Dicksonia antarctica (Dicksonia antarctica) Soil conditions.

[themes]

yay! thats good news. Hope It likes me, I will try and form a good relationship with mine. But as you may have already gathered I am not good at first impressions. Must be nice, Must be nice...

[Cathy]

Don't worry Mo your'e very nice! you'll do fine with it I'm sure!

[redsquirrel]

this could be complete poppycock but i was of the impression,it didnt really matter what soil you planted your Dicksonia antarctica in as they take all the water and nutrients in through the crown,i.e,the need to over water. i was also told the roots underneath the trunk mainly provide support but will pass extra water to the growing area,hence why they do ok in pots if regularly fed and watered.

[themes]

this could be complete poppycock but i was of the impression,it didnt really matter what soil you planted your Dicksonia antarctica in as they take all the water and nutrients in through the crown,i.e,the need to over water. i was also told the roots underneath the trunk mainly provide support but will pass extra water to the growing area,hence why they do ok in pots if regularly fed and watered.

Yes darren, but are you being nice to them?

[Cathy]

I think redsquirrel, you are saying in a nutshell (squirrel, nutshell! ) what I was saying, going all around the houses, in my last post. In otherwords poppycock it may be but I agree with you Darren! We were told by the Aussie who sold us our first Dicksonia antarctica at CTP in 2002/3 "you can stand it on concrete and it will grow, so long as you water the crown copiously!"

[themes]

you can't put all your acorns in one basket, Darren

[Cathy]

[redsquirrel]

yes themes im nice to all of my plants,even the walnut trees that grow out of the Dicksonia antarctica.must thank mr squirrel next time for not nibbling my balls when he was planting in them and cathy,i think i got my advice from rob at desert to jungle.they also told me that Dicksonia antarctica were the only tree ferns to grow this way.others like fibrosa etc,all fed from underneath. keeping Dicksonia antarctica out of the ground can restrict frond size though as extra water cannot be sourced from around the rootmat which they would naturally form but from what i gather,soil is not essential for that either as a good mulch will do the same thing. ctp used to stock loads successfully stood upright on weed suppression,no pots,nothing.was that when they were called ausferns you got your first one cathy?

[simon]

this could be complete poppycock but i was of the impression,it didnt really matter what soil you planted your Dicksonia antarctica in as they take all the water and nutrients in through the crown,i.e,the need to over water. i was also told the roots underneath the trunk mainly provide support but will pass extra water to the growing area,hence why they do ok in pots if regularly fed and watered.

Yes, it is complete poppycock.

[Henry]

I have had tree ferns planted in pure chalk, the biggest was 19 foot it was planted 3 foot in the ground in the chalk. In 18 months it had started to root at the center of the bottom of the cut base. They grow in clay now that we have moved house. The probable reason for not growing roots in very dense clay would be if you dug a hole in this type of clay of depth then stuck a fibrous 'log' in it is that its in a small pond!:D
The best comment I've heard was at Trebah gardens in Cornwall where on of the staff said "it's amazing that they get all there water from the rainfall falling on there trunks", bearing in mind they have tree ferns that have 30+ 10 foot long fronds!!!! This was said at at time when we hadn't had any rain for quite a few weeks.
While they will grow with out of a planting medium they won't look there best and would be growing in a very unstable environment.

[Henry]

Also just wanted to add small trunkless tree ferns take all there water/nutients from roots in the soil, so the idea of this changing as soon as they form a trunk does sound daft

[Cathy]

...and cathy,i think i got my advice from rob at desert to jungle.they also told me that Dicksonia antarctica were the only tree ferns to grow this way.others like fibrosa etc,all fed from underneath. keeping Dicksonia antarctica out of the ground can restrict frond size though as extra water cannot be sourced from around the rootmat which they would naturally form but from what i gather,soil is not essential for that either as a good mulch will do the same thing. ctp used to stock loads successfully stood upright on weed suppression,no pots,nothing.was that when they were called ausferns you got your first one cathy?

Yes Darren, that was it Ausferns, I had forgotten that name! our first was bought as a living 4ft trunk with fronds but no pot.
I remember seeing a stack of Dicksonia antarctica stumps which I was told had come straight out of a ships hold (ballast) and once on land in the warmer air and well watered they would begin to grow like wild fire! Amazing to us as we had never even seen a Tree Fern before CTP!

[redsquirrel]

so now the explanation i was given has been expelled as untrue,could it be ctp stock is suffering because it is out of the ground and has been for some time??

[Cathy]

I still think it is just because the Dicksonia antarctica in CTP 'shed' get no rain and not enough sprinkler/hosepiping.

[carolpz]

Dave I'll do a couple of photos of my soil today if I get time. I can't understand why you've had problems either, your soil looks very similar to mine and I don't think it's an acid problem as I'm not aware Dicksonia antarctica's give a damn. Try this website, they may have an answer.
http://www.growsonyou.com/plant/Dicksonia_antarctica