0:13

You. Wanna go: Monster Houseplants! This is

0:15

the week of episodes for you my

0:17

friends. We have ya, an Ak, a

0:19

Sydney plant guy on the podcast known

0:22

I think for just a massive arrowheads

0:24

that you grow. I actually think my

0:26

girlfriend follows you're young and she's She's

0:28

brought up your mouse pause before she's

0:31

brought up some of the large plans

0:33

that you haven't. We've even talked about

0:35

getting back into some of these larger

0:37

specimen houseplants in my house. now. my

0:39

house is tiny so I have space

0:42

for like one maybe bucket. I'm

0:44

excited to have you other show. Think. Is

0:46

a much thanks for having me. Yeah.

0:49

So what? Before we start we're gonna go

0:51

through a lot. Of course off with how

0:53

sponsors we guys but perhaps just a quitter.

0:55

A background on on how you got into

0:57

this game. Yeah, I think

1:00

I started the hobby about five years

1:02

ago. And I'm a

1:04

rent as I am very limited with

1:06

what decorate my apartment but I really

1:08

wanted to get some. Greenery into

1:10

the apartment. Say,

1:13

I kind of try to optimized

1:15

vertical space. As you said, space

1:17

is precious, especially as a red

1:19

tide city, so I really wanted

1:21

to utilize the vertical. Allspice.

1:25

Yes, I kind of somewhat upon going

1:27

most polls. Were

1:29

very ambitious person. I like to kind

1:31

of challenge myself so I kind of

1:34

challenge myself to buy. These. Plants

1:36

as large as possible while kind of

1:38

cheating nature right indoors. He and the

1:40

kind of escalated from there now. Yeah,

1:42

so if you're not watching the podcast

1:44

which by the way you can do

1:46

on Spotify or on our the Beat

1:48

You Tube channel you would you just

1:50

missing out On and at an epic

1:52

brat background on the on screen right

1:54

now. I don't have every species you

1:57

have their but the screen is just

1:59

littered with his. massive leaves,

2:01

maybe eight feet tall or so.

2:03

So we're gonna talk about how you kind of got

2:05

there. But today's topic is conditions

2:07

versus care. And I

2:09

thought maybe you could explain those two terms

2:12

because it seems like you've got a pretty

2:14

clear distinction on those. Yeah,

2:16

for sure. I mean, my end goal is

2:18

to really make my plants thrive. I'm

2:21

not aiming for pure survival. I

2:23

want them to grow as large as possible

2:25

and ideally as quickly as possible as well.

2:28

I'm an impatient person. I

2:31

always like to explain to everybody the

2:33

chances of growing plants really nice and

2:35

large. You need to understand conditions and

2:37

care and choose your plants accordingly.

2:40

So conditions are

2:42

things like light, temperature,

2:45

air flow, humidity, and that will

2:47

really set the plants potential to

2:49

grow nice and large in the

2:51

first place. Specifically light. I

2:53

think light is the number one thing

2:55

when we're talking about conditions that really

2:57

sets the potential for these plants to

3:00

grow nice and large in nature.

3:03

These plants that I like to grow on moss

3:05

pulse, they're semi-appified

3:07

and they would grow up a tree. And usually

3:09

as they grow up a tree, they get access

3:11

to more light. So light really

3:13

sets the potential for these to grow

3:16

to their full potential. And

3:18

then care is new

3:20

realizing that potential. So care,

3:22

things like watering, moss

3:25

pulse in themselves is a care approach

3:27

in my opinion. My

3:29

nutrients that I provide, fertilizing which,

3:32

so on even potting mixes, potting sizes

3:35

and so on. So conditions are really

3:37

set by the plant. It's in

3:39

their DNA. And if I want the

3:41

plant to thrive, I should grow the plant in

3:43

conditions that are as close as possible to the

3:45

plant's natural environment. Here,

3:48

that's where we have a lot of flexibility.

3:51

That's where we can do trial and error, see

3:54

what works, what doesn't work. I mean, there's so

3:56

many different ways of even just constructing a potting

3:58

medium and you can have... all

4:00

of them. The care

4:03

part is the more interesting one, you know,

4:05

where we can play around a little bit

4:07

where there's no black and white which ends

4:09

up making it hard for beginners to get

4:12

into the hobby around because you have so

4:14

much conflicting information. But the conditions,

4:16

that is not for us to choose right,

4:18

that's set in the plants DNA. So I

4:21

chose plants that I know are going

4:24

to have a good time in my

4:26

conditions and that

4:28

will give the plant the best chance

4:31

to survive or at least thrive. But

4:34

if you want to grow certain plants, specifically

4:37

these tropical rainforest plants, most

4:40

likely your conditions won't really suit the

4:42

plants to really thrive to their full

4:44

potential. So you might have to put

4:47

a little bit of effort into supplementing

4:49

your conditions first and only once

4:51

the plants are grown in the right conditions, then

4:54

you can realize the potential with

4:56

the care part. Yeah, I

4:58

mean I think the interesting part is it's

5:01

kind of like when you talk about edible

5:03

gardening. Choose varieties that work

5:05

well for your growing climate and

5:07

then from there what's your own goal? And I

5:09

think you have an interesting goal in that you're

5:12

not trying to just have the plant, like

5:14

a collector might, not to say you don't

5:16

collect, but you're trying to have them and

5:18

have them thrive, not just survive. And

5:21

what I notice in the background of your shot

5:23

here is there's quite a bit of supplementation going

5:25

on. Obviously the moss poles are there and these

5:27

plants are growing up the poles. As you mentioned,

5:30

they're epiphytic. They want to climb. So speaking to

5:32

condition, you're giving them the condition they would be

5:34

used to in the wild. But there's

5:36

also quite a bit of supplemental light and I

5:38

thought maybe we could talk about that really quickly.

5:40

Later in the week, we are going to get

5:42

into like the recipe for growing giant plants. But

5:46

as far as I can tell, you're using a lot

5:48

more light than the average house plant owner would. So

5:50

maybe you could break down your setup. Yeah,

5:52

definitely. So as you

5:55

said, light is super important when growing

5:57

and that's probably the biggest challenge. we're

6:00

all facing indoors. We have ceilings which

6:02

is not necessarily in line

6:05

with how these plants would grow in nature. So

6:08

I do have, I lived in

6:10

four places as a renter over the

6:12

last four years. So I've experienced various

6:14

different apartments and houses with different light

6:17

conditions and at the end of the

6:19

day I always go back to using

6:21

grow lights to at least supplement the

6:24

light. I think it's the number one

6:26

mistake people make. They underestimate how much

6:28

light these plants actually need or want

6:31

to really thrive to their full potential and

6:35

humans are terribly bad at judging light

6:37

levels. It's very hard for us to

6:39

say like if our plants I'd be

6:41

happy with that. So I always let

6:43

the plants tell the story. So I

6:46

supplement light with grow

6:48

lights. I have some

6:50

vertical ones. I have some hanging from the ceiling.

6:52

Pretty much any corner that I want to fill

6:55

with plants. I usually put a grow light in

6:57

there and I let the plants tell me whether

6:59

there is enough light or not.

7:01

How are you determining that? Like as you

7:03

watch a plant, let's say you have a

7:05

beautiful airoid that you're setting up. You have a

7:07

light that you want to put on and

7:09

you're just sort of guessing at placement and

7:11

light intensity. What is the plant telling

7:13

you where you might say oh this is too much or

7:16

this is not enough? Yeah I

7:18

mean most likely it's going to be not

7:20

enough. I mean if it's too much the

7:22

plant is probably going to burn pretty quickly.

7:24

So that's the telltale sign.

7:26

The lack of light is usually very

7:28

very long spaces

7:30

between your leafs. So internal

7:33

spacing. So the plant

7:35

is trying to grow really long

7:37

in search for light or throwing

7:39

out rocks to grow somewhere else.

7:42

Really long petioles as well. So

7:45

you know the longer the petiole the

7:47

more the plant is usually trying to

7:49

reach for the light. Obviously depends on

7:51

the species and so on as well.

7:53

And leaf size. As the plant matures

7:55

every leaf should get bigger than the

7:58

previous one. can

8:00

be repots and so on that might impact

8:02

that as well, but the general trajectory of

8:04

the plant should show me that there's

8:06

an increase in leaf size. If I notice a decrease

8:09

in leaf size, commonly happens during

8:11

winter. For example, then I know

8:13

that that's probably based on

8:15

insufficient type. So I then try different

8:17

spots and I really try and let

8:19

the plant tell the story and I

8:21

really it helps me form this connection

8:23

with the plants as well, like a

8:25

kind of developing understanding. But of course,

8:27

you can also measure light if you

8:29

want to I try and stay away

8:31

from it. I want this to be

8:33

really like a touchy feely hobby, right?

8:35

I want to I want to learn

8:37

something I don't want to go over

8:39

an Excel spreadsheet and it becomes

8:42

a little too much for me. Sure.

8:45

That is the

8:48

most scientific way of doing it and that

8:50

way you've got guarantee. But I like the

8:52

trial and error. Yeah,

8:55

I'm similar to you. I mean, I'm a pretty

8:57

science minded guy. But there is a level to

8:59

me of getting a little bit too deep. We

9:01

actually had Daryl Chang on the show last year

9:04

sometime Houseplant Journal. And obviously he

9:06

released a light meter as a product

9:09

for his community. And it's really

9:11

cool. I have one. It's fascinating. It's

9:13

fascinating to know. And sometimes I will

9:15

bust it out as like a spot check. I'll be like,

9:17

I think I'm seeing too little light as

9:19

a sign on this plant. And then I'll bust it

9:21

out. I'm like, Oh, yeah, for sure. That's that's going

9:24

on here. Any,

9:27

any tips you would say, and again, we're going to

9:29

get to this actually at the tail end of this

9:31

week. But any tips you would say for someone who

9:33

wants to buy a plant that

9:36

they know they want to get large, is

9:38

there something they can do at the purchasing

9:41

point to give them a head start?

9:44

Yes, I it sounds

9:47

counterintuitive. But I personally like to buy

9:49

really small plants, and

9:51

then establish them in my space. So

9:53

they started growing up in my space

9:55

from the beginning. They're used to my

9:58

conditions and my way of life. caring

10:00

for them. That will give them the

10:02

best chance in the long run to mature

10:04

in my setting or in

10:06

my environment and they have the

10:08

resilience to survive my condition.

10:11

If you get a really large established plant

10:13

that might have been growing in a in

10:15

a hot house or a greenhouse by a

10:17

wholesaler and then you pop it

10:19

in your living room where it suddenly gets

10:21

way less light, way less humidity, lower

10:24

temperatures, the plant can actually be

10:26

set back quite a bit and sometimes it

10:28

takes longer for the plant to recover from

10:30

the shock and get going again. It's getting

10:33

a plant and get it going straight away.

10:35

So we will talk

10:37

about this a little bit more but I

10:39

like to start. It's a weird, yeah, it's

10:41

weirdly counterintuitive but it kind of makes sense

10:43

where you'd rather have it exposed more of

10:46

its life in where it will always be

10:48

than sort of transplanted from a growing situation.

10:50

So some fascinating primer on houseplants

10:52

we're going to get into a lot more with you on

10:55

as the week progresses including how to build a moss ball

10:57

tomorrow so stay tuned, good luck in the garden and keep

10:59

on growing. One

11:02

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11:04

gardening is visually which is why I

11:06

highly encourage you to check out and

11:08

subscribe to our YouTube channels. We have

11:11

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11:13

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11:15

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11:17

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11:20

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11:22

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11:26

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11:28

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