Hardy Tropicals UK

Hi All,

Am I the only one who has difficulty with Musella watering. I can grow very many things well, but can't get the soil/watering right for this. I either end up with soil that remains too damp and the roots rot, or it is obviously too dry, wilts and the leaf edges turn brown. I have just divided a clump and again many of the roots had died.

If you grow these well, what soil mix do you use, and how often do you water for the mix.

Best regards
Dave

Use well drained and airated soil. I mix peat, compost, tree bark, perlite, and a little bit of sand.

They also need minerals to grow right. Ironite will help absorb them.

Most good "acid loving" plant fertilizers will have these minerals.

All you need:
Iron (as above)
Nitrogen
Phosphourus
Potash
Magnesium

Can help:
Manganese
Boron
Sulphur

Got the account to work now.(last post)

When its cool, keep it dry - moderate, water it normally w/ some fertilizer - Very Warm or Hot, heavily water w/ tons of fertilizer.

Welcome aboard Turtile, and thanks for the advice from yourself and guest.

I think part of the problem here, is everything is geared up to the Gardener who sticks a few bedding plants out, and has a couple of house plants. We only have one Garden Centre within 5 miles, and they only have 20 different types of multipurpose stodge mix, or John Innes loam. The DIY stores and supermarket have captured most of the market with the same multipurpose.

I'll give the open mix a go, and water according to temperature, which reached 31.8C (89F) here today.

Guest, is Ironite a brand name, I've not heard of that before.

Best regards
Dave

I was the guest.

I think Ironite is only availabe in the US.
http://www.ironite.com/about_ironite.htm

Many people use it on the lawn every year.

I used it along with 20-30-20 with a different banana plant and it grew from a seed to an 8 1/2 foot plant within 5 months.

We're having a heatwave here in Delaware (101F - 38C right now)

Thanks turtile,

I looked at the Ironite web page, and it looks the equivelent of what we call Multitonic, with trace elements.

The weather is upside down at the moment. We have had 18 months of below average rainfall in Southeast England, and the topography here at Chalk made it already one of the driest places in the UK. We had 14.79 inches of rain last year (2005). Gravesend, the local town recorded the highest ever UK town temperature on 10th August 2003 at 39.1C, again it is topography. The hottest weather comes up from France to the Southeast. It decends over the North Downs to the Lower River Thames and cancels out any estuary breeze. The Trachies don't like it. They visably droop.

Weather forecast is for 32C (90F) tomorrow, and 37C (98.4) on Wednesday.

Gotta go its 1am here.
Best regards
Dave

Try some of the peat free organic compost. These seem to be better draining than multipurpose compost. A lot of them are pine bark based.

JH

I have used a mix consisting of 2 parts bark based compost, 1 part peat with added loam, and 1 part sharp sand. I water thoroughly, then allow the surface to dry out before rewatering. Much the same as for my Orange tree. They seem to like this and responded well. The roots are the best I have ever seen on them.

The plant was one of the original ones brought back from China by Martin Gibbons of The Palm Centre, back in the early 1990s. I paid a small fortune for it, but it did not do well. It has survivied all these years, but not got to flowering size. I have great expectations of it now.

Goes against the grain a bit, letting a banana dry out.

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

Best regards
Dave

As I put on the Red Spider Mite thread. I finally got the roots sorted on my lasiocarpa, and the red spider mite attacked and killed the tops, and they were outside.

Regs
Dave