Don't follow the advice about watering with ice cubes, use a mister or put it under a slowly trickling tap for a few minutes. It will need fed, but don't feed it for about a month if you had to trim the roots.
Thanks for the advice. I had already mixed up the fertilizer so I read this at a good time. The leaves don't look wrinkled anymore so something is going right at least.
Excuse the double post I just wanted to show off the little cutie. It’s pot is a bit makeshift since I wasn’t planning on getting one, but it will be fixed soon.
so cute! a thing I didn't know about orchids, originally: they don't want huge pots, they're happiest if their roots are a bit crowded. so something that's approximately the size of that cup would be fine. plastic is best, with good drainage holes.
Good drainage holes are the biggest thing, and if you can't find an actual orchid pot terra cotta works well. The big thing with them is that the roots need to breath and not retain moisture between waterings. plastic is ok if it has enough holes but I've had the best luck with ceramic. One big thing when you do repot it, make sure you wash the pot thoroughly, since they're sensitive to infection. I usually rinse it with a bleach solution and then boiling water, but that might be overkill. If you can, potting it in an orchid mix will help with keeping the moisture regulated, but if not don't worry too much. Have fun :) orchids are fussy little things but they're so cute!
Been trying my hardest to get the small yard here under control, which has... not been easy since it's just me working on it really, and I've never done yardwork in my life (my last home had a tiny yard with nothing to do but mow it, which the landlord did) and it's been obviously neglected for a squillion years- heaps of rot and years worth of branching ivy :C I've mostly been working on the ivy clinging to the two plum trees in the yard, but I'm starting to be unable to reach the masses of branching/flowering crap in the canopy from my ladder, and also haven't been able to cut through a lot of the branches/roots near the base like I've read you're supposed to- they're thicker than my wrist and flush against the tree, so I can't get around it with my pruning shears. Tried a bow saw I borrowed from my parents but there's really not much room to manuever it and I haven't been able to do anything but the shallowest of cuts. Wonder if I'll have to pay a pro to get this poor tree ivy-free, it's creating nets of rotting material :X no idea how much that costs. On the more manageable side, can anyone give me pruning tips on the poor little wonky apple tree I'll be putting pictures of in attachments? My mind turns into a horrified blank when I've googled pruning advice, and in any case, this little dude is so tilted I don't know what to do to get it to grow a little straighter (it was even worse bent before me and my roommate staked it to keep it from toppling- it's obviously been growing that way for ages because it's kinda shaded on the other side by the ivy-ridden plum tree out of frame.) Definitely want to get that done this season since I know you're supposed to do it when they're dormant.
My neighbors have a small orchard, and I’ve seen them keep saplings staked like that for years at a time, but I don’t know any of the specifics on how best to do that. Im guessing you’d want to redo it once or twice a year to keep the tree from getting strangled? For bigger trees I think it’s common to prop up heavy branches with a big piece of timber, but it looks like you’re a ways away from that.
For pruning, the advice I'm finding is to wait until late winter to do any cutting unless you really need to do it sooner. And to focus on removing any branches that are dead or diseased, and to leave ones that are fruit-bearing alone where possible. (The fruit-bearing ones look darker and wrinkled, apparently.) Try to trim in a way that'll encourage air circulation and prevent water from pooling, and cut away from the branch collar so that it'll heal properly. If all you've got are pruning shears, just focus on the tiny branches you can easily reach - anything thicker than about an inch will need loppers to take down, and anything thicker than 3 inches will need a hand saw.
Right, but what can I do about the little fellow being so slumped to one side? Should I trim more off the 'heavy' side in hopes that'll help it straighten out a bit or what? Poor thing was pulling even harder down when it was fruiting.
You could try propping it up? Googling “tree branch support” returned some results that looked helpful. I think if you support it in the shape you want while it’s young, it’ll end up staying that way when the trunk gets thick enough to support itself.
Cutting back some of the heavier branches can help as well. We have an Asian pear tree that was actually breaking branches from the weight of its own fruit. We had to prop it up with wood, cut off broken branches, and shake off the tiny fruit before they grew to big to keep it going at first So try propping it up as straight as you can and getting rid of any fruit it makes on the heavier side when it does. If it reacts like our tree it will always look a little funny but it should perk up.
honestly I recommend pruning it back pretty far, all the way back to the first straight-upright growing limb, which will become the new central growth. fruit trees need a good sturdy upright stance to get huge and support themselves from. I'd also trim that upright limb back to 2 or 3 feet, which will encourage new growth to happen along the existing limbs instead of mostly straight up. (hard to pick apples when they're 20ft in the air, lol) this all seems pretty drastic, and tbh it is, but a young tree needs a good established structure, and doing this while it's dormant will allow it to use all its stored winter energy for new limb growth in the spring, instead of diverting some of those resources to the awkward heavy branches that were removed. you probs won't be getting apples from it this coming year, but that's ok, because it's still establishing its healthy growth and fruit takes up a lot of energy.
The more I work on the yard the more discouraged I get :( it's such a rotten nightmare and the harder I work the more I expose disgusting shit/ other shit that means I probably can't fix on my own without professional help All I want is a yard that just need maintaining instead of having to probably be burnt to the ground and rebuilt from the ground up, fuck the previous owners of this house eight ways from Sunday for neglecting it for so many years, I can't afford this shit
Keep in mind that you don't have to do it all at once. Focus on the bits you can do right now, and make a list of what you think might need a professional to do; you can save up for that, or look for groupons or sales. Plus, if you're trying to fix literal years of neglect? You're not going to be able to fix it all on your own quickly. This is a long-term project. But: this spring? The yard is going to be nicer than it was before you started. And that trend will keep going. You'll get there, it's just going to take more effort than you were initially expecting.
Yeah, I did that at first when I was clearing the blackberry bushes, but every time I work on something, something else is getting worse (and I've been working on the ivy since late summer and it's still a nightmare) The weeds are just going to keep getting worse, but if I stop on the ivy and work on the weeds, the IVY will get worse, plus the myriad other shit like us probably needing to rip out a huge chunk of fence and replace it with chain link (and for that we need to consult with the neighbor, whom I never see, and if he refuses to share in the payment because he could easily argue that it doesn't need replacing since it's still, yknow, standing (the section that's having the issue is on a side of his house where he doesn't have to look at it every day like we do- it's covered in ivy that looks kinda nice but I know that there's root thicker than my balled fists buried under there chewing on the wood and warping it) THEN what, and I still gotta figure out how to trim the apple tree okay, and decide whether to rip out these... hell, Google isn't availing me, these bushes with glossy leaves and black berries that are growing wildly in all directions because they're in the shade of the plum tree and half-crushed by ivy with nets of dead leaves rotting on and under them, and half a dozen other things that need attention :(
Okay, so: for the ivy? Yeah, you're probably going to need professionals to get all of it. But the weeds and ivy won't get that much worse right now - it's winter, it's too cold for them to keep growing. They're dormant, like everything else. So you are going to manage to make more visible headway here. And yes, it's "still a nightmare"...because you're combating years of neglect. You've made really good progress so far, and you should be proud of that! As far as the neighbour goes, I'd recommend sending him a letter, set up so that it requires a signature of proof that he got it. Explain in the letter that hey, this section of fence needs replacing because the ivy is destroying it and list what you've got in mind for replacement and ask if he has any suggestions. Bonus that this means you've got a paper trail of having talked to him about it. The berry bushes don't need immediate attention: they'll keep until spring at least. A list really would help, I think. Write down everything that needs doing to make the yard nice and functional, then mark what's most urgent, what can wait till next season, what can wait till next winter, and what has to wait until you've got the money to hire someone to do it. So for example: fence? Needs to wait until you've got money to deal with it. Berry bushes? Can wait until next season. Apple tree? Should be dealt with this season, but will not suffer significantly if you wait until next winter. Ivy? Urgent, but has sections which need to wait until you've got money to deal with it and can arguably wait until next season or until you've bought new equipment. Weeds can wait until next season, when it'll be easier to yank them out of the ground.
Is mulching an option for you? For a very overgrown yard with basically a non-existant lawn, I would mulch the whole thing.
For the thick ivy, it looks like there are a few different mini chainsaws available for under $100, and I wouldn't be surprised if someplace near you had them available to rent as well. You'd run a higher risk of damaging whatever the ivy is clinging to, but it would make trimming and removal a lot easier.
Is there anything that’s good to grow in a pot without drainage? I’ve got a couple of flowerpots that are pretty enough I want to put something in them.
