What are you growing indoors?

Just curious about what everyone is growing this year. I'm growing jalapenos and habaneros inside and my bearss lime tree spends some time in the house when the weather is bad.

 

Cycads! I gave away all my other houseplants to grow these fascinating "living fossils." They do very well indoors. There are eleven genera, some from the desert and some from the rainforest. So, you can keep a Dioon edule that is tolerant of dry heat in your living room, and a Zamia fischeri from the rainforest in the bathroom. And they all look completely different.

 

Wow! I just checked your website and cycads are really striking look plants. I love their diversity and these plants have been around since the dinosaurs. That's amazing.

 

wow those are really interesting! i'd love to see more pictures of the ones you have indoors in containers!
we've got a whole bunch of common houseplants, your spider plants, corn plants, umbrella plants, and ivy's. we've also got a dwarf meyer lemon and a a dwarf bears lime plant both of which produce twice a year, yum. I just started a few mango seeds hoping to get some short(pruned) fragrant trees from them. just started all my garden veg seeds indoors as well although those will obviously be moved out come may. and i'm looking to get started on a noni, guava and dragon fruit if i can find em. was hoping to find some baby trees to start from rather than waiting the extra few years to start from seed.

-Luke

 

Here are some photos of my indoor cycads. In the photo on the left is a Zamia furfuracea (a.k.a. Zamia maritima) and a Dioon spinulosum. In the photo on the right is a small Zamia furfuracea.
Let me know if anyone has any questions on how to look after them. I love to talk about cycads!

 

wow they look great! here's a question for ya, how do you pronounce cycads? LOL

-Luke

 

Luke, do you keep your lime and lemon trees indoors most of the time, or do you put them out for part of the day? Also, thanks for your response to my other thread about the yellowing of my bearss lime tree leaves... fertilizer and less water is helping!

Those cycad pictures are beautiful!

 

Cycad is pronounced "sigh-kad".
Here are a couple more photos. The one on the left is a Cycas sexseminifera, and the large one in the photoo on the right is a Cycas revoluta, with the fronds of a Lepidozamia peroffskyana in the foreground.

 

I love the look of the Cycas revoluta!

 

very nice photos indeed!
ghp- once it warms up above 50* i bring them out in partial sun. then once the nights stay above 50* i leave em out for the season. I think they are a little more cold hardy then i let them be but i err on the side of caution, temps can change so fast out here in CO. and glad to hear yours is better. get a good citrus fertalizer, i apply it 4 times a year. and then as we talked about, let it dry out about 3" down in the pot. that was my big mistake too was overwatering. right now my lemon is completely domant. i just bought from the nursery this past summer and before i realized what was going on it had a huge ugly scale infection, salt buildup and compressed potting soil. so by the time all that was under control, it had dropped all its leaves. it had some pretty bad die back as well. but for the most part i think it's stabilized now and is just waiting for warmer days. keeping my fingers cross i didn't spend $50 just to watch a plant die :-(

-Luke

 

Indoors this year I have way too many, making the wife grumpy. I have about 20-30 of the basics such as Chrismas & Easter cactus, Ficus, Dracaenas, Clivia, ferns, lipstick vine, Philodendrons, etc. Then also Anthurium, coconut palm, Licuala grandis, many aroids such as Colocasia 'Purple Prince', Anchomanes difformis (one of my favorite oddballs), Calathea, Stromanthe, sago palm, Plumeria, Aloe striata, Aristolochia gigantea, Agaves, several orchids, Nepenthes, and lots more. Also propogating under domes Abutilon, Cuphea, Fuchsia, Magnolia, papaya, Kohleria, & Caryota palms.
In the garage under lights, waiting to go out in spring, I have about 40-50 Brugmansia, some Datura, an 8' giant bird of paradise, Australian tree fern, a few more palms, ginger, Mandevilla, tree peony seedlings, Hibiscus, Iochroma, Olive, Wasabi, Stevia, Passiflora, more Agaves, and many more I can't remember. :)

 

good list tom! I'd love to see some pics of the spread. especially the B.O.P, papaya and ginger. Are you trying to grow the last two for edible reasons or just ornamental?

-Luke

 

Ginger is a variegated ornamental. Papya are just seedlings under humidity domes. Doubt if I'll ever get fruit, but it's a fun challenge for a cold climate. Everything looks scruffy right now, I've just got more than I can handle with my schedule. The garage stuff is overwintering (very cool/not freezing/almost dormant to keep the bugs down) so many look like sorry sticks, lol. Not a pretty site to take pictures of.
I also forgot a 7' red leaf Ensete bannana and a short little kaffir lime that has the most fragrant leaves. :)

 

Luke, did the scale infection come from the nursery, or did something else cause it? How did you get rid of those insects?

Tom, wow!!! You have quite an impressive list there. You must really know how to take care of your plants very well. I love cacti and want to get some myself. Did you grow them from seed, or purchase them at a nursery? Also, how does the agave do in your climate? Do they need a lot of heat to thrive?

 

Knowing how, and actually doing it are two vastly, vastly (vastly!) different things, lol. ;)

 

unfortunately it came with the scale and the nursery offered very little in the way of helping me get rid of it other then "buy this hort oil". even when i told them of a friend who also bought a meyer lemon from them that same week and ALSO had a horrible scale infection causing their plant to drop all leaves/fruit even after applying hort. oil.
which in the end is what i did. I wiped off any that i could see (took 3 hours) then applied the hort. oil once a week for 3 weeks. had nearly 0 scale for a month but i'm keeping my eyes on it because they have now started to latch onto my lime. I haven't yet treated the lime because it is just setting fruit and i'm hoping to wait off a little bit before spraying it to help make sure the fruit set well.

-Luke

 

That stinks that the nursery is selling trees with these kinds of problems. Sounds like the hort oil works... is that an organic remedy? I hope the scale stay away from your trees!

 

yeah they said they check over the plants but apparantly the scale can even lay domant in the soil. idk. bum luck but yeah the hort oil seems to be very effective, it's made by Bonide. this looks like the same stuff, ours was just the one in the spray bottle.
http://www.bonideproducts.com/products/product.php?category_id=210

are you suspecting scale on your own or just proactively researching?

-Luke

 

Thanks for the link. Yep, I'm just researching in case I need it for future reference. I don't want anything to mess with my limes! =)

 

Luke - I am constantly warring with scale (several species) and as time consuming as it is, rubbing alcohol on a q-tip or soft toothbrush is the most effective method I've found so far. Having said that though, I'm trying out a new product called Inventek which is a non-chemical oil blend that is marketed as a leaf shine but was recommended as a scale treatment. I'll let you know how successful I am!

Love this thread by the way! I take care of a large tropical collection so it's right up my alley : )

 

thanks for the tip! let me know if that method works out. the nursery has told me it's going to be a long battle :-( what plants have you been fighting off the scale from? i do worry about them eventually finding other house plants.

-Luke

 

A pair of bananas, 'Colorado' and 'Maqueño,' but only until they've got enough leaves to go outside. That's 'er.

As for scale, which I battle on my citrus as well, I've found that if you can get rubbing alcohol or denatured grain alcohol in a sprayer, then go along and spray the scaly parts and wipe immediately with a soft cloth, it will knock large-scale infections of the little nasties right out. Time consuming, but very very effective and it doesn't affect the fruiting cycles.

 

Hi Luke,

I am dealing with several different species of scale all of which seem to have a taste for different plants.

The Strelitzia and Chrysallidocarpus are favoured by a tiny white powdery scale which I have the most trouble keeping in check. I think the species is Boisduval? but I'm not an entomologist by any stretch : ) If anyone has any recommendations for this, I am all ears!!!

The brown scale, which I imagine is probably the common culprit for most of us, loves the Howea, Trevesia, Monstera, Aristolochia and many of the ferns. As prolific as it is though, I find this to be the easiest one to deal with.

Mmm, pest management, le sigh! Lucky for me, the rest of the pests I have to deal with are fairly easy to manage with biological controls.

I will definitely keep you posted on the Inventek. I hope all goes well with treatment in your world!

~Rachel

 

sigh. well i decided it was time to treat the lime plant which i've been trying to keep the scale off of (spread from the infected lemon). I was trying to hold off as long as i could because it set fruit about a month or 2 ago. well within 24 hours of spraying the plant it dropped 5 of the 13 fruit. stupid scale and scale controlling oil! lol.
Lorax- when you spray with rubbing or denatured grain alcohol what do you do about leaves. do you try to actually go through and wipe each leave and branch after spraying it with the alcohol?

-Luke

 

Sorry to hear that Luke. So you're finding that the oil makes the fruit drop then?