Green Thumb

...... or rather the lack of thereof.

The Money Plant

Last year before the O's period, I wanted to try and grow something besides green beans. So my mother went and got me a small pot of money plant. The money plant is the easiest plant to grow, ever. It doesn't require much love and pampering.

Mine died within the first 6 months. Lemme clarify though. It is not my fault. The plant sorta self-combusted. The correct term: leaf scorch. It is caused by soil compaction, transplant shock, nutrient deficiency, drought, salt toxicity and herbicide injury. I didn't do any transplants, always kept it in a sunny place, watered once in a while and all that jazz. The soil I used was the soil the plant came with because I obviously don't have soil.

The Cactus

This year, I tried again with three mini-cacti. One a big, fat one with huge spikes, one a medium sized one with tiny needles and the last one the same species as the second one but smaller and narrower. Let's call them Pot 1, 2 and 3.

Pot 1 is still healthy and growing even though I've been waiting for it to die for the past year now.
Pot 3 is 90% dead but still hanging on for some reason.
Pot 2 is the problem.

To make things clear, my mother took complete control over the care of these cacti. All of my contribution is to provide a space in my room for them. Everyone that has ever owned a cactus before would know how dang easy it is to take care of a cactus. Forget to water? Nevermind!

She watered them with fertilizer water once every 2 weeks.

Anyway, what happened to Pot 2 is... Tragic. Pot 1 being the fattest is also the slowest in terms of growth while Pot 3 is the fastest. But I think my mother over-watered Pot 3 so 80% of its roots rotted off and we had to cut them.
Pot 2 had an ok growth. The round shape never did grow but a narrow channel did start growing out of the tip of Pot 2. It grew at a reasonable rate as well.
At first when Pot 3 died (we thought it was dead), I decided to just give up on ever growing plants so my mother transferred all of them to the living room, and that was the end of my contribution.

And then 3-4 months ago, I was feeling bored one day and decided to inspect the cacti. Then I started poking them with a chopstick.
Pot 1 felt strong and sturdy, so I left it alone. Pot 3 consists of rotted cacti fighting for survival so I left it alone too. Then I came to Pot 2.
Pot 2 is a bit smaller than Pot 3 and was of a different species. But when I poked it, Pot 2 felt hollow and empty, like a balloon.
So then I poked a little harder and tore apart the skin of the cactus.
Underneath, swarms of tiny little worms that had eaten the cactus clean out. The worms filled half of the cactus' cavity.

Most disgusting thing I have ever seen.

Me, being the coward without a green thumb that I am, shouted for my mother and she dumped the entire pot. I wanted to try and poke Pot 3 too but haven't really gotten to it.

You know the worst part? I kept the pots on an open-ended shelf at the foot of my bed, near the window where were the wind strong enough, the worms would have landed on my bed.

Oh sure, the worm thing is entirely not my fault. Based on the size of the cactus, the eggs of the worms had to be laid even before my mother bought those pots.


Conclusion

Safe to say that I am never touching plants ever again.