The problem with investment plants 

Thanks for having me on mate :)

I need to know if Laur’s finger was a plant cloning related issue. 🕵🏻‍♀️

That's great. What did you get?

@@KillThisPlant White princess philodendron with two plants in the pot for $15. It was stunning seeing it so reasonable. I'm now waiting on a strawberry shake philodendron. They're coming down in price just like you said in the video. Thanks for the advice!

Same here except with local groups! I just got a Thai con for $15 because it had thrips in the past. It's un quarantine just in case but honestly looks flawless

I managed to pick up a large shivereana for $40 that was marked at $85 in my favorite shop for months. It was sitting so long because it didn't have great coloring or variegation, but it was also placed farther and farther back in the shop the longer it sat. I took it home and with minimal babying, all the new growth leaves are crazy diverse in color, and I'll be starting propagation soon to make more to sell. Shopping around and waiting is always a good idea unless it is a must have plant

we do need to STOP

No lies detected!

@@KillThisPlant❤

😂 you're ruining it..

Me too 😂 I giggled so loud! "You're ruining it"! I hope they got it lol

We're all out of stock on irony. New shipment next week 🤣

Must admit, I really really want a Monstera Burle Marx Flame - I already have a Philodendron Burle Marx Variegata (under $20 and so cool.) Burle Marx was a Brazilian botanist and landscape architect, and a fascinating person. Yes, the irony is a good one.

What is a Marx plant? I’ve seen the term before but have no idea what it means!

@@lahyte_5925 There are Burle Marx Philodendrons. They also come variegated and there is another one called a Philodendron Burle Max Fantasy. The most famous Burle Marx plant is probably a Monstera with an unusual shape, the Monstera Burle Marx Flame, one of which I will probably buy when it comes down to under $100. Burle Marx was a Brazilian botanist and landscpae architect, there are probably many plants named after him.

Exactly.

They make for decent trades! I got a few wishlist scindapsus by trading wetsticks for wetsticks

youre lucky. the fomo still has me by the throat.

Granted I'm pretty new to plants but I'm also criminally poor atm, that said I have a pretty sizeable collection already full of great plants all from just asking nicely for a small cutting from various friends plants, I don't have a particularly botanical social network but a plant here a plant there quickly adds up, recently brought a string of turtles for £14 (about $17) and apart from stuff like soils and such that's the most I've spent Nature grows these little bastards for free and I love nature more way than greenhouses, why would I spend so much for all that?

Yes I am.

@@KillThisPlant looking forward to the @techplant collab

Couldn't agree more!

Definitely the best answer for a lot of us.

I saw Philo Pink Princess and a White Knight plants at the blue box store yesterday, and they were only 17 and 20 dollars, respectively. I just wish I had bucks, but I'm moving next week. Hopefully, this will be the new normal. I did get a neon pothos for less than 5 dollars though, and a 5 dollar fuschia in great condition.

Awesome, thank you!

Can you please tell me why it's bad? I see people selling fresh cuttings all the time and I feel like it's the only way to get the plant cheaper for me :((

@@JohnSmith-pf8jq yes it is cheaper, and yes it may work. But I've had many people coming back to me asking for help or simply telling me "I bought a cutting from someone and it's not growing, it's rotting, it's dieing or ultimately it's dead..." The survival rate of a cutting isn't as high as a rooted, stable plant. Either because the people don't have the setup for a fresh cutting, have problems moving from water to substrate, and I've even seen them arriving dried out from shipping... I mean there are many reasons. Ofc it's cheaper and I understand that most people will prefer a fresh cutting over a rooted stable plant. But in many cases locally I see cutting of the same plant being sold for 30€ and the plant with a few leaves rooted etc costs 50€... In the end what would you choose?

I'm so glad I lost interest in this whole rare plant thing.

Thinking a little smaller, microgreens like lettuce and oregano can grow on most kitchen counter environments, and if you like watching plants grow quickly they're usually pretty good about that too

@@DragoniteSpam Exactly! I have a modest indoor and outdoor container plant setup. It all started started with everyday herbs growing on the sill of the south facing window. Having some fresh herbs or greens can be quite handy and thrifty.

Thanks for sharing your cuttings!

Pink Princess isn’t even a true rare plant. It’s been designed/cultured with other plant’s to form the pink. Now they’ve cultured a variegated version that is ridiculously priced, but it is beautiful. If I can find the RU-vid channel I’ll send the link.

It’s Pretty in Green RU-vid channel

I will have a look. To be honest, I didn't even know it was considered 'rare' when I bought it, I just love pink and came across it when I was looking on etsy. Mine doesn't look like the super expensive ones I've seen in videos, where 50%+ of some leaves is a uniform pink, but it's got a nice amount of pink on every leaf and the stems are red which I'm told is a good sign for continued pink. I really like it.

Laur's guide and channel is really great if you want to try.

😺😺 thanks for watching

$500 is my final offer.

Thanks for the engagement. 🥲

The behaviour on the buyers side can lead to: I cannot afford an established plant right now, so I'm going to take a gamble on this. Often when a leafless node is send through the mail, it isn't viable on arrival, or it will take months of struggle to root and finally start producing leaves. You either lose the plant (and your money) or by the time it does root and produce new leaves, the price has dropped so significantly that, if you just waited, the price is now cheaper to buy a larger established plant. Behaviour on the sellers side can lead to: I can capitalize on a trending plant right now by selling it now, instead of rooting it myself and providing a safer more stable product to my customer. I know that some of these nodes might not be viable or would take months to root and its not worth my time to try. I can pawn it off on a customer, once it out of my hands, its their problem. I'm just going to straight up scam people and sell these golden pothos nodes as Monstera albo nodes. It keeps working so I'm going to keep doing it. When it comes down to it, I believe the cultural shift that covid brought to houseplants lead to an "I need everything and I need it now" culture and it hasn't been positive. Build a community, trade nodes with friends.

@@KillThisPlant Thanks for the comprehensive answer :)

^^^^this

its always a mistake to go on there!

Ok I will!

Like legally or morally do they have to tell you? No, many plants we buy are from tissue culture anyway we probably don't and won't ever know.

For the sake of brevity we can't include everything. Lighting for a single shelf of LEDs is probably $30-50 a year. That's less than a percent of the potential profit.

@@KillThisPlant yeah that's true but don't they use heat mats and stuff? I'm not sure what the cost of running a tissue culture setup is lol but I really can't imagine it only being ten dollars. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Maybe BC I'm in a small town in Canada so the shipping alone on the stuff would cost me way more 🤣🤣🤣

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