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How to cure a necrotic thumb?

kyuuei

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Guys, I am awful at growing things.

My plants are all dying. I have a fog of fuck nature that looms around me at all times... and I believe the most plausible answer is that my father was a plant necromancer that could ignore plants, let them die, and revive them with dark arts and I am paying for those sins with a curse of never letting anything around me live.

But seriously, aloe plants? Nearly all died. It was doing okay, transplanted them step by step according to the most useful resources I could find, and I FINALLY found a spot they wouldn't die in... but recently I bought rosemary, peppers, and I was regrowing green onion and celery and none of it was doing particularly well. The celery is still alive (though not growing much past where it is at now) and the peppers are alive 3/4 but, again, not growing very much, the rosemary is nearly dead (though it seemed healthy a week or two ago) and the green onions are all shot as well.

@_@ I'm trying out some gardening I've been seeing online from a dude, but I don't think it'll save the rosemary.

Guys, how do I stop killing plants? I've killed mint. MINT. I've killed aloes. I've killed many things people claim won't die.
 

prplchknz

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I'km glad/dissapointed that this is not about an actual necrotic thumb. glad cuz that would be bad, dissapointed because i like gorey things.

plants i kill plants too so i'm no help.
 

ceecee

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Guys, I am awful at growing things.

My plants are all dying. I have a fog of fuck nature that looms around me at all times... and I believe the most plausible answer is that my father was a plant necromancer that could ignore plants, let them die, and revive them with dark arts and I am paying for those sins with a curse of never letting anything around me live.

But seriously, aloe plants? Nearly all died. It was doing okay, transplanted them step by step according to the most useful resources I could find, and I FINALLY found a spot they wouldn't die in... but recently I bought rosemary, peppers, and I was regrowing green onion and celery and none of it was doing particularly well. The celery is still alive (though not growing much past where it is at now) and the peppers are alive 3/4 but, again, not growing very much, the rosemary is nearly dead (though it seemed healthy a week or two ago) and the green onions are all shot as well.

@_@ I'm trying out some gardening I've been seeing online from a dude, but I don't think it'll save the rosemary.

Guys, how do I stop killing plants? I've killed mint. MINT. I've killed aloes. I've killed many things people claim won't die.

That really is amazing. I have two varieties of mint - both are in pots in the ground because it's so invasive. Maybe you should try bamboo and see if you can kill that - I've never heard of anyone succeeding, outside of a bomb or heavy equipment to dig up the entire area.
 

Shiver

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I don't know why I was hoping from the title of this thread that it would be a lot darker, possibly involving necromancy.
 
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For some reason my brain saw this as Neurotic Thumb and so I entered thinking what the hell is that? I don't know for a guy that loves nature, animals, and hiking I've murdered a small amount of plants I was supposed to be caring for while someone was in the hospital.

Become a kudzu farmer? That stuff is pervasive in the southern U.S. from what I've been told.
 

Gone

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Cacti and other succulents work for me. Although only on my windowsill.

Maybe the plants don't like the soil?
 

kyuuei

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That really is amazing. I have two varieties of mint - both are in pots in the ground because it's so invasive. Maybe you should try bamboo and see if you can kill that - I've never heard of anyone succeeding, outside of a bomb or heavy equipment to dig up the entire area.

Hahaha I dunno I am pretty stellar. I'll have to give it a shot.

I've been trying my hand at indoor gardening because everything outside is dying... so I just let weeds grow to make myself feel better... and my indoor plants are also dying.. though I used soil from outside, it was nice and composted and I don't see why it would suck.. but.. maybe I'll try some indoor garden mix or something. @_@
 

ceecee

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Hahaha I dunno I am pretty stellar. I'll have to give it a shot.

I've been trying my hand at indoor gardening because everything outside is dying... so I just let weeds grow to make myself feel better... and my indoor plants are also dying.. though I used soil from outside, it was nice and composted and I don't see why it would suck.. but.. maybe I'll try some indoor garden mix or something. @_@

That idea wouldn't hurt. You could also take some of your soil to a greenhouse, they can test it to see if there is too much/not enough of something. There is so much phosphorus in the soil due to livestock and farming methods all over the place. But I would try some good indoor mix with nutrients - like Miracle Grown indoor soil - and see if it makes a difference. I use it for my potted herbs I keep on the windowsill and it works great.
 

kyuuei

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^I think that's just what I need to do.

Checked on my experimental plant I took from the dying soil and put in my mini-hydropon system... Fungus/mold stuff all over the roots. I pulled some other dead plants from the dead bucket of soil, fungus on the roots. Whatever was in the soil, it killed everything off. The other batch is still alive, but since that soil came from the same area, I'm going to transplant those guys too to another system.

Gonna get some miracle grow and put it in both batches of soil, and reset everything in there.

Bought a pH reader to read my water's pH and adjust it if needed, and I am ordering some Ca/Mag powder that a lot of people online seem to use to help keep plants alive... Also gonna grab some cuts of plants to retry the hydropon systems.

I will get this gardening thing down somehow.

Aloes are alive so far, and my tiny succulent even sprouted new leaves! I'm scared to take it out of its little tiny container now haha.
 

Andy

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Guys, I am awful at growing things.

My plants are all dying. I have a fog of fuck nature that looms around me at all times... and I believe the most plausible answer is that my father was a plant necromancer that could ignore plants, let them die, and revive them with dark arts and I am paying for those sins with a curse of never letting anything around me live.

But seriously, aloe plants? Nearly all died. It was doing okay, transplanted them step by step according to the most useful resources I could find, and I FINALLY found a spot they wouldn't die in... but recently I bought rosemary, peppers, and I was regrowing green onion and celery and none of it was doing particularly well. The celery is still alive (though not growing much past where it is at now) and the peppers are alive 3/4 but, again, not growing very much, the rosemary is nearly dead (though it seemed healthy a week or two ago) and the green onions are all shot as well.

@_@ I'm trying out some gardening I've been seeing online from a dude, but I don't think it'll save the rosemary.

Guys, how do I stop killing plants? I've killed mint. MINT. I've killed aloes. I've killed many things people claim won't die.

Perhaps you are trying to hard. Sometimes people kill plants by fussing over them too much. It is possible to over water/prune plants.
 

JAVO

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Compost.

Amputate your necrotic thumb and let it rot. :D

Gardening is about the soil, and compost feeds the soil.

The best is leaf compost, or compost produced from garden and vegetable scraps from the kitchen. Mushroom compost is often good as long as it's used as a supplement compost. Avoid cow and horse manure unless it's very well-rotted.

Digging or tilling the soil isn't worth the effort. Just put down about 6 inches of good compost and plant in that. Before winter each year, spread about 2 inches of compost. Last year, I double-dug a 16 foot by 4 foot bed in two stages. Double-digging involves removing a spade-deep layer of dirt, and then loosening the soil under that with a garden fork. It was very hard work, especially since I have compacted clay soil. In some places, I was loosening the deeper soil and removing large rocks with a pick mattock. Once I added some peat moss and compost and built a raised bed with 2x8's, I had a garden bed where the soil is tilled down to at least 24 inches! Some things grew well, but others didn't. The results of others show that most of the time, digging or tilling the soil is a waste.

 

ChocolateMoose123

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^I think that's just what I need to do.

Checked on my experimental plant I took from the dying soil and put in my mini-hydropon system... Fungus/mold stuff all over the roots. I pulled some other dead plants from the dead bucket of soil, fungus on the roots. Whatever was in the soil, it killed everything off. The other batch is still alive, but since that soil came from the same area, I'm going to transplant those guys too to another system.

Gonna get some miracle grow and put it in both batches of soil, and reset everything in there.

Bought a pH reader to read my water's pH and adjust it if needed, and I am ordering some Ca/Mag powder that a lot of people online seem to use to help keep plants alive... Also gonna grab some cuts of plants to retry the hydropon systems.

I will get this gardening thing down somehow.

Aloes are alive so far, and my tiny succulent even sprouted new leaves! I'm scared to take it out of its little tiny container now haha.

I know this is an old thread. Oh well, here goes. This may not even be applicable but maybe helpful for someone reading.

I have dealt with a similar situation and treated it successfully with a soil soak.

They can be found on Amazon. "Sierra Natural Science 203 Concentrate Pesticide Soil Spray/Drench, Pint" is the one I used with great results. The fungus/mold stuff is gnat larvae. The top of the soil gets whitish and the roots get eaten and the soil gets brittle and dry and almost every herb I grew was dying because of this. The gnats are attracted to moisture, nutrient rich soil - the same thing plants love. They lay their eggs and once they hatch they feed on the root system and the top of the soil gets this whitish cast to it. You can't really see anything visually crawling around and re-potting or re-planting didn't change the situation from happening. So it left me scratching my head.

I used the soil soak to treat the initial problem and it disappeared! Plants are thriving. So, now I treat any soil mixture with it prior to using it to plant and if I bring home a plant it gets this soak before potting/planting occurs. You can also use it as a foliage spray and that's what I do to "maintain" in the summer months (humid FL here) as well as "sticky tape" hung near my plants to catch all the nasty flying critters. It's worked very well.

I have read that incorporating earthworms into your garden can help with this issue but I have no first hand experience with that.
 

kyuuei

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Why do you believe that miracle-gro will do anything for a fungal problem?


Going to watch this video later, thanks for it. I can't grow anything outside or inside, but I want to keep poking at the outdoors thing.
I'm trying to grow some things indoors for two reasons: 1. I don't have to worry about freezes and animals (of which we have many being in the middle of a forest) and 2. I want to have something more natural filtering our air inside.

Since we live in a forest the soil I was using was purely soil made from a stack of leaves we had raked the previous season. I'm now thinking that maybe there was a fungal problem in that soil itself which caused issues? Maybe that compost didn't get enough sunlight, or maybe there's something I'm supposed to do to kill bad things in it before I plant stuff in it?

I know this is an old thread. Oh well, here goes. This may not even be applicable but maybe helpful for someone reading.

I have dealt with a similar situation and treated it successfully with a soil soak.

They can be found on Amazon. "Sierra Natural Science 203 Concentrate Pesticide Soil Spray/Drench, Pint" is the one I used with great results. The fungus/mold stuff is gnat larvae. The top of the soil gets whitish and the roots get eaten and the soil gets brittle and dry and almost every herb I grew was dying because of this. The gnats are attracted to moisture, nutrient rich soil - the same thing plants love. They lay their eggs and once they hatch they feed on the root system and the top of the soil gets this whitish cast to it. You can't really see anything visually crawling around and re-potting or re-planting didn't change the situation from happening. So it left me scratching my head.

I used the soil soak to treat the initial problem and it disappeared! Plants are thriving. So, now I treat any soil mixture with it prior to using it to plant and if I bring home a plant it gets this soak before potting/planting occurs. You can also use it as a foliage spray and that's what I do to "maintain" in the summer months (humid FL here) as well as "sticky tape" hung near my plants to catch all the nasty flying critters. It's worked very well.

I have read that incorporating earthworms into your garden can help with this issue but I have no first hand experience with that.

Actually, this was HIGHLY helpful and I appreciate you posting! That white cast and fungus on the roots is exactly what I was experiencing... My BF is pretty nervous of any chemicals since we live in a forest with 2 creeks, but for indoor plants I think this might do the trick. Going to order some this week :)
 

JAVO

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Since we live in a forest the soil I was using was purely soil made from a stack of leaves we had raked the previous season. I'm now thinking that maybe there was a fungal problem in that soil itself which caused issues? Maybe that compost didn't get enough sunlight, or maybe there's something I'm supposed to do to kill bad things in it before I plant stuff in it?
Living in a forest makes me wonder if the outdoor plants are getting enough light?
 

kyuuei

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Living in a forest makes me wonder if the outdoor plants are getting enough light?

It's an issue where we're at for sure, but the front lawn area does get decent full sunlight for close to 8 hours (less in the dead of winter though).. I think the side garden area is only going to be good for growing edible weeds because it doesn't get near the sunlight it needs to grow decent plants or flowers. It stays in the shade too long I think.
 

ChocolateMoose123

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[MENTION=4939]kyuuei[/MENTION]

Actually, this was HIGHLY helpful and I appreciate you posting! That white cast and fungus on the roots is exactly what I was experiencing... My BF is pretty nervous of any chemicals since we live in a forest with 2 creeks, but for indoor plants I think this might do the trick. Going to order some this week

I hesitated about that same worry. If you want a natural approach, you can also purchase earthworms and mix them into the soil. I read it's best to do this in compost/soil away from the garden and incorporate them slowly because it's a delicate balance. The earthworms can also leave too much nitrogen in the soil for certain plants but the earthworms do feed on the same larvae that the pesticide would kill.
 
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