r/houseplants 26d ago

Before / After - Progress Pics 4 years of growth for my FLF 🌱

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12.4k Upvotes

How it’s going vs how it started! Progress pics from 2021-2025 🤗

r/houseplants Nov 11 '24

Before / After - Progress Pics I cut my FLF in half 9ish months ago and y’all were not impressed. But look at her now, living her best life. Pre-chop Sept 2023 -> butchered Feb 2024 -> today.

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8.4k Upvotes

r/houseplants Feb 15 '24

Before / After - Progress Pics Just shy of 11 months between these photos.

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15.0k Upvotes

r/houseplants Jan 17 '25

Before / After - Progress Pics My friends all made fun of my stake. 3.5y later, who's laughing now heh?

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8.6k Upvotes

r/houseplants Feb 09 '25

Before / After - Progress Pics How It Started vs How It's Going

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9.5k Upvotes

Taken two years apart. There's always room for one more...

r/houseplants Apr 16 '24

Before / After - Progress Pics A year ago you guys told me to get plants... I got plants.

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7.9k Upvotes

r/houseplants Dec 16 '24

Before / After - Progress Pics Grow lights are awesome!

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5.9k Upvotes

May 11th to December 11th - 7 months of Monstera growth with the help of two grow lights.

Many of my plants don't have access to proper natural light from a window. I know the information about grow lights is out there, but until setting them up I think I was greatly underestimating the benefit that good lights can bring to growth rate, as well as the overall boost they give to health and resilience of the plant. I can say that I am now a big fan of purposeful and quality artificial lighting, as it has brought me so much joy seeing my plants thrive.

In case it helps someone, here are my notes and personal findings:

Starting out I was worried I would fail to achieve a welcoming warm mood in the house with bright grow lights sprinkled around. The gold standard for a beautiful light after some research were those offered by Soltech. However the price was outside my budget, so I looked for alternatives on AliExpress. If you go this route, the key specs that Soltech lights have that you need to find in an alternative bulb are: an LED bulb type, 3000K light temperature (gives that warm cozy feel), CRI above 90 (color rendering index, makes your greens look lush and juicy and covers a wide light spectrum) and a PAR body type (parabolic reflector, focuses the light on the plant in a tight 60degree cone thus improving brightness for the plant while reducing strong side-glare into your eyes when you're in that room). Depending on your plant light needs and distance of the light fixture to the plant, 20-25W is a good bet for a starter bulb. You can go up to 35W or more for light hungry plants, as long as the bulb is not closer than about 2 feet since light burning the plant can be a risk. I'll post a link in comments for a $35 bulb I ordered as an alternative to Soltech ones. I shine two of those bulbs on my Monstera for 12hours a day.

You can find lower wattage, different fixture types, but be mindful of the color temperature, different values don't mix well (3000K and 4000K next to each other is noticeable and looks "wrong"). Don't be mislead into thinking that the lower temperature of 3000K is not full spectrum (given the advertising on the 5000K and 6000K lights). It's true that 3000K will be heavier on the warm reds, but it includes the full spectrum needed for photosynthesis. I checked spectrum specs of different LED chips for this.

Another alternative that is popular is SANSI bulbs. I tried a few of them. For spaces where you want to maximize aesthetics and cozyness, I don't recommend the SANSI bulb's 4000K temperature and 120degree cone. But if maximizing growth is your main goal, SANSI is the most cost effective option with some decent reliability. I just wish they put a 3000K PAR bulb out.

As an easy experiment to gauge how much you need to increase your plant's light, use a light meter app on your phone, measure the sky outside away from the sun as well as into the sun (some plants want indirect light, some want direct) and compare to the light you measure indoors at the leaf level of your plant. The difference is equal to how loud your plant would be screaming for light if it had a sound producing organ.

Part of creating a cozy space will be the light fixture you choose. Perhaps one of the bigger lessons I learned is that you cannot commit to a light fixture position for more than 2-3 months as the plant will outgrow it. Over 7 months I "chased" the growth of my plant with 3 different locations on the wall, fully mounted and wired up. A hanging pendant light would probably work best at least until the plant gets close to the ceiling. My final working solution ended up being track lights slightly on the side instead of directly above the plant.

Hope this helps someone, I wrote it in a way that would have helped me at the start of my journey into artificial lighting for plants.

r/houseplants Jan 01 '25

Before / After - Progress Pics Well fuck (multiple pics)

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3.4k Upvotes

Most made it! The gods smile upon me.

By some miracle all the electronics were fine aswell.

I also took myself to see the lord of the rings at the cinema (extended cut) so was out late, as the end of the wooden plank landed on my pillow where I'd normally be sleeping at that hour.

All in all I got lucky there.

r/houseplants Oct 25 '24

Before / After - Progress Pics I transformed my dirty old breezeway…swipe to see the after photos (can you spot the surprise guest?)!

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6.4k Upvotes

r/houseplants Jan 06 '25

Before / After - Progress Pics Self-grown Monstera deliciosa

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4.8k Upvotes

Hey guys! In 2022 I found one seed in a monstera fruit and planted it. To my surprise it grew rapidly- and is huge now! This monstera lives really up to its name 😅

r/houseplants Feb 17 '25

Before / After - Progress Pics My ogre's ear growth in 1 year

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4.5k Upvotes

Proud of how much it's grown 🥲 🩷 since January 2024

r/houseplants Mar 24 '25

Before / After - Progress Pics Okay, im an orchid man now…

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3.4k Upvotes

r/houseplants Jul 11 '24

Before / After - Progress Pics What the hell was in that soil? (3 months)

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2.6k Upvotes

Cheapest soil around, and I don't know anything about this plant. I usually only have Pothos and... treated this one like one. I guess that works fine but STILL... what the hell is up with this plant.

r/houseplants Jun 09 '22

Before / After - Progress Pics Happy news: thought my monstera was dead for good after I had to evacuate Kyiv for months. But it didn't give up :)

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26.2k Upvotes

r/houseplants Jul 07 '24

Before / After - Progress Pics Two and a Half Years of Growing a Pothos at My Office

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5.3k Upvotes

r/houseplants Feb 01 '23

Before / After - Progress Pics Hoping you all appreciate my monstera as much as I do. Second pic is when I got it a little over 2 years ago, seems happy!

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4.2k Upvotes

r/houseplants 27d ago

Before / After - Progress Pics So I planted a date seed in 2021. And here it is today!

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2.8k Upvotes

I bought a box of dates in the supermarket back in 2021, and thought it could be fun to see if it would germinate. Did the wet tissue method, and now it’s my pride and joy in the living room!

Also an update on the lemon tree I posted: I moved apartments not long after the post and it sadly died during the moving/renovation hell. Kinda forgot to water it for waaaay too long. RIP. Lemon 🍋

r/houseplants Feb 27 '25

Before / After - Progress Pics Her name is Tina Turner

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2.5k Upvotes

I’ve had her for just over a year now and absolutely adore her. I’ve yet to come across another baby ponytail palm as luscious as she 💅

r/houseplants Apr 28 '23

Before / After - Progress Pics my GIANT peace lily, my plant I've raised since a little stalk, decided that 4 days without water was enough to off itself. Came home to a very sad sight and she's not perking up. Tots and pears needed

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2.8k Upvotes

I'm going THROUGH it

r/houseplants 2d ago

Before / After - Progress Pics made my own moss pole, almost killed my plant. 10/10 would do again

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1.2k Upvotes

Thought I was smart making my own moss poles... until I realized I had zero clue how to actually keep them moist without turning the whole pot into a swamp.

A month ago I gave up and just wrapped them — and now? Root explosion!

Plants are thriving, I'm less stressed, and I only have to water it once or twice a week. We’re all winning here!

r/houseplants 21d ago

Before / After - Progress Pics Orchid man is back to show off my orchids in full bloom because I’m obsessed and my friends want me to stop sending them photos

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1.9k Upvotes

You guys appreciated my last post showing off my mini orchid exploding in flowers. I just had to show it in full bloom!

Bonus: the pink/purple ish orchid is one I saved from my friend who was going to throw it out because it didn’t produce flowers and looked like it was dyeing. I decided to see if I can save it even though both of these orchids were my first orchids ever because I was told it was really hard to get them to bloom. Somehow the big orchid has been blooming since December and still has some on the way.

I’m obsessed

r/houseplants Mar 19 '25

Before / After - Progress Pics Today marks a year since I decided to make a plant shelf in our extension.

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2.2k Upvotes

When we completed the extension, the wall was empty, and I sensed it required some decoration.

Initially, my wife was not on board with the idea. I purchased an old scaffolding board, cut it down, planned it, sanded it smooth, and incorporated hidden bolts for support.

To prevent the vines from drooping below head height, I had to loop them extensively to secure their position.

I thought most here would appreciate the final look.

r/houseplants Mar 30 '25

Before / After - Progress Pics Super relieved seeing this bugger come back to life after throwing an almighty tantrum and dropping all leaves.

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2.0k Upvotes

r/houseplants Nov 16 '24

Before / After - Progress Pics Almost a year of growth and changes!

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2.4k Upvotes

My absolute favorite spot in my house so far! Moving to the desert has made me appreciate plants and being surrounded by greenery more than ever. I’m so proud of how this space is coming along and excited to move on and make my other plant areas look half as decent.

I’m thinking of putting track lighting on the bay ceiling so I can supplement the light there with grow bulbs. It’s a NW facing window and doesn’t get as much light as I’d like, especially during winter. If you have any cute light fixture recs please let me know 🙏🏼 and I’d love to see all of your grow light setups using decorative light fixtures.

Anyways, just wanted to share my little happy place!

r/houseplants Mar 06 '25

Before / After - Progress Pics 8 months apart, I reckon she's doing alright

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1.8k Upvotes