Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Adenium of flowering size, diameter 7 - 10 cm







Popular houseplants in tropical and temperate regions, Adenium ( Desert roses ) need a sunny location for showy flowering and a minimum indoor temperature in winter of 10 °C.

Adenium obesum with fancy leaves and colors ! They are of flowering size, their diameters are 7-10 cm [ 3.5-4 in ] large. This page shows a series of these ready for packing.



These Adenium plants are grafted onto a seedling rootstock.
Adenium ( Desert Rose ) was introduced to the Philippines from Bangkok, Thailand, and the plant was also called ''Bangkok kalachuchi'' in the Philippines. It is a popular houseplant in tropical and temperate regions. A sunny location will be needed for showy flowering, with a minimum indoor temperature in winter of 10 °C. Repot in a small pot with excellent drainage, avoiding over-watering and drying-out as drying out too long would cause the plant to go into dormancy. Adeniums prefer a neutral to hard water. Acidic water tends to sour the soil too fast and may cause root rot. A fertilizer high in phosphorous will promote a large
swollen base.


Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

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Size of Aglaonema and Monstera sent by Aleyagarden







Aglonemas : with newer cultivars frantically searched by collectors and breeders, exciting patterns with luscious and fantastic color ranges have been recently available in Thailand. These interiorscape plants have been valued primarily for their durability : a conducive environment is undemanding, including only a well-drained soil mix and slight soil drying between waterings. Medium to fast growers Aglaonemas tolerate a wide range of light settings, but they should not be exposed to cold for long periods of time. Moderate light is best; the colored-leaved forms are prettiest in strong light but full sun would damage most species. The potting medium should include copper, and the periodic application of a micronutrient solution of copper will benefit Aglaonemas in winter as roots are less able to remove copper from soils at temperatures of 18 °C ( 65°F ) or below. Thus, soil temperature should be raised or foliar copper applied during such periods. Here are two pictures showing the sizes of Aglonemas that we ship.
Below are Monstera ( the variegated forms, with withe and yellow patches )






Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

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Monday, June 28, 2010

Shipping hoyas

None of the best methods to send Hoya cuttings ( and plants in general ) are absolutely safe. Plants in travel will be like on a scale with a " too dry " end and a ' too wet" end. The number of days in travel, temperature and humidity may turn an excellent method into a bad choice.
Gel in box or a plastic bag wrapping plants in paper ( a simple plastic sheet or a bubble wrap ) are useful to prevent plants from dehydrating; but unusally high temperature, long travel bare stems ( or bare roots ) or excessive humidity in the air can contribute to defoliation - which does not mean that the plants are dead as the loss of leaves is a natural process of adjustment : defoliation may for instance happen during the dry season or during dormancy. Worthy to note, some fundamentalist phytosanitary staff under the European Community regulations may forbid importing some plants that still bear leaves while being in their supposedly known state of dormancy. ( Fortunately this doesn't concern the Hoya genus. )
However whatever the reason for the loss of leaves, bare cuttings may be harder to root, while a very dehydrated cutting - I mean a dry stick - is just dead.
Below is a balanced report from Canada :
" I came home today to find a box from Aleya garden waiting for me in the garage.

Here they are having a bath : Aleyagarden cuttings have a bath on arrival
Bottom left to right:H. imperialisH. chloranthaH. lobbiiH. ariadnaH. onychoides
Top:H. densifolia.
The ariadna is looking pretty beat up, but the rest of the cuttings are huge (The container is 1.5' x 2.5') and healthy apart from a bit of wrinkling in their upper leaves. I was afraid Canadian customs might confiscate them or delay the shipment, but they arrived about 12 days after shipping. Now if I can just fight the urge to pot them up right away and let them soak instead.

They're all done soaking now, so I've gone and potted them up.
Aleyagarden Cuttings after soaking
I've always used clay pots for rooting, although I soaked them overnight along with the cuttings to saturate them first.The cuttings are double bagged, one from the bottom and one domed over top and then taped loosely. The pots would dry very quickly if exposed to open air, but I find that when they're bagged like this they retain moisture very well and serve quite nicely to increase the humidity especially if sprayed gently with a bit of water every few days.After the cuttings have rooted I remove the top bag for about a week before removing the bottom bag.
I just though I'd mention to anyone planning to order from Aleya garden that they offer several shipping options for cuttings. It's in a paragraph at the top of their cuttings page.I'd recommend contacting them and asking for the cuttings to be shipped wrapped in paper and a plastic bag. Some people report that wrapping in plastic causes yellowing and leaf drop, but it seems to have worked very well for my cuttings and the H. lobbii and H. onychoides even started to root in transit. The only one to yellow was the ariadna and there was only one leaf dropped after 12 days in transit.

Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com


Sunday, June 27, 2010

Chitosan for tropical plants

Quick experiments here showing that Chitosan ( Poly-D-glucosamine )applied to plants reduces stress from foliar evapotranspiration. Preparing tropical plants for export and travels of several days bare roots put plants under the stress of foliar evaporation ( water loss from the leaves ).

aleyagarden CHITOSAN with Synsepalum seedlings_test_1

Fragile Synsepalum dulcificum seedlings will make our first test.

Seedlings of
SYNSEPALUM DULCIFICUM have grown only 4 weeks in a light soil mixed with coco fiber; their stems are still very thin leaves are young so these plantlets are prone to stress.

After washing out the roots with water ( a gently dip suffices, no soil particles are firmly attached ), 5 plantlets are dipped in our CHITOSAN solution and 5 are not. The two groups are wrapped separately using two dry papers during 3 days, our temperature being 25 - 33 Celsius with a high humidity of the air : such conditions of heat coupled with lack of water soil put much stress on the bare rooted plantlets. On day 2, by applying the hands on the paper we clearly feel that much less evaporation has occurred from the plants treated with CHITOSAN .
After day 3 the two groups are separately grown under plastic sheet in a a pot ( below ). Until day 4 it looks like all plantlets will survive. But on day 5, one of the non treated plantlets die. On day 6 the results are shown below :

Plants are divided in two groups : treated, non treated.

The group of the 5 untreated plantlets on the right side ( a piece of bark separates the 2 sides ) have not dried out yet but they are obviously on the verge of dying. On the left side with the 5 CHITOSAN treated plantlets, 2 are in a bad shape and 3 seem to have recovered definitely.

On day 7 the result are as follows : the 5 non treated plantlets have died while in the 5 CHITOSAN treated plantlets ( with a yellow point below ), 3 have recovered.
Non treated plantlets with Chitosan have died
Non treated plantlets with Chitosan have died
Now the idea is to test 20 Synsepalum sprayed with CHITOSAN a week before packing and see how they react to different packing conditions. The plants are 40 cm high and about 2 years old. Rooting soil is washed out :



Synsepalum dulcificum roots are washed : dipping in clear water is not efficient if the plants must pass through a strict phytosanitary control : many bits of soil and dirt are still attached to the roots; using hands to withdraw them would stress the roots and take time; whereas at this stage speed is the key to a good survival rate.
Hence we use a fine mist of water under pressure to remove fast all the attached soil particles.
The 20 Synsepalum are dipped in pesticides and fungicide, then divided into 4 groups to test the effects of using CHITOSAN dipping and PLASTIC BAG for a 3 days stay in cartons.

Four sorts of Chitosan use
# 1 : CHITOSAN + PLASTIC BAG

# 2 : CHITOSAN NO PLASTIC BAG

# 3 : NO CHITOSAN + PLASTIC BAG

# 4 : NO CHITOSAN NO PLASTIC BAG



Plant gel keeps roots from drying out Plant gel and moist paper will prevent the roots from drying out during 3 days in the carton. On day 4 the 4 groups are unpacked and potted in a well drained soil mixed with coco bits , rice husk and charcoal.

Synsepalum before repotting Fom day 4 to day 10 the 20 plants are put with their pots under close plastic bags. ( a single big bag for several plants ).

Synsepalum dulcificum restarting in closed plastic bags

Synsepalum dulcificum are restatring in closed plastic bags without watering.

Our temperature ( we are in the rainy season ) is from 25 Celsius at night to 33 daytime. It rains long hours almost every day outside the bags.


On day 11 the plastic bags are open. We don't have the contrasted results of our test # 1 above with the plantlets lacking moisture during 3 days in cartons; in this test # 2 the plants without CHITOSAN dipping look slightly more stressed, but all of the 20 plants are in a very good shape, whatever be their group. Based on the results of our test # 1 we link this good shape to the spraying of CHITOSAN several days before packing.

Synsepalum dulcificum unpacked
Synsepalum dulcificum unpacked

In horticulture solutions of Chitosan are multifunctional : natural substance extracted from shrimp skin, it is an efficient reducer of foliar transpiration and a fertilizer. It is also a growth stimulator in tissue culture and an active ingredient of bactericides and fungicides for crops, ornamental plants and turf.
Owing to its transpiration reducing properties it is particularly recommended when tropical plants face environments with lower than standard humidity levels of the air. Many phyto-caring products intended to increase resistance of plants to pathogenic agents and environment include Chitosan as the main ingredient of their formulation. These products also include vitamins and hormones. ( Besides, Chitosan is a bio-material known in Medicine for its valuable applications in surgery. )

0.2 to 1 gr diluted in salicylic acid or any other non phyto-toxic acid will add to water to make 1 liter of solution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitosan

Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com