Hey there... just wanted to follow up with good news. My philodendron is coming back to life, after a long road. Everyone's posts were very helpful. I have since lost almost all the leaves and branches but have new stems poking out which is a great sign. I increased the natural lightening by bringing it closer to a window and also invested in artificial light, as was suggested. Thank you for all the help!! I included an updated picture. My next question is about a staghorn fern that I recently purchased. I have been reading a lot online about how to mount them on a piece of wood/bark and I've been thinking about what I'd like to do. I found a hanging wooden basket normally used for decoration that hangs right up against a wall, not from the ceiling. I know that this type of arrangement would mimic the natural habitat of growing along side of a tree in the tropics. Do you think this would work? I am thinking of filling the basket with a moss medium attached with pantyhose. Here is a picture of my plan. Do you think the fern will attach to the wooden basket? Will it be just as good as using a piece of wood?
I think that should work, be sure to provide a ton of light... if kept indoors all year... It takes decades to grow massive....
All I know is these things have the potential to get HUGE!! Next time I go to my neighborhood green house, I'll take a picture of theirs "Bullwinkle" They have him hoisted up in a harness, used to be suspended using chains, but he BROKE THEM!!! I'm sure it takes years for them to get that big, but wow! Congrats!
How do you prune back/contain a staghorn? My basket is awfully small. When I was in FL I saw how big they can get, for sure!!
OK, thanks. Do you think that the fern will bond with the actual basket? If so, any ideas on how to keep the moss/roots from falling out and getting on the floor?
Here's another option..... I have two stag ferns hanging from the ceiling in one of those green wire baskets with the chains attached. The basket is lined with an inch or two thick of "damp" sphagnum moss (damp helps mold it to the inside of the basket shape) The basket is filled to about an inch from the top of the beasket with orchid bark chips, which the ferns are planted in. When it's time for watering, I just unhook it and bring it over to kitchen sink and spray it real good (not a hard spay) then let it drain in the dish drainer for a half hour, then it gets hung back up.. Bad picture but you get the idea.
Great minds think alike, Bluewing: I have a nearly identical setup for my staghorn. Has been doing well in it for several years now. Water using the same method you do. (I perform this when my daughter's at work...she is creeped out by the staghorn's alien appearance: "Like little HANDS reaching up out of the pot!" Too many horror movies, maybe.)---Learned the hard way (when s. was in its previous home) that one should use a restrained hand with the water. Eventually eliminated the fungus, but there were times I despaired of success. ---K Baron says "a ton of light"...dunno if I go along with that. Mine is in a dimmish area and likes it OK. Yes, they can get huge. There is a specimen at our local Franklin Park Conservatory that's as wide as my dining-room table. Stupendous!
Togata, excuse me but if you live at the 50 degree latitude which you do not, you should know that the farther north from the equator, plants do not receive a ton of light all year... I think that with this global insight, We as gardeners are not fully aware of the latitudes and their restrictive growing conditions. I have lived at 49, 43, 32, and 23 degrees latitude...on this planet, each with very different day light hours and maximum sunshine per year... usually, ferns love shade, but at 49 degrees north, from October to March there is much less light in the shade. Ohio is 10 degrees south of Vancouver's latitude, and Washington is a further degree south than Columbus, so, the requirements of sun and shade reflect also on the actual average numbers of sunshine per day, and depending on the month of the year. I have seen probably one the largest staghorns ever in my life in the tropics of Queensland in Townsville, very different climatic zone than DC. Is your fern in a green house or inside your living quarters and what exposure does it experience, I would be very curious to know these facts. Plants can be a mystery, even for the experts.
Ahh yes, great minds DO think alike:) Do you fertilize yours? They get the powdered form in small amounts now and then and on occasion, some cut up banana peels for the potassium. Good thing there are no monkeys around here!!! Yes, it's a lot easier and safer to maintain it in the hanging basket rather then the board/wall set-up, and no worries about water damage. Watering is a breeze... They get some direct sunlight, but most of the time it's in bright light/dapple sun. I was told by a horticulturist before they were bought a few yrs ago that the staghorn likes the same light requirements as Epiphyllum's. They don't seem to want to grow that much, in a way that's fine, don't want anything too large in that space anyway, They vacationed up in a tree all last summer, but they didn't seem all that thrilled, no jumping up for joy at the change. It was like ahhh.... Whatever! They will always send out new leaves whenever an old one's die, so they always looks the same. Maybe more bananas.... They had a huge one mounted on a board at a local plant nursery here, yeah, simply amazing!
