Episode 108: Q and A special

A Maranta with an identity crisis. Photograph: Maija Gierhart

Transcript

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Jane: This week's episode of On The Ledge is supported by IndoorGardenWorks.com and the iHarvest indoor garden. The iHarvest is a beautiful indoor garden that allows you to grow 30 fresh fruits and vegetables 30% faster and bigger than traditional gardening while in the comfort of your own home. Needing just two and half square feet of floor space, the iHarvest fits in even the smallest of apartments and condos while doubling as a work of art for your living space. This clean and beautiful hydroponic garden is great for growing farm fresh produce all year round and it's great for the environment as well requiring 90% less water than traditional gardening and 60% fewer fertilisers than the fruits and veggies you'd otherwise buy at the supermarket. Better yet, you and your family can be eating pesticide-free, herbicide-free and GMO-free produce all year long. Add greenery and fresh food to your life this winter by preordering your iHarvest now at indoorgardenworks.com

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Jane: Hello and welcome to On the Ledge Podcast, I am your host Jane Perrone and welcome to an award-winning podcast. Yes, On The Ledge scooped the gold award in the Podcast Talent category at the GardenComm Media Awards in Salt Lake City over the weekend. Safe to say I'm cock-a-hoop at the news and it feels like a real validation of all the hard work I've put into the podcast in the past two years but it's really all down to you, the listeners, who make this show such a delight to make, so thank you everyone. Right, quick, let's get on with the show before I go all Lady Gaga on you and start crying.

This week's show is a Q&A special, so if you've sent me a question, listen out because I could be about to solve all your problems. I mean maybe not all your problems, no, I don't know how to reset your iPhone or what that strange rattling is in your car, but if it's plant-related I'll do my best to help.

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Jane: Just before we get started, a quick shout out to my three new Patreon subscribers this week, Andrea and Sarah, who have both become Ledge-ends, and Sonia who has become a Crazy Plant Person, thanks very much to them for supporting this show with their hard earned moolah. Find out how to support On The Ledge in many different ways, financial and otherwise, in my show notes at JanePerrone.com- one of the ways you can support On The Ledge is by leaving a lovely review on your pod app of choice, which is exactly what TheTangoNerdy did. I won't read out the whole thing because it is rather long, but I particularly loved the line: "I look forward every week to each new episode and I will continue to be a dedicated listener until my green thumb falls off." Well, let's hope that doesn't happen TheTangoNerdy, I can't imagine the circumstances under which that would occur, but fingers crossed, or thumbs crossed, that your thumbs stay intactfor a very long time to come. So please do follow TheTangoNerdy's example and leave me a review on iTunes, tell your friends about the show and generally spread the word about On The Ledge.

I've heard this week from Jane Davis, who is founder and director of The Reader at Calderstones The Mansion House in Liverpool, and it's been relaunched as the International Centre for Shared Reading. I do love a good book so I am fully behind this project. As a big house plant grower herself, Jane is looking to fill the mansion with lots and lots of plants. So, if you have got any cuttings that you could donate and you happen to be in the UK, so they're easy enough to post, then I will post some details in the show notes about how you can get your donations of cuttings to green up the International Centre for Shared Reading, do go and check that out.

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Jane: Let's get going on the Q&A and Ryan from Chicago in the US wants to know what to do with "spent" potting mix. The kind that you get as a result of dead plants, let's not beat around the very much dead bush here. This got me wondering this question because I don't have a lot of, if you see me doing air quotes around the word "spent", "spent" compost that is produced from my house plants. So, I was wondering where all this used potting mix was coming from and I questioned Ryan further and I got a reply back, and he was a little bit sheepish here I guess, he said: "I think you're on to a couple of bad practices, first we have collected a lot of pots and dead plants, which is the source of most of the excess soil I have now." Well, as I've said before on the show Ryan, there is no shame to killing house plants, this is part of your house plant grower journey, it's okay, we all kill plants and we will figure out what to do with that "spent" compost.

But Ryan also says that he thinks he's been removing too much soil from the rootball when repotting. This is an interesting one, when you're repotting a plant, generally speaking, unless the potting soil that you're using is very wrong for the plant, then usually you would leave the rootball pretty much intact. You might tease out some of the root if it's particularly root bound, just to make sure they aren't going to grow back on themselves again and they're going to spread out into the new potting mix. Generally speaking, I wouldn't knock all of the compost, or rather potting mix, off the rootball because there's not really a necessity to do so, however, what I would do, is make sure that I aerated that rootball quite vigorously before I repotted.

What does that mean? It means it's getting more air to the roots which may be suffering from compaction and because the old potting mix has just slumped down, so reintroducing air is important and I would generally do that using something like a chopstick, depending on the size of the roots would depend on the size of the tool I'd be using, anything from a very thin knitting needle up to a chopstick, up to a bamboo stick. Digging that into the rootball to make sure I'm doing a poking motion with my hands, which obviously you can't see but anyway you get the idea, in goes the stick and that brings air into that rootball, but I wouldn't generally be removing all the soil from the rootball unless it was wrong. So, for example, if I bought a cactus or a succulent and I realised that it had been put in something very claggy and not very free draining, that might make me tap, tap, tap on the side of a potting tray and allow all of that potting mix to fall off before I repotted because I would know that's going to damage the plant if it keeps surrounding the roots and stopping them from draining properly. So, in that scenario, yes I would end up with that spent compost but I wouldn't really be generating a lot of used up potting mix when I am repotting.

So, I'm glad I've managed to clear that one up for you Ryan but that still leaves you with the potting mix that is in the dead plants and Ryan was wondering whether this would be okay to put in his tumbler composter, and the answer generally speaking is yes, it would be fine. The only time I would have any doubts about this would be if you had a plant that was incredibly spiny like a cactus and it's dead and it's going into the tumbler, depending on how hands-on you get, you might want to avoid that going into a compost bin. The other reason might be if there's a pest as such as vine weevel in that rootball and that's probably something which you might want to put into a green waste bin or a commercial green waste collection of some kind rather than into your own compost heap. Most other pests like aphids and white fly will be killed off in an average compost heap, they just won't survive, so it's fine to put plants killed by those kind of pests and the associated potting mix that's still attached to the plant.

Can you reuse this potting mix on your house plants? Well, there's a lot of talk about microwaving or putting soil into the oven to totally kill off any bugs that might be in there. This is a bit scorched earth approach, you're killing off good and bad bugs by doing that, so I would generally not recommend that, unless you were wanting to make up some seed sowingpotting mix which is best off being completely sterile.

If you are 100% sure that your plant has not died from a pest or a disease then yes you can go ahead and reuse the potting mix that it was planted in. If you want to be on the safe side, the compost heap is the way to go, but if you are sure that maybe you over watered your plant and that was what sent it packing, then yes you can reuse the potting mix. You need to revitalise it though make sure that it is well aerated and ideally that you add some nutrients back in from the beginning, so you'll need to start feeding your plant immediately if it's planted in something that's already had most of the nutrients taken out of it. You might want to add some Perlite if it's a more free draining mix you're looking for, or possibly some Vermiculite for certain plants that like more moisture around the roots. I probably wouldn't use spent compost as 100% of your potting mix, I'd add in some new house plant compost and maybe cut it 50/50 just to make sure that the plant gets the best possible start in life.

The absolute worst thing that can happen to your spent potting mix is it just ends up just going into the regular bin and off to landfill because that really is a terrible waste. So if you don't have your own garden or compost heap to place your plants in, then maybe seek out a community composting scheme or a friend or relative with a garden who is happy for you to chuck that spent potting soil on to their beds because it will act as a great soil improver and mulch. It will at least go back into the garden system rather than a landfill. I know that for people without gardens, storage and transport of potting mixesis a real headache and one that you do really struggle with, so do let me know if you've got any cunning ways of dealing with this issue.

The next question comes from Izzy, who got in touch on Instagram, where I'm j.l.perrone, to ask How do I know when chillis are ready to pick? It just so happens, Izzy, I need to check on my own chilli plant, so let's go and take a look and see if we can answer your question.

I've come outside on to my patio to take a look at my chilli pepper, over the years I've grown loads of different chilli varieties, some years I grow tonnes of the things. This year I've only grown just one because, guess what, I'm a little bit obsessed with other plants at the moment, and the On The Ledge sowalong, so I haven't grown as many chillis as I normally would, I've just got this one plant which came as a seedling from William, a friend of mine, who is from Central America, so he knows what he's doing when it comes to chillis. This is a jalapeño, so right now, all the fruits on it are a lovely bright glossy green colour and I've already started picking some of these chillis because they're delicious green and absolutely fine to eat then.

So the answer to the question really is, whenever you like, as soon as your chillis have reached a size and the dimensions that you think you can make use of them in the kitchen, do feel free to start picking them. As the fruit develops and changes colour to become red, it will get hotter and the flavour will change, but that doesn't mean that the flavour, when it's green, is no good. Looking at these jalapeños here, I think to get these to actually fully ripen, I'm going to need to bring this pot indoors because over here in the UK the temperature is starting to dip into single figures at night now. So I'm going to bring this plant into my sun room which will mean at night it gets not too chilly and that will encourage the chillis to start their, or rather finish, their ripening process.

There are a couple of random flowers that have emerged on the plant, I'm going to take these off, because they are never going to produce ripe fruits, there's just not enough time in the year, so I've taken those off and that will allow the plant to put all of its energies into the fruits. It is worth saying that many chilli plants will overwinter indoors and then can be brought on to produce another harvest the following year. There's a special kind of chilli called the tree chilli, which is ideal for this because it is grown specifically to be a perennial plant and I had these for a few years until they got so big that I didn't have anywhere to overwinter them, they literally had become trees. But it's definitely worth trying overwintering your chillis indoors if you have the room and that way you'll get a much earlier harvest the next year.

So, I would say harvest your chillis when you fancy it and try them at different stages to see when you like the flavour because different types of chillis will serve different recipes but in the same way, different ripeness of the same species will work in different recipes too. But I'm pretty pleased with the harvest on this plant, it's got about fifteen to 20 chillis on here all at different stages of development and as I say, I'm already enjoying them.

If you can't bring your chilli plant indoors or for some reason they just don't ripen properly then what you can do is take all of them off and string them on to a ristra which is basically turning your chilis into a chilli string and you get a big needle like one that you might use for tapestry and you thread that through with a piece of cotton thread and then you just pierce the top of the chilli and make a beautiful ristra, I'll post a picture on my show notes to show you how this looks, that's a great way of hanging up chillis to dry. My favourite way of storing chillis is actually freezing them. They freeze really well whole or chopped up and then when you want to use them you can just take them out and use them. It's a really great way to make sure that your chilli harvest doesn't go to waste. There's a rather delicious looking tomato, growing next to the chilli, a wonderful variety called Bloody Butcher and it's just calling for me to eat it, so I'm off to eat a tomato now but I hope that chilli advice has helped.

Well, I can report that my Bloody Butcher was absolutely delicious. One other thing I forgot to mention in the excitement about the tomato is a way of getting your chillis to ripen furtheronce they're off the plant, and if you get a paper bag and you pop the chillis into it along with a banana, close up the bag gently and you'll find that the ethylene gas released by the banana will help to ripen your chillis gradually and bring on that beautiful red colour if that's what you're after.

Looking at the picture that Izzy sent, I can see she's got lots of chillis forming but also lots of flowers, assuming you're not using any additional light for this plant over the coming months I would advise taking off all those flowers and allowing the plant to put all its energies into those fruits but maybe if you stuck a grow light over it then possibly you could keep it going for that bit longer and encourage those flowers to actually form new fruits, bear in mind that if the flowers have formed inside they won't have been pollinated, so you would need to get a tiny paint brush and just move that from one flower to another flower rubbing in against the central area of the flower where the pollen is, to make sure that your flowers are pollinatedand will therefore form fruits. It's kind of fun, actually, so that's worth knowing about if you're growing indoor chillis and make sure you get some nice juicy fruits out of them.

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Jane: I'll be back with more answers to your question after this short ad break.

On The Ledge Podcast is proud to be supported, this week, by The Joy of Plants, if you're looking for house plant information, inspiration and care tips then look no further than The Joy of Plants. Whether you want to learn about three key house plant styling trends for 2019, meet planty people from all over the globe or have a go at plant based craft projects to help green up your home, The Joy of Plants is the place to be. You'll find The Joy of Plants on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and on their website TheJoyofPlants.co.uk

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Jane: And the next question comes from and Ellie C and her cat Marie, what a great Instagram handle that is. Ellie got in touch about her Pilea peperomioideswhich she says is growing and branching in a way she hasn't seen before. "Instead of a single stalk going straight upwards and new growth only at the top, the centre stalk has branches and new leaves growing the whole length of the main stem making for a fuller, bushier plant. I had to buy it but I don't know anything about it or why it's growing this way."

I think this is a rather nice problem to have because it depends on your aesthetics but I rather like the fact that this Pileais bushing out rather than making one rather more spindly stem, I know they're very popular on Instagram but they're not my favourites when Pileasget really, really tall. My first thought was that the growing point of the plant has been damaged and therefore that has stopped it growing straight up and encouraged lots of branching, that seems to me to be the most obvious explanation of what's going on. It is producing a lot of babies and what you'll find with Pilea peperomioidesis that young plants will just sit there and grow nicely but won't produce any babies and then suddenly it's like a switch has been flicked and the plant will start absolutely being, well how can I describe it, fecund in the extreme,producing lots and lots of babies from all over the pot. I wouldn't worry about this overly it's just a plant that's very happy and producing lots of babies. It is curious to wonder why, as I say, I think the most likely explanation that is some kind of damage that's forced it to bush out at this stage because it's not that tall. If anyone else has got any theories about what's going on here then I'd love to hear them.

I am on more social media platforms thanis perhaps is good for my overall health, you can find me on Facebook OnTheLedgePod, Instagram j.l.perrone and on Twitter as Jane.Perrone and however you get in touch I'd love to hear from you.

Up next is Maija who go in touch to say that she has a curious issue with a tricolour Maranta. "It's grown a leaf that looks just like the lemon lime ones," and she's asking: "Has this ever happened with yours? Do you know if it's something that happens sometimes, like other plants leaf variegation changing?" This is a really great question, the first thing I asked Maija, was whether this plant that has produced the lemon lime looking leaf is actually the same plant as the rest in the pot. The reason I asked that is that oftentimes,particularly with things like Maranta group plants, the calatheas, the cynanthus and indeed the Marantas. Oftentimesyoung seedlings are placed, packed together, in one single pot. So you've actually got separate plants packed together to make a more a bushy effect. It did occur to me that one of those might be a lemon and lime Maranta that's been packed in there along with the red-ribbed ones. Maija assures me that's not the case and she sent me a picture to illustrate the point which I'll put in the show notes. So, what's the explanation? Maija has theories that it's something to do with nutrients, the fact that she hasn't actually fed this plant for a long time, or that it's something to do with light.

Now I have brought my Marantas out to the studio to have a look at in reference to answering this question because I've got a small lemon lime Maranta and the normal red-ribbed type as well. Let me put them down in front of me so I can actually look at them properly. These plants, the leaves are very, very variable I find. Some of them do come out and have very red pronounced veins and some less so. When I look at the young leaves of the lemon lime, they don't develop that strong rib until they get a bit older, and if you look at the very young leaves, they almost look like the plain rolled rabbit track Maranta that you may well recognise with just the dark green splodges, but as the leaf matures, those ribs develop a deepening colour. When I look at the red-ribbed version, that doesn't seem to be quite the same, the red ribs are there from the beginning, but I do notice on my plant that some are more intense than others.

So what's the solution? I would definitely start fertilising your plant, Maija, because whether or not it's affecting the rib colour, eventually lack of nutrients will start to impact on your plant. Unless, of course, you're repotting it every six months, in which case you are feeding it via new potting mix which will come with nutrients contained. Assumingthat's not the case, do start applying a weak dose of house plant feed around now until I'd say until the end of October and then tail off for the more dormant period of this plant's year because it doesn't really need to be fed when it's not growing so much and see if that makes any difference.

I don't have a great deal of faith in the theory that it's down to nutrients because looking at the rest of the plant that looks perfectly healthy and is producing lots of lovely leaves. So I suspect that nutrients are not responsible, could it be light? Well, I think this is a case of wait and see, if the plant starts producing lots of these pale ribbed leaves then it might be a reason to review the situation of the plant and try it in a different light situation. It may be that the ribs are getting faded out by too much sunlight, but again, if that was happening you'd be seeing that in more than one leaf.

Back in episode 76 I answered a question about Philodendron'Pink Princess' and in that episode I talked about chimeral variegation which is where there's different genetic material fighting for dominance in the same leaf. But the variegation in Marantas is different, it's called natural variegation or pattern gene variegation and that battle isn't going on in the plant in the same way as it does when there's chimeral variegation. Whatthat means is that the plants come true from seed, that means you can sowthe seed of these plants and it will come true and it will look like the parent. What you don't get with these plants is a huge variation from leaf to leaf in what the leaf looks like, whereas if you've got a Thai Constellation every leaf will look different. Whenyou've got a Maranta, every leaf will look the same, having said that, but even then you still get the occasional, odd leaf that just doesn't conform, unless this plant starts producing every leaf the same, I wouldn't be overly concerned, it's just an interesting curiosity that may have been caused by a genetic blip that probably isn't going to go on and continue. But if you want to experiment then, Maija, I would try and move this to different light intensities and see how the plant responds. That said, Marantas aren't necessarily the easiest of plants. As yours is looking so happy and jolly, then maybe just accept what's going on and as long as the plant stays healthy, just roll with it. Maranta lemon limes are rather desirable, certainly over here in the UK where they're quite hard to get hold of, so if your plant does turn that way then I guess that could be a good thing.

Marantas also came up in a question from Hannah, who says she's recently bought The House Plant Expertby Dr David Hessayon on my recommendation and she loves it. Excellent, that's great to hear. The Maranta plant that she bought three weeks ago is now drooping more and more each day. She's tried to follow Dr Hessayon's advice to the tee,so she's been misting a couple of times a day, keeping the soil moist, keeping it out of direct sun, the temperature is 77F, 57% humidity, the Maranta is looking worse and worse every day and I really don't know what's wrong. I actually had a very, very similar query on Twitter addressed to me earlier this week, this came from Stephanie who is also suffering from a drooping Maranta.

So what's the answer? Well, if you buy a Maranta and bring it home, often times the plant is completely in shock and it's probably planted in a potting mix that is suitable for a nursery where conditions are absolutely tip top and perfect and computer controlled, but when the plant gets back into your house, well, things are less than ideal. Even if you're doing everything you think you should, probably the conditions that you can offer mean that the potting mix that it's in is not right for your conditions, even though it was right for the conditions they were growing in, in the nursery. In other words, when you're growing a plant like this at home, it's a really good idea to check that potting mix when you first get it home. In fact this one I've got here has not been repotted since I bought it and it desperately needs it because the potting mix is like a sponge, it's very moisture retentive rather than the more free draining mix I would pot it into. I'm putting potting mix all over my keyboard at the minute. Anyway, so this plant I've got desperately needs repotting and that's part of the reason why it's had spider mite because it'sbeen weakened by non-ideal conditions.

So what I would say in both of these situations is check that pot and the rootball and ideally knock away all the potting mix from around the rootball and from the rootball as much as you can and repot in a free draining potting mix that allows water to drain away more quickly which means that the roots won't be getting soaked and this drooping effect is probably due to too much water around the roots. That said it can be other things, cold draught? If the plant has been exposed to cold draughts either on the way home or in your own home, that can also put it into shock. The plant doesn't know whether it's coming or going and you get this drooping effect.

I'd say check the rootball and make sure that's okay, then continue with everything you're doing beyond that and hope that the plant responds well. It can take a couple of months for a plant to really settle in to your conditions, so don't give up hope. But don't allow a situation where the plant is too moist to continue for long because, particularly at this time of year, what's happening is growth is slowing down and so the amount you were watering two months ago, when it was hot summer, won't be ideal now as the temperature drops and the plants' metabolism just slows down. The engine of the plant is slowing down and so it needs less supplies, it needs less water to go along its daily business, so you need to think about tailing off the watering a bit and making sure that potting mix around the rootball is not making it too claggy and producing this effect of wilting the leaves because, as I've said before on this show, wilting leaves can be a consequence of too much watering as well as too little.

The other reason Marantas droop is spider mite and this is worth checking for any time your plants show any kind of signs of distress, check for spider mites. I've mentioned before in this show about getting a hand lens, get your hand lens, or use the zoom function on your smart phone to have a really close look at the leaves down the central rib at the back of the leaf is the place to look for these little tiny creatures wandering about, or just about visible to the eye is the white grainy stuff, that is the sign of spider mites in the form of the eggs or the shed skins. If you want to know more about spider mites, do go back and listen to my spider mites episode which I will link to in the show notes. I hope your Maranta is looking good again soon Hannah and that's proven helpful.

Remember, if you've got a question for On The Ledge drop me a line, is the best place to send your inquiry. The more information you give me the more I can help, so photographs, up close, from a distance, pictures of the pot telling me whether it's in a plastic or a terracotta pot, where you live in the world, how long you've had the plant for. All of that information can help me diagnose the problem, otherwise it just turns into me having to fire back loads more questions at you to try to help.

Now I have a question from Jennifer who has moved from Northern Michigan to outside New Orleans, Louisiana. "Well, hey y'all, do you have any suggestions for plants that can handle air conditioning?" This is an apposite question, Jennifer, having lived in Baton Rouge in Louisiana, I know that air conditioningis pretty vital for certainly a few months of the year when it gets dastardly hot. Plants that can handle air conditioning, I remember that the air conditioning is pretty fierce in Louisiana, you're either freezing cold and it turns you like an ice block and you go outside and it's like being in a sauna, there's no happy medium for those couple of months of the year where the weather is, how can I describe it? Well, soupy is the best I can say. So plants that can handle air conditioning, so things that will survive in cold draughts really is what we're looking for.

One plant that I think would be ideal in this kind of environment and I think would grow very well is called Sparmannia africana, to be precise, and this is also known as African hemp and it's also known as the house lime plant as well. Confusing because obviously, there's so many plants with the name lime in it that may or not be a lime. Sparmannia africanais a big old house plant, it can get fiddly fig proportions quite easily and I remember seeing this in a country house in the UK and it was sitting in a draughty window and I thought: "A-ha! A plant that survives in draughts, this is useful to know." If you give it the right conditions, this plant will absolutely romp away, it's a fast grower, like an avocado, you can pinch out the top of the plant if you want it to be more bushy or you can just let it grow straight up.

In fact Ashley, an avocado would be another good choice for this kind of environment, I think it would do okay, providing it wasn't right under the vent of the air conditioning, I think an avocado plant would be tough enough to survive in these conditions. Both need a brightly lit spot, not direct sun, and one of the bonuses of the African hemp is that it does flower, so around late Spring, early Summer, it produces clusters of white flowers, with a beautiful sensual boss of yellowy orange stamens. It looks a bit like Mexican orange blossom on steroids or maybe there's also a bit of a touch of the Japanese anemone about it too, and they're definitely a talking point. The leaves are kind of boring, they're just big round, softly hairy leaves, but the beauty of this plant is that it grows really fast, you get a big plant in a short amount of time and it's easy to root some cuttings from the stem if you decide that your plant has become too leggy and you want to start some new cuttings, that's the easiest way to do it.

SoSparmannia africana, Persea americana(the avocado) would be one of my other suggestions. If you've got a super sunny windowsill, the jade plant, Crassula ovata, is pretty much unkillable, I don't think it'll be bothered by cool air coming on to it but just make sure that you're not over watering it and it's in really, really gritty compost so that water runs through, that's going to be the thing that kills it.

Then we're on to our old favourites like Zamioculcas zamiifolia, the double Z plant, not going to be bothered by a bit of cold air, it'll be absolutely fine, and, of course, the cast iron plant, Aspidistra elatior, would be great too.

It's all really down to where you're positioning the plants within your air conditioned home. The more sensitive the plant the further from the air con vent you should be putting it, bearing in mind its light requirements. If you heard my episode on the Strawberry saxifrage, that's another plant to consider, it's tough as old boots and fine in very cool temperatures, so that's another one I recommend. I'm looking across at my tricolour saxifrage which is absolutely glowing beautiful pink neon, it's the most beautiful plant. This plant can survive outside down to freezing temperatures, so it'll be absolutely fine with a bit of air con.

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Jane: That wraps up this Q&A special. Don't despair if I haven't answered your question. I answer a question in most episodes of the show, so keep listening and yours should come up and if you don't get a reply from me, do send a nudge, I do get a lot of emails and I will do my best to get back to you individually if I possibly can. Don't forget you can use the search function on my website JanePerrone.comwhich will help you to track down advice for the plant that you're trying to deal with. I'm off now to titivate my Tradescantias, I do hope you have a fabulous week. Bye.

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Jane: The music you heard in this episode was Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops and Oh Malloryby Josh Woodward. The ad music was by the Heftone Banjo Orchestra with the tracks Whistling Rufusand Dill Pickles all licensed under Creative Commons. See www.janeperrone.comfor details.

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I tackle a clutch of listener questions in this episode. Here they are listed in order: 

Spent potting soil dilemma

Ryan from Chicago wanted to know what to do with ‘spent’ houseplant compost. I advised that, unless you’re fully changing the potting mix for a plant, you don’t need to remove all the soil from the rootball when repotting, although running it through with a chopstick or similar to improve aeration is useful. When it comes to potting soil that is surrounding dead plants, on the whole these can easily be added to a compost tumbler or bin, and can also be reused, but only if the plant hasn’t died from a disease or pest, and extra nutrients will be needed, and some aeration in the form of perlite, horticultural sand or similar. You can sterilise soil in the microwave or oven but this is only really necessary to create potting mix for seed sowing.

Chilli ripeness

A chilli ristra. Photograph: Jane Perrone.

Izzy asked how to know when chillis are ready to pick. The easy answer is ’whenever you want’ - green chillies are generally classed as unripe, although they are still used in many recipes. The flavour will be different depending on the ripeness of the chilli, but this does vary hugely from one variety to another. If you haven’t listened to my episode on chilli growing yet, do have a listen. There are some good instructions on how to make a chilli ristra here, and if you’re curious about my ‘Bloody Butcher’ tomato (an heirloom variety) there’s more information here.

Pilea gone wild

Ellie got in touch to ask about her Pilea peperomioides which is much bushier than the average Chinese money plant - it’s producing lots of side shoots and babies. I suspect the reason is that the top of the plant has been damaged (technically known as removing apical dominance) leading to the plant growing out at the sides. Pileas do vary considerably, and it may be that this particular plant has a slightly different growth habit than the average specimen of the species.

Maranta with an identity crisis

Maija has a Maranta leuconeura var. erythroneura - the red-ribbed kind - which has developed a single leaf that looks like the ‘Lemon Lime’ cultivar that’s so desirable (and in the UK at least, rare) at the moment. She has a theory that it’s a nutrient deficiency or a light issue: I suspect it’s not the former, because if it was, all of the foliage - or at least the newest foliage - would be affected, but this isn’t the case with Maija’s plant.

Spot the difference…

That said, I would recommend feeding the plant if it isn’t being repotted twice a year. A weak dose of regular houseplant feed every week or so during the growing season will certainly keep your plant in the best of health. I don’t think it’s light either, following the same rationale. It’s worth bearing in mind that the Maranta family exhibit pattern variegation (as opposed to the chimeral variegation of plants such as Monstera ‘Thai Constellation’ and Philodendron ‘Pink Princess’ - have a listen to episode 76 for a question that explains chimeral variegation further) which means that each and every variegated leaf looks the same, rather than having a completely unique pattern.

Is this an issue you’ve had with your Maranta? Do let me know!

Droopy Maranta

Hannah’s Maranta is suffering from another problem. She bought the plant three weeks ago, and despite following the directions for Marantas contained in The Houseplant Expert by Dr David Hessayon (my own plant bible!) the plant is starting to droop more and more each day. I explain that it’s worth checking the potting mix that the plant came home in, as it’s often more water-retaining than it needs to be for homegrown plants. The only way to really tell what’s going on is to check the rootball and repot if necessary.

Plants can go into shock after they come home with you, and take a while to settle in. Bear in mind that as temperatures cool, your plant’s growth will slow down, and so should your watering. Final warning: spider mite infestations can result in drooping, so do check for spider mite. Go back and listen to my spider mite episode if you aren’t sure what to look for and how to treat it.

Plants for air conditioned rooms

Jennifer has moved to Louisiana in the southern states of the U, and is looking for plants that will do well in air conditioned rooms. I suggest Sparmannia africana, aka African hemp aka house lime. It is a big, fast-growing plant that doesn’t mind cold draughts. It produces big clusters of white flowers in spring and will grow to 6ft tall very fast - you can always take stem cuttings if it gets too ungainly. Strawberry saxifrage (Saxifraga stolonifera - see episode 104 for details), Aspidistra elatior (the cast iron plant), Crassula ovata (the jade plant) and Persea americana (the avocado).

Want to ask me a question? Email ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com. The more information you can include, the better - pictures of your plant, details of your location and how long you have had the plant are always useful to help solve your issue!

DONATE YOUR CUTTINGS NOW!

Jane Davis of The International Centre for Shared Reading got in touch to ask OTL listeners in the UK to send cuttings in a bid to help green up their HQ at Calderstones Mansion in Liverpool.

They already have some plants like this spider plant, but it needs some friends, so Jane and colleagues would love some more! If you can help, please drop Jane an email at janedavis@thereader.org.uk.

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Learn the secrets of houseplant styling with The Joy of Plants.

THE JOY OF PLANTS

On The Ledge podcast is also supported this week by The Joy of Plants.

If you’re looking for houseplant information, inspiration and care tips, look no further than The Joy of Plants: learn about the three key houseplant styling trends for 2019, meet planty people from all over the globe and have a go at plant-based craft projects to help green up your home.

And while you’re there, check out their plant of the month for September, large-leaved Ficus, because whether you’re looking for an indoor bush that keeps things lively or an elegant green plant with designer foliage, there is a Ficus to suit your life.

You’ll find The Joy of Plants on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and on their website, thejoyofplants.co.uk.

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HOW TO SUPPORT ON THE LEDGE

Contributions from On The Ledge listeners help to pay for all the things that have made the show possible over the last few years: equipment, travel expenses, editing, admin support and transcription.

Want to make a one-off donation? You can do that through my ko-fi.com page, or via Paypal.

Want to make a regular donation? Join the On The Ledge community on Patreon! Whether you can only spare a dollar or a pound, or want to make a bigger commitment, there’s something for you: see all the tiers and sign up for Patreon here.

• The Crazy Plant Person tier just gives you a warm fuzzy feeling of supporting the show you love.

• The Ledge End tier gives you access to two extra episodes a month, known as An Extra Leaf, as well as ad-free versions of the main podcast on weeks where there’s a paid advertising spot, and access to occasional patron-only Zoom sessions.

• My Superfan tier earns you a personal greeting from me in the mail including a limited edition postcard, as well as ad-free episodes.

If you like the idea of supporting On The Ledge on a regular basis but don't know what Patreon's all about, check out the FAQ here: if you still have questions, leave a comment or email me - ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com. If you're already supporting others via Patreon, just click here to set up your rewards!

If you prefer to support the show in other ways, please do go and rate and review On The Ledge on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen. It's lovely to read your kind comments, and it really helps new listeners to find the show. You can also tweet or post about the show on social media - use #OnTheLedgePodcast so I’ll pick up on it!

CREDITS

This week's show featured the tracks Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops and Oh Mallory by Josh Woodward. Ad music tracks are Dill Pickles and Whistling Rufus by the Heftone Banjo Orchestra. All tracks licensed under Creative Commons.

Logo design by Jacqueline Colley.