Caring for Your Plants in Unnatural Environments?

spoier asks: "Like many other hi-tech workers, I spend most of my days in a mostly dark cube, with only the tiniest sliver of daylight visible off in the distance over the rat maze. I would really like to have some plants around me to make this environment a little more habitable, does anyone know of plants that will thrive under these very low-light conditions?"

Comments

Philodendrons -- the Geek's Green Friend

[simonfunk]

Philodendrons do great in a cubicle. I had one for years. Actually, I still have it, twelve years later, though now it's on a bookshelf at home. When it gets stragly looking, I give it a haircut, and it just leaps back stronger than ever. No fertalizer in all that time, and I only water it a couple times a month tops (but soak it when I do). Nice looking plants, too. (here's a recent pic that shows some of it.)

-Simon

Pothos!

[RevAaron]

Pothos are plants they do great on neglect- they do fine in low light and not-so frequent watering.

As always, Google gives us some good articles.

You can grow just about everything if you buy a small florescent bulb- you can get them pretty cheap. Mount it under a cabinet/shelf on your desk, and leave it on when you're at work. No need to buy a more expensive "grow lamp" either, unless you really want to encourage flowering. The only diff between grow lamps and regular florescent lamps is that grow lamps output more than regulars on the red band, which encourages flowering. (think end-of-summertime sun)

For easy care and satisfaction...

[Dancing Tree]

...I recommend spider plants. You just stick them in some water and they grow just fine, they don't even need soil. You can buy one potted for pretty cheap at any home center (you can probably get one for around $1.99). When it forms runners, you can cut them off and place the leaf clusters in water and they *will thrive*! You can also try to find a friend who already has a spider plant and get clippings from them. Once the cluster has developed a root system, you can then pot it in soil or leave it in water, either way! I've had one spider plant for 15 years. I don't know how many years my mother had it before that. I've rooted many plants off of it too. You can let potted spider plants dry out even. They'll start to look like they need some water but will survive this way for a l-o-n-g time. Just give them some water and they bounce right back! If you water them regularly, they get downright jungle on you. They can do well in everything from direct sunlight to very little light at all. This will affect how deep a green they are (along with water) and will also determine whether or not they form yellow colored veins. These are truly hardy plants. The only way I know of to kill them is to let one (not in soil) dry out for a few weeks, or, let one (in soil) dry out for over a month. I've never fertilized one, ever, just watered. Sometimes I put the dead leaf clippings back into the pot. If you want, you can put them under a grow light. If they get enough light, they will produce runners with very small white flowers (they don't really have any odor that you would notice). These are really great plants and they produce some great oxygen! So grab a spider and get growing!

Re:Have you considered fungus?

[Dancing Tree]

O.K., the word on mushrooms (and other fungii) is this: They are REALLY hard to grow in a casual/won't-be-there-on-the-weekend/or-that-week- I-go-away environment. What's more, the mushroom as we think of it is only the fruiting body of a plant that is basically never seen. A mushroom is generally a mass of white threads in the soil, at the base of a tree or under the bark of a rotting tree (depending on what kind of mushroom it is). There is nothing to see except for when the mushroom decides to produce fruiting bodies to distribute spores (which it will do only when it thinks conditions are PERFECT). Some mushrooms have little or no smell, or they smell "earthy." Others stink strongly. And while there are many kinds of edible mushrooms, there are others that, if accidentally ingested, whill kill you in a terrible and painful manner (like total shut down of the liver or complete destruction of the nervous system). I know this because I hunt wild mushrooms to eat. And almost all of them do NOT grow in sh*t. Very few do. One of the many nuances of growing them is getting the right combination of soil and moisture and keeping your culture sterile and pure which is very difficult.

I've only managed to grow one mushroom indoors and that is one that grows in a pot with a type of shamrock. I didn't even try to plant it. It just appeared! It is the only mushroom I know of to commonly appear in houseplants (the lemon-yellow lepiota or Lepiota Lutea) and is poionous if ingested. So while "mushrooms" is an amusing answer to your query, it is in no way practical at all.

And yes, it is "technically" a plant, part of a major division of the plant kingdom known as "non-flowering" plants which includes hornwarts, lichens, mosses, some palms and evergreen trees.

there's plenty of plants, try looking in books!

[DrSkwid]

You want foliage plants rather than flowerers. You know, the sort of plants that grow on the forest floor.

Plants are great, they add some living vibe to a sterile area. There are many plants that will grow and grow in a shady room and some that will even tolerate you not watering them for 2 weeks.

Here's a list from my trusty book :
[The Houseplant Expert - Dr D. G. Hessayon]

Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema)
Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria)
Asparagus
Aspidistra [I have 2 at home] (this is a good one, the Victorians called then "Cast Iron Plants" because they are so hardy. You can keep them in dark rooms and forget to water them and they still thrive)
Begonias [1 in my cube] (non flowering types)
Air Plants [1 on my monitor] (don't even need watering)
Spider Plants [and they can breed like crazy - I pop them in a jam jar with a bit of soil and stick them in the spaces aroudn the house] (Chlorophytum)
Dumb Cane (Dieffenbachia)
Madagascar Dragon Tree (Dracaena Marginata)
Corn Palm (Dracaena Fragrans
Amzon Lilly (Eucharis) - has flowers
Ferns - most
Ficus (figs) [i've got 2 trees] - Creeping Fig - the trees grow slowly but in doing so become valuable like $100 for a 4 yo
Net Leafs (Fittonia)
Marantas (all varieties)
& their cousins the Calatheas
Swiss Cheese (Monstera family)
Palms (yes those) [good foliage - hardy to no watering - I have some]
Philodendron
Pilea (such as Aluminium Plant, Creeping Charlie, Artillery Plant, Black Leaf Panamiga)
Plectranthus (Swedish Ivy, Candle Plant)
Polyscias [in my kitchen] (such as Dinner Plate Aralia or Ming Aralia)
Selaginella
Senecio (not a true ivy, the true ivy needs sun but these like semi-shade)
Sonerila
Stenotaphrum (Buffalo Grass) - will lose it's varigation in shade
Vines (well some - Begonia Vine [Cissus Discolor] & Cape Green [Rhoicissus Capensis])