the Philodendrons I have coming in the mail










And this is White Princess I found at Home Depot




This is kind of special. I don't know the name but is a minature ginger. Plant about 9 inches tall and bloom the size of a thumb nail. Propagates from seed really easy

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