HELLLP! Keeping plants alive indoors :-(

[Sherlinwed]

I really need some help keeping my plants alive. I live in NY and the weather is not ideal for rainforest plants I desperately require information on the lighting to use to keep them alive? I’ve googled and there are so many different ways to go by this, but I would prefer a person who actually has the experience to help me. I have 4 plants that will be going back and forth in the cage and inside the indoor greenhouse. I need someone who is knowledgeable or has an indoor greenhouse as well

 

[sdheli420]

I really need some help keeping my plants alive. I live in NY and the weather is not ideal for rainforest plants I desperately require information on the lighting to use to keep them alive? I’ve googled and there are so many different ways to go by this, but I would prefer a person who actually has the experience to help me. I have 4 plants that will be going back and forth in the cage and inside the indoor greenhouse. I need someone who is knowledgeable or has an indoor greenhouse as well

well it depends on the plant itself(im sure you know some are shade loving, some like full sun, some partial..ect) whats basically required is lumen output from lights, and usually in the cool side of the "kv" or kelvin range (the bluer the light the more it focuses on the vegative growth, more reds focus on blooming growth)hour length lso makes a difference..do you have some pics of the set up, what kind of lights you are using?

 

[icegecko]

I live in NY too. I have two pothos on the floor of the enclosure, two scheffleras and tillandsias. My set up is two 6500K florescents and a 100w Powersun for basking and heat. This is a 4ftx2ftx2xft. I have a mistking and I find that overwater plants is the main reason that they die. Schefflera are particularly suseptible to overwatering. Two 6500k fluos are amazing at promoting growth in plants. I don't know what plants you have, but you should look them up on google and see what their requirements are. I lost several orchids in my cham cage because I thought they would work but, well, they didn't. Pothos are indestructible and Schefflera/ficus are the other staples in plants for chams. In terms of temps, I recommend a space heater with a thermostat you can regulate. This way you don't have to heat up the whole house to get the cham's room warm. (I'm assuming that your rooms are not individually climate-controlled.)

 

[Carlton]

I really need some help keeping my plants alive. I live in NY and the weather is not ideal for rainforest plants I desperately require information on the lighting to use to keep them alive? I’ve googled and there are so many different ways to go by this, but I would prefer a person who actually has the experience to help me. I have 4 plants that will be going back and forth in the cage and inside the indoor greenhouse. I need someone who is knowledgeable or has an indoor greenhouse as well

It will be more than just the type of lighting. I've had many cham setups with the typical live plants (Ficus alli, Scheffleras, Pothos, Hibiscus) that did just fine under a combination of ordinary fluorescent tube lighting (or an older ReptiSun), a fresh ReptiSun 5.0 for the cham, a regular house incandescent basking spot, or a common "grow light". If the light can't penetrate below the top layer of leaves, the lower branches will drop leaves and die back because they don't provide any benefit (think of forest trees...all the actively growing greenery is on the top and sides, not under the canopy). So, I often set a single tube fluorescent fixture vertically along the back or a side of the cage in addition to the top lights.

The other common problem with cham cage plants is root rot and stagnant saturated soil. Symptoms include dying plants, fungus gnats, and funky smell. When you plant, make sure the pots drain very well and don't sit in stagnant water in the saucers. Remember to re-pot to change out the old soil and fertilize sparingly as most overfertilized plants will grow spindly, soft and weak.

 

[Trin]

One thing I use to check on plants and what they need is the interwebs... specifically this site: http://www.guide-to-houseplants.com/house-plants-encyclopedia-a-z.html, it doesn't always have the exact exact plants, but it has ones in the same general group that have nearly identical needs.

And if you tend to pull a me (that is... forget to water forever and a day) you can give the plant a good soak to bring the soil back to it's waterloving ways by putting the plant (still in it's pot/plastic container thingy) in a bucket and letting it soak for an hour or two, then letting it dry out until the top inch or so of the dirt is dry (but not cracked). Chams do tend to pull leaves off or break steams/branches on smaller plants, so you can easily just give the plants a little prune when you see a broken stem or leaves dangling.

I'm in ny too, so I know what you're going through, I just had to bring a plant back to health, but if you pay attention to their water needs and try not to leave the ones that can't take direct sun in the direct sun (or too close to the basking light... you move a vine to be a basking spot for your babe if need be) then you'll do fine!

 

[Ta2Smitty]

So far I've found pothos to work the best for me I swear you can't over water these things to save your live all of mine love all the water and if one started getting droopy I'll take it out and give it a really heavy watering and a few hours later it spring back to life

 

[Sherlinwed]

At the moment I'm not using any light. I have 2 hibiscus to swap back and forth, pothos, ficus and a Codiaeum variegatum aka croton. I have a massive cage that will be done hopefully this weekend. I have a room specifically just for him and my lil insect feeders/pets.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Your hibiscus most likely won't make it. They need lots of real sunlight and most people that have success with them have several plants that they swap out periodically so most of them are outside getting sun most of the time. Some people apparently have magical abilities to keep them alive, but the majority of people don't have any luck with this highly tropical sun loving plant. Schefflera get overwatered easily so good drainage is essential. I used a half and half soil and sand mixture to help with drainage and that worked well for the most part. I think a good plant light would have kept it alive longer. Pothos is the most hardly for me...although my big one just started dying for no apparent reason...

This is why I have all fake plants in my cages - no mess, no fuss, no worry.

 

[Sherlinwed]

I'm also very attentive to watering the plants because I dont want to have them die and then I have to repot..blah blah blah you guys know how it is Btw my cage is 6' x3'x3'. This is a massive project my husband and I been working on. We took our time building because I wanted to research it correctly. I love this little guy and I want him to be as comfortable as possible.

 

[Sherlinwed]

Believe me I would rather the fake plants as well, but my cage is so massive the plants will help with the humidity. Ive heard that about the hibiscus so that is why Im attempting with the 2 (crossing fingers)

 

[Sherlinwed]

Your hibiscus most likely won't make it. They need lots of real sunlight and most people that have success with them have several plants that they swap out periodically so most of them are outside getting sun most of the time. Some people apparently have magical abilities to keep them alive, but the majority of people don't have any luck with this highly tropical sun loving plant. Schefflera get overwatered easily so good drainage is essential. I used a half and half soil and sand mixture to help with drainage and that worked well for the most part. I think a good plant light would have kept it alive longer. Pothos is the most hardly for me...although my big one just started dying for no apparent reason...

This is why I have all fake plants in my cages - no mess, no fuss, no worry.

Ive also did the sand and soil combo to help with the overwatering Told you I came prepared

 

[Carlton]

Ive also did the sand and soil combo to help with the overwatering Told you I came prepared

You'll have to swap the Hibiscus pretty often if you don't use lights. Your cham will need lights anyway. Actually, sand doesn't help with drainage all that well unless it is very coarse. Pumice and perlite (buried lower in the pot not on the surface) works much better and doesn't compact down which is harder on the roots because it reduces soil aeration.

 

[Carlton]

I'm also very attentive to watering the plants because I dont want to have them die and then I have to repot..blah blah blah you guys know how it is Btw my cage is 6' x3'x3'. This is a massive project my husband and I been working on. We took our time building because I wanted to research it correctly. I love this little guy and I want him to be as comfortable as possible.

Nice cage! A couple of big bushy Scheffleras, a Ficus (look for the lance-leaved F. alli instead of F. benjamina...it's a lot tougher) can easily form the basic structure in the cage, but you can always fill in with fakes if you want. The fakes can still provide surfaces for spray to collect on and evaporate. The live plants are better for humidity because they transpire water vapor and because there's all the moist soil present. Sometimes I've scored a big overgrown Schefflera from moving sales...people don't want to try to move a big one.

 

[Trin]

We have a few Dracenas, Pothos and Schefflura in our tank, and it's doing really well humidity wise (our tank is for a Meller's chameleon harem, 3 ft deep, 5 ft tall, 6 ft long)... just make sure when you mist that you get all of the plants as it really really helps keep that humidity up. Also... spraying the screen itself helps too, made a 10ish% difference when I did so (getting reading from an empty mesh tank in the room, so the entire room humidity went up cuz I'm too short to read the one in the Meller's tank XD). You can also put other plants in the room whether they're for chams or not to help raise the ambient humidity... Bromalids are pretty and they actually keep water in the wells of the leaves, so they're a good humidity raiser, but no idea if they're cham safe so it's best to just have them in the room but not the tank.

O, and a trick from my grandfather (he grew orchids for a living and those things can be finicky about drainage) take an old cracked clay pot and just bash it up and put that at the bottom of the pot you'll be putting plants in, it'll really help with drainage and they don't compact down so you don't need to worry about it eventually blocking drainage.

O! We had just added something new to the tank just recently... cheap bamboo sticks from home depot... they were around 3 dollars for 5 or 6 sticks at about 5 ft each, the Meller's loves 'em and they can be cut and such to fit pretty much any tank, so you can form highways for your cham.

Hope you (and your cham) have a ton of fun with your new tank set up!

 

[ataraxia]

This worked for me this year outside. i tried hibiscus plants in a few of my outdoor cages this year. They did absolutely wonderful in morning and evening sunlight with standing water in the catch tray. The plant was literally growing through the screen it was doing so well.

inside i prefer to use ficus, pathos, dracena and schefflera. these will all grow with weekly watering, 6500k fluorescent and your typical uvb/uva lights. just be careful of the heat from your basking light.

 

[Sherlinwed]

Thanks guys I will def look into everything you told me and once I am finished with this project I will post pics