• shalafi@lemmy.world
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    11 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
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      11 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
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        11 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
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      11 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

    • NightAuthor@lemmy.world
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      11 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.

        • NightAuthor@lemmy.world
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          11 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
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            11 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
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              11 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.

  • staindundies@sh.itjust.works
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    11 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.

    • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 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.

        • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          11 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.

  • Beefalo@midwest.social
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    11 months ago

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

  • Candelestine@lemmy.world
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    11 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.

    • Muscar@discuss.online
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      11 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
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    11 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
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    11 months ago

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

    • Chetzemoka@startrek.website
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      11 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
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    11 months ago

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

    Yes, even in Scotland.