Plants: Tips and Tricks

3/3/2025

My notes on plants:

• They are subject to emotional blockages in the same way as every other beings, treat them the same way as you would any pets/animals.

• They have hereditary/generational issues as well.

• Treat the carer usually makes the symptoms go away, much like animals.

• In the case that two species have been known to not get along, obviously do not place them next to one another. 

• As they have different personalities, you are expected to see conflicts. That is always an opportunity to explore as to why that is and heal all parties.

• The consequence of healing plants are way beyond my understanding, as they do actively communicate with each other in different channels.

• The plant you care for generally are happy to do whatever you want to do, that doesn't apply to someone else's plant. That can be a completely different dynamic. This includes harvesting, terminating, propagating, etc. In other words, everyone is lucky to have their plants :)

On being a plant-parent, here are my learnings:

• Germination:

  • Stratification is useful for catnip and pepper plants. Anything that generally needs a winter to germinate.

  • Use ~10% hydrogen peroxide to soak seeds to promote germination, especially for older ones.

  • Never transplant before the first set of true leaves emerge.

• Care:

  • To encourage breadth development, partial defoliation can be as useful as pinching the head of the plant. Both work well with Basil.

  • Use ~10% bleach with some dish soap to address any insects on plants, as well as any spider webs around the house. Bleach does deteriorate over time, so if it's an old bottle, adjust accordingly.

• Propagation:

  • Leaf-cutting: peperomia rosso, every leaf can be cut horizontally and each segment will root. This can be very specific and doesn't work for everything.

  • Stem-cutting: pretty much everything. Remove lower leaves and roots will develop at the nodes. Except with Basil, roots will develop everywhere there's water.

  • Bulb-division: hyacinth. Anything with a basal plate.