Someone give me their green thumb 🙄

[FloridaChameleonLiving]

Sooo I'm trying to get the whole plant thing down but have made a few trips too many to home depot so figured I'd ask you all what im doing wrong ! Lol. First and foremost my Golden Pothos in the top of Ares cage I've had to take out a few times. He tramples it but also don't think Pothos do very well at the top of the cage right ? The tag on it says "low light" so I just swapped it out with a Philodendron that says high light so hopefully that helps . It looks similar to a pothos anyways lol. Now in my other cage I swapped out a Swiss cheese plant that was kinda too small for a hibiscus bush . Mainly got the bush to give my Blue Ambanja some extra spots to hunt and hide etc. Also more surface for the misters to hit. Just the past 4-5 days it has had quite a few yellow leaves dropping and I'm wondering what im doing wrong ? I wanna get better at this plant thing

First 2 photos was today . Last photo was like 2 weeks ago when we redid his cage & everything was brand new (except ficus tree)

 

[Ares05]

Hibiscus need lots of high lighting or they will die from what i've heard. What grow lights are you running?

 

[FloridaChameleonLiving]

Only have a bigger jungledawn. That's what I was thinking too is maybe it's not getting enough light ?

 

[EmilioTheAnkify]

Yellow leaves are usually caused by watering too much or too little.
Hibiscus do require a lot of light, plus the lil white flies that populate the leaves are annoying.
Pothos do great in all lighting.
I’d also try repotting the plants and placing some hydro clay balls on the bottom to help the soil breathe.

 

[FloridaChameleonLiving]

Yellow leaves are usually caused by watering too much or too little.
Hibiscus do require a lot of light, plus the lil white flies that populate the leaves are annoying.
Pothos do great in all lighting.
I’d also try repotting the plants and placing some hydro clay balls on the bottom to help the soil breathe.

I'll look into those hydro clay balls ! I just repotted everything recently. The hibiscus still bloomed and all . And weird idk what was going on with my pothos in the top . Every one I've put in there at one point starts looking kinda rough . My girlfriend and I thought we were maybe cooking it because the one pothos halfway down the cage has never had issues

 

[Livingstons Lizards]

Are tough letting the plants either in before the animal is introduced? This step is not nessicarily needed, especially for hardier plants but might help.
https://www.neherpetoculture.com/vivariumconstruction102

 

[Lindasjackson]

You do have a great foliage filled enclosure which is what chams need and love!

 

[DonKeesh]

I think keeping plants happy can be harder than keeping the chameleon happy haha. What has worked for me is providing as much lights as possible... For me that is 3 t5ho 6500k lights in addition to the UVB bulb. I also think watering is an art form in itself. I try to water heavily once a week and then let the soil dry out... Using a finger to feel how dry the soil is usually works. Also this may be controversial but I use liquid organic fertilizer every couple of months.

 

[Alastair&Anna]

I'd give u my green thumb if I could, but I need it for my 85 plants lol. Give more light and be light on waterings.

 

[wanabthemoon]

I'd give u my green thumb if I could, but I need it for my 85 plants lol. Give more light and be light on waterings.

Ok so this brings up one of my questions. How do you accomplish enough misting to keep chameleon happy without overwatering? I've just set up my tank with plants only to get them established, and I don't want to overwater, but I know eventually It will have daily mistings....

 

[DonKeesh]

Ok so this brings up one of my questions. How do you accomplish enough misting to keep chameleon happy without overwatering? I've just set up my tank with plants only to get them established, and I don't want to overwater, but I know eventually It will have daily mistings....

Thats why bioactive with chameleons is a challenge... At least if you do hanging garden style the pots can drain fully.

 

[Alastair&Anna]

Ok so this brings up one of my questions. How do you accomplish enough misting to keep chameleon happy without overwatering? I've just set up my tank with plants only to get them established, and I don't want to overwater, but I know eventually It will have daily mistings....

Ok so, what I do, I allow for the misting to give light water every day. (Normally 6 min a day is water coming down) therefore you water the plants less frequently. You can also get plants that love water. I have had a lot of success with monsters, pothos, umbrella, and a small tropical palm tree. Other plants you want to use that are not as water tolerant, put higher up where the sprayers dont hit and water like normal. If anyone has any questions feel feel to contact me .

 

[EmilioTheAnkify]

Ok so this brings up one of my questions. How do you accomplish enough misting to keep chameleon happy without overwatering? I've just set up my tank with plants only to get them established, and I don't want to overwater, but I know eventually It will have daily mistings....

If you have to mist more than 2-3 times a day to keep humidity levels up, maybe less ventilation would keep those levels where they are supposed to be.
Overwatering with a bio active enclosure hasn’t been a problem for me.
Or you could always add more plants to help prevent soak up the excess water.

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

Sooo I'm trying to get the whole plant thing down but have made a few trips too many to home depot so figured I'd ask you all what im doing wrong ! Lol. First and foremost my Golden Pothos in the top of Ares cage I've had to take out a few times. He tramples it but also don't think Pothos do very well at the top of the cage right ? The tag on it says "low light" so I just swapped it out with a Philodendron that says high light so hopefully that helps . It looks similar to a pothos anyways lol. Now in my other cage I swapped out a Swiss cheese plant that was kinda too small for a hibiscus bush . Mainly got the bush to give my Blue Ambanja some extra spots to hunt and hide etc. Also more surface for the misters to hit. Just the past 4-5 days it has had quite a few yellow leaves dropping and I'm wondering what im doing wrong ? I wanna get better at this plant thing

First 2 photos was today . Last photo was like 2 weeks ago when we redid his cage & everything was brand new (except ficus tree)

This is why I've been saying that we (keepers) also have to become amateur botanists—to match plant choices with their individual needs (water, light, feeding, drainage, etc.) and balance those against each other and the microclimate (of the enclosure) that we're creating.

I have pothos, philodendron, and inchplant climbers (up the egg crate trellis back wall), and they do require some occasional rotating. A couple have died, but they were well over 10' long; fortunately all three are very fast-growing—about a foot or more per month.

Yellowing leaves can have different causes/possibilities depending on species, so I would research there first (care of the yellowing plant). We recently had a yellowing problem with another houseplant, and it turned out to be a lack of nutrient (despite feeding). A dose of Cal-Mag brought it around within a few days. I'm not suggesting this would help in this case—only that yellowing leaves can have different causes and solutions.

To get better at this thing, we all have to research & carefully plan the individual plant species we choose along with researching the care & husbandry of our chameleons.

 

[FloridaChameleonLiving]

So today my pothos halfway down the cage wasn't looking too hot . I did notice the soil seemed kinda dry. My Philodendron (which replaced my pothos up top) seems to be thriving though ! The picture of my pothos is what all the ones up top were doing before I swapped them out in the past couple months

 

[EmilioTheAnkify]

So today my pothos halfway down the cage wasn't looking too hot . I did notice the soil seemed kinda dry. My Philodendron (which replaced my pothos up top) seems to be thriving though ! The picture of my pothos is what all the ones up top were doing before I swapped them out in the past couple months

Looks stressed out maybe too much heat.

 

[Jpeff]

Looks like needed water. Anything I have in cage that is over a foot away from mist heads I water every 3 4 days or they look like that. The ones I have closest to the misters I put lots of sand with hydro balls in bottom to keep roots dry. If I didn't they would turn yellow and drop leaves. Heat burn and nute burn look about the same tips of leaves die frist

 

[snitz427]

I have an absurd plant collection (absurd in that plants are in every room of my house... and I dont meant one or two)!

First and foremost - any plant is susceptible to transplant stress. If you change the soil medium, they may drop leaves. If you don't change soil, but change the light and humidity they were accustomed to, they'll drop leaves. I import a lot of plants, and many of them die or nearly die from the stress... but once they get adjusted to their new location, they will rebound.

Judging by the amount of yellow, dropping leaves on your one plant, I'd suspect that you are overwatering. Rather than cutting back water, I'd recommend repotting them into something that drains better. That's not a bad idea, anyway, as plants from the big box stores almost always are infested with plant pests and snails/slugs. Here's what I like to use:

Mix:
- shredded cocoa fiber (I like Zoomed's brand of Eco Earth cocoa fiber)
- medium and/or coarse horticultural charcoal (not the kind for your grill)
- medium and/or coarse orchid bark (orchiata is great or pine bark (pinus radiata - NOT the bark for mulch)
- perlite (but if used for a chameleon cage, I'd skip perlite and double up the bark/charcoal instead)

Mix those together to get a very chunky soil mix. The chunks of charcoal and bark create air pockets and help with drainage. You can even add more soil amendments, but this is a good start for good drainage. Avoid perlite as it will be ingested (even the bigger pieces) and is harmful. I also add a drainage layer... the LECA mentioned above is a good drainage layer. I hate using that stuff for anything other than drainage (some people use it in place of soil... and it sucks)

If its a male's cage, I would just sprinkle 2" of shredded cocoa fiber on top so that there's no chance they'll try to eat the bark chunks (but you should also being using larger chunks to make them more likely to spit it out if they snag a piece). For females, I may only use the bigger chunks and add more cocoa fiber strands (long and hairy like) to make it a bit better drainage. The reason being is that the girls kick up so much soil when digging that they'll quickly bring all the bark to the surface. They're also always starving, so they are more likely to try to eat the medium pieces.


Also - wash your plants really well with a mix of water and dawn dishsoap (I also add 1-2 TB of isopropyl alcohol) in a spray bottle, and then after soaking for 5 mins, rinse really well. Sometimes I repeat this 2x. That will help remove some of plant pests, fungicides, pesticides, and fertilizers they spray.

Last but not least - make srue you have adequate light. More light = more watering and humidity needs. Less light = less watering. A Jungle Dawn is probably sufficient in that size enclosure.

 

[snitz427]

and find your niche... and give up on the problematic ones. Despite having lots of really difficult plants, that are doing fantastic.... I kill pothos and succulents like its my 2nd job. So I avoid the plants that I consistently struggle with. If pothos never do well at the top of your cage (they never did for me), switch it up and try something like like medium to bright light, and warmer temps. I am very partial to placing actual trees in the vivs rather than trying to mount terrestrial foliage up at the top of the enclosure.

 

[DonKeesh]

The pothos definitely needed more water... I try to water cage plants heavily once a week. Mister does not reach the roots.