Outdoor plants are a different breed : memes

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 80 points 7 months ago

Indoor plants are almost all tropical and adapted to grow under 3 canopies of treetops. They work in our house because the tiny bit of sun coming in the window is good enough.

Being tropical, they need a fair bit of water and the chemicals in tap water are often too much. I use rainwater, but you can set your pitcher out for 24-hours and get good results.

The stuff you see growing in cracks outdoors is almost certainly local and adapted.

[-] gens@programming.dev 8 points 7 months ago

I live in a city that has one of the cleanest water in the world. And I remember people leaving water out for a while before watering plants. I also remember ppl just watering immediately, and the plants seemed fine.

Didn't find anything conclusive as to why it matters in the 5 min of googling, other then clorine that seems to not be used much anymore. Hmm, a mistery.

[-] 31337@sh.itjust.works 4 points 7 months ago

My tap water noticeably stunts the growth of my plants (and probably contributed to some plant deaths). It could be because my tap water is alkaline (and all soil around here is also alkaline), or contains fluoride and chlorine. Chlorine is toxic to plants and the bacteria and fungus in the soil that plants rely on. A lot of water treatment plants are switching to chloramines, which you cannot off-gas by leaving water sit out, and are probably worse for plants because they take longer to degrade.

[-] DrPop@lemmy.ml 7 points 7 months ago

I wish I could collect rain water here but we get acid rain from living near a city and next to the Mississippi

[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 47 points 7 months ago

Choose plants that are native to your region. You will be surprised how well they do.

[+] runswithjedi@lemmy.world 26 points 7 months ago

[deleted]

[-] NightAuthor@lemmy.world 48 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I thought it was just survivorship bias.

You mostly see the strongest outdoor plants thriving in their optimal conditions. Indoor plants are whatever rainforest wonder you tried to grow indoors, under watered and next to your AC.

[-] schmidtster@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

The post is about them being in suboptimal locations outdoors though.

[-] NightAuthor@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

Not to take the post too seriously… but the idea of survivorship bias still applies. We don’t see how many plants died, or simply never started to grow because of that sidewalk. We only see hulk-doge.

[-] schmidtster@lemmy.world -1 points 7 months ago

Not really. Of course there is always little ones that won’t make it, but why does a plant neglected outside become a chad while a plant babied and nourished inside won’t.

[-] MidRomney@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

Every plant outside isn't a Chad. It's just the chads that you get to see because those are they only ones that survive. If you were intentionally trying to grow that Chad inside, it would be a Chad inside as well.

[-] teft@startrek.website 9 points 7 months ago

And the wind or lack thereof.

[-] staindundies@sh.itjust.works 16 points 7 months ago

I always find this to be crazy with grass. It is so damn difficult to grow a nice lawn but grass randomly grows out of rocks in the woods.

[-] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 7 months ago

I’m sure you have just as much nice grass as that woods does. It’s just spread out (like in the woods) between the not so nice stuff because grass sucks and isn’t meant to exist, much less grow as a constantly-pruned monoculture, in most of the areas it’s used :)

I try to keep my lawn on the brink of grass death because grass is a worthless spoiled brat, constantly demanding resources to look remotely ok (and so I don’t have to mow it). The clover and violet I planted in it makes it look green with zero effort, though, so the city doesn’t get on my ass about it.

[-] pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone -2 points 7 months ago

if you don't want to mow it get a robot

[-] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Lawl.

Why on earth would I spend a ton of money on a robot to maintain something I’m against, when I can plant things native to my region which do far far better for basically zero cost and have a positive impact on my area?

Grass is not meant to be in my area, that’s -why it dies-. I’m not going to prop that up with watering, fertilizer, and more mowing and shit just because of some bullshit social standard that makes no sense.

My city doesn’t mind, so good enough for literally everyone.

[-] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 2 points 7 months ago

The American obsession with lawns is honestly fucking bizarre

[-] 31337@sh.itjust.works 6 points 7 months ago

You could try sowing grass native to your area. Or, better yet, kill your lawn: https://piped.video/watch?v=xYdLfkJcfok

[-] dodgy_bagel@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 7 months ago

The same species of grass?

[-] seitanic 1 points 7 months ago

Lawn grass isn't native, for one thing.

[-] jayrodtheoldbod@midwest.social 13 points 7 months ago

People certainly are polishing this meme to a high sheen. Anyway, tell it to the pothos ivy.

[-] Candelestine@lemmy.world 13 points 7 months ago

Tbf, there's also philodendrons. That's basically potted kudzu. I think if you took a potted one and threw it out during the winter, it'd just grow right back in. Probably need goats or sheep or napalm to actually kill one. Or maybe be colorblind so you don't see it turning yellow when it needs water.

[-] OpenStars@kbin.social 11 points 7 months ago

This should make us all very very afraid of what that water is doing to US!

(Especially if/when it is colored - last year my water became orange and started giving everyone I knew that drank it mouth soreness, I only wish I was kidding, and ofc it was traced to a corporation found illegally dumping toxic chemicals into the water reclamation systems, thus exposing the entire city to those effects. No, they never faced any legal consequences beyond the slightest slap on the wrist iirc, why would they? That is what finally tipped the scales and helped me realize: the USA is not a first-world nation anymore.)

[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 27 points 7 months ago

The tap water killing plants is more commonly the chemicals put in it intentionally to keep it clean/stop us from getting sick and fluoride to keep our mouths cleaner

[-] OpenStars@kbin.social 0 points 7 months ago

Only if you like more mundane (yet accurate) explanations:-P.

[-] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 19 points 7 months ago

Don't let me tell you how to live your life, but if my water turns orange I'm not drinking it.

[-] OpenStars@kbin.social 0 points 7 months ago

I mean, not directly no - we boiled it first - but you gotta drink something, sometime.

What worried me more is not when the screw-up is so easily detectable, but when it goes unnoticed, like the permanent damage done to the residents of Flint, MI, or all those toxic chemicals caused by the multiple train derailments, where the company men tried to pay/threaten/whatever people to say that they were not sick.

Company profits >>>> ~~human health & safety~~.

[-] 31337@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago

Yeah, I don't trust the infrastructure around me very much. I get multiple boil notices a year, and the last water quality report said I had a "safe" level of uranium in my water. I just run all the water I drink and cook with through a Zero pitcher filter now. Not sure if it filters out uranium though, lol.

[-] tygerprints@kbin.social 7 points 7 months ago

Outdoor plants are all burly and manly and hefty, hefty, hefty. Inside plants are weak and wimpy, wimpy, wimpy.

[-] UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago

I don't understand why my tomato plant doesn't do well indoors with a grow light.

[-] thorbot@lemmy.world 13 points 7 months ago

Because it’s indoors. With a grow light.

[-] Muscar@discuss.online 0 points 7 months ago

"I don't understand why I'm not feeling well by never leaving my apartment and only talking to people via text and ordering delivery for food."

A plant is a living organism, and giving it just the bare minimum doesn't ensure it'll do well at all.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.com 5 points 7 months ago

I just left dirt in a pot after planting cherry tomatoes and parsley on my balcony, it magically grew flat parsley like crazy. I didn't even tend to it for a long time, still grows like a madman.

[-] xor@lemm.ee 3 points 7 months ago

well the chlorine in tap water is pretty bad for plants...

[+] tygerprints@kbin.social 3 points 7 months ago

[deleted]

[-] petrescatraian@libranet.de 3 points 7 months ago

@The_Picard_Maneuver joke's on you (or them). I always water them with tap water.

[-] cro_magnon_gilf@sopuli.xyz 2 points 7 months ago

Much like humans

[-] general_kitten@sopuli.xyz 2 points 7 months ago

seems like yall have some horrible tap water

[-] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 4 points 7 months ago

No, dracaena species in particular are sensitive to minerals and fluoride in tap water. I water my dracaena with bleach sterilized rainwater (after a livingroom-wide leaf spot outbreak a couple years ago). They're just fussy.

[-] 4am@lemm.ee 1 points 7 months ago

Plants outdoors don’t get water with nearly the amount of shit in it that tap water has.

Yes, even in Scotland.

Memes