Growing with Carla
A Hobby Gardener/Plant Enthusiast Podcast. We'll talk about learning how to grow green leafy babies and share some cool stories! Let's go on an adventure! 🌱😊
Growing with Carla
“Fast Plants” and Green Consumerism
Ever wondered why buying plants from grocery stores can sometimes feel like a gamble? Join me, Carla, on this episode of Growing with Carla as I recount my rescue mission of an Alocasia plant from a grocery store. We’ll explore the convenience and variety these stores offer, but also dive into the hidden challenges: poor plant care, waterlogged soil, and pesky pests. Our conversation will parallel the world of fast fashion, highlighting the journey these "fast plants" endure from tropical farms to store shelves. You'll gain valuable insights into what immediate care these plants often need after their stressful transport and storage conditions.
Community is at the heart of this episode, and I emphasize the joy and importance of sharing our plant adventures. Whether you're a seasoned plant parent or just starting your green journey, connecting with fellow enthusiasts can be incredibly rewarding. I'll encourage you to share photos of your plants on Instagram and tag @GrowingWithCarla, fostering a space where we can grow together. As we wrap up, you’ll be reminded to stay safe and make wise choices with your plant purchases. Tune in, and let's nurture our love for greenery, one plant at a time!
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/GrowingWithCarla
Full transcripts available on my website!
Hey friends, welcome back to the garden. I'm Carla and I'm excited to have you join me for another episode of Growing with Carla. Whether you're a seasoned plant parent or just starting to bud out, this is the place to share our ideas and grow together as we nurture our leafy babies. We have another fun topic to go over today, but first let's do a plant update. It hasn't been a very long time since our last episode, from when it came out versus when I'm recording now, but I do have a plant update so and it goes along with this episode really too.
Carla:My friend Sammy and I were at the grocery store and I was like, look at these plants here in the entryway, like these are the ones that I looked at last time when I thought of the idea for this episode and I'm like I really want that one right there. And I didn't know what it was at the time, but I did get it. We brought it home. The poor thing, it looked a lot healthier the other day when I saw it the first time, and today it looked very sad. So right now it's sitting in the craft room where it'll get a lot more sunshine. We're going to repot it into some drainage or draining soil with a pod. Otherwise, right now it's just sitting in water. Basically, I have added it to my Greg app collection. Its new name is now Hope, which also kind of ironically fits this episode.
Carla:So today I wanted to talk about convenience. So I guess we can call it fast plants, because that's what it feels like. Honestly, it feels like the plant version of the fast fashion industry. So what's going on here? We get a lot of really beautiful flowers and plants in grocery stores. Big box home improvement stores, small home improvement stores, like I can't say so much for the smaller, like mom and pop shops, but definitely the name brand stores going around. The majority of them have these really wonderful plants but if they don't sell they just get thrown away. So that's what I wanted to talk about today was fast plants, or grocery store plants, as we'll call it.
Carla:So the great thing about plants being available in grocery stores is I love the convenience of it. Like you go this place for your own nourishment and then you just see something along the lines that are like hey, that helps spruce up the place, spruce up this room, or we just need a little bit more green or something here, or these flowers are gorgeous and they would make dinner tonight even greater or something. The great thing about having these kind of plants in grocery stores and big-box stores is one it's providing opportunity for different plants. For people like If I never went out of my way to go like a plant nursery and if grocery stores never offered them, I probably wouldn't have half the plants that I have, because I probably did get them all from either a grocery store or something of the like and thought I could do good with it. So I mean not to completely put put it down, but there are some pros, so like the prices are generally not super expensive for the plants at the big box stores and grocery stores, and then the variety of plants that they offer, changes with the season and allows for a diversity of plants to be available that you would never have normally thought of or gone out of your way for unless you were specifically looking for it.
Carla:But there are a lot of cons with grocery store and big box plants because it does feel a lot like fast fashion. The majority of these stores do not have associates who tend the plants, like the alocasia that we picked up from the grocery store earlier looked as if it had been untouched, since I had last seen it walking into the grocery store the previous time. So a lot of these plants that you see on these racks for near, like the quick sale sections of the grocery store, like you're seeing them in their prime, and it's only downhill from there because they're not getting sufficient light indoors, they're just getting those halogen lights and then they're probably so waterlogged because the vendor or whoever tends the plants only does it maybe once a week, maybe every other week, so they normally are in a soil that's very absorbent and holds on to that moisture so that it has water for the plant as long as possible, because an overwater plant list still looks better than a dried-up plant. Another downside of this being fast plants is that a lot of these beautiful plants that we see in the big bulk stores they're grown on a farm, probably in Florida, a very tropical location, where these plants can be grown all year round. So there are large swaths of land that are put into growing these plants for really cheap, just so that they can sit on a shelf, not be sold, not be tended to and eventually just thrown away or composted, if they're lucky, composted. So the plant that you're getting at these places is already so vastly different than where it's going to be in your house. So these plants have a lot of trauma coming with them as it comes into your home, not to mention because of the lack of care.
Carla:Sometimes a lot of these grocery store plants or big box store plants have bugs or other disease issues or root rot or something wrong with them. Like you immediately need to give that plant first aid. Like the alocasia I just got, it needs to be repotted immediately. It's been waterlogged. It doesn't look happy, I know at least half the leaves are already going to be a total loss, but we might be able to save some of the biggest ones here and after. These plants have been growing in those fields. When they're put into these little pots and they sit there for a really long time in these superficial environments, sometimes they'll grow really, really fast because of all the nutrients they pump into there. So then they become just a big old root ball in their pot. And this is just the flowers and green decorative plants.
Carla:When it comes to the herbs that they're selling, it's the same kind of conditions. However, when they sell them to you. They sell way too many plants for this space that they come provided in. So like if you're buying a basil plant, like I had a while ago, you're getting 10 different little seedlings in that two inch by two inch square or whatever that it's coming in for like a peat moss, like to properly raise that plant, I would need to take each individual seedling apart carefully so I don't destroy their roots, and then put each one in its own little container and then I would have ten basil plants. So when you think of it that way, if you're willing to put in the work for it, grocery store plants are fine because you're getting a lot more for the price of a little.
Carla:So does this mean I'm going to stop buying grocery store big box plants? The question is probably not, because they get us good with those sad looking plants we're like, oh, I can take care of that, and you take it home and, nope, it dies. So it's, how much will it take to hurt enough to stop doing it? What I would like to do is revisit this topic again later, but do more research on the actual industry that grows these plants and distributes them, just to find out exactly how the process works, how water efficient it is. I don't want to start a riot about fast plants, like there's fast fashion if it's not actually happening. But I know that a lot of these plants do come from large farms meant for this kind of thing.
Carla:And don't get me started about them painting succulents, like that's a whole monstrosity in itself. Don't buy painted plants. Those plants are being suffocated. All right, let me know your thoughts. This was it dawned on me when I saw this plant the first time in the grocery store. Like this needs to be talked about because we take for granted that these plants are available when we walk into the grocery store or to the home improvement stores. Like what actually goes on behind them for them to come here, be on that shelf, to either be thrown away or taken home and have to be resuscitated? Sometimes We'll have to dig more.
Carla:All right, all right, friends, I really appreciate you for taking time out of your busy day to be with me. It means a lot. If you enjoyed this episode or found any part of it useful, please share it with those that you love, those that you like, or even those that you just tolerate that also really like plants. It would help me out greatly. Please also check out my Instagram and send me pictures of your plant babies. Tag me at GrowingWithCarla. I would love to see them Remember, be safe and make wise choices. We'll talk again next time.
