Increasing Humidity Hack

During the winter months your houseplants will benefit from any attempts at increasing humidity in your home. We live in homes with heating that is designed to be comfortable for us but what is comfortable for us and be detrimental to our plants. You may even notice the effects of the dry air inside your home manifest themselves in the form of dry skin or dry nasal passages. If the dry air is affecting you it's also affecting your houseplants.

There are many expensive ways to increase humidity in your home. One of the most used methods is plugging in a humidifier but that can be costly because of the electricity used and replacement of filters. On top of the costs it's also not environmentally friendly to have a humdifier running twenty four hours a day.

Another method of increasing humidity in your home is installing a humidifier that is connected to your forced air unit. Again, cost, maintenance and environmental impact is an issue. So what can you do to help your plants make it through the dry winter months? Here are some easy and cheap solutions that are eco-friendly and cheap.

Instead of drying your sweaters, towels and jeans in a dryer hang them out to dry in your home and around your plants. You're already paying to heat your home so put that heat to use. If you wash and dry at a laundromat it will saves you money and time. If you dry your clothes at home this will save you money on your energy bill.

Do you have pots that are glazed and don't have drainage holes? Fill them with water and set them in warm areas around your home and near your plants.

Make a humidity tray of out plant saucers, take out containers and various things around your house and sit your plants on them.

These just some simple and frugal ways you can increase the humidity in your home during the winter months that will be a benefit to you and your houseplants.

Amaryllis Pollination Hack

If you have an Amaryllis you can easily hack it to produce seeds which you can then sow and produce even more plants that you can share with others, keep for yourself or sell.

Look at the image on the right. The stamen is the slender white stalk that's holding up the anther. The anther is the sack that holds the pollen. These are considered the male parts of a flower. This usually matures before the stigma.


The stigma is on the left and it is the tip of the female reproductive parts of the flower. Notice how the ends are curled back, this occurs a couple of days after the flower has opened and is ready to be pollinated.

If you want to propagate your Amaryllis it's really very easy. Cut the white slender stalk that's holding up the anther and tap it onto the stigma when it look similar to the stigma in the image above. If that seems too difficult then just take a small artist's paint brush and rub it up and down on the pollen. Now look at your paint brush and you should see there is a yellow dust like substance. Now take your paint brush and "paint" the tip of the stigma with the pollen you picked up on the brush.

Your flower soon will start to die because it has lived and completed it's purpose. Which was to attract a pollinator, which in this case was you. Leave the flower alone and let it die on it's own terms. If you were successful after a few days you should notice the swelling of the seed pod right behind the dying flower. Leave everything alone and about 5-6 weeks later your seeds should be ready. You'll notice the seed part start to split open and inside you'll find a lot of black paper thin seeds. Don't let them fool you those are the seeds and you want to sow those soon.

Do you have more than one Amaryllis? Are they blooming at the same time? Take the pollen from one plant and place it on the stigma of the other. It's a good way of making crosses of your Amaryllis bulbs. Your seedlings should be old enough to bloom by their third year.

If you start your seeds in soil using something like the Ghetto Greenhouse stand the seeds on their sides, or you can start them using the Baggie Method. I'll post photos soon of what my seedlings look like. When I do at the bottom of this post you should see "Links to this post" to help you keep track of them.

*edit*
On Sunday March 25th my first seed pod opened. I'll post pictures soon.

UPDATE: 

I started www.AmaryllisBulbs.org a blog devoted to growing Amaryllis bulbs and various tips. If you want to know what to do after the seed pods form check it out.


Here's a video I made showing you how to pot an Amaryllis Bulb.



and one showing you how to pollinate an Amaryllis flower.

Seed Scarification Hack-Sandpaper

If you're starting from seed and need to scarify several seeds using sandpaper can save you some time and hassle. Sometimes the seeds are too small to hold each one while you nick the seed coat or sometimes you have a lot of seeds you need to get started for planting in your garden.

Aside from the seeds all you need is just need a really rough piece of sandpaper to do this. You simply place your seeds on your piece of sandpaper like in the image and then place a second piece on top to cover your seeds.

Place one or both of your hands flat on the top piece of sandpaper and move your hands in a circle going clockwise then do it counter clockwise while pressing down. Repeat the circular motion going in both direction until you notice that you've nicked the outer seed coat sufficiently.

This is a quick and easy way to get many seeds ready for soaking in warm water, if you're not inclined to do nick them all one at a time.

If you're thinking of starting from seed consider starting them in a Ghetto Greenhouse or using the Baggie Method if you don't have the space to create a greenhouses from soda bottles. They're both easy and inexpensive methods methods of starting your own plants from seeds.