Where to buy live organic plants?
- Thread starter agavrysh
- Start date
brandon1
Established Member
Home Depot, Lowes, and Wal Mart have plants. But if you get them
you should be sure to change the soil and rinse the leaves off in case
of pesticides and fertilizer. It's basic things to do to make sure the plant is safe if
your cham decides to chomp on the leaves or drink off them or eat
some soil, but I can post my process if you want to see it.
Motherlode Chameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
There are a couple online nurseries and universities that have got a large selection of plants that are offered for sale. The plants can be extremely exotic, however you have got to be extremely cautious not to buy toxic/poisonous plants. Which is especially a concern if you have a plant eating chameleon species. We're working on expanding and updating the Chameleon Forums list/ plant resources and should give you more of a direction where to go.
Please post!!!!!!!
brandon1
Established Member
I learned this from an article a while back and it sounded legit so here it goes. First take a CLEAN bucket or cooler of sum sort (I use a 5 gallon bucket or so) and fill it to however tall the plant is from the root line to the very top of the plant. Then take some regular dish ditergent like Dawn and squirt a little in there and stir it around. Gently dislodge the plants from the pot they are in, making sure you don't break the roots, and rinse the the plants off completely with a water hose. Try not to beat them up with the jet but make sure you spray over the plant completely, particularly the part that was underneath the soil to wash away any remaining soil or possible fertilizer attached, and the topside could have pesticides on it so you will want to give it a good rinsing as well. Now dunk the top part of the plant, from the very top to the root line, into the bucket of soapy water and swash it around for a few seconds and then remove and place the plant on something to set for a couple or so minutes. Afterwards thoroughly rinse the plant completely to make sure no soap residue is left on the plant(you may wish to do this process of dunking the plant in soapy water, letting it set, and rinsing it off at a maximum of like 3 times but I believe I only did it once). Next take the soil that came with the plant and get rid of it; you don't want the soil or going through the previous steps is next to pointless. If you are using the same plant pot rinse it out with with soapy water and just make sure you get all the soil out of it, as well as any soapy residue; if you're using a brand new pot then obviously you won't have to worry about the previous step. Now take Organic Soil (there is a specific Organic Soil brand where I live in Florida but any Organic Soil should suffice) and fill it up to however high you want your soil to be (probably would be best to make the soil line as high as the soil line was when you took the plants out of their previous pot). Now you should have perfectly safe plants for your cham; just make sure that the plant itself isn't poisonous or could harm your cham in anyway before you buy it. Hope this helps and reply back if you have any other questions
brandon1
Established Member
Look at my post just below yours that I'm responding to
buy from Home Depots / etc, buy some organic container soil (I personally HIGHLY recommend FOX FARMS OCEAN SOIL the "blue bag"..all organic too but only found at hydroponics shops)
Wash plant + dirt thoroughly and replant
EDIT: For additional safeguarding or if you have any kind of pesticide/etc concerns (or in my case I do this for any plants going into frog/pygmy tanks or any kind of enclosed system for sure) ....
Make a 10% (AT MOST) bleach solution.
Dip the entire plant, roots and all, into the solution for 1-3 minutes (depending on the size of the plant....for MOSSES/LICHENS dip much SHORTER)
Use a second container with clean water and take the plants from the first bucket, into the second, and let them sit fully submerged in clean water for 5-10minutes (also rehydrates them well) and then pull them out and transplant.
