sinningia leaves pointing upwards
Puchinita5
9 years ago
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terrilou
9 years agodbarron
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Leaves growing straight upward
Comments (24)N A - now I can see that you are real! You have a story! Anyway - no, you cannot grow an AV in a pure peat moss - to start with - pH is too low. Some of the ready store bought soil mixes have mostly peat - they look like peat - but at least the pH is corrected to neutral. And too much peat is not that good - because it compresses with time and doesn't let the air to the roots. Your mix is much better - provided that you add dolomite lime to correct the pH to 6.4-6.8. People try to experiment - not every method works, but there are different ways to grow them successfully - like in Leca stones, rock wool cubes etc. Most of the growers do not mix their own soil - they purchase a ready made AV mix or Promix BX and add extra perlite to make it more breathable. AVs we buy in a big box store - and I am pretty much sure the one you picked on a garage sale came from the same place - originally came from Holtkamp Greenhouses in TN - brand name Optimara. These plants are grown in a controlled environment - light is just so, temperature, pesticide treatment, repotting... When the leaf from a mother plant is put for rooting - they already have the delivery scheduled for this batch - 9 months from today. The peat based soil they use for the finished plant - will keep the plants hydrated on the way to the customers - several days on the roads in the closed boxes. Since AV is an industrial crop = there is a technology developed how to make them grow really well and start blooming in a predictable and economical way. The hobbyists tweak the method to adjust to their own conditions. IMHO - we can do better than Optimara - with more efforts and expenses - and we can do much worse. Using pure peat - much worse. Growing on the windowsills instead of under the lights - also takes its tall. Too hot, too cold, too dark, too bright... But,,, we do not make a living off these plants. Good luck Irina...See MoreWhy are roots growing UPWARDS?
Comments (30)One of my favorite wags: If you put 100 economist in a row they would all point in different directions. The different direction in this case is directed straight at me. One of the best demonstrations I ever saw about what Al is talking about with water retention was done with a sponge. The person wanted to demonstrate that even pot shape has an influence on water retention so they put a sponge in a bucket of water then held it flat until it stopped dropping water. Next they put the sponge vertical and the sponge started dropping water again until it reached equilibrium. The punch line was not only mix but pot shape can have an effect since a short squat pot can easily be saturated while a tall pot will drain the upper levels of the pot. Not trying to put words in Al's mouth but I read his efforts as making the mix as idiot proof as possible by adjusting the particle size and properties such that you would really have to try hard to kill something in it by over watering. Being no ordinary idiot and pointing in a different direction, I wonder if it might be possible to make something less idiot prone by construction? For instance it is composition-osmosis is my life-, surface tension, height, surface area that controls the height of water retained. I'm probably not the only one who has over watered and spent a couple of minutes trying to shake the excess water out. One thing that may work is just putting something like a cotton rope or twine through the pot and out the bottom. How fast it would drain would depend on the hieght of the string and it would always come to equilibrium below saturation. In practice you could just water the hell out of the plant and the cotton string would 'wick' away the excess. If you wanted to keep it at a high moisture level, you could just pull the string up level with the pot when it got to where you wanted it. Not that anyone besides myself cares about this kind of stuff but I will do a couple of quick experiments since it is so simple. I always look for complicated things that will make my life less complicated. String + any pot + any potting mix, drench with hose, string saves your rear by making water content good is about right for my level of sophistication. Rick...See MoreUpward leaf curl, yellowing leaves...
Comments (5)Thanks you all for the responses. I may have been letting them get "too" dry between watering. Not to the extent they are falling over or anything, but at the first signs of wilt. And yes it's a seed mat, however it isn't on. No, I don't fertilize really. They were started in some MG potting soil, but I'm thinking it may start needing to be fed perhaps? And I should be able to get them out by the end of this month if everything goes well. It's starting to get into the 70's of a day here, but nights are still too cool for peppers. Another thing that I wasn't thinking of that may be an issue is being two plants per pot. So I'll head out today and get some more potting soil and separate them today probably. I did mix up some of my nutrients I use for my hydroponics for lettuce and watered one of the plants that were yellowing, and seems to be turning back to the green it should be so that's great. Will watch them over the next day or two and see how it goes....See MoreMy lemon tree leaves are pointing upwards...is this normal?
Comments (5)Newer mature leaves on a citrus tree produce the greatest amount of photosynthates (food) for the tree, and need light to do so. Your tree's leaves pointing up is entirely normal. - Well developed tree BTW, - Silica...See Moresnappyguy
9 years agoPuchinita5
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