Bird's Nest Fern

Enjoy

Beautiful. I saw a plant like this in the Grocery store, and wondered what it was.

I have one too, but it sure doesn't look near as good as yours deb. It's surviving but not doing much else. In a moderately humid environment (about 60% all the time), 65-68 during the day with a good 10 degree temp drop at night, very bright light, some fleeting sun midday. What's your secret, please? I'd sure like this one to do better!!

My favorite house plant, asplenium nidus. They seem to love me too. Mine is in bright filtered light. I give her a weak solution of coffee-ground "tea" every time I water (approximately once weekly) and a shot of Miracle Grow once a month Spring-Fall. She doesn't seem to like much water during the winter. And I have to be really vigilent about scale. Scale loves this plant. Here she is in all her glory, and yes, she's two feet tall from base to tip. I do live on the coast in So Cal now, but I always had luck with them in Northern Cal in the deep redwoods too. I guess they just like me. The feeling's mutual.

They are both beautiful!

Stella what's your choice for treating scale on it?

I have one,too and I have treated, it seems like everytime I turn around,lol....have you found anything that gets rid of the scale?


Thanks,
MsC

I just keep a very close watch and swab them off with alcohol on a Q-tip. I once had a bad infestation after I was gone on vacation for a couple of weeks and used a soft cloth soaked in alcohol and washed it down good, then covered the pot/soil with a plastic bag and washed it in the shower thoroughly. Lost a couple of leaves but also lost the scale.

Thanks Stella! I'll try that I've sprayed mine with a solution of Malathion and it was doing great ...checked it today & it is so bad I felt like just trashing it . UGH! Bugs.
lol
MsC

Stella
please explain coffee-ground "tea" to me!!
maybe my soil mix is not as acidic as it should be??

I just take the coffee grounds left over from my drip maker, dump it in an old juice/milk container and fill with water. Then I let it sit for a day and just use the liquid part to water with. I use the grounds straight into the soil outside, but that tends to mold inside, so I make the "tea." Here's my rule of thumb for acidity: consider the natural habitat of the particular plant. If it comes from a climate with a lot of rainfall, then it's prefered soil is probably acidic. If it comes from a low rainfall, desert-type environment, then it probably likes alkaline.

Interesting...have more than enough coffee grounds to give this a try.
Good point about the rainfall aspect and pH.
Thanks!!

Caron...Don't know if this is a reason why mine is doing well or not...but, I have mine sitting in a tray with small rocks underneath...so any excess water that is expelled through the bottom drain holes will keep some moist air close by the plant. Hope this helps. Deb

Another good point, deb... I'm lucky enough to have an ocean mist coming in the windows to keep mine moist. And for sure that always helps with any type of fern. Again, think of where they grow naturally and try to reproduce that environment.

Thanks deb and stella for the tips.
You are both in much more humid environments so maybe the moisture fromt he hot tub
just isn't enough (even tho the rabbitfoot ferns do really well in the same place).
Looking at both of yours I'm also thinking that mine is probably overpotted.
Oh well, repotting was on the big list of things to do this weekend anyway....

Here's an interesting article from this morning's paper that explains pretty well the pH thing with other good points too.

Saturday, October 23, 2004
Why rain gives our plants that look of happiness


CINDY McNATT
GARDENING
Register columnist
cmcnatt@ocregister.com

There are so few weather conditions in Southern California that a gardener can get excited about. Wind takes it toll, heat shares in the destruction, but rain, when it finally arrives, washes away the ravages of summer.

The avid gardener will notice subtle differences in his landscape following a storm. Leaves look significantly greener and the structural parts of the plants perk up. As much we like to tiptoe through the raindropped landscape and get at one with the precipitation gods, know that there are scientific explanations for the improvement.

Plants look greener for the simple reason that they've been washed. If you don't wash your plants once in a while, you should. Dirt and pollution accumulate on plant leaves, clog the pores and interfere with photosynthesis.

A good rinse from a rainstorm cleans the visible parts of our plants. Rainwater also scrubs the soil. Remember that rainwater is soft and acidic. Soft water, and lots of it, carries harmful salts left behind from a year's worth of municipal watering and chemical feeding to below the root zones of our plants. After a long summer of tolerating metropolitan water, our plants finally get a boost from a salt-free terrain.

Rainwater also adjusts the soil pH. Southern California soils are alkaline for two reasons. First, there is little rainfall here, and therefore, sparse natural vegetation. Rain plus leaf drop equals acidic soil (think Seattle).

When we water our alkaline soil with alkaline water, we make things worse. Rainwater, with its pH of 5-6, helps lower alkalinity and brings the pH down to a level that plants like.

While salt and pH problems are improved during the rainy season, we also notice that our plants are visibly perky. It is not our imagination.

Abundant water makes plants turgid. How to explain turgid? Think of it as water pressure. Plants get nutrients to the very top by pulling water up. When a plant is thoroughly hydrated, it stands tall because water pressure increases.

Turgid is the best possible circumstance for a plant. When a plant pulls enough water, the increased water pressure pops open the little stomata (leaf cells) and pulls in carbon dioxide. The plant photosynthesizes like crazy and grows in a gung-ho fashion.

There is a secret ingredient that also contributes to perkiness. Rainwater, especially if it falls from thunderclouds, is electrically charged. Electricity supplies nitrates to the soil, and nitrates really make our plants pay attention.

Stella,that's a great tibit... you should post it in a thread all by itself for some of our newbies that might not see it here...

Thanks for sharing it.

MsC

MsC, I also put it in the Garden Talk forum. Can you think of the best place to post such a thing? It's just my kind of commen sense gardening and I'd love to pass it along somewhere where it will actually be read.

I'd think Tropicals...and even Houseplants would be a good place to add it to.
I think that is where we all kinda start as newbie's . Rainwater is good for all of our plants, so 'm guessing those might be good forums, too.

I always try to catch a little rain water in a few extra watering cans to water the in side house plants with, too. It's just a nice change for your houseplants and sooo good for em.

Thanks again great info.
Thanks,
MsC

I have a bird's nest fern that has tiny rows of what seems like tiny black dots on the underside of its leaves. What could this be, and what are scales?

Those are the spore, (kinda a fern's seeds), which you can propagate to get baby ferns. I've never tried it but I know the American Fern Society has a spore exchange, just like DG's has a seed exchange. Here's a pic of the spores on a leaf I cut from my plant when it got too old.

And though there are many types of scale, here's a picture I got off the internet of ones that look like the kind that attack my bird's nest.

Well isn't this just so handy? I have a brand new bird's nest fern, only a baby, about 6" high right now. Can I just look after him like my other ferns? I water my ferns about every other day, as they're starting to dry out (trying to attain "evenly moist, but not soggy"). And I keep them all in my kitchen windows, which face north. Is this "thrivable" for my ferns? Thanks.

Hiya ceedub,
Your kitchen sounds like a good start to try the ferns out, it should do fine on your plan, if that fails the bathroom is always a good place, too.
The humidity in a bathroom is always high, but unless you have a window with good light a lot of plants fail...try leaving the shade upfor light in a bathroom so plants a can get some good light.

You might wat to check your fern before you water it just to make sure it needs the water. Some of my house plants don't dry out as fast as you would think and may only need water once a week.

Thanks so much MsC! I'm a chronic "soil checker", so I never water a plant unless it needs it - the key with ferns I understand, is to realize what level of moist means it needs more. I think I've figured that part out okay, and all but one of my ferns are fine (the other, well, I still have hope). My kitchen's the best place for the ferns right now-neither of my bathrooms have a window (life in the big city...sigh). Also being in the kitchen means I'll remember to water them often enough. Thanks again!
Christine

I also recommend using bottled water on the bird's nest. Our tap water has salts in it and this tends to turn the edges of the leaves brown on mine.

Good to know, thanks stella.

I have a young plant, and I just put a banana peel as described in:
http://davesgarden.com/pdb/go/54387/index.html
I'm fascinated, and can't wait to see what it will do!

hanna, it certainly can't hurt it!! I'm going to try it too, as mine's a little fella too. thanks
Christine

You're quite welcome, that's what we're all here for, lol
I'm running out of room for plants, I need to start putting hooks on the ceiling next!!!!

Join the club!!