| Symptoms | Treatment | |
| Aphids (Nasty plant lice) | Little louse-like insects. Green in color in our area. Clustered on new leaves, on flowers, and around stems | This is an easy one to get rid of, but likely to return if you don’t watch out. Use a solution of Black Leaf 40 (nicotine sulfate) in a combination spray with lindane or pyrethrum and malathion. Or you can use any of them alone |
| Mealybugs (Don’t let them frighten you) | Little white dabs of cotton clinging to tender joints, stems, and the underside of leaves | Dip an artist’s paint brush or a cotton-wrapped toothpick in a solution of malathion. Remove the pests one by one |
| Mites | Buds and new leaves are puckered and distorted. The underside of the leaves may show fine, white silky webs | Dip plants in a solution of malathion, Kelthane, or Tedion according to the directions on the label |
| Mildew | Silvery dust disfigures the leaves, most likely in dark, muggy summer weather | Dust plants with sulfur, or spray with one of the new fungicides like captan, zineb, etc. Give plants more space and increase air circulation |
| Scale | Hard brown, or green, scales irregularly on the underside of leaves | Dip plant in a solution of malathion. Repeat according to directions |
| Slugs | Slimy villains, like shell-less snails, which hide in soil or under pots by day and come out to chew holes in leaves at night | Use special slug-bait containing metaldehyde according to package directions |
| Thrips | Brownish blotches under leaves. Disfigured flowers | Dip or spray with malathion all-purpose mixture containing lindane, pyrethrum |
| White Fly | Minute flies swarm in the air about the plant when disturbed | Spray or dip in malathion, or an all-purpose mixture |
Since I fashioned my first crude propagating box—a square cake-tin with a rickety frame covered with kitchen plastic—I’ve always had some sort of similar device in operation. They have been of many sizes and shapes, and have included an aquarium vacated by the children’s goldfish, and a fruit crate from the grocery with cut-to-measure glass sides and top (I use masking tape to hold the corners). The one thing common to all of these boxes is the three-inch layer of some moist propagating medium, ready to receive seeds and cuttings.
The latest and most attractive box I’ve used is the Gro-Master—a ready-made plug-in propagator with an electric coil in the bottom to provide gentle bottom heat. Several similar devices are also available. With something like this one can hardly miss germinating even the most difficult house-plant seeds, or rooting even the most delicate cuttings.
The choice of a propagating medium is all yours. I’ve used vermiculite, perlite, and Pelonex with unqualified success. I tried sharp sand but discovered that it dried out too fast for anything but succulents. Peat alone, or mixed with sand, tends to pack and rots rather quickly. I tried a blend of equal parts of peat, vermiculite, and perlite. It held up rather well, but I seldom bother to mix it. Regardless of what you prefer to use, have the medium moist when you use it, and water just enough to keep it barely moist during the rooting process.
Of course, with many types of plants, you can root “slips” in a glass of water on your kitchen window sill. But in any kind of propagating box, where the air is kept humid and the delicate plants are protected from drafts and drying-out, you have a better chance.
House Plants from Seed
African violets and other gesneriads, all types of begonias and geraniums, and many other indoor plants can be grown quite easily from seed. I like to plant each variety in its own small plastic refrigerator dish with a half-inch or so of soil (moist, sterilized soil that is) in the bottom of the dish. Sometimes I use plastic ice-cube trays. When planting powder-fine seeds, I usually add a thin layer of moist, finely-milled sphagnum moss and make it very smooth. Dust the tiny seeds over this surface, but don’t cover them with soil. Larger seeds should be covered with soil or more moss. Next, cover the container tightly and set it in a warm spot. That is when you will appreciate a propagating box. If the moss and soil begins to dry out, moisten it by gently running drops of water down the sides of the container. Please be gentle and tender. Tiny seeds and seedlings should not be disturbed.
When the seedlings have developed one or two true leaves of fairly substantial size, pick them out very gently and transplant them to another “community” container, or to individual thumb pots. Keep them humid and protected until they are big enough to need transplanting again. After that, they should be nearly ready to become adjusted to grown-up growing conditions in a window, or some other indoor garden.
One of the neatest tricks of the year is the Water ‘N’ Watch indoor garden developed and sold by Peggie Schulz, an attractive plastic planter complete with soil and planted with fourteen types of seeds. You simply follow her instructions, add water, and watch the seedlings germinate and grow. Gradually you remove the plastic dome when the plants are large enough. At transplanting time, remove the seedlings to separate pots, or leave a few to mature in the planter. This device is just about as work-free a method of growing house plants as there is.
