Houseplants - Tag - log - Nicholas Wardhttps://log.nicholas.uuard.com/tags/houseplants/Houseplants - Tag - log - Nicholas WardHugo -- gohugo.ioennicholaspward@outlook.com (Nicholas Ward)nicholaspward@outlook.com (Nicholas Ward)Sun, 31 May 2026 10:00:00 -0600🪴 Plant Repottinghttps://log.nicholas.uuard.com/posts/2026-05-31-plant-repot/Sun, 31 May 2026 10:00:00 -0600nicholashttps://log.nicholas.uuard.com/posts/2026-05-31-plant-repot/The plants need new pots more fitting of their beauty and vitality not some ugly slimy plastic. I prefer clay: better aesthetics, drier soil and easier to control pests.

Ficus Audrey

For two years this tree did nothing. No growth, no changes, nothing at all. So we attempted to induce some kind of growth by snipping off a small length of growth at the top: the apical meristem. This shortly prompted the smallest of growths to develop on the node just beneath the cut, barely detectable, a small green nub.

]]>💡 Houseplant Grow Lightshttps://log.nicholas.uuard.com/posts/grow-lights/Wed, 01 Jan 2025 16:30:00 +0000nicholashttps://log.nicholas.uuard.com/posts/grow-lights/It is winter and the days are short and dark. House plants grow better with more light. I will build two grow lights using off the shelf electric supplies.

Summary

The plants sit on a wire shelf cart. Some are not looking so good. The 4 notched posts that support the shelves are hollow inside, with an inner diameter that is a bit more than the outer diameter of 1/2" EMT conduit. This is lucky, as it allows me to slot in a length of EMT conduit upon which I build the rest of the lamp. I am able to rotate the conduit inside the posts to change the direction of light, and the lamp holder adds an additional degree of freedom by allowing me to change the vertical tilt of the lamp. There is enough slop / allowance between the cart posts and the conduit that rotate easily, but not so much that the lamp is unstable. Thanks to electrical standards, all of the components I build off of the EMT conduit can be made compatible with each other. I plug an outlet strip into a remote switch my parents gave me for my birthday. The plants now reach directly upward instead of angling toward whichever direction the window happens to be that day (the cart moves a lot). The cart can still move around even tethered to a wall outlet. Mounting the lamps to the cart means no floor clutter to bump into. I am pleased with how the build process went, and the result.

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