A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Plant Disaster!

Hello,

It is so nice to finally find a site (forum based) that actually helps with the environment and is soo full of information. One that you can actually get feedback from. Cuz my plants sure as hell ain't speakin!

Anyway, my life has been under construction the past three years and all has been going well. I thought I would try yet another endeavor...> raising plants, and it has been a total flop

For me, PC Repair is a piece of cake compared to plant care...unreal.

I have went through three batches of house plants ( approx. 8 ) = ea. batch. Yeah, you do the math...24 plants, yes 24! Only 3 original plants ( 3rd batch ) are alive to this day, and 4 other starter (root) plants from my neighbor.

Through "trial and error", as my neighbor would say...I've narrowed down the basic past errors on my end...>

*no-no pots - ones that don't allow water outage
*overwatering - was watering three X a week
*sunlight - either not enough, or direct sunlight
*soil - was using chicken-soil base LOL

Now that I've managed to correct the above errors, I am now having a problem with plant bugs!

***NOTE*** BUGS are my most feared aquaintance!

I have no clue what bug it is, all I know is...as if it ain't bad enough they're infecting my plants, they are all around my apt., flying around

OK, now that you have my history with nurturing plants, could I please get some feedback?

Also: If anyone knows of some other (water-based) plants like 'lucky bamboo', could you inform me? That seems to be my best bet. If having 'soil' based plants are gonna cause BUGS, I don't want no part of it.

Thank You,

HopelessPlantKiller

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm killing my plants, my kids are hanging by a thread, and my car is on it's last leg!

Welcome to The Garden Helper HPK

What you have are fungus gnats....pain in the rear to say the least....there is hope! I, as well as other's, had that same problem.

Go to the top of the page and the line that says profile/messages....click on FORUM SEARCH and type in fungus gnats. There are several posts there that can help you. If you have any ?'s come back here and reply on this thread so we can help you out. It takes time but it CAN be done.
Please keep us updated....BTW...do you have a first name or nickname we can call you...your screen name is definitely not going to be accurate after coming here for a helping hand!!!
Yippie, another from California!!!!

Good call Catlover.

Ahhh yes...I know it!!! (Boldly ...Uses right fingers to brush off left shoulder....) JUST KIDDING ....Will and others helped me identify those stinken gnats quite awhile back. Is that cheating?

Seriously...those gnats are a real pain but I finally got rid of them.
Keep us updated on your gnat problem.

Thank you catlover and pinneapple! I spent two + hours on the forums and housplant help section, and I have to say, I have learned a lot already...but, still in no position to call any shots

I do have fungus gnats! I also went and got some "horticulture sand", couldn't find any steryl sand, hope it still works. What i'm gonna do is just throw out the soil, rinse the plant real good and start fresh, with added sand mixed in the soil. Hopefully, that will take care of the problem. I really hate bugs

I went and got another lucky bamboo plant, it seems to be the only plant that's survived with no problems whatsoever. I also got a weeping fig tree plant, seems pretty simple...ya never know! I didn't want to get the same plants i've already had, bad vibes ya know. There ain't much of a choice left........LOL

More plants???? Uh oh...your catching the gardening bug....at least that is a good bug!

Yeah, I made the mistake of overwatering on my first batch of plants. Now, I think I may underwater in fear of root rot, as before.

I will surely be using this forum quite often. Thanks for all your help...

Suzie