Hey, what's up Garden and Friends? Jeff here has everybody doing. I hope you're good. I am great. Fern Fridays back. Just for a few weeks anyways. I'll address that in the vlog that comes out after this video. But to get things kicking off though, let's talk about the macho fern. The macho fern right back here in that background, next to the fountain, Nepherleppies by Frata macho. Nepherleppies, common plant family for the ferns, like the Boston, the Kimberly, commonly called Sward Ferns. Lots of variation within there. The macho fern is Hardy's Zones 9 and up. They can take a little bit more sun than some of the other ferns can. Climate variables, of course, are effector. They're also slightly more drought tolerant and just pretty. And they get big. These are a big fern. They live up to their name. Like I mentioned, the macho ferns can take a little bit more sun than some of the other ferns can. At least that's been my experience, but they're still listed and probably will do best like just to be safe from shade to part shade. I have mine where they're getting part sun. It does get filtered in the afternoon from all the pine trees and things above, but it gets pretty toasty over here. Pretty bright and intense and they're doing okay. The Galadium's not an indicator. I just set that there just now because I just finished filming that video, that's not normally where that goes. Endors, bright, bright, bright light as much as you can give it. They will do just fine with that. If it's in like an atrium, salarium, someplace that's warm and the light has a lot of reflection or I guess I should say it's more intensified, magnified through the glass than maybe not as much. But scorch them a little bit. Watch out for photo-oxidation bleaching on the foliage if that happens and just move them to the spot where they're not getting as much light. The beauty of the macho fern though is that they don't have to have that. These are a really sturdy fern. As a house plant, they're going to be, I would say, not exactly difficult, but they get big. Macho ferns get gigantic. They can get up to six feet. Tall those fronds will get about six feet tall. They start to spill over. It's very graceful, very beautiful. But that can be a bit much fur in the house, right? I guess that depends on your house. I typically like to place my macho ferns someplace where I can see the falling foliage, the foliage as it starts to trail down. I like that to be evident. I want it to stand out, which makes macho ferns excellent for hanging baskets though. You need to hang from something pretty sturdy because they get big or earn planters, just tall planters. Something where that shape is going to come over and drape down. They look so pretty that way. It's almost kind of like, you know, a canary island date palm, how they kind of look like fireworks. They come out and they do this. You know what I'm saying. They have a nice shape, a nice habit. And no surprise, they are a typical fern. I mean that they like a consistently moist, organically rich, well organically rich, organically rich, well-drained soil. During the warmer parts of the year when I have macho ferns outside, I fertilize them monthly. Typically, I just use a seaweed fertilizer for these. Also amend their potting mix with something nice, rich, and organics that will help produce a lot of good things going on in the soil like Espauma biotone, plant tone, trifecta from M.I. Gardener would be fantastic, you know what I'm talking about? Something to help liven things up a little bit. I mean the winter months, when it's indoors, I do not water them very often at all and I don't fertilize them pretty much at all. If you fertilize these when they're just chilling, when they're inside not getting as much sunlight, then you can end up having really lanky, stretched out growth because it's getting the nutrient in the soil to grow, telling it hey, keep on growing, even though the lighting and the temperatures aren't really adding up to that. So I just don't. But if we're growing this inside during spring, summer, early fall, when there's more light out, temperatures are smidge warmer in the house potentially, then I would still fertilize them monthly. You can use an all purpose, sometimes it's best to dilute that by 50%. Keep an eye on the foliage after you fertilize, make sure there's no scorching or anything, that if there's too much nitrogen, sometimes that can be an issue. If you're concerned about that, and you can just dilute the fertilizer like 50%. Tiniwas release, also a great idea. I reapply monthly, even though the packaging usually says that it lasts for like six months, I find that that's typically not true. Not true at all. Monthly seems to be best, that's partially because of how those things are packaged, or not really packaged and stored in a way to keep those continuous release fertilizers at their optimal conditions. I like the jacks or the jarepeters, the jacks classic coat, good fertilizer, osmokote, fine, you know, just whatever works for you. Like I mentioned with the liquids, I pretty much stick with the seaweed fertilizer, they really seem to enjoy that. And again, amend this while with nice rich things, things that are going to live in it up. That's the same thing for if you're planting these outside as a perennial. Now, these are going to be something that will grow very aggressively, so be careful planting them someplace where they could spread and take over, because they will, they will spread and take over. They have tiny little rhizomes that spread under the ground, and you can dig them up and lift them and either replant them toss them, whatever you feel like doing with them. It's really easy to miss some of those tiny little roots, and new plants will just keep growing. Note, pretty easy to propagate when they fill out their pots too much. If it gets to a point where you're watering them, they're not staying hydrated, or you're seeing roots coming out the top, or the bottoms of both, of course, that's also a thing. That's when it's time to go ahead and bump them up into a larger pot, something that's at least one to two inches larger on the outside diameter of the pot, or go ahead and divide them up. Clean knife, you can cut the plant in half, cut it again, make it into quarters, set it into four different pots, you have four new plants. This is best done during the late spring to early summer, because that's when they're starting to wake up and start going again, so it's when the roots are going to kind of take the trimming a little bit better. When necessary, I have divided mine up in the late summer before moving them in. It's not ideal, but there have been occasions where I'm like, man, this plant grew so, so, so much. When I take this inside, I'm going to have a hard time keeping it hydrated. Even though they are fairly drought tolerant, as far as ferns are concerned, I wouldn't call them by any means a drought tolerant plant, but it's like, in comparison to a Boston fern, Kimberly Queen fern, those other common ferns that are sold like the big box stores, I don't have to water these anywhere near as often as I do those ferns, and they're not as messy either. The Boston ferns and the Kimberly Queen ferns, when those dry out inside, if the pots too small, if the humidity's too low, then all the pene, those are what we'd call like leaves, leaflets that's the pene on a fern, those will fall, and they just, they make a big mess. The macho fern doesn't do that as much, it's not something I have problems with. That lower foliage will brown out and die naturally as the plant grows, that's not that big of a deal, just trim that right out. It keeps the plant clean, trim out dead foliage, anything like the browning fronds, yellowing fronds, just keeping it nice and tidy helps prevent pests and diseases. Not having dying dead foliage in there makes the plant less attractive to problems. If you do notice that the fronds have a brown outline to them, or really the pene has a brown outline to them that can be the humidity's too low, maybe they're in a spot where there's a lot of airflow and that's drying things out, that can be an issue sometimes. Missing the foliage can be somewhat effective with raising the humidity around the plant, or you can put a large pebble tray underneath it with some water and make sure that the bottom of the pot's not in contact with the water though. Keep them in a bathroom near a fish tank, you know the drill from Fern Friday's, right? Do what you have to do to bring the humidity up. It's honestly one of the easiest things to do with humidity is to keep plants grouped together because those help retain and redistribute the moisture through transpiration or just get a humidifier. This small little humidifier can make a pretty big difference. Again though, not typically as much of a problem with the macho ferns. Every climate's different though, my winters are fairly dry but not horribly dry so it's just going to depend on kind of where you live. As I mentioned, reduced watering during the winter months, I've water mine when the top inch to two inches of soil is dry, which isn't something like you do with all ferns. It sounds like the maiden hair and like the cotton candy fern and things that are more delicate and dainty, you let them dry out, it's no good. These guys, they can dry out a little bit. They don't usually throw too much of a fiddle over it. As far as toxicity is concerned, well when I look up toxicity for the macho ferns, I'm not getting good results. Everything that's coming up is about the asparagus fern for some reason, and then I type in macho fern. The asparagus ferns are toxic. The macho fern is a nephrolepi, so the nephrolepi is typically like the Boston Kimberly Queen. There's many, many, many of them are not normally toxic to like dogs, cats, children. But since I can't find anything that says for certain, I'm not gonna comment on it. I'm gonna say, keep it away from your pets and babies and humans, anyone with curious mouth, keep it away from them. Of course, comment down below. Let me know what you find out about the plant. Tips, tricks to growing them. Common problems you've had indoors, spider mites can be an issue, mulebug, scale, they get scaled, does seem to kind of appreciate the foliage on these ferns quite a bit. The spider mites having higher humidity and good air flows, a really good way to just prevent that. With any of the house plants, I always say if pests become a problem to take it to a shower, take it to the sink, flush the plant out as much as possible. You can use neem and sector cytosope, whatever works for you. Give that a shot, just read directions, be very careful with chemicals. That's kind of why I like to start with neem, technically not a chemical or a diluted soap. Peppermint oil is fantastic, especially if you have cats. Peppermint oil, when I dilute that, I probably do like, I don't know, maybe a tablespoon to a bottle of water. That's not helpful, I don't know what size my water bottle is. But I shake that up, distribute it really well. The main thing is that I want the dilution rate to be high enough that the smell is really intense. Coats the bugs, helps kill them off, and it keeps the cats away. That heavy, menthol smell, they don't like it. I find it refreshing, even though it does kind of burn the eyes a little bit. That's going to do it, another fern friday, it's fun to be talking ferns again. Like I said, comment down below, any tips or tricks you have, corrections of course, at a conversation going, let's talk about the plant. I may end up repotting my macho ferns into hanging baskets, haven't decided yet. They are a little bit too big for the spot, though, because as they grow, they're blocking the light and the water from everything behind them, so I'm going to have to move them, but for right now, all they look so pretty right here. I'll have updates on that on my social media, which is linked down below. I use Instagram far more than anything else, and also in like future garden tours, see things like that. Don't forget to leave the video a thumbs up, helps the channel, helps the videos a lot, I really do appreciate it, so thank you so much for doing so. And subscribe as well, and hit that notification bell, except that it'll be multiple times a week, and that way you know when new videos come out. Alright, everybody, that's going to do it. Hope you have a great day, great life, everything's just calm, beautifully for ya. And of course, as always, and most importantly, everybody, keep on growing. Bye bye.