TheSovietOnion [none/use name]

  • 7 Posts
  • 83 Comments
Joined 1 month ago
Cake day: October 15th, 2025
  • TheSovietOnion [none/use name]@hexbear.netOPtogardening@hexbear.net•Resources on caring for plants that keep dying?English
    2·
    11 days ago

    Thanks a lot for the help and advice, it’s very appreciated.

    Might be my neurodivergence showing, but I’m always trying to turn hobbies into a science or set process. You’re right, I should be developing my feeling and intuition first and foremost, and the other more complex stuff only as support tools later.

    What is that book called? It’s actually the kind of stuff I was looking for as a beginner 😸 pretty pictures, explanations and clear directions

    (Btw, mine look like #s 1, 2, 5 and 8. Gonna work on that now)

  • TheSovietOnion [none/use name]@hexbear.netOPtogardening@hexbear.net•Resources on caring for plants that keep dying?English
    2·
    12 days ago

    Makes absolute sense. Funny enough, the rattlepods are the ones doing better so far.

    The growlight I’ve got says it’s PPF: 175 umol/s and photon efficiency of 2.7, I couldn’t find helpful stuff on Google on how good this is. It’s also very close to the plants. There’s a fan in there to control temperature, which is doing a good job if my hand is a good thermometer

    Edit: oh, and the lavender was from my “outdoors era”. I actually bought a growlight and all the other stuff precisely because everything was dying on the balcony, and I thought it was due to way too much sun, heat (it’s scorching in here) or wind. The siratros really flourished in the balcony and started spreading on my protection net, but that made them susceptible to birds and that was it. The rattlepods all died in the balcony too, like the others.

  • TheSovietOnion [none/use name]@hexbear.netOPtogardening@hexbear.net•Resources on caring for plants that keep dying?English
    2·
    12 days ago

    do you check moistness say 1 day after watering, by sticking your finger 3-5 cm inside?

    Nope! Although when I do check, it’s mostly dry or just a bit moist. But again, I don’t check it often or regularly. I’ll have to start that now.

    Another comrade also replied here with some nice insight about the soil and water drainage, and that might be most of the problem. I’ll solve and monitor that for now and see how that goes. I’ll ask my MIL if she did something to the soil, like digging for getting it looser or something, because after you guys gave me these tips, I went and noticed how compact this soil is just under the surface, almost like a soft stone. Maybe they all die around the same stage of growth because the roots just can’t grow and get oxygen in that soil past a certain point? Then adding water makes it all worse

  • TheSovietOnion [none/use name]@hexbear.netOPtogardening@hexbear.net•Resources on caring for plants that keep dying?English
    4·
    12 days ago

    This could be it, thanks a lot!

    After reading I just went to check, and the old soil is SO damn compact, just under the surface. It’s like crumbling a soft stone. The water pools a little bit before draining, too. Maybe it’s pooling for too long down there, at the root level in that compact soil?

    The new substrate is absolutely much better at this regard. It’s a mix of some plant fiber, perlite and rice husks. Water drains much better on this one. It also absorbs a LOT, and I don’t know whether this is good or bad. I mean, a add a bunch of water to a little cup of the substrate, and 10s later it’s as if there’s barely any water at all, it just feels the same as dry. Should I keep adding water when this happens?

    Thanks for the resources too. I’ll make an update a month or so from now.