Why plants do what they do — one mechanism per video.
Short videos on the science of houseplants and the garden: propagation, pruning, watering, light. Each article below is one video, written out with the why.
Latest
- Stop snapping dead flowers off your rosesA snapped stub dries back and dies. Cut to an outward bud on a slant instead, and every cut becomes two stems.
- Cutting a money tree down to the trunk makes it bushier, not smallerA leggy Pachira cut back hard pushes two or three shoots from every stub. The hormone behind it, where to cut, and when.
- A whole succulent from one leaf, and why water would ruin itLay a leaf on dry soil, leave it alone, and the leaf grows the plant. The mechanism, the timeline, and the one habit to drop.
Tools we use
- A five-tier plant stand with grow lights built inOne rack on wheels, four light bars on a timer, five shelves. What the wattage number means, and what to put where.
- Self-watering pots with a wick and a windowA cotton wick pulls water up from a reservoir at the pace the soil dries. Why that does not rot the roots, and who it is for.