A Note on the Terracotta Pot

Back to repotting after a short break. Even Tuppence seemed to notice.

Numbers: 59% humidity

Annoyingly, the real trouble was thrips on everything. For once, I didn't change anything halfway through taking cuttings. Gideon suggested mixing my own potting soil, so I gave it a go. I could have stopped there, but I rescued a plant from the supermarket as well.

I don't think moving everything closer to the window is the whole answer, but it's part of it. Then I repotted four plants in one afternoon, mostly out of curiosity.

There was a moment, around 16 cm pot, when I thought it would all go wrong. The short version, for the cutting:

• Let the top inch dry out first. I forgot this in October, with fungus gnats.
• Repot in spring. Tuppence agrees, I think.
• Bright, indirect light suits most of them. Nell disagrees.
• Check under the leaves. Especially in autumn, at 5 plants.
• Water the plant, not the calendar. It matters most around 5 new leaves.

What Gideon said about the grow light

I tried propagating in water on the bookshelf instead, and it helped. There's always a risk of a plant that dropped every leaf, and this time it nearly happened.

None of this is new, but watering less is new to me. Progress with the pothos is slow, but it is progress. My bag of bark turned out to be the most useful thing all week.

October notes on the monstera

More plants die from too much water than too little. The notebook says 3 weeks between waterings, which is about what I expected. So I moved the fern to the bathroom and waited. Why checking for pests worked is still a bit of a mystery to me.

Compared with last time, it was roots in the jar. Next time I'll try taking cuttings.