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Sounds like great advice, Boolie. I'm only putting her in the sun, undomed, for about a half hour every third day, while she drains any excess water right after I water her, and she spends the rest of her time outside on a table in the shade. Her stalk is still very firm. For political reasons (peace in the house) I've moved her to another location overlooking Lake Elsinore. Maybe the humidity is better there.

Since my humidity dome no longer covers the entire pot, much of the dirt in the pot is exposed to air. I am therefor watering with a gallon each time, twice per week.

Under the dome the dirt stays moist on top and the inside surface of the dome is always coated with water. As the "undomed" dirt dries I'm pouring most of the water on it, rather than on the area under the dome, to encourage the roots to grow as they seek out water.

I'm alternating half-strength fish emulsion with full strength root stimulator each time I water her. And I'm still using softened, reverse-osmosis treated water every time.

Oh, and the bugs are gone now.

Ok, so yesterday I found some "Superthrive" at the local home store. I put 1/4 tspoon of it, and 1 tspoon of fish emulsion, and 1Tspoon of root stimulator into a gallon of water and gave it to Sylvia today. I then Left the humidity dome off and let her drain in direct sunlight for an hour. Then, back under her humidity dome and back into the shade with her. I'll leave her in the shade until I water her again in three more days.

Her dirt outside the humidity dome was fairly dry, even below the surface, before I watered her. There was a lot of water in the humidity dome before I watered her. The surface of the dirt under the humidity dome was moist before I watered her.

Her stalk is still very green and firm. Not very much change in the leaf department. Maybe some very tiny branches are forming.

RocketeerJim wrote:Ok, so yesterday I found some "Superthrive" at the local home store. I put 1/4 tspoon of it, and 1 tspoon of fish emulsion, and 1Tspoon of root stimulator into a gallon of water

Nice I think its gonna like that.

Superthrive has a nice balance of B vitamins and plant hormones, so it should help...anyone looking for superthrive just go to your local garden supply store and they will likely have it near the miracle grow,,,

Ok, so it's been about six weeks since my last photos. Since then, Sylvia survived a freak storm on a very hot day and we, that is Sylvia and I, together, learned about wilting. [Honestly, the poor girl has been beaten mercilessly since being entrusted to my care yet she survives, my clumsy efforts to the contrary notwithstanding.]

She's now acclimated to the outside and I no longer use any humidity dome, having set it aside in reserve for the cuttings to come.

Since Sylvia is about 8 miles from my home I only see her for a few hours every third or fourth day. I therefor only mist her about four to six times per week. She seems happy, if rather small.

Sylvia is situated, amongst several other very healty looking plants, along the side of a house that overlooks Lake Elsinore and she receives one and one-half hours of direct sunlight each morning.

Since I completd Sylvia's "intensive care" treatment of Superthrive and Vitamin B12 that commenced late in June, I've been watering her with, alternatively, nothing, fish emulsion, nothing, Miracid, nothing, fish emulsion, nothing and, just today, vinegar added into her water. Lately she also receives an occasional misting from the resident (my friend) as well as hose spritzing by his octogenarian next-door neighbor. This has somewhat disrupted my own watering schedule, but I adjust accordingly so the soil beneath the surface is just moist, not wet.

Here's a new photo from today.

wow nice lots of growth! amazing the before and after

Aha! Way to go Jim. I'm glad she's on her way up (literally)! That's crazy how she went from just a stem to spreading out so far horizontally (it looks like the span in the picture is like 8 inches from edge to edge (up to down in the picture). How tall is it?

Thanks for the compliments, fellows! I'm, above all else, relieved that Sylvia apparently will not suffer the same fate as Twiggy, may she rest in peace!

Well, actually, Ulmy, I haven't measured her lately. She doesn't seem to have grown much vertically, though. She has just been growing branches and several are an inch or an inch and a half long. And she has a couple of dozen or so leaves now.

Here are some more photos I took this morning. It's easier to recognize these as photos of the same stick with two leaves on top of it! I have some intermediate photos from a couple of weeks ago but I couldn't "post" them at the time due to site upload limitations (??).





I'll measure Sylvia next time I see her in a few days!

Aha yeah, again, she's doing so much better. That's awesome. I don't like how she has a bend in her, because she won't do so well when she's taller, but then again, I predict she'll give you a nice cutting soon. I think she's having trouble growing vertically, but she has so many leaves that I'm not worried about her health.

If you get an error on the forum let us know so we can make changes to correct it.

I agree, Ulmy: no worries here! I'm very pleased with Sylvia's progress. No thanks to me, though! I only see her every third or fourth day now and she's doing so much better. I guess one could say that, on a certain scale, the acceleration of Sylvia's progress thus far has been inversely proportionate to my participation in the experiment!

I'm really hoping that with some cooler weather in the next month or two, Syvia will burst forth. And I hope to do at least a couple of cuttings by the first week of October if not sooner.

Oh, BTW, she measures about 7 inches horizontally due to her scoliosis and her branches:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a319/JamesJSimpson/Sylvia/DSCN0388.jpg


and about 8.5 inches vertically:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a319/JamesJSimpson/Sylvia/DSCN0389.jpg

She really seems to like her new home and she's doing quite well outside 24/7 with no humidity dome at all. She has adapted, although she had quite a rough time of it.

Ahaha, the teacher... I remember coming out of one trip and saying, "I can be anything!" The plant knows this well. This plant has survived for hundreds of years. It relies on death, not children, to adapt.

Lol her scoliosis... When I read that I lol'd

Yeah I got a kick out of that too. I don't think it's a "defect."

i advise your plant to see a rheumatologist about it's scoliosis

Too bad she's a spineless little recycler.