Non-orchids

Like most growers of orchids, I keep a few other plants too. My case is a bit extreme, since my first project upon moving to snowy Ithaca was to cultivate any food crop that I desired indoors, including and especially those suited to high sun, high heat environments in Asia and India. So I bought HLG-135W Rspec Quantum Boards, which are good for growing cannabis at a 3x3 feet vegetative footprint, 2x2 for flowering. That’s a lot of space for some intensive growers! I have two of those lights, plus a Spider Farmer 1000 at 100 watts, which allowed me to set myself up like a little weed farmer, only that I grew things like kale, peppers, tomatoes, fava beans, peanuts, strawberries, sweet potato, amaranth, bittermelon, chinese celery, fenugreek, orchids, beans, peas, and malabar spinach.

After a year of indoor gardening and two seasons of outdoor gardening, I determined that it’s not worthwhile growing leafy greens indoors. They require a ton of space and are susceptible to spider mites. It’s far more satisfying to harvest meaty kale leaves from the ground anyway. Some plants are near impossible to grow indoors, even with the correct amount of light. Bean leaves are easily decimated by spider mites. And Ithaca now has a Chinese grocery store that serves my vegetable needs at a low price. I am more interested in growing edible products that are difficult to find in grocery stores, and which pack a concentration of flavor: berries, fruits, herbs, and fragrant flowers.

My first step towards this occurred last August, when I put in my first order with Logee’s:

• Citrus australasica hybrid (Australian red lime)
• Morus nigra (Dwarf everbearing mulberry)
• Malphigia glabra (Acerola/Barbados cherry)
• Vaccinium angustifolium (‘Top Hat’ blueberry)
• Jasminum grandiflorum (Poet’s jasmine)
• Jasminium sambac (Arabian jasmine)

I’ve put in another order this year, again with a focus on fruits:

• Psidium littorale (Strawberry guava)
• Fragaria hybrid (‘Mara des Bois’ strawberry)
• Murraya koenigii (Curry leaf ‘Gamthi’)
• Ficus carica (‘Beer’s Black’ fig, syn. ‘Violette de Bordeaux’)

I’m hoping that better soil and the use of more aerated pots (terra-cotta, fabric, or something small) will boost growth this year. I also plan on being very vigilant towards spider mites. I’ll try cleaning any soil I bring indoors with hydrogen peroxide and some neem oil. Instead of using mechanical pressure to wipe away mites, I’ll use a fine spray bottle for better coverage and convenience.

Speaking of which, I found some evidence of spider mites on the citrus and jasmine just now. They don’t seem to be direly affected, being relatively succulent, but I immediately got to spraying them with a mix of neem oil, hydrogen peroxide, and surfactant (castille soap).

I also like to keep some aroids around. Specifically, hybrid Anthurium with colorful spathes, and plants in the Alocasia or Colocasia genus. I have an Alocasia ‘Polly,' and two Colocasia esculentum in the ‘Mojito’ and ‘Black Beauty’ varietals. The anthuriums split off often into smaller plants and are very floriferous if you don’t abuse them. I keep on abusing them by giving them too much light in the summers, thinking it would be okay to put them out in full sun. They’re definitely shade-loving plants, I’d estimate that they grow best in less than phalaenopsis light. I also gave them bad soil, the kind that has been ruined by jumping earthworms, which turn the soil into a granular form that’s not as nutritious or moisture-retentive.

Finally, I have a small collection of carnivorous plants—four Nepenthes (izumiae, hookeriana, spectabilis x ventricosa, ‘Diana’), three kinds of Australian pygmy drosera (scorpioides, platystigma, and sargentii, a Drosera graomogolensis, and some Sarracenia hybrid from the Ithaca Agway. Sadly the Australian drosera don’t seem to be surviving the transplant shock from several months ago. I really shouldn’t have moved them! I recently repotted the graomogolensis, which is also recovering from that. And I put the Nepenthes izumiae in the fridge to emulate highland conditions. We’ll see what happens; my nepenthes are all recovering from last year, when I didn’t water them enough or provide enough humidity, and the year before, when I burned them. I don’t think I want to continue growing carnivorous plants. They’re very nice to look at, but difficult for me to commit to, maybe because they aren’t epiphytes and I have a hard time sourcing the correct, peaty, nutrient-poor soil. The one carnivore I would like to own is Cephalotus sp., but it’s very expensive or not available from most stores.