gardening

I know that I am the previous poster as well, but since it's been a few weeks, I hope no one minds...

But basically, my String of Bananas, which had been popping back up with a slight mold problem after I started watering it again and kept it inside... has been starting to fade.

I lightly fertilized it (once, about two weeks ago), and it started growing well with new shoots.

Well, quite a few of those new shoots are now brown, withered, and if they are not dry and hard, they are wet and mushy, including some new leaves. Some of the older tendrils that started growing longer have the same dying ends.

I have been watering it about a cup and a half once a week, not letting the soil dry out too much as some websites have recommended, and it is hanging off to the side from my window, which faces the west. We have the AC on now due to the heat, so it doesn't get above 85 degrees F in my room.

Tonight, I looked through it and cut off a lot of the dead branches from it, left over from when I almost killed it with sun and heat, so I am hoping that will help, as those sites say it likes regular trimming.

Does anyone have any advice for me? What I might be doing to it and how to correct this?

Thank you!

ketsudan

Hello!

My name is Lupin and I am probably going to be spamming this page with questions sooner or later. I always seem to do that when things go wrong with my plants (I have a horrible black thumb and seem to be able to kill off cacti. Cacti.) and the garden in our backyard. Hopefully, I'll become a little more plant savvy like my dad and grandfather.

Anyways, my question is this:

I have a Senecio radicans (better known as String of Bananas) that is better off inside that outside as I discovered when I forgot to water it for a week and most of it became burnt from 90+ degree weather. It's since popped back up in the last few weeks and is doing well now that it's in my room which gets a nice amount of afternoon sun. I have been watering once a week, give or take a day depending upon work and if I remember.

However, in its pot, along the top of the soil, is a bunch of fuzzy patches of white mold.

I know a few techniques for getting rid of mold, but I've also been told you can leave it alone, and if you want to prevent it, don't water it so much.

What do you guys think I should do? With my black thumb, if I tend to leave plants alone, they do better :P

ANOTHER QUESTION:

It has many burned/shriveled leaves on its branches, and a lot of healthy green ones. Should I pull the dead ones off or will they fall off on their own?

daidoji_gisei

Crossposted from my journal.

My clothes washer is one of those little jobbies that has one hose you hook up to your kitchen faucet to pour water in and another you put in the sink for the water to drain out of. The water that drains out is graywater, water that has been used for something and is no longer drinkable. I have never given it much thought, but over the winter I came across a mention of someone using it to water her garden with. This got me thinking about the water I was pouring down the drain from my laundry, and the fact that I was already hand-carrying my water, one watering can at a time, to water my own garden. (When I do water my garden, that is. Not having a hose and sprinkler has made me a big fan of dryland agriculture.)

My bakery gets oil in 35# jugs, which holds about 30 pounds of water. I rounded up 4 of them and tonight I started my experiment in irrigation. After two loads of laundry I have determined that at its maximum fill my washing machine holds about 90# of water, or approximately 11 gallons. This completely fills 3 jugs, though partially filling 4 jugs works a little better because they are easier to carry. (I guess I should mention here that I am on the second floor, so I need to carry the jugs out of my kitchen, down the stairs, and out to the garden.) If I continue with this I expect that I will build up those muscles even more, allowing me to carry the full ones with less strain.

It will be interesting to see if I stick with this. Using my graywater will allow me to water my garden more often and more deeply without increasing my water usage, surely a win-win. Also, I am pretty sure hauling around 30# of water counts as a core-strengthening exercise: another benefit.

Current Mood: sore

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String Of Bananas

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May 2025

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