Obsessed!
Found a guy (Sirius) on Facebook marketplace who was selling baby alocasias. I could clearly see in his photos that he was growing them in leca (semi-hydroponics) which is perfect as that’s what I’m using for most my plant cuttings which are doing amazing (lots of root growth and some have even pushed out new leaves!), best of all he lives literally 10 minutes down my street!
I swung past to pick up 4 plants, but walked away with 7 (since I took the lot he sold them all to me for $10 each).
Super nice guy who shared a lot of advice. The best tips he gave me was to note that alocasia’s are very hardy plants (despite what many say), and that insects/pests (particularly spider mites) are almost unavoidable and basically part of the hobby (again, similar to pests and algae issues in aquaria). He also said that alocasias don’t particularly need super high humidity and that he kept all of his at 60-65. I was previously freaking out when my humidity hit 60 (most of the day it’s at 70-80 in the cabinet).
He has more plants to sell, but I’ve legit got no more room in the cabinet now (especially with the rate things are growing at). I somehow doubt that’s going to slow me down from buying more plants though!
Plants: Alocasia Black Velvet, Pink Princess, Green Shield, Green Velvet and Melo.
PS: Follow Sirius on Instagram: @hemanlikesplants