Plant Care Day & Chat - Keeping Plants Clean, Over-fertilising & my upcoming Trip to Thailand

This year I want to stop being lazy with my plant care. At the beginning of my plant journey I had obviously way less plants and much smaller plants and I was able to take all of my plants into my shower or my balcony every single week, spray them with water, clean them thoroughly, flush out the media and then provide some nutrients as well. And my plants were thriving. They were always super happy, super healthy and they were growing really fast. As my collection is growing and as my plants are getting bigger that is obviously becoming more of a challenge. There is no way I can take all of my plants into my shower every week. I mean I also only took them in the shower because I lived in an apartment where I didn't have an outdoor space. It would take me all day just to get all of the plants in there and out of there. And you know there's more to life than just taking plants into the shower. So over the years I've just progressively gotten more and more lazy with the water bottle upside down technique where I just take a water bottle and I flip it upside down. It also made life just so easy. I was like you know what I don't actually need to move my plant to water it. It can be just watered in the spot and I'm also having way less risk of the plant falling or me ripping a leaf and so on. So initially I started replacing my thorough waterings with the bottle upside down every second week. Then it was more like oh let's take them into the shower once a month. And then suddenly it was like oh hang on I don't think I've done a thorough watering in like half a year now. And look in the grand scheme of things I obviously can't complain. I still have amazing looking plants. But I wonder could they be even nicer if I would try a little harder. I know I've got great conditions for these plants to thrive in the first place. But am I really realizing their full potential by just taking the lazy approach. This year I really want to find out. I have set myself the challenge that this year I'm going to be more thorough with my thorough waterings. I want to take my plants out into my garden, thoroughly hoist them down at least once a month. And that day is today. Well actually that day would be next week. But next week I'm in Bangkok. So I figured well giving them a thorough cleanse, a thorough spray, a thorough shower leading up to my holiday is probably a good idea anyway because then I can go into my holidays a little bit more relaxed knowing that my plants at home are happy and healthy. The last time I went on a holiday to Fiji I did not do that. And I came back to a spider mite infestation. Now I was only gone for five days but you know apparently spider mites can spread really quickly in five days. I haven't seen any signs of pests but if I give them a good spray just with water today and I know that they're clean and they're healthy I'm pretty certain that I won't come back to any surprising visitors when I'm back from Bangkok. And I'm going to be there for eight days. So I thought why not. Let's just do it before I go. And at the same time I thought you know while I take all of my plants out for watering maybe I can talk to you about my upcoming Bangkok trip a little bit. Talk to you about what I'm going to do for my plants or what I'm not going to do for my plants while I'm away and so on. So we're just going to have a little bit of a chatty plant care day to first of all hold me accountable so that I actually do it. And second of all to also show you how much effort I actually put into my plants because I think the results that you get from your plants is directly correlated to of course the conditions that you give them but also the effort you're willing to put in. So I want to show you that I'm not shy in putting in the effort. So yeah let's go. Hello everybody and welcome back to my YouTube channel. Supposed to intro set it all. Well first things first I need to take these plants out into the garden. So that I can hoist them down. And I actually have a really cool trick that I really want to show you when we get out in the garden because today is a good day. I wanted to do it yesterday but yesterday was very very windy and I obviously don't really fancy the chances of my plants go flying. So today is less windy. It is cold though so I'm not going to keep them out there for too long but I want to get them out there as soon as possible so I can spray them so they can start drying So by the time I want to bring them back the plants have drained and the leaves are somewhat dry. So let's do that first and then we can have a little chat. Right here I kind of moved a few things around that I don't need. Freed up the umbrella base down here as well. But I want to show you this really cool trick. Hey baby. You can be out here if you behave. That wasn't a cool trick. Sorry let me bring a plant. So I've got a bucket full of hooks over here. Those are all the hooks that I used when I moved with my plants. Oh my god Brad is already back inside. Is it too cold for you my baby? And now the wind is picking up. Classic. But I can just take the hooks and hook my plants into it. But you know umbrellas wind don't work so well so you really got to do this. Oh my god he's so cute. You really want to do this on a day when it's not so windy. We're also going to talk about all of the plants when I bring them back I think. Because some of them are a little dehydrated at the moment as well. Obviously they don't look their best. But well I knew this day was coming so I didn't water the last three days or so. Of course not all plants are due for watering at the same time and so on. But that's okay. They're in a really chunky aeroid mix. The mosspot has a large surface area. I'm just thoroughly flushing them through. I'm not worried about over watering. Over watering is usually a lack of drainage in the pot. Not application of water that is too frequent. So long as they're not end up. Hang on I just need to keep an eye on Brad. As long as they don't end up sitting in water later there shouldn't be any issues. Bradly. You don't go into that corner yeah? Okay. Let me be quick and bring on all the others. The smaller ones I'll just kind of lean into my chairs. That also gives them great drainage. And obviously I'm less worried about them falling. But all the plants. I just want to be so diligent with my watering this year. Even through winter. And I'm obviously going to do it with all the rooms. But for today's sake we focus on the office. Because those are like the most precious plants. Bradly. Yeah you look out for them. Had to get a jacket. It's so cold. Bradly are you okay? The phrenic. That was all of the plants from the office apart from the big glorious. I filmed a video with the glorious two days ago. Realized it was very dry and had a lot of extra floral. Why is there wind now? It wasn't meant to be windy but at least that will help with drying off the leaves. Extra floral nectaries are like little sugars on the back of the leaf which causes a lot of yellow discoloration. Specifically the glorious is really really bad with it. So I had to take it out of the office the other day anyway to film with it and when I had it then and there I also just wiped all of the leaves and gave it a thorough watering. So I've already done the work with that one. So that's the only one that's left in my office for now. Which means we can now go ahead and just hoist down all of the ones that are here. And when I hoist them down I'm just going to use a gentle shower setting to shower the leaves front and back. I also shower the moss pole to re-moisten the moss pole first because some of them are a little bit dry. And then in the words of Plants by Crystal I'm going to drown that hoe. I'm going to pour a lot of water over that so it really drains through. The other thing when I usually water with my water bottle upside down technique I do not water the substrate. The substrate just gets watered by the water dribbling from the pole into the substrate. So today is also a good opportunity to thoroughly flush through the substrate to get rid of any mineral build-ups and so on. And we're going to talk about that later because I've noticed a few issues with my plants because of I believe too much mineral build-up or not enough flushing out cycles. But it's better when I show you the plants close up and show you the evidence of that. Anyway, too much talking. I really just need to start spraying these plants so they can start draining and drying so we can bring them back. Okay, I'm cold and wet. Let's give the plants out there a little bit of time to drain thoroughly and dry off before we're putting them back. Which means we have time to go back into the office and hear from today's sponsor FlexiSpot. I upgraded to the new FlexiSpot E7 Pro Premium Standing Desk. As much as I say that I grow plants for a living, in reality my job is actually content creation and as part of that I spend the majority of my time on my desk. So when FlexiSpot reached out asking if I would like one of their E7 Pro ergonomic desks, of course I said yes. As you can see, this desk is very strong and has a static capacity of 440 pounds. That's 200 kilos. So there could be more than two of me on here. Now of course the main feature of a standing desk is that you can use it standing up. And this one is electric and so incredibly smooth. Have a look at this glass of water. Nice. Now the height ranges from 63 centimeters all the way to 129 centimeters. And despite the height, this is very solid. And sometimes it's the small things that make the difference. For example, this magnetic cover that helps me neatly pack away all the cables. And I love how it also came with tape for the cable as well as this little cable management tool. The intuitive keypad over here can memorize four different positions so you can very easily switch between standing and sitting. There's also a little USB plug on the keypad so I can charge my phone very conveniently. But enough about it in theory. Let's set it up. Much better. Now one other thing I'm actually really excited about. I obviously film a lot of content and I often film in this room as well. And when I do, I always have my camera set up on my desk so that I have the beautiful backdrop of all of my plans. Going forward, I can use my desk as basically like a dynamic tripod. I can move it up and down until I like the camera angle. And did you see how smooth the journey was? My phone didn't even fall. FlexiSpot comes with a 15-year warranty and a 30-day risk-free return service. And FlexiSpot is currently running a mega sale on their website. So make sure you check out the link in the description. And if you want to get your own E7 Pro standing desk, you can use discount code YTE7P50 for an additional $50 off your purchase. Thank you again, FlexiSpot for motivating me to get some work done on my new setup over here and sponsoring this video. But now let's go check on the plants. Okay, we're getting there. Some are still a little bit wet, which is okay. Let me check the drainage. Okay, definitely I think when I moved them in, I have to shake them a little bit to get any excess water off, but some of them still are quite wet. I might just leave them here for another 30 minutes or so. There's a little bit of afternoon sun, so it's not so cold for them as well. So I'm not really concerned. And the wind seems to have died down as well. And I don't think anything has fallen so far. So let's give them another 30 minutes because it's more work putting them in and then having more water draining into the pots and then having to empty the pots out than just keeping them here for an additional 30 minutes. Maybe we can use that time to talk about a little experiment that I'm currently working on for my travels. And then we can talk about in general my travel preparation. Let's do that. Alrighty, I thought I deserve a little sit down while I talk to you about what I'm going to do while I'm away. Now, straight up, I'm really lucky because I have a housemate and my housemate is going to take care of Brad. By the way, he's sleeping upstairs. There was too much moving around down here. He was fed up with me and just moved up into bed. Oh, and this is the glorious I was talking about earlier that didn't need to go outside. Anyway, so I've got my housemate over here. She's going to look after Brad. So she's going to have to be here every day anyway to at least feed him. So she will also help me out with my plant care, watering, right? That's the only thing that my plants could possibly need in those eight days that I'm away. Of course, it also really depends on how long you go away for, but I usually go away for like a week, maximum like two weeks. A lot of times I actually go away for shorter amount of times because, well, I do have a pet and I have a business to run, you know, and I'm self-employed. I work every day. I can't actually take two weeks off and still afford living, if you know what I mean. I pay a lot of money in rent because I wanted to rent a large place that can accommodate me and all of my plants and my cat and a place that we feel really comfortable in. So I don't need to go away on holidays all too much, you know what I mean? I enjoy being at home. So usually when I go away, I go away for short amounts of times and then if I go away for too long, I actually really miss home and I stop enjoying my holiday. That's just me, each to their own. But basically, in a nutshell, I don't really have the issue of, oh my God, what's going to happen with my plants in case I go away? I have friends that can look after. Now some of you might wonder, hey, why isn't Tim looking after your plants? And that's because Tim is actually coming to Bangkok with me. How good is that? But let's finish one topic first. So basically, usually I would ask Tim to help me after, to help me look after my plants because well, you know, Tim has watched all of my YouTube videos. He should know. But because I'm only going away for eight days and it's the coldest time of the year, there's probably really just two or three plants that I'm going to point out to my housemate saying, hey, could you please, on Sunday, put half a liter of water on top of that pole? So I'm just going to have to anticipate that based on my experience and then anticipate based on the weather forecast. It's going to be cold and rainy, which means that the humidity is going to be through the roof. Cold temperatures means less water evaporating. So overall, I'm not too worried about my plants drying out. At the end of the day, it's only eight days, right? I could probably get away not asking anybody to do anything in those eight days, but at the end of the day, it's also my business. I don't, I can't afford for all of my plants to die, especially not in winter. It's going to be a really lengthy recovery, right? And even if it's not my housemate that looks after bread and it's somebody else because my housemate and I go away or something like that, usually whoever looks after bread also looks after my plants. So thank you to all of my friends and you will be repaid in plants. But I understand that not everybody is so fortunate in that regard. So I have started a little experiment with some sort of automation setup. Of course, the easiest would be having all of your plants in self-watering pots. You just top up your self-watering pots and then that should be fine. I don't know. I mean, I suppose it depends, but usually I reckon you would probably only have to top them up every two weeks or so. But obviously that's not going to happen and that self-watering technique doesn't really work with moss pots either. Of course, I can also take all of my plants, put them in one room together and then kind of like not give them much light. I've heard people that, for example, put all of their plants in the bathtub and then set up some sort of string irrigation system and so on. I have way too many plants for that and that would be way too much work as well. So I've tried to experiment with these drip thingies where I can take advantage of my existing bottles, but it's more a slow release. But so far I have not been very successful in setting it up in the way that I would like it to work. So I don't feel comfortable doing that while I'm away. I think I started this experiment a little short. So eventually there's going to be a dedicated video coming about that. I also want to test a more automated drip irrigation system that I can set up so that it is a little bit easier to set up, let's say. But again, I'm going to do a full dedicated video on that for the people that might not be able to ask a friend to help out. But that doesn't mean that there isn't other things that I can do to make my friend's life as easy as possible and or to make my life as easy as possible when I come back. I'm going to take a lot of footage in Thailand. Oh well, Tim is going to help me take a lot of footage in Thailand, right? I asked him to come along to help me film a little bit so I can really maximize how much footage I can take over there and share my trip with you guys. Travel vlogs are some of my favorite vlogs to edit because it's not just about creating a piece of content for YouTube. It's also creating a piece of content for myself and in this instance Tim is going to come with me as well. It's going to be a memory that we can look back on anytime we want, right? It's like we created a little film about our own holiday and at the same time I also get to share it with you guys. So I really enjoy taking these videos and then editing them. So I want to take my sweet time with that. So I'm really trying to be as proactive as possible with everything leading up to it so when I come back from Thailand I can kind of enjoy the post-holiday relaxation for as long as possible before I need to start getting my ---- together again, right? So for example I don't want to come back and then realize that oh there's pests and then have to do pest treatment and so on. I rather proactively make sure that my plants are super clean so there's no nasty surprises by the time I come back. So for example today is part of that. My philodendron gigas was reaching and almost exceeding the top of its moss pole so I could have waited until I'm back from Thailand but instead I did a chop and extend for it two days ago. Because also if the plant only reaches halfway up the moss pole, the moss pole is less likely to dry out or the part that the plant is attached to is less likely to dry out. I'm really only concerned about the plants that reach the very top of their moss poles because they are most likely to dry out over the course of those eight days. Hence I don't need to ask my housemate to top up all of them. They've had a thorough watering and I'm probably going to give them a little top up that Thursday morning before I fly out and then it should actually be just fine. And of course I'm going to take advantage of my grow lights that are going to be on schedules. My fan in here for example I can set to 20 degrees and then it's going to turn on and off to constantly keep this room at 20 degrees. Obviously the more it turns on, the more dry air, the more my plants will dry out. And I'm not here to necessarily check on that but that's why I'm just going with a lower number. I usually have it set up to more like 22, 23, 24 but while I'm not here, let's just keep it at 20. That's warm enough for the plants to be just fine but it's not that warm for me to worry about them drying out. I suppose I always just assess the situation. I kind of try and anticipate, hey, what would I ordinarily do over those eight days? And then I either ask my friends to do it for me or I proactively do it like the chop and extends, the thorough cleanings and so on. Now the other thing I have to be proactive with is content. I was really, really productive over the last two weeks filming lots and lots of videos so I can still continuously upload videos even while I'm not here. Then again by the time I come back from Thailand, I don't have to rush to produce more content. I can really sit down or in this instance now stand up and really focus on doing a good job with my travel content. So it just gives me peace of mind. I'm a panicker, right? I get really stressed out even though I don't know if that shows on camera that much but I get really nervous. I've actually been nervous for like two weeks already going to Thailand even though there's no reason to be nervous. I just hate leaving my house kind of like I love being here, I love being in control and so on. I love being with my baby Brad as well, you know, so I'm a little bit nervous. By the time I get there, I'm going to be super excited. It's always just leading up to it, I get really, really in my head about things. So to maximize my enjoyment, I have noticed that the more prepared I am, the better I feel about things, the less I have to worry about things. So you know, of course, I could also just tell myself, hey, that is stupid, don't panic, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I know my brain is going to go there so I just need to recognize that pattern and then try and minimize the impact of it. So be proactive and so on. And that's been my approach. And that's also where Timmy comes in. I was, I really enjoyed going to Miami but it was weird going by myself. I mean, by the time I got there, I was with Jenny and Ann from Plant Hall pretty much the whole time, right? Like we were just always together which was really, really nice because that made me feel really comfortable. But I'm not going to Thailand with like a specific brand. I was just invited by the organizer who organizes the event but obviously, you know, I'm going to do like a little Q&A there, I'm going to meet Irene and Sean. So I'm not going to be there alone but it's still like, you know, a foreign country, a different language and so on and I was like, I get really nervous about these things to the extent where it takes away the joy for me. So I thought, you know, two birds, one stone. If I have somebody with me that I really trust and I enjoy being around, then I'll feel much better about it. And at the same time, Timmy can help me film and Timmy gets a free holiday. Like I invited him to help me out obviously, right? I'm not going to get him to pay for his own trip to then help me while being there, right? So I feel like in that instance, everybody's winning and I am so much more relaxed and excited for the trip as a result of it, right? So yeah, that's kind of my approach to holidays. I like them short and sweet, I like to be proactive about it and I like to lean on my friends, you know? Why not? That's what you've got friends for, no? I don't know. But for the sake of providing good recommendations and good content, I do want to work on something more automated in case you don't want to ask your friends or in case you only go away for a short time and it's not worth asking a friend or something like that. So stay tuned for that. This is coming but, you know, I don't just like to throw things out there, I like to test things thoroughly before I make a recommendation and so far it hasn't really given me the confidence to really talk about it anymore online. So I think looking around, I'm very heavily focused on this side of the room and cleaning this side of the room. And this side of the room is looking a little bit shabby so let me get the vacuum cleaner out, let me clean everything and by then the plants should also be thoroughly dry and then we can bring them in and look at the plants in a little bit more detail. They definitely look much happier and perkier out there already than they looked at the beginning of the video. Perfect timing. I had my coffee, I rested my legs, let's get some work done. I've got a new setup on my new standing desk. I love it. Okay, actually it's better if I vacuum later because it's going to get a little bit messy again when I move all the plants in. So I'll vacuum then. Okay, one other thing. I actually want to put a big mirror here because I've got rooms, the mirror is currently in the hallway. I've got different plans for the hallway. Also this room is really small so I'm hoping that the mirror is going to just visually make it look bigger. This is my philodendron verrucosa, my big mother plant and we are really going from strength to strength at the moment. So I'm really excited about it. It is definitely looking a little bit bare at the bottom over here but that's okay. You'll see later when I fit them all on the wall over here. Actually I mean in itself it looks a little bit odd and empty at the bottom or down there but as a piece of a collection it actually works really well because then I can put a plant that is lower on the pole down below and it fills that spot. So that's kind of good. So I can double the amount of plants I fit in here. But obviously I also wouldn't mind if it has more leaves. This one is my philodendron soderoy and you might notice that it's not growing on a moss pole. It's on a piece of iron bark. That is because I'm trying my very best to not mature it because it takes up too much space when it's mature. So far so good. Specifically happy about the root growth but I think that root growth is because it's still attracted to the little stumps of moss pole down here. I'm going to have a full video about this coming. Don't you worry and remember how I said you know this is the perfect like shorter plant that can fill in the bottom bit down there. My philodendron melanochrysum. Let's maybe focus on this leaf. This is the nicest one it had. Now we've had a few issues. It was growing so well with these sort of leaves and then we had spider mites over here. You can still see the yellow on the sorry I can't pull it higher because my ceilings are so low. You can still see some of the spider mite damage on these leaves at the front and there was spider mite damage that I mentioned at the intro when I went to Fiji last year in November. So that's about six seven months ago now. I wasn't so thorough with my cleaning and taking them all out and so on. So I mean they must have had the spider mites before I went to Fiji. I don't think it would have escalated that quickly but when I came back from Fiji it was very noticeable. They really had a field day in those five days and those five days made all the difference. Normally if I'm here and I notice that I can get on top of it a little bit quicker but in this instance I didn't. Then on the back of that the plant also had a couple of mites over here where it actually aborted the existing leaf and that happened to my El Chocoy as well. Let me park this here so it doesn't leak onto the carpet. Now I'm not a hundred percent sure why this happened but I asked people in my last house plant tour and somebody said that they've noticed the same phenomenon. And what they did is they measured something of the water that flushes out of the pot and they realized that there was way too much mineral buildup. So they stopped fertilizing and just flushed out the media thoroughly until that rating was at an appropriate level. I don't know. I don't do numbers. And apparently that solved the problem for them. And interestingly enough just a couple of weeks before I read that comment I also took all of my plants out, thoroughly flushed them through, really flushed out everything, got rid of the mineral buildup and subsequent leaves thereafter were just growing fine. Now what I actually did do however is I chopped it because I had this little bit of stem that was empty. So I chopped it and then this is the regrowth. So you can see that it is much chubbier, not as elongated. That's because it's the first leaf after the regrowth. So the next one is coming out of the petiole again but I'm waiting for it to start growing by a caterpillar again. So I kind of had to reset the plant a little bit as a result of the spider mites and then the basic suppose over fertilizing and I thought, you know what, instead of having a leggy pole with ugly leaves let's just reset it and give the plant more time to grow nice and strong again. So you know it's a journey. The plant looked amazing at some time last year and now it's kind of just like a really slow journey to get back there. The lesson over here was really that yes you can provide too many nutrients. Like I mean it's the first time I've ever noticed that in over five years of growing plants. So I don't think it's like a thing that really quickly happens. But as I mentioned the first few years of my plant hobby while I provided nutrients with every watering I did also thoroughly flush out everything first and then provided a few more nutrients. So there was less build up. Eventually I just started doing the water upside down technique and always provide nutrients with it and then sometimes I provide, sometimes I have to water quite frequently especially over summer and so on and all of that is fine. I just forgot about the flushing out cycle and if you look at the label of GT Followed Focus, the nutrients that I use, it does tell you to have that flushing out cycle. So I kind of just forgot about it. You know what I mean. I just went through the motions and I got so used to not doing it that it was a good reminder but it took me way too long to kind of make that connection. So once I made that connection that's when I set myself the goal to be more thorough with my cleaning because that will take care of the spider mite issues as well as taking care of those mineral build up issues, right? And historically I've had great success with that. So I just want to try that again. I understand not everybody has that amount of time available but I do. This is my full time job. So if anybody in the world can do it, it should be me. So what's my excuse? Oh my god, this is so weird. You can see me twice now. Oh, I didn't think that through. This is my Splendid. It's only halfway up its moss pole over here so that's a great one again where, you know, when it reaches the top of the moss pole, I have to probably water this every two to three days just with very little volume of water just to top up the top because the bottom stays moist for longer because of gravity, right? But now that it's only halfway up its moss pole, this is not going to dry out anytime soon. So I'm not concerned about this. I'm more concerned about the varicose for example because the part that I actively want to grow, the part that has the big caterpillars is only about this far from the top of the moss pole. So this is more likely to dry out which means that a leaf that's currently in development might dry out in its development stage and then kind of be deformed irreversibly. So out of all the plants that I've brought in so far, the varicose is really the only one that I'm, let's say, worried about when it comes to the watering over those eight days. The exact same thing that I explained with the Milano also happened to my El Choco Red. We've had the best time and then this year, this has hardly grown at all. Let me show you this. So over here, you should be able to see the big red caterpillar, right? But you can also see that there was a leaf here and then no leaves up until this newest one over here. So there was at least one, two, three, four. You can kind of see where the old leaf was here. There's four nodes where it did not grow at all. Although, it grew and then the caterpillars start kind of opening a little bit weirdly. Normally, you would expect the tip of the leaf to start pointing through the caterpillar fill and then eventually, you know, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And it didn't. The caterpillar kind of just started like peeling kind of. So I looked into it and the leaf stem and everything was completely rotten and then there was obviously a new caterpillar fill in there. I was like, okay, so I removed the rotten leaf and let the caterpillar fill continuously grow and then it happened again and again and again. And it happened four times in a row. And I was thinking that it must be something with watering, maybe that I let it dry out too much in development and then I re-moistened it and then, you know, the plant aborted it and then it rotted. Or maybe I watered too much and it's just rot-induced and so on, but only after I thoroughly flushed it out and got rid of all of the mineral buildup, it started giving me another leaf. Now, the leaf is a little bit deformed over here, but it at least is growing. So we're making a step in the right direction. It's not a pretty leaf and I can't wait to chop it off. To be honest, all of these leaves have really suffered in the meantime, right? This is a plant that doesn't look the greatest anymore, but at least I want to keep all of these leaves so that these leaves can start supporting new leaves. I mean, the color fill, you saw it earlier, looked really thick. So I just wanted to support new growth and then I can chop those off. Even if I just have two nice leaves, I'm happy to start chopping off the rest. But the nice leaf can't be deformed like that and it's also upside down. YOLO. But it's a step in the right direction and it taught me somewhat of a lesson. Now the other thing why I was so confused was that the root system is so healthy. Like it has a huge root system in here and it's super, super healthy, also within the pot. But yeah, maybe it's a blessing in disguise. I can see that it's activating a new growth point over here. So maybe that little hiccup is going to turn into a lush pole instead. And notice how this one is another one of those examples where the glorious is looking quite empty down below, very lush up top. By itself, maybe looks a bit odd, but the alchochoid just magically slides in there, right? Happy days. Philodendron patricii, one of my favorites at the moment, I think so stunning. Also has not skipped a beat growing one leaf after the other. And since I converted it to a larger pole, I don't know if you can see this, but it's growing so many roots, lots and lots of roots growing up into the pole. Not unusual. They're usually anchoring roots in nature. The plant wants to like wrap around the tree to really securely anchor itself on there. Obviously as soon as they start touching the air, they start drying out. So that's not good. But these roots will eventually start growing secondary roots. So I'm not mad at the root growing up because it still contributes to the root system, but I'm not going to extend it for the sake of the root, if you know what I mean. But such a stunning plant. And I have this really nice planter over here that I made myself by just gluing two pots on top of each other, like a little hourglass. And it just looks so good because it gives this plant a chance to trail down. And again, it fills the empty spot of the splendid a little bit. It's pretty dark down there. You can't really see much, but that also just shows you how dark this corner is, right? This is a south-facing room. Not much natural light coming in, especially during winter. And this is really far away from that window as well. So thank God for the grow lights. Esmeraldense. This leaf doesn't know where it wants to be. I'm like, I want you to be here. The petiole is just so long, look at it. But I'm hoping that it will just go with the light exposure soon. But recently this plant has absolutely shot the lights out in the root department. So I think great things are coming. And again, have a look at this. This leaf over here is kind of just perfectly, well, if it doesn't want to hide down there. This leaf over here is supposed to kind of perfectly fill this little gap that the glorious is leaving behind. Philodendron gigas. Again, I can't put it higher. Majority of the plant is down below. I just did the chop and extend for this two days ago. Variegated Milano. She moved out of the Ikea cabinet. So far, not really happy with the move, but I'm just giving her time to adjust to these new conditions here instead. And that's okay. Take your time, sweetie. We're not in a rush, you know. Philodendron titanium, varicose and serpens hybrid. Just focus on this leaf. Let's ignore all the other leaves on this plant. Beautiful redbacks. This one actually fell the other day, but it fell backwards onto its pole, which was good news. But yeah, I'm working on a video about this plant as well because I think the bottom part is looking a little bit shabby by now. Like these leaves even here already look really shabby. Now let me put it there because it's still leaking a little bit. Not much. Not to the extent that the pot would be sitting in water, but enough to make my carpet wet. So I chopped the plant already in preparation for an upcoming chop and extend, definitely something I'll do after Thailand because it hasn't reached the top of the moss pile yet. I'm not concerned about drying out. But these yellow edges initially I thought were a sign of inconsistent watering. I let it dry out too much, then water too much and so on. But now that I'm become a little more aware of the potentially nutrient provision issue, aka over fertilizing, I'm thinking maybe it was that. Maybe a combination. Probably a combination. Yellow leaves will eventually go yellow, right? It's more about how can I prevent them from going yellow so fast or how can I keep them pristine for as long as possible. It's never going to be forever. I'm realistic about that. But the longer I can keep them looking nice, the longer I can keep them. Because I'm not shy of chopping ugly leaves off, right? That's how I ended up with that tree-looking varicoseum, for example. Alright, not many left. Monstera escalador. I love this plant so much. Look at the size of this newest leaf. And she is one of three plants of the Titanium. This one as well as the varicoseum you'll see next. They're the moss piles that are just relying on natural light in here in the south-facing window, which is terrible during winter. During summer I get a little bit more light because it's kind of like southwest-ish. There's a little bit of western sun coming through as well. So yeah, I'm actually really happy with the result that I'm getting out of this plant despite not providing me with that much light, which makes me extra happy, right? My second varicoseum. It's just a lush multi-planted one. Oh my god, it's so dark in here. My Oblika. She's actually exactly where you guys are right now. So I'll park her on the side. And my Phrydex. Still looking absolutely stunning. Even have new growth coming out over here despite it being cold and dark in this room. Now with this one, obviously flushing out is a little bit different because it has no drainage hole, so I can't just flush water through. But I sprayed lots of water on it and then poured water out of it. So still in an attempt to pour out some of the mineral buildup, I suppose. But over here, I'm also just a little more careful with nutrient provision and do a few more waterings without nutrients in it. Now she also lives where you are, so it's really time for you to move. Look! This is your new home on our new desk! Oh my god, she's so excited about it. Here they are, sitting on my desk. Let me quickly head downstairs to look for a stand for this one so it's a little bit more elevated. Also gives me more privacy. So I'll be back. Actually, before we do that, let me quickly set up the lights again. One here. And I love kind of putting them under my rug, but I actually also move the rug, so we need to see if that's maybe too close. Nah, should be just fine. Oh my god, so pretty. And I definitely think that the mirror is making it brighter now, right? Okay, my friends, let me give you a little close-up. So this is what it looks like when you first walk in. I mean, what an amazing view. And now with the mirror here, twice as many plants, right? Here's the mirror. Reflects the light a little bit, the natural light as well as the one from the grow light, so hopefully it's going to make the room appear a little bit brighter. And keep in mind, this little experiment is going to go eventually, so then it's going to look less cluttered over there. And then over here, I used to have a little shelf down here, down below, that had some shoes and my water bottles in it. Now I do not like the look of this skeletal from the back. I think it doesn't look that good. I'd much prefer something like the work house, but so be it. Maybe eventually I'll move that around, I'll change it. But for now, the skeletal is growing so well, I don't really want to change its position. And then over here on my desk, I've got two plants, the oblique as well as the fire deck, just taking advantage of the natural light as well. And that's you guys, hello! And then here's my new desk setup. I'm actually so, so excited to use it. I think it will be so cool. And then the shelf that used to be there is now here, kind of in the entrance way. So it makes sense to use it as like a little shoe shelf, and then you can sit on it and put your shoes on. And I'm trying to hang that Rihanna painting up there. I'm just waiting for that to dry. It used to be on top of here, but I never moved my desk, right? Now that it's moving up and down, I'm not too sure if I should have it there. I can't hook it into the wall. This wall does not like the 3M hooks, they just fall off. Because it's an outdoor wall, it is super cold and actually quite moist as well. Terrible insulation in Australia as always. So yeah, let's see what I... I do want to have something hanging there, but I would actually have to hang and not just sit on the desk so I can move the desk freely. Anyway, that's it. Let me maybe quickly do a 0.5 pan so we get everything in frame because it is quite a small room. Look at that. Twice as lush now, huh? Alrighty, my friends. As you might have seen in that footage, but the camera's good at adjusting, it is getting so dark outside. It is 3 o'clock, it's going to be dark by 5, but I think there's a storm rolling in as well. So yes, we have actually worked on this all day. Anyway, I really want to wrap up this video so I can actually go ahead and start editing this video on my new setup. Thank you again FlexiSpot for setting me up with my new E7 Pro standing desk and sponsoring this video. Thank you guys for watching. Please make sure you give the video a thumbs up, leave a nice comment and subscribe to my channel if you haven't already. And by next week, there should be some Bangkok content ready for you. So hopefully that's coming up next week or soon. I'm not too sure. We'll find out. Thank you for watching though and goodbye.