I’m back- with real Thai Cons this time!!

After being recently fooled by a GINORMOUS white wizard philo and thinking they’d snuck a Thai Con into a 4-plant holding pot…. I’d totally done a dirty delete on here out of sheer embarrassment. Us plant people are always learning, though I thought I’d been better at determining the difference sigh I suppose not lol. After my dreams of finally tracking down a major wishlist plant were crushed, my wonderful partner set out on a wild goose chase with me in order to rekindle my hope.

After physically checking around 10 stores and calling around 30, we are incredibly proud to announce that we managed to save 6 waterlogged juvenile Thai Cons from a Walmart about half an hour away from home.

Now, these poor roots had been in the most dense, soggy soil I’d ever seen. Believe it or not, we somehow caught them prior to any severe rot aside from incredibly early signs, so I gently massaged them out of it (or attempted to) and found myself just rinsing out 90% of the soil and introducing them to a mix of soil, orchid bark, perlite, and sphagnum moss. To hopefully avoid severe root shock, I kept the soil ratio at around 30-40%. I have new pots en route, but I temporarily (for 24hrs) grouped 2 plants in a pot separated from each other and stuck the other 4 in their own.

Later this evening, they’ll be headed into clear grow pots about 1-2” larger than their initial grow pots from Wally World (roots were coming out of the bottom and I had to cut a couple of pots to get them out safely. I will be adding a bit of LECA and horticultural charcoal to their mix just to ensure that they’re getting the drainage they need. Otherwise, 3 are enjoying a spot with loads of natural light coming from 2 walls (S & E facing) and the support of the residual from my Gardyn hydroponic system’s grow light! The other 3 are headed to an awesome spot that has resulted in very early inner fenestrations from one of my normal monsteras! We are in the desert, so everyone will be getting the benefits of humidifiers as well!

With all of those great things said, I am proudly no longer the salty, “I think I found the thing I really want and just found out I got gypped” lady! 😂

If anyone has any other tips that have allowed their Thai cons to flourish, please let me know!!! All of them have either currently fenestrated leaves or fenestrated leaves unfurling, so I think we’re off to a great start!