Mississippi Squad

March 2

Ever since I got into plants, I always thought those watering cans with the long spouts were unnecessary. Now I kinda see their purpose when I'm trying to water a bunch of small pots and cups on a table in a corner behind another table with a big palm on it.... Anyway, watered everyone, fed everyone some Osmocote, and spilled a bunch of dirt in the carpet.

This sansaveria - it just seems so weird to me that it's gotten so wide that it takes up an entire windowsill on its own, yet it's root system is so shallow that it wants to fall over if a bird farts.

And my other one, def needs repotting. The tall one is the pup, it's gotta be 18" tall now. I love that these are so low maintenance, and I can tell it needs water when the foliage is... I dunno, less than firm. Splash of water and they're good for a few weeks.

I guess I didn't pay enough attention to the lamp cord apparatus I bought, so I ordered another one. Still need to put this shelf together. Arguing with myself about ordering either a Chambeyronia Hookerii or a L. Rotifundia and some Monstera Peru cuttings. It's warm enough that I need to cat proof some stuff and put it outside now. I've read that cats hate aluminum foil for some reason, so I guess I'll try that before I buy some ugly tomato cages or chicken wire.

Also been thinking about experimenting with soil mixes again, maybe trying a bark/coco peat/pumice mix for the inside stuff.

Anyway enough rambles, here's just another shot of the Future Spider Mite Factory™

And I think Spindly Bob likes his new, personal, expensive grow light. By my absolutely no measurements at all, this new frond seems to be pushing 2 or 3 inches a day.

March 2

@JohnAndSancho I have several of the stereotypical watering cans that I use with my rain barrels. I have two for each that way I can fill one while I water with the other. You're right though they have a nice reach for getting between pots and leaves and things. For the really small stuff I like to use a regular water bottle with a 1/8-1/4” hole in the cap.
Thats one good thing about winter - no spider mites! Or Mosquitos and mealy bugs for that matter. They’ be here soon though.
Spindly Bob is looking good!

March 9

Typical John long post

Welp... I quit my job last week. It was a crappy retail job with low pay and unpredictable hours, but the last straw was when I got sick and my boss told me I wasn't allowed to leave. I'm 45 years old, and I had my first job when I was 14. You know how many times I've ever had someone tell me I wasn't allowed to leave?

Once. Last week. I left. I've felt just weak and nauseous 24/7 for like a month now, and went to the Dr for the first time since 2016 yesterday. Anyway, today I started a new job in an electrical transformer factory - the work is way easier, there's no coughing and snotty people, I don't have to deal with customers, way better vibes, way more hours, and if my math checks out my paychecks will be almost 3x as much.

Most of my money has been going towards Sancho's vet bills. He's had a UTI since September, but you'd never know it. Little dude is 11 years old and still thinks he's a puppy. I've started taking him to a new vet the next county over because the local vet sucks and only seems to worry about what she can bill me for. They did some x rays checking for kidney stones, and... Welp he doesn't have any kidney stones but he is apparently very constipated, and he has a growth on his bladder. She said that due to his age it's possibly the c word, but she didn't think so because that's more prevalent in male dogs that are still "intact," if you will.

Vet gave me some meds to umm, flush him out and another round of antibiotics and if that doesn't clear things up they'll do a culture to check for any and everything.

Anyway, back to palm stuff, I've seen lots of comments on various threads here about "if you want it, buy it" so I did.

Hydriastele beguinii, some x rays of a dog who needs to poop, and a picture of Sancho and this kitten that always follows us on our walks.

March 16

Hydriastele beguinii "Obi Island" arrived today. I guess I could have picked a cuter pot but whatever. First plant I put in the "Tank's Green Stuff" soil and I like it. It wasn't like cheap cheap at $35 for a 16qt bag but I did some maths and it'd cost me about the same to mix this myself, and can def confirm it's fast draining and nice and light and chunky. If I were smart I'd buy more and repot everything in this stuff, if I ever get a day off from this new job. I was only off today because I called out to take Sancho to the vet. Anyway, pics.

Plant was bought from Goldendee95 on eBay, packed nice.

March 23

More babies! Sabal Bermudana. Need to pot them up this weekend. Also have a couple more C. Radicalis stragglers that need to come out of their Tupperware incubator.

Still have seeds of c. Macrocarpa, Pinanga Coronata, c. Microspadix, and uhhh another community pot that I forgot to label that have done nothing yet.

Digging through my various palm shopping carts now. So much stuff I want and so little room to put it.... I'm going to put some things back outside and hope coffee grounds keep the cats away. I'd hate to have to wrap things up in chicken wire.

March 24

Welp L. Chinesis got a haircut. A few different possibilities here - it had some little white fuzzy stuff, not sure if it was mealybugs or spider mites but I threw it in the shower a couple weeks ago. Then I thought maybe it wasn't getting enough light, so I moved it out of my room and my brother brought it back while I was at work since the kittens got it. He's been saving his coffee grounds for me, so I experimented and put the bag in front of the kittens faces and it didn't phase them at all lol. Then again honestly I probably wasn't watering it enough either. It's a shame, it's a huge house and these stupid cats basically run it.

March 25

Welp

Bought more palms. Bought a Pritchardia Pacifica and a Latania Lontaroides off of Etsy. Both of these can allegedly take full sun (or in this case, full fake sun) so I'll throw them on the wire shelf that I'm realizing now I overpaid for. Since I read the Latania Lontaroides grows slow, I bought the 3g vs 1g. The Pritchardia is a 1g. I paid just under $60 each, and of course I'll post pics when they show up.

March 30

While I wait on my newest purchases to show up, I potted up these Sabal Bermudana. I didn't wanna make the same mistake I made with the Filifera and wait until they look like spaghetti. Also bought some cheap Dollar General pots for my orange spider plant and my philodendrons. Also bought some little cheap foil pans so I can water everything at once without having to rotate out my limited saucer supply, since things have been getting neglected again.

March 31

Went ahead and rearranged the Future Spider Mite Factory™, too. Trimmed a bunch of dead leaves and realized I've neglected the Thrinax Radiata but hopefully they'll bounce back after a deep watering.

Also I don't think the Spindle wants to go back outside. It's been nothing but reliable and it's really happy now that it has this giant expensive LED tube sitting next to it.

March 31

On 10/18/2023 at 3:01 PM, JohnAndSancho said:

C. Sefrizii - always wanted one of these, but they were always unavailable, way too expensive, or I was broke.

Areca Vestiaria - gonna try really hard to keep this one happy.

C. Renda - samesies. Living in a tray of water.

L. Weddellanium - rearranged the soil yesterday and pulled out the dumb little plastic screens that I thought were super important when I first got into plants for more drainage. Maybe it's just me but it looks perkier.

Super dainty Cuban Plumeria from seed. Tag says they were planted February 2023

Kentiopsis Olivformis. I've always wanted one of these just to see how they do indoors.

Dypsis Cabadae. Love the color on these.

Thrinax Radiata - I think he wants into one of the nursery pots on the patio. This one should love the summers here.

Licuala Spinosa - I think these are my favorite non-Lyto plant on this table. Their roots were poking way through the bottom of their tiny pots, so I gave them the extra fancy blue Solo cups. Threw a smidge of slow release Carl Pool in with them too, they seem a little light to me. Me, who knows nothing about Licualas other than "don't mail order them in January."

Plumeria Singapore seems really happy. There's more leaf every time I walk past it.

C. Plumosa recovering indoors from being a kitten toy. 3 of the 4 stems are still tall.

Variegated Rhapis, VERY cool.

Hedyscepe sprout. These seeds are gigantic! Working on a nice little nub.

I forgot the hybrid cross he said this was, so it's a Phoenix ReyesVargasii

Stole a cut off my mom's Ficus. It hasn't started to root yet after a week or so. There's a video online that says plants root crazy if you dip the tip of your cutting in cinnamon. Mississippi fire ants also hate cinnamon. It's a shame they'll never know why kids love the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

DUCK.

I can't say it enough, but thanks y'all.

You make me appear sane by comparison!

March 31

9 hours ago, DoomsDave said:

You make me appear sane by comparison!

This is high praise indeed. Thank you sir.

April 3

Latania lontaroides (red latan palm for the shmucks like me that struggle with scientific names) arrived today with a normal 12oz beer for scale. 3g plant, I think after tax it was like $67.

Pritchardia Pacifica also shipped the same day, and USPS tracking shows it's still in West Palm Beach. The seller told me she's had issues lately with USPS not updating, but plants still arriving on time - but she agreed to make it right if there are any issues with it.

April 6

Super long post, bonus points for anyone who reads it all.

I'm gonna give this Pritchardia Pacifica some time and see how it does after a 13 day shipping adventure. It's taller than I expected, just like the Red Latan, which really throws off my whole plan for the 6 foot wire rack house for them 😂

I also have come to the conclusion that despite the fact that literally every pot of multiple palms I've separated has died, I really need to separate what's left of the L. Chinesis I bought. I don't know if they dried out from lack of water and neglect, I don't know if the "decorative pot" they shipped in blocked airflow to the roots, I don't know if it was a lack of adequate light, I just don't know. But there's like one side of the pot that still looks healthy, and I have already filled the herd and part of the herd still looks awful. There's like 3 that look good but they look real good and I think they'd be happier on their own in better soil. The other half looks either dead or dying.

Speaking of soil, I think I've gotta mention the Tanks Green Stuff cactus soil again. I think it's the best premixed soil I've ever seen in my brief few years as a palm enthusiast, and I know I've said this a few times, but the cost is literally the same as me mixing this myself. Anyway, I don't remember who mentioned generalpumice.com in another thread, but I ordered a 3g bag to mix with the garbage Miracle Gro soil I bought, and while digging through the house I found an empty unused 13g trash can that just became my soil bucket. When I first came home, I called my mom and my brother hoarders, but I keep finding stuff around the house and in the surrounding woods that I can use for my plant addiction.... I'm also snagging 6" pots from the dollar stores by the handful.

I just have to laugh about this - for those of y'all that remember, in Texas I had so much stuff crammed into a studio apartment.. and when I moved back here I was so excited about having so much more room for palms and plants, and due to these stupid fkn kittens and cats, everything is crammed into my bedroom. Coffee grounds don't phase them, but I've read mothballs will and I've also discovered that there's a few products specifically designed to chemically deter cats from plants and gardens. Something has gotta work.

My addiction has kind of renewed my mom's interest in plants - she grew a lot of stuff when we lived in Pensacola, but like - she's also been like a plant serial killer for the past 20 years or so. She looks at everything I buy and says "that needs a bigger pot," and I had to tell her....no mom, it doesn't. That's why you keep killing stuff. You way overpot, the roots rot, it dies. She bought some hydrangeas and some absolutely gorgeous hand painted ceramic pots.... With absolutely no drainage holes at all. They even have little fake saucers at the bottom that serve no purpose. But, she's interested so that's a plus. She's disabled and has been almost completely bedridden since I was like 14, and I'd love to get some plants in her room but she's got blackout curtains and is not at all receptive to the idea of bright grow lights in her room, so I wanna plant these hydrangeas somewhere she can see them when she does get up.

And... I need to clear out the grass and weeds from outside my bedroom window. More story time, this bedroom was my uncle's, and he was... I am not using this as a slur, he was born premature and was mentally retarded, and he passed away in 2008. Anyway - out of nowhere my shower drain started backing up, so my brother dug up/murdered the Wisteria thinking the roots were the culprit. Anyway the shower was clogged with Irish Spring soap wrappers. I'm thinking what I should plant here is a nice Sago with a Trachy on either side. I've seen Sagos and Trachys survive Palmageddon, unprotected.

And since I've basically turned this thread into a personal blog... Sancho is over his UTI but now he has this condition where he has crystals growing in his puppy weiner, so his new vet placed him on a prescription UC diet and I just ordered him a $70 case of food that should last a month.

The Cubs are hot, sorry @Butch, but that helps my mood. I've got another new job in a factory that builds coils for electrical transformers. I'm actually really lucky right now because I was hired as a coil winder, but they're using me as a tester (basically quality control). Coil winder pay is great, tester pay is not - so I'm being paid a lot for the lower paying position as a "fill-in" for a job I enjoy that I wouldn't do for what it normally pays. I've had a couple paychecks so far where my tax withholding was what my paychecks were at Dollar General. The hours are long and I hate the swing shift, but the money is good. The worst part is they don't do direct deposit and I haven't got a bank account here yet, so I pay $10 to cash a check and I pay fees to load part to Ca$happ and part to PayPal. There was an absolute shitstorm of family drama when I first got here, cops were called a few times, but that hilariously ended once I started bringing in good paychecks.

Anyway, happy growing. I hope at least 2 people read this very personal yet somehow still palmy post.

April 7

Welp

I think what happened is I grossly underestimated the size of the plants I bought. If I was cool, I'd just stop stressing the cats and put stuff outside on the patio where the Palm Gods intended.

If I really wanna go nuts with this whole density/space conservation thing, there's room on the bottom for me to move my heat mats. This also clears out the table in the window for more lil' palms and seedlings.

On the negative, I killed the Thrinax babies. Pretty sure they dried out. And the L. Chinesis is either all dead or dying. The fronds are all black at the ends, at least the ones that aren't brown.

On the positive, my first Lytocaryum Weddellanium finally seems to be living up to it's potential. It's moved a lot since the soil adjustment.

I think this Rhaphis deserves a real pot.

And the lone sprout of the Dypsis.... L something? Redneck Palm - seems happy. Lookit the lil baby!

April 8

On 4/3/2024 at 2:51 AM, JohnAndSancho said:

Latania lontaroides (red latan palm for the shmucks like me that struggle with scientific names) arrived today with a normal 12oz beer for scale. 3g plant, I think after tax it was like $67.

Pritchardia Pacifica also shipped the same day, and USPS tracking shows it's still in West Palm Beach. The seller told me she's had issues lately with USPS not updating, but plants still arriving on time - but she agreed to make it right if there are any issues with it.

Whoa damn! Screamed multiple obscenities!

April 12

The biggest drawback to this new job is, they don't offer direct deposit. I can cash my check at a local grocery store for $10 then go to my former employer to load it onto my Ca$happ card, or I can drive a few extra miles and go to a Wally World and do it all at once for like $5. I hate Wally World with every fiber of my being, but it makes more sense plus I get to look at plants and have more options for food. Anyway, today was payday. This Aloe has been on my bucket list for a while, and they had exactly one in the Garden Center. I had to wait on pizza anyway.

On a less photo-worthy update, my order from General Pumice showed up and I bought a bigger, pretty pot for my C. Plumosa. I found a product called SCRAM that's supposed to keep animals away from plants, but of course everyone is out of it - so I was advised by an older gentleman to use cayenne pepper to keep the cats out. I respect the knowledge of my elders and this dude seemed to know what he was talking about about, so I bought a bigass thing of cayenne pepper. The coffee grounds didn't faze the kittens at all - I mean, they didn't dig into it but they also didn't run from it the way I was hoping either.

I really need to get some of the bigger palms outside and I need to get the Clivia and Plumeria outside, too. I'm pretty sure I killed one of the Plumeria but we'll see.

April 13

It's been forever since I actually counted how many plants or pots I have here. I'm also not counting today.

I just placed an order for a livistona rotundifolia and a handful of cuttings of Monstera Peru. Kinda mad at myself because I coulda saved $15 if I placed the order yesterday but it's whatever.

April 13

I'll be joining you in MS soon...moving to McComb/Brookhaven next month! Hoping to see some cool palms, or at least dwarf palmetto and needle palm in habitat.

April 14

12 hours ago, Xenon said:

I'll be joining you in MS soon...moving to McComb/Brookhaven next month! Hoping to see some cool palms, or at least dwarf palmetto and needle palm in habitat.

Coolsies, I'm on the other side of the state. I'm in Quitman, the next county south of Meridian maybe 15 minutes from the Alabama line. Be prepared for massive culture shock lol. Stockpile on all of the HEB goodies while you can! The best tortillas I can find here are the Mission brand. 🤢

April 20

Well, this is stupid. Professionally, I haven't had to touch a time clock in years. And being in management, ownership and corporate were always up my butt about controlling labor costs. So my trainer at this job would tell me to go on break at regular break times, and I knew he wasn't going to go for another 10-15 minutes. So I'd clock back in when he came back, had no idea the company had policies about this. So I got a note from HR and got sent home the other day because I was consistently clocking in late from lunch. The policy was literally never explained to me before this point, and I plead my case. The good news is, this company rehires people all the time, I'm eligible for rehire after 30 days, and I will go back to work on day 31. I guess it's also good news that now I have zero excuses for not doing all of the palmy stuff I've been putting off. The stupid part is I'm not making any money for a month. Anyway fingers crossed I get up off my butt and repot these things that need repotting and try some catproofing on stuff and put it on the patio.

April 23

Ain't even gonna try to comment or label this but here's a thread of new leaves/fronds shooting up April 22, 2024. Hedyscepe did surprise me. Spindle has been pushing this for a few weeks now. Lipstick is a huge surprise since I've killed way less sensitive stuff.

April 25

Livistona Rotundifolia arrived today and I kinda don't think the cats would mess with these too much. At least not more than once. Lookit them thorns!

If anyone cares this is a 6" pot I bought from DharmaDarling on Etsy. Colors look kinda washed out due to the grow light. It's definitely not pink and brown but it isn't a very dark green either.

May 10

Got a care package from @PalmatierMeg! Actually it kinda came on Saturday, and my mom wound up in the hospital that day. I've been really sick, and today my brother was admitted to the hospital. Soooooo I did palmy stuff after I got home.

Y'all it's hot, the humidity is absolutely miserable here, and I feel disgusting. I dunno how Mississippi can have the same relative humidity % as East Texas and feel sooooo much worse.

Anyway, thank you Meg for all the cool cool stuff! Here's some pics, I tried to get the labels with the plants. The orange powder is cayenne pepper - it's supposed to work really well as a cat deterrent... And there's 3 fresh batches of kittens wandering around 😐. I also used up the last of my expensive soil, "Tanks Green Stuff" so I had to mix up a batch of what I'm gonna call "John's Stuff." It's a bag and a half of Miracle Gro palm and cactus, 3 gallons of 3/16" pumice, and a bag of Repti Bark.

Not pictured is a C. Elegans and a Mystery Fan Palm. And there's a couple variant Sabal Minors from Italy - I mean, how cool is it that years, maybe even hundreds of years ago, an Italian explorer found these palms and took seeds back to Italy, and grew them... Only for someone to visit Italy and bring back seed from that Sabal? Anyway, here's pics.

May 10

21 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Got a care package from @PalmatierMeg! Actually it kinda came on Saturday, and my mom wound up in the hospital that day. I've been really sick, and today my brother was admitted to the hospital. Soooooo I did palmy stuff after I got home.

Y'all it's hot, the humidity is absolutely miserable here, and I feel disgusting. I dunno how Mississippi can have the same relative humidity % as East Texas and feel sooooo much worse.

Anyway, thank you Meg for all the cool cool stuff! Here's some pics, I tried to get the labels with the plants. The orange powder is cayenne pepper - it's supposed to work really well as a cat deterrent... And there's 3 fresh batches of kittens wandering around 😐. I also used up the last of my expensive soil, "Tanks Green Stuff" so I had to mix up a batch of what I'm gonna call "John's Stuff." It's a bag and a half of Miracle Gro palm and cactus, 3 gallons of 3/16" pumice, and a bag of Repti Bark.

Not pictured is a C. Elegans and a Mystery Fan Palm. And there's a couple variant Sabal Minors from Italy - I mean, how cool is it that years, maybe even hundreds of years ago, an Italian explorer found these palms and took seeds back to Italy, and grew them... Only for someone to visit Italy and bring back seed from that Sabal? Anyway, here's pics.

@PalmatierMeg you are so kind! @JohnAndSancho how are you mother and brother doing? How the heck are you? Very cool baby palms!

May 11

22 hours ago, Leelanau Palms said:

@PalmatierMeg you are so kind! @JohnAndSancho how are you mother and brother doing? How the heck are you? Very cool baby palms!

Mom's ok, she just randomly lost consciousness and spent a night in the hospital. No clue what happened but they sent her home and all tests were normal. My brother is still in the hospital and he's gonna be there for a while. He's got Chron's and some kind of blood disorder - he ends up in the hospital about 3 times a year. I'm very medically stubborn and would rather tough it out than deal with side effects of medicine, and I usually don't go to the doctor unless I really think I'm going to die lol. That worked through my 20s, it's kind of a problem now.

November 6

I guess I owe y'all a proof of life update or something.

Palm wise, I've killed a bunch of stuff. Well, I killed a bunch and kittens killed a bunch. I guess at some point I'll take an inventory and get pics, because a few of them have absolutely thrived through their neglect.

Personally, things haven't been great. I've gone to the ER a few times and thanks to the good folks at Ocshner, I've been able to see doctors regularly.

I ended up going back to work and I lasted exactly 3 hours before I had to quit. Out of nowhere, I started having these massive dizzy spells and losing my balance - my Dr thinks it's POTS syndrome. My blood pressure just randomly bottoms out with no warning, so I'm on pills for that. I'm also a type 2 diabetic and I've done literally nothing to take care of myself for roughly 8 years, so now I'm on a huge dose of expensive name brand insulin - thanks to my Dr for getting the manufacturer to donate it to me as well. So I've gone from a guy who's always said that if I go to the Dr I'm going in an ambulance to a guy who's taking 18 pills a day plus a shot every night.

Anyway, Sancho is good - he's still on his prescription food for his puppy weiner, too. But he's happy. I'm having to walk him a lot more, which is hell on me with the dizziness and the neuropathy in my feet, but he's learning that sometimes I just need him to hurry up and drop anchor so I can go sit back down.

Anyway we're alive, and so are some of my plants.

November 6

On 4/14/2024 at 4:42 AM, JohnAndSancho said:

Coolsies, I'm on the other side of the state. I'm in Quitman, the next county south of Meridian maybe 15 minutes from the Alabama line. Be prepared for massive culture shock lol. Stockpile on all of the HEB goodies while you can! The best tortillas I can find here are the Mission brand. 🤢

Nice to see you back posting but sorry to hear about your health issues. I didn't realize that you were in Quitman. I used to travel to Stonewall (of all places) to visit the Burlington denim plant. I doubt that it's still in business now. They used to take us out to lunch at the hospital for lack of local eateries!

November 7

Glad to hear from you John, I was thinking about you the other day. Good to hear Sancho is chugging along too. Take care of yourself!

Saturday at 01:03 PM

John, I sent prayers of healing for you, Sancho and your Mom. Try to avoid fast foods and junk (processed) foods, cut out the seed oils, drink NOTHING but water or milk and your health will vastly improve. Read labels and if you can’t pronounce it then don’t buy it or eat it.

God bless you and your family and I hope you all have a Merry Christmas.

Sign In

WELCOME GUEST

Mississippi Squad

Recommended Posts

JohnAndSancho

D. Morrowii

JohnAndSancho

JohnAndSancho

JohnAndSancho

JohnAndSancho

JohnAndSancho

JohnAndSancho

JohnAndSancho

DoomsDave

JohnAndSancho

JohnAndSancho

JohnAndSancho

JohnAndSancho

DoomsDave

JohnAndSancho

JohnAndSancho

Xenon

JohnAndSancho

JohnAndSancho

JohnAndSancho

JohnAndSancho

JohnAndSancho

Leelanau Palms

JohnAndSancho

JohnAndSancho

Fusca

D. Morrowii

Dwarf Fan

Create an account or sign in to comment

Create an account

Sign in

Recently Browsing

Browse

Activity

Support