Episode 166: IKEA greenhouse cabinets

Camila Lohr’s IKEA greenhouse cabinets. Photograph: @camiplants.

Camila Lohr’s IKEA greenhouse cabinets. Photograph: @camiplants.

Transcript

Episode 166

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Jane: Hello and welcome to On The Ledge podcast! I'm your host, Jane Perrone, and this week we're going behind closed doors to look at IKEA greenhouse cabinet hacks, plus, we hear from listener Zoe in New Zealand and I answer a question about preventative measures for pests.

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Jane: Just a quick heads up about the next few weeks. There will be no episodes 1^st^ January or 8^th^ January, with the show retuning on 15^th^ January and, as I've already mentioned, there will be a special episode coming out on Thursday 24^th^ December which will be a festive relaxation episode, nothing practical, but something that you might like to listen to over the festive break! There will be episodes next Friday and the Friday after, that's 11^th^ and 18^th^ December as well.

Thank you to Kichara from Switzerland and ALovelyLadybird from Canada for leaving reviews for the show. To Armani, Jenny and Harriet for becoming Ledge-Ends and to Craig and to Chris for becoming SuperFans; fabulous to have your support! I'm still sending out my Patreon Christmas cards and posters to those of who you who have included your address and are at the Ledge-End or SuperFan level. Please do keep an eye on the post. If nothing arrives before Christmas then do message me if you think you're owed a post-out, because while I'm doing my best to coordinate everything, I've got quite a lot of cards to send. And do remember, if you're a Patreon subscriber, there is the option of switching from monthly to annual payment. This will also save you two months' worth of money. I have sent a message about that, but, again, if you've got any questions, do shoot me a line and I'll be happy to help!

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Jane: That's housekeeping knocked on the head! Let's crack on with the show! The Question of the Week is how we're going to start and it comes from Andy. Andy is a Patreon subscriber and he dropped me a line on Patreon with the following question: "As an aquarist (that's a really hard thing to say!) I quarantine fish regularly and sometimes will dose a general cure-all into the quarantine tank, just to be sure to catch any pathogens. I'm relatively new to houseplant keeping and haven't really quarantined any plants but have found some mealybugs and had to treat for these. So my question is, would you use a pesticide or natural pest controls on a plant not necessarily showing any symptoms of bugs?" What a great question and it's really good to see that you're putting your practical experience - I'm not going to repeat that word again because I clearly can't say it - but your practical experience with fish towards your houseplant habit, Andy!

In terms of houseplants, I think, as you've already indicated, quarantining new plants is a really good way of making sure that you don't introduce any pests or problems, such as diseases, to your houseplant clan. I appreciate, if you've got a small home, this is a bit of a tricky one and I don't always do it myself, but I usually regret not doing it, I have to say! So, if you can, new plants in a different room from all of your other plants for a period of, well, up to four to six weeks, will give anything that's wrong a chance to show itself. Things like mealybugs can remain hidden and then suddenly start to creep up to the visible parts of the plant. Then you can catch them before you move the plant to your main collection. I hear so many stories about people buying plants mainly from big chains, as opposed to specialist growers, but occasionally from the latter, where the plant comes home and already has a problem with spider mites or aphids or mealybugs and so this is something to be really aware of, particularly if you're a new plant owner and you're just not used to dealing with pests because it can be quite a shock to discover there are things crawling about on your plants.

In terms of any particular treatment for new plants, I can really understand the psychology of this; you want to just blitz them and tackle anything straight away. What I would say, generally, is my rule with using anything on my plants is that I don't do it unless I absolutely have to. If you've got glossy leaved foliage plants then it's a great idea to wipe those leaves down with a damp cloth as we discussed in our leaf shine episode last week, or, alternatively, place them in the shower and give them a good wash down, there's absolutely no harm in doing that. Checking for pests, that should involve looking under the surface of the soil as well as on top of the soil, for things like root mealybugs. Just that time and attention will be the thing that allows you to spot any pests before they spread to the rest of your houseplants.

There's also much debate about the question of whether you should repot plants as soon as you get them home. I don't think there's one hard and fast rule on this issue. It really depends on how the plant is looking, what it's potted in and what condition the soil is in. If you've got a cactus or a succulent that's in quite a heavy, possibly organic-based mix, it may well be advisable to knock all of that potting mix off the roots and get it potted up into something much more appropriate, a half-and-half mix of grit or perlite and your houseplant potting medium of choice is roughly what I would go for. If it's coming up to the dormant period for that plant then that potting mix can be applied pretty much dry to avoid any possibility of root rot.

Other plants, well if it's a tropical plant that's probably going to be growing through the winter period anyway, then yes, again, certainly, pot it up, just make sure you don't give it a huge pot, that you pot it one size up, leaving just a small extra area of unrooted compost around the rootball for the roots to grow into. The other occasion when I would say it's definitely worth repotting, is if you buy a plant which is in a pot with no drainage hole; yes, there are a few exceptions of plants that will survive without drainage, but on the whole, it's far better, and you've got a far better chance of success, if that plant is potted into something with drainage. I do hope that helps, Andy. If you've got a question for On The Ledge, drop me a line ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com

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Jane: Keeping tropical plants happy in the average home is not the easiest thing. So many of us resort to things like humidifiers in an attempt to keep that air humidity up, but in recent years, lots of growers have been turning to the giant Swedish superstore IKEA for a solution to their problem, turning bog-standard IKEA glass cabinets into beautiful indoor green houses for their precious plants. So, how did this trend begin? What benefits can it offer? How do you go about doing it? My Cabinet Ministers for today are two Canadian plant growers, Cami and Vinny, both of whom have tons of expertise in making awesome IKEA cabinets. Here's Cami, who is @CamiPlants on Instagram, to explain how she first came across the concept.

Cami: The first time I saw it was an Instagram page. It's by Robin and she used to have this wonderful IKEA setup where she had two MILSBO cabinets and a FABRIKÖR cabinet and it looked really nice and I had one of those plastic green houses where I kept my more rare plants and I really liked the idea of having something that will showcase the plants and look nice in a room but also help preserve the environment that they need to thrive. So that's where I found it! I found it on Instagram maybe a year and a half ago or so and also found my friend Vinny who had his setup all sorted and we actually met because I started setting up mine through Instagram and he was showing me tips on how to do it and that's how we connected.

Jane: MILSBO and FABRIKÖR - as with all IKEA products, the names seem to come out of nowhere but if you've ever seen an Instagram post with cabinet and glass doors and walls and a metal frame and a fair number of Aroids stuffed inside then the likelihood is it's probably one of these items because they are sold in their millions all around the world. But what do these cabinets offer that makes them so much better than just an average set of shelves? Cami believes it's all down to the control they give you over the environment for your plants.

Cami: We are all getting into these expensive rare plants right now and in order to keep them thriving we have to keep their environment to a certain standard, right? Humidity, light, air circulation and it's harder to keep that into a perfect level when we're dealing with hundreds of square foot of our home and if you keep the whole room super humid in our house, we are prone to mould and things like that. The IKEA cabinets are a perfect solution that looks nice in our homes and is not like one of those plastic green houses that we can buy online. So it looks aesthetically pleasing, it's easy to rig into something the plants will like and they're not super-expensive because it's IKEA. It's something that you can get in a lot of places in the world right now and so it's accessible, it's not super -xpensive and it keeps your plants happy, so I think that's why.

Jane: If your house is already filled with modern furniture with clean lines, possibly some of it bought from IKEA, then what better to display your plants in than a minimalist, modern cabinet like a MILSBO or a FABRIKÖR? Here's Vinny:

Vinny: For most people it becomes a statement piece within your home, if that makes any sense? Even when I made my first videos, I've mentioned that you have those Amazon greenhouses; they are plastic and they are technically better than the IKEA greenhouses. They are metal and then you have to hack it so that it can become a greenhouse, but they don't look good in your house, so I think that is the primary factor for most people. They want to put their plants on display as part of the decoration of their house, instead of just putting it behind some sort of plastic sheet that people won't be able to see it through, that it won't look good in their living rooms. Obviously social media plays a huge factor as people build more and more, these greenhouses, and they start posting photos. People will start to see how beautiful they are etc and I believe this boosts its popularity and people will start to buy them even though, sometimes, they don't even need them, they just buy them because they look good!

Jane: So, you've brought your cabinet and assembled it, what's next? Can you just start sticking plants in it, or is there anything else you need to do? Well, given these cabinets are not specifically designed to contain plants there are a few little tweaks that you'll need to make before your plants can become ensconced.

Vinny: The first thing you need to figure out is the light. Whether your room has enough light to sustain them growing or if you do need to bring in those extra lights. I would say that if you are going to bring in growlights, definitely invest in growlights that are going to withstand time, but also have a very good spectrum so that the plants grow in the right way. I also answered this question in my Q&A. Somebody was asking me whether a plant could grow with some normal light and that sent me in a spiral of research and the answer is kind of, because the way that plants photosynthesise, they see pretty much the entire visible light spectrum but they really thrive, I think, in the blue and the red type of light, which creates that purplish light, so that's why you see that purple light going on. However, what I also figured out is that if you're in an environment like myself, you saw my room, I work in this room all day, this is my office, if I have purple lights all over here it will affect my vision because the human eye is not supposed to be in that type of light, so it actually is problematic for me, so that's why I decided to go with the white lights. I don't know if they're as good as the purple ones but they also cover a very good spectrum for the plants.

Jane: Vinny also points out that you need to be extra careful when it comes to electrical safety and your lights.

Vinny: There was a very interesting question that I got a couple of times already, around why is it that I put my growlight outside my greenhouse? It's mostly because they are running, I think, 120, and because of the humidity environment that exists within the greenhouse. If I get the connectors where the electricity connects to the light, if that rusts, I'm creating a fire hazard for myself. So I think that's one thing I keep on telling people; if you're going to put that sort of equipment inside of the greenhouse, it would be good to know whether it can withstand that type of environment, so you're not creating a situation where you can set your house on fire, unfortunately.

Jane: What other pieces of kit might you need for your cabinet? Over to Cami for a bit of a shopping list.

Cami: I recommend a small humidifier. You might have to fill it more but it gives you more space inside the greenhouse to put more plants. Also, I recommend a USB fan to keep the air moving. A lot of people replace the glass shelves for wire but I have one that has a wire shelf but all the rest have glass. The reason why I choose this is because I build terrariums, so the idea of keeping the environments in between shelves as separate that doesn't sound so bad to me. It's okay if the humidity varies by a few percentage but both things are good, wire shelving, humidifier and USB fans.

Jane: If you want to make your cabinet extra cosy and stop that precious moist air from leaking out, you can also employ some weather strips to keep the air contained.

Cami: I have been doing a test in my MILSBO cabinet where I weather-strip one fully, also all around the doors and all the crevices. I haven't siliconed the glass yet. The reason why I did this is just to see how much the humidity varies in between the one that is all enclosed and the one that is not. I say it's about 10% higher humidity at all times. It fluctuates a lot less as well. The weather strip being, I just use the window weather stripping. It's a little foam strip with one side which has adhesive. I got it from Amazon but I'm sure any store - Lowe's or anything like that - will have it as well. It's not very expensive and it's great way to make your cabinet be a little bit more sealed so you don't need to put the humidifier on all the time.

Jane: So you've got your cabinet all set up but what should you fill it with? It is partly a question of experimentation, according to Cami and Vinny, but Vinny does point out there are some plants that just aren't that keen on the ultra-humid, closed environment of the cabinet.

Vinny: My rule of thumb is, if the plant is not a velvety plant, if it's not like the Melanochrysum, the Anthurium regaleand it's more of, like, a Monstera or a Philodendron Barrosoanum, that are a little bit hardier plants, they might survive in there, but it's not necessary for you to have them in there. My Thai Constellation, from what I've heard from other collectors and growers, that plant is very prone for root rot. So, for me, that was the most critical plant I've had because it was my very first so-called rare plant. I really don't like the term, but just for the sake of it, and I put it in there and then three weeks later it just started to fall apart and it went in a spiral where it took me about a year to see another leaf growing in the plant. So it's, like, a year full of recovery in that plant, outside of the greenhouse, and it's important for you to know your plants and understand the requirements as far as humidity goes. I believe those cabinets are more so designed for primarily the velvety plants, not too much the hardier plants.

Jane: So, like everything in life, the cabinet isn't perfect. It can exacerbate the problem of root rot, as Cami explains.

Cami: The general consensus is that "peakier" plants that prefer high humidity are also just more difficult in general just because they rot really easily as well. So, once we start bumping up the humidity to keep them happy, from the leaves from turning brown and getting crispy and all that, then the roots just get too much humidity, the soil never dries out, so you get the rot. So there's a few ways to combat that. Put a layer of pebbles underneath your soil. I've seen that going around and it seems to be working really well, but the fan is the easiest thing. Just put the fan in and just make the air circulate.

Jane: And as I've already pointed out, these IKEA cabinets have not been designed for plants, so the other major enemy of success is rust which is not surprising given how much of a moist environment you're creating, but there are some ways around it, as Vinny points out.

Vinny: My first cabinet had a little bit of rust going on, mostly because of the mistakes that I made. My last cabinet is - I'm looking at it right now - and I see minimum amounts of rust, but there is definitely some rust going on. It's absolutely critical that you clean your cabinets, and then you're looking over it, but the best way for you to avoid it is ensuring that there is no water around the cabinet. Let's say my routine is; I water my plants on the weekend and then I shower hose all of them and then I put them in the cabinet. As soon as I do that my cabinet gets humidity, the humidity gets really high and then sometimes you would see a little bit of water dripping inside of the cabinet in the glass that condensation is going on. Generally what I do is I just bump up the fan and then the fan will start to move that air faster, or I can open up the door slightly. It's important that you're consistently looking at it so that you don't see water in the cabinet, generally water in the bottom shelves, if you have the wire shelves, so you just wipe it off, otherwise you will, for sure, get rust.

Jane: What's lovely about listening to Vinny and Cami talk about their cabinets is it's quite clear what a collaborative community of cabinet-makers there are on the internet and particularly on Instagram. Vinny and Cami are both important parts of that community, along with Robin, who is the creator of the account ikeagreenhousecabinet on Instagram, where much of this information and beautiful pictures of people's cabinets are shared. I'll put links to all three of their Instagram accounts in the show notes, so do go and check them out. They really are a fount of knowledge. It's wonderful to see such generosity in sharing information.

Vinny: The community has been really, really positive in many, many ways because one of the things that I've said in my first video was, when I was building this, the more experienced people in the plant community, they weren't really willing to share information about how they care for their plants, which is weird to me. I come from a design background and in the design community we discover something and it's all over the internet. We're just sharing knowledge. Then I wanted to stop that and I want it to be like: "You know what, I've killed many plants, I have a build right now that has been running for six months and I really want to share this with other people, so if they want to do it, they can do it in a safe way so they don't lose their plants" and that's kind of how the community got built of. It was a combination of Robin doing excellent work of finding those greenhouses, discovering the internet and centralising it, and then myself getting featured and working with her, to share the knowledge in her Instagram account.

Jane: And lucky for the rest of us, where Cami, Robin and Vinny have made mistakes, we can learn from them and avoid expensive errors that they've had to go through.

Vinny: Unfortunately, for me, it has cost me a little bit more because I've experimented with it, but if you follow the recipe that I've put online, you'll probably be able to maximise it and make it as minimal as possible. Obviously you buy the cabinet and then you have to buy the fans. The fans that I recommend are a little bit more expensive, I think they're $100 each, I don't remember, and when you buy them, they come in a pair and then you also have to buy the shelving. The shelving all together comes to about $100+ as well, in between $100 and $150. If you have these two components, you're set. The lights I use are about $60 each, so I have one per greenhouse. I have three greenhouses. That means that I have six lights, so it adds up. I think it's very important for people to, first, you need to understand your current environment. That will dictate how much money you need to invest in the greenhouse. I got a very nice question once in my Q&A series where the question was, "Would you recommend buying one of these if you lived in Florida?" and my answer was "No". Right off the bat, I would rather just have open shelves in my house and display my plants that way because it is an investment and it goes beyond just being an investment of money; it's an investment of time, to maintain them. If I were to clean all the greenhouses, it would probably take me four to five hours to clean them properly. You don't have to do that if you just have open shelves, if that makes any sense?

Jane: And you don't have to use an IKEA cabinet either. Although there are outposts of IKEA in many parts of the world, not every country or area has one, so what do you do if you are MILSBO-light? Well, there are options, says Cami.

Cami: I agree, yes! Absolutely, it doesn't have to be IKEA. I guess I sometimes find on Facebook Market Place a lot of cabinets that are perfect and look so beautiful and it would be even cheaper to get one like that and retro-fit it to keep the plants. I would just be a little more wary about wood because they can get mouldy pretty easy, so that might need a bit of a special treatment, but, I would say, still be fine and better that not having it, I think.

Jane: So, whether you are new to this trend, or and an old-hand at IKEA cabinets, I hope this has provided you with some inspiration and if you've got a cabinet, do send me a picture - I'd love to see it! And thank you so much to my guests today, Vinny, who is vinny.aroids on Instagram and Camila, or Cami, Lohr, both of whom were so generous with their time. If you're a Patreon subscriber, you'll be able to go and hear both of their full interviews next week, including Cami talking about her super-rare variegated Monstera adansoniis -- yes! - and you can see pictures of both of their cabinets in the show notes.

Now it's time to hear from our listener this week and it's Zoe!

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Zoe: Hi, I'm Zoe from Wellington in New Zealand! I run a gardening business and I first got into houseplants when I started getting an influx of job applications from very enthusiastic people in their 20s who all wanted to start nurseries. I had an old Philodendron atom in the bathroom and we planted Monstera in people's gardens for a more tropical feel, but that was my entire experience. So seeing the Monstera craze come up and a huge range of enthusiastic people coming into the industry was a whole new world for me. I started collecting indoor plants and teaching propagation to my staff. As time went on I started killing some of my plants and I realised that experience in greenhouses and outdoor plants will only get you so far. It got me hooked. I recently scaled back my hoard but I'm always swapping cuttings or propping them, to pass on.

Jane: Question one. You've been selected to travel to Mars as part of the first human colony on the Red Planet. There's only room for one houseplant from your collection on board. Which plant do you choose?

Zoe: I would have to choose my Vanilla planifolia. It climbs well and it flowers, so it could get big and help me feel like there were more plants in the apartment. I hope there would be intense temperature and humidity controls, so I could make my living space a greenhouse for it. I'll be able to have it flower and set seed too. I don't know how people would feel about me taking precious water from our reserves to pump it into my apartment, but maybe I can bribe them with vanilla pods.

Jane: Question two. What is your favourite episode of On The Ledge?

Zoe: I was going to say my favourite episode was the interview with Tyler Thrasher, but in the past few weeks I have realised that episode 152 on silicon has been life-changing. Working outside, I'm always cut up by grasses, especially some of our natives, and being able to relate that back to silicon and what its purpose is has made me a much more patient person. The function of silicon in plants is my current fact to share and it never fails to spark others' interests too. It has reignited an interest in how specific soil amendments will impact the plant on a smaller level than we are usually inclined to think about.

Jane: Question three. Which Latin name do you say to impress people?

Zoe: I say Tradescantia fluminensis. It isn't a particularly hard one but in Wellington, Tradescantia suffocates our native species, so I use it a lot. I feel like referring to Tradescantia by non-racist botanical names is one of the easy ways to combat racism in this world. Using the Latin name for Tradescantia stops most people in their tracks because, rightly or wrongly, it is seen as the most correct term. I say "rightly or wrongly" because there is another level to racism, where botanists have travelled the world and given a bunch of plants scientific Latin names without necessarily consulting the indigenous people, but I'm doing my best. Saying Tradescantia is a correction that almost everyone sees as educational, not preachy, so I hope that using its proper name is making a difference.

Jane: Question four. Crassulacean acid metabolism or guttation?

Zoe: Guttation, always guttation. There is nothing better than seeing the big beautiful droplets on my Golden pothos. I feel like if we're going to own houseplants, they should be gluttons and be treated like absolute royalty, and having a plant so spoiled that it's dripping water makes me feel like I'm spoiling a child.

Jane: Question five. Would you rather spend £200 on a variegated Monstera, or £200 on 20 interesting cacti?

Zoe: I would love to spend £200 on a variegated Monstera. I feel like it's so easy to pick up a plant and take it home. Nowadays, I really have to convince my family that I need it and I'd rather splash out and get something really special. Plus, cacti are fun and great but they have spikes and they would take up all of our windowsills. I would prefer a rainforest than plants that want to embed themselves into my skin!

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Jane: Thank you, Zoe! So great to hear from you and I know what you mean about cacti! I have just managed to get a cactus spine out of my thumb after it sitting there embedded for about a month, so I'm glad to be rid of that! Now, don't be shy if you'd like to be featured on Meet the Listener! We would love to hear from you! Drop a line to ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com and we will pass on details of how to take part.

Well, that just about wraps up this week's show. Thank you for joining me! My son and I have been dreaming up new superheroes this week, including my effort which was called the 'Chefanator' and the 'Chefanator' fires off bowls of hot noodles from his fingers to take out the baddies. I'm not sure whether that's ever going to make it to the movies but it got me thinking about houseplants and realising how many super-powers our houseplants have! They really are amazing, so take a fresh look at your plants today; they're basically snacking on sunlight! How awesome is that? I shall leave you with that thought! Do have a fabulous week. I'm Jane Perrone, this is On The Ledge. Bye!

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Jane: The music you heard in this episode was Roll Jordan Roll by The Joy Drops, A Man Approaches with Bowed Sitar, Rishikesh by Samuel Corwin, Chiefs by Jahzzar and Overthrown by Josh Woodward. All tracks are licensed under Creative Commons, visit janeperrone.com for details.

Subscribe to On The Ledge via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Player FM, Stitcher, Overcast, RadioPublic and YouTube.

Become a Patron!

Find out how to turn a glass cabinet from IKEA into a stylish indoor greenhouse with my guests Camila Lohr and Vinny Araujo, plus I answer a question about preventative pest control and we hear from listener Zoe from New Zealand in Meet the Listener.

This week’s guests

Cami Lohr.

Cami Lohr.

Camila Lohr - @camiplants on Instagram - lives in Vancouver, Canada and is a keen aroid collector, terrarium builder and owner of several IKEA greenhouse cabinets.

Vinny Araujo - @vinny.aroids on Instagram - lives in Toronto, Canada and is also a keen aroid collector and owner of several IKEA greenhouse cabinets. Check out Vinny’s story highlights for all Vinny’s info and advice on setting up cabinets.

Check out the info and links below as you listen.

Photograph: @camiplants.

Photograph: @camiplants.

Vinny Araujo with his greenhouse cabinets. Photograph: @vinny.aroids.

Vinny Araujo with his greenhouse cabinets. Photograph: @vinny.aroids.

  • The two main types of IKEA cabinets that are used for greenhouses are Milsbo and Fabrikor - but if you don’t have access to IKEA or would prefer to buy secondhand, you can adapt any glass cabinet: if you choose a wooden-framed cabinet, you need to be particularly careful about moisture. The plastic greenhouses you can buy from Amazon are a great alternative if you are not worried about how they look!

  • These cabinets are very useful for people who live in climates where their homes suffer from hot, dry air from central heating, or a climate with naturally dry air: if you live in places like Florida, you probably don’t need one and can keep your plants on open shelves!

  • The IKEA cabinet trend really grew via Instagram, thanks to Vinny and Cami, and also Robin Schouten, who started the account @ikeagreenhousecabinet.

  • The first consideration is light: if there isn’t enough natural light, you can add growlights to your cabinet, but think carefully about where to site them and make sure they are waterproof if you are placing them inside the cabinet.

  • What can you grow in your cabinet? Aroids are extremely popular, particularly those aroids with velvety leaves, such as Anthurium regale. Vinny found his Monstera ‘Thai Constellation’ hated life in a cabinet!

  • A small humidifier can help keep humidity up inside the cabinet: smaller units will need filing more often, but will take up less space. Small fans will help move air around the cabinet

  • Some growers prefer to keep the glass shelves, but others swap them out for wire shelving to allow more air to circulate. Vinny uses Rubbermaid shelving from Home Depot.

  • Adding weather strip tape to the gaps in your cabinet can help to keep moist air in.

  • The main issue that can occur is root rot - this can be prevented by careful choice of plants, and also using fans to keep the air moving.

  • It’s important to keep an eye on moisture levels in your cabinet to avoid rusting of the metal frame. Clean your cabinets regularly and ensure that there is no water laying around the base of the cabinet. Open up the door slightly if there is a lot of condensation building up in the cabinet.

Question of the week

Andy wanted to know what preventive measures to take against pests: I suggest that the best thing you can do is quarantine new plants for a few weeks in a separate room, allowing time for any pests or diseases to make themselves known. It’s worth washing plants down and/or wiping the leaves with a foliar feed or organic-approved pesticide such as SB Plant Invigorator. Repot any plants with incorrect compost or a lack of drainage, and check the roots for soil-dwelling pests such as root mealy bugs.

Want to ask me a question? Email ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com. The more information you can include, the better - pictures of your plant, details of your location and how long you have had the plant are always useful to help solve your issue!



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CREDITS

This week's show featured the tracks Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops, A Man Approaches with Bowed Sitar by Samuel Corwin, Chiefs by Jahzzar and Overthrown by Josh Woodward.

Logo design by Jacqueline Colley.