pot optimization

i've always grown some tropical fruit trees, but recently i've become a "bit" more interested in them.  the following post is for the tropical fruit forum...optimal pot riddle.

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"if you really want to give something a head start, put it in a deep, deep ass pot." - flyingfoxfruits 

"after 10+ years of side-by-side tests of different pots, i'm sold on the fabric pots, at least for my conditions." - coplantnut, experiments with container-grown mangosteen in colorado

"neither, after trying both pots you mentioned and the fabric pots, I have finally switched to regular nursery pots coated with microkote." - simon_grow, which is better? air-pots versus rootmaker's rootbuilder II 

when i 1st moved into my place i dug a bunch of holes to plant trees.  if i was lucky i would find a marble.  i'd tell my girlfriend at the time that i had a valuable surprise for her and she was nice enough to pretend to be happy to receive a random marble.  she ended up filling half a jar with them.

when i 1st joined this forum a little over a year ago i have to admit that i didn't do much digging to find old but valuable threads.  the other day though, when i decided to share some of my thoughts on pots, i figured it would be a good idea to 1st dig to try and find some buried treasure.

here are some of the more or less relevant things i unearthed...

side by side microkote experiment - graftingavocados

why do my jackfruit seedlings always fail? - daintree

garcinia seedlings (confessions of a repot head) - ethan

sourcing tree pots - zephian

jabuticaba: how to grow them? - huertasurbanas

greenhouse, rootmaker pots for tropicals and fruit "porn" - mark in texas

air pruning pots--opinions? - starling1

100% synthetic potting mix? - josh-los-angeles

mangosteen and lychee, growing in warm enclosure - socal2warm

did i overlook the most useful content about pots?  if so, please share it.  overlooking the best things in life is one of the worst things in life.  like the time i went to puerto vallarta 25 years ago and overlooked luc's garcinia.

if we could use our donations (to the tff) to determine the creation and order of forum categories, how much would we donate for the topic of pots?  in my previous thread i didn't include the topic of pots among the top three topics that i'd be willing to donate for.  maybe that was a mistake.

prior to digging for pot threads, i had never heard of microkote before, which was curious since it seemed quite useful, but i don't remember it being mentioned in any relatively recent threads.  so i googled within this site and found 1 microkote search result since 2018.  

then i found 0 "semi-hydro" search results since forever.

which is more useful... semi-hydro or microkote or...?

naturally we all have different conditions, so something that is useful in wet conditions, for example, might be useless in dry conditions.  optimal is relative, kinda.

a year ago i visited the salton sea for the 1st time and was intrigued that the shore consisted of a very loose mix of barnacle shells, fish bones and sand.  i asked my friend whether it might make a good medium and she replied something like, no way, it's toxic!  i replied, hold my beer.  i found a random empty 5 gallon pot, filled it with the seashore medium, took it home and rinsed it several times.  then i stuck two well callused aloe cuttings (tenuior and my tenuior hybrid) into the medium in a 1 gallon pot.  for the sake of comparison i stuck two more cuttings in pure pumice and two more cuttings in cat liter (my ex left it)...

the cat liter was an obvious fail, guess it was the wrong kind.  but surprisingly the salton sea medium seemed to work.  here's a recent pic...

the roots...

the left two aloes were in the salton seashore medium, the two on the right were in pure pumice.  the roots that were in pumice look a bit better so it seems reasonable to say that with these two aloes, and in my relatively drier conditions, pumice is a bit more optimal than the salton seashore.   but perhaps in wetter conditions the seashore medium would be a bit more optimal.

Plant Rule #17

Every mounted Staghorn needs at least one companion...

Let's Have An Online Plant Show!

In this recent PalmTalk thread I shared a link to my previous entry as well as a couple ideas for plant societies...

1. create outdoor grow lists (ie Hoyas, Anthuriums)
2. have on online plant show

Tracy responded to the thread with some thoughts and this pic...

Platycerium superbum and Fernando

Wow!!!  I replied to Tracy that this Staghorn fern on a tree in SoCal is a perfect example of why we really need to have an online plant show.  Here's another perfect example...

Schomburgkia superbiens and Phil

Wow!!!  Phil shared this pic with me when he came over for a tour last week.  It was taken at the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate, which I've visited many times, but somehow never when this specimen was in bloom.   I was fortunate though that I was able to see another specimen in bloom at the SBOE...

Laelia gouldiana

How many trees in Southern California should have orchids, ferns and other epiphytes growing on them... but do not?  Too many!!!  So let's have an online plant show!

Patio Peek

This last weekend I attended a patio peek that my friend Scadoxus participated in.  I'm really glad that I did!  I saw some nice patios/plants and met some pleasant plant people. 

Here's one plant that caught my attention...

It's a Trachelium (Blue Throatwort).  I'm particularly interested in it because it readily volunteers.  One of my favorite volunteering plants is Ruellia brevifolia...

Earlier in the year Scadoxus gave me Ruellia elegans which she had received from her two friends.  They had purchased it from Annie's Annuals.  Coincidentally, while in the Trachelium patio, I randomly met Scadoxus' two friends for the first time.  They mentioned Annie's Annuals, I mentioned the Ruellia, and we put two and two together.  We uncovered a hidden connection. 

I think that R. brevifolia is a warmer grower/bloomer while R. elegans is a cooler bloomer/grower.  The elegans has been blooming non-stop while the brevifolia hasn't started blooming yet.  When it starts to bloom, I'd like to try and cross the two species in order to hopefully create a hercuthermal hybrid (grows/blooms in a wider range of temps).

Here's something that you don't see everyday...

It's a humongous Staghorn fern (Platycerium bifurcatum) growing directly on a brick wall. 

Here's a really nice epiphyte...

It's either a bromeliad or a Tillandsia.  I'm guessing that it's a Tillandsia, but I could be wrong.   I'm also guessing that it's monocarpic.  This would mean that it wouldn't produce any offshoots after it dies.  Ugh, I'm not a fan of monocarpic plants.  Hopefully this one is not monocarpic because I'd sure love to have an offshoot!  The vine with the pink flowers is Mandevilla.  In front of it is a very inviting couch.  It's wonderful when the lines between "inside" and "outside" are blurred.

Here's another really nice epiphyte...

Maybe it's Anthurium schlechtendalii?  It's being propped up by some cherubins.  The lady statue, the owner of the Anthurium, and me in the mirror are all interestingly arranged.  The three of us are facing in different directions... just like in a Hal Hartley movie. 

 Here's a tree fern...

Sorry about the blurry photo.   What's remarkable about this tree fern is that it's developing several heads.  It's not every day that you see a multi-headed tree fern.  More heads are better than one!

Here's a multi-headed tree Aloe...

Wow!  Wow!  Wow!  This is by far the best Aloe arborescens that I've ever seen in person.   I'm pretty sure that it's arborescens.  It is one of the most commonly grown Aloes here in California.  For some reason, despite its name, all the ones that I've seen are more like shrubs than trees.  But in nature you can see some distinctly tree like forms... for example.  Sometimes orchids will grow on them. 

The Aloe in the photo should definitely have one, or two, orchids growing on it.  Then it would be a phorobana.  Here's one orchid that sometimes grows on Aloe arborescens in nature...

A few years ago I attached this Mystacidium capense to a potted Bougainvillea.  Unfortunately, the medium in the pot was too barky and the Bougainvillea didn't make it.  In retrospect, I should have used a more gritty medium.  The plan was to have the white flowered orchid and the red flowered Bougainvillea bloom at the same time.  It would have been a lovely living bouquet.  Here's an example in nature.

Another great epiphyte for the Aloe would be a Tillandsia...

This Tillandsia kirschneckii is attached to my potted Ficus rubiginosa (Rusty Leaf Fig). 

Because epiphytes can grow on other plants, and even sometimes on walls, they are very useful for maximizing the diversity, interest and charm of small spaces.  The challenge is choosing the right ones.

One idea that I shared with one of the organizers of the patio peak is to create a plant society for the plant people in the area.  This way all the members can benefit from each other's different plant knowledge.  Plus, they can share plants and seeds with each other. 

Another idea that I had is that it would be nice to see other people's photos of the patios.  I wasn't the only person taking photos.  Personally I think Flickr is a useful platform for sharing photos. 

While it would be nice to see other people's photos of the patios, it would be even nicer to see their valuations.  This could be accomplished by using donations to judge the patios.  People would have the opportunity to "donate vote" for their favorite patios.  The money that was raised would go to a good cause... such as helping to transform local schools into botanical gardens.  Of course some of the money could also be awarded to the people with the top patios. 

Everybody who toured the patios was given a helpful map beforehand.  It was essentially a treasure map... but there was no indication of each treasure's value.  Would the map be even more helpful if everyone could see and know the value of each treasure? 

When a bee visits a patch of flowers, she uses dancing to communicate its value to the other bees.  This creates a dynamic and interactive treasure map of the flower patches in the area.  The more valuable a flower patch is, the more bees that will visit it.  I think it would be so cool if we could also see this treasure map.  Naturally, if somebody's garden in our area spiked in value, we would be very curious to learn the cause. 

No bee can be in two places at once, and the same is true for us humans.  This is why it's so useful to be able to communicate to each other the value of our discoveries. 

Please Introduce Me To Awesome Plants!!

Last Saturday I went to the Los Angeles Fern and Exotic Plant Show with my friend Scadoxus.  Here are some of the plants that caught my attention...

Platycerium alcicorne type

Personally I have a penchant for pendant plants so I tend to prefer Playceriums that match my pendulous preference... such as certain varieties of Platycerium willinckii.  The Staghorn in the above picture is the least pendant Platy that I've ever seen.  It definitely caught my attention and I have to admit that I kinda like it.  

Hoya revolubilis - The Kunming Kina of Southern China

This is easily one of my top five favorite Hoyas.  The leaves are relatively succulent and it's a good epiphytic grower.  A while back I attached a piece of this and a piece of the somewhat similar, and far more common, Hoya shepherdii to a board covered in New Zealand Sphagnum moss.  Both Hoyas established fairly quickly but revolubilis won the competition by a mile.  The shepherdii was on its last leg when I took pity on it and moved the mount to the area that I water most frequently.  

The revolubilis in the photo is a very impressive specimen.  We all like impressive specimens... but... the Epiphyte Society of Southern California (ESSC) has a rule about specimens.  Members of the ESSC are allowed to have specimens as long as they have already shared cuttings with all the other members.  Share, then specimen.  This rule is beneficial in several different ways.  First, it helps the plant.  No plant wants to have all its eggs in too few baskets.  Plants are all about colonization (location diversification).  Second, it helps the grower hedge their bets.  We have all lost plants for all sorts of reasons so it's really good to have many backups (plant insurance).  Third, it helps us learn about our plants faster.  The members of the ESSC all live in somewhat different climates, and have thumbs that are different shades of green, and employ different growing techniques.  It is very informative and useful to see how the same plant performs in a wide range of conditions.  Lastly, we should regularly introduce each other to awesome plants.  

Camellia edithae

It's fuzzy!  At first glance I guessed that it was an epiphytic blueberry.  But I was wrong.  I'm generally not so interested in Camellias, although they might be a good host for some orchids.  In the case of this Camellia though I might be happy to have one.  

Tillandsia flabellata rubra

Hummingbirds love reddish Tillandsias and so do I!

Tillandsia Hybrid

I want this!  Even if it's monocarpic?  Well... I hate monocarpic plants.  But there might be one or two exceptions to this rule.  Due to illegible writing I'm not exactly sure about the name of this Tillandsia.  It's a hybrid and its name starts with a B.  

Lemmaphyllum microphyllum

This isn't the best picture of this enchanting and endearing little epiphytic fern from Japan.  As you can see, it's very happily growing in a terrarium.  The fern was put in there by the terrarium genius Don DeLano.  He's very knowledgeable about plants and he gives great talks at society meetings.  At the show I asked him if he's ever tried growing this fern outside.  He said that he had but it got killed when the temps dropped below freezing.  Given that it's from Japan I was somewhat surprised.  Turns out that he was growing it in a pot.  My guess is that, here in Southern California where it rains during the winter, epiphytic plants handle the winter cold better when they are mounted, because of the excellent drainage.   In my Cedar Tree Epiphytes blog entry I shared this photo of L. microphyllum growing over two stories high on my tree... 

Lemmaphyllum microphyllum

It's mounted on several very healthy handfuls of New Zealand Sphagnum moss.  When I mounted it I also included a few other plants such as a cutting of Columnea Elmer Lorenz.  The fern has done really well but, unlike Microgramma vacciniifolia, it doesn't seem to be able to "escape" its moss island/prison.  Even though L. microphyllum isn't an escape artist it is definitely one of my very favorite ferns.  Here's another favorite... 

Niphidium crassifolium

This epiphytic fern has very long fronds and does quite well outside here in SoCal.  Perhaps through no fault of its own I didn't manage to get it established on my Cedar tree, but I do have it growing on a tree fern and on a Pygmy Date Palm.  Microsorum punctatum is another strap-leaved epiphytic fern with somewhat shorter fronds which might be more drought tolerant.  I do have it growing on my Cedar tree.  

At the show I met ESSC member Gumbii for the first time.  He has a Youtube channel about plants.  While we, along with Scadoxus, were looking at the entries I mentioned that we really should do a video of them.  From my perspective even a quick video would be better than nothing.  Perhaps we could just highlight our 10 favorite plants in the show.  Or, I joked, we could criticize the 10 worst plants in the show.  Scadoxus chimed in that at one bromeliad society meeting some guy very badly criticized a plant that a member had brought in for others to appreciate.  When the critic asked whose plant it was, the owner didn't even want to admit that it was their plant.  Yikes!  

After the show Scadoxus and I drove to Fernando's garden in West Covina.  While on the way there I was telling her about how I had learned of some new terms for an idea that I've discussed with her many times before.  The idea, and one of its terms, is voting with donations.  I explained that this is most commonly associated with using donations to decide who will have to kiss a pig, or get pied in the face, or get dunked into a tank of water.  Sometimes zoos use this method to name an animal.  That's when Scadoxus said something like, "Oh yeah, San Diego Zoo does that.  Around 15 years ago I was there with my niece and we made a donation to help name a panda."  I responded, "What in the world?  Seriously?  We've been talking about this idea for so many years (maybe like two) and you're only now just sharing this information with me?!"  "You didn't ask me about it," she replied, "...better late than never."  Ugh.  

When we got to Fernando's place I started to carefully inspect his very impressive collection.  From the corner of my eye I spotted a small flash of color.  I looked more closely and saw what appeared to be a Pelargonium flower just randomly floating in mid-air...

Pelargonium tetragonum?

It was a nearly leafless pendulous Pelargonium that was growing epiphytically!  What?!  Have you heard of such a plant?  I sure hadn't.  So I asked Fernando about it and he said that he's had it for around a decade.  What?!  How come he hadn't introduced me to this plant?  Ugh.  

We've all failed, albeit unequally so, to introduce each other to awesome plants.  I personally feel like I've failed to introduce enough people to the epiphytic fern Aglamorpha coronans.  Here's my attempt to try and solve this problem...

It's so very neat that Aglamorpha coronans has wrapped itself nearly all the way around Fernando's palm tree!  The video really doesn't do this fern justice, but I hope that it's better than nothing.

There's actually another Aglamorpha species that's even more impressive than coronans... Aglaomorpha heraclea.  It has really huge fronds.  I tried to grow it once but it wasn't a fan of our winter.  While talking to Darla Harris, the president of the Texas Gulf Coast Fern Society, I mentioned that it would be really awesome if heraclea was crossed with coronans.  When the president of the Tree Fern Society, Dan Yansura, joined the conversation, I brought up a few other crosses that should be attempted...

Davallia canariensis x Davallia fejeensis
Nephrolepis pendula x Nephrolepis cordifolia

Not sure how compatible these species are, but ferns are relatively easy to grow from spore.  I've personally had good success simply sowing the spore directly on wet floral foam that's in a pot in a zip lock bag.  Darla hadn't heard of this method before.  Hopefully she'll give it a try.

Fernando had the largest Sinningia that I had ever personally seen... 

Please remind me to remind Scadoxus to remind Fernando to harvest the seeds.  The same goes for his Begonia thiemei.

Hopefully we should all agree that we need to do the best possible job of introducing each other to awesome plants.  Right now I'm thinking that this vital task can be most efficiently and effectively accomplished by using donation voting (DV).  Fortunately for us, there are already websites that can facilitate this.  For example...

https://www.360photocontest.com/

Organizations, like a local humane society, can create a contest for participants to submit and sort photos...

https://my.360photocontest.com/catwelfare2019calendarcontest/photos?order=Rank

Those photos are sorted by DV ($1 donation = 1 vote).  Here are a couple other similar websites...

https://www.gogophotocontest.com/
http://mulabula.com/

Members of various plant societies and forums could submit photos of their favorite plants and we could use DV to rank/sort/order/prioritize them.  Naturally in this case it wouldn't be possible to use our donations to criticize the worst plants.  Instead, we'd use our donations to help highlight the very best plants.  All the money raised would be spent to help promote the results.  We would essentially be pooling our money to introduce the most people to the most awesome plants in the least amount of time.

Linger Longer: Platyceriums and Bonsais

Reply to: Mounting Platyceriums

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Charles Alford sells some really nice Platyceriums.  I've always been satisfied with the value to price ratio.  He only sells four times a year though.  You have to e-mail him to get on his list.  But he offers many neat epiphytic ferns that you can't get elsewhere.

Tom has a nice collection of Platyceriums...all outdoors year around here in Southern California.  Also good value to price ratio.

Growing Platyceriums from spore is pretty easy.  The hardest part is the waiting.

One thing that's pretty great about Platyceriums is that they make perfect baskets for all types of plants.  This can greatly increase the value to space ratio.  For example...

Dischidia
Begonias, Impatiens
Orchids (Oncidium, Zygopetalum)
Rhipsalis
Vireya

Bifurcatums are fairly common here in Southern California...so if somebody shows me one it's like showing me an empty basket.  I have the same perspective with bonsais.  A nice bonsai will have a pretty decent value to space ratio...but it's still a tree without anything growing on it.  It's a blank canvas.

Hopefully in the future every Platycerium will have at least one plant growing in it and every bonsai will have at least one epiphyte growing on it.

Imagine if Frank attends a bonsai show or a fern show.  Let's say that he has a budding general interest in plants.  What's the average amount of time he spends looking at each entry?  Two seconds?  I'm pretty sure if each bonsai and Platycerium had one companion plant...then the total amount of time he spent looking at the exhibits would increase.  How much would the total time increase if each entry had two companion plants?

Depending on the preferences of the exhibitors...the companion plants could stand out and instantly grab your attention...or they could be more like Easter Eggs (media).

When I first moved into my house...my plant friends would walk right past my Cedar tree.  As I started attaching more and more plants to it...visitors would linger longer and longer.  I refer to this as the Man Man Zou standard.  It's Chinese for "walk slow"...or "walk carefully".  As in you'll want to take your time so that you don't miss any delightful details.

One Echeveria Is Not Like The Others

Reply to: Not Echeveria harmsii?

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I see a lot of different plats on the Google page. Not all are E.harmsii. Some are allied species. Some are hybrids. To which actual picture do you allude?

The only illustration that really matters is that of the original type. - stephenopolis

Like I said, I was referring to the top results for the Google image search. The top results are usually more relevant than the lower results. And they look far more like the original type than the Echeveria in question.

For example, the Echeveria in the photo taken by Palmbob looks just like the illustration of the original type. The Echeveria in question looks completely different. It looks less stout, the leaves don't look fuzzy or show any color...and the flowers are a different color. I grow enough candy corn Echeverias to know that their morphology doesn't change that much when grown in shade instead of sun.

I think this might be karma. I like to give my Platycerium enthusiast friends a hard time by telling them that their dozens of bifurcatum types all look alike. They get flabbergasted and then spend 20 minutes pointing out the differences. When they are done I say that I still don't see it. Now it's just a running joke we have.

A few years ago, my bff was down for the holidays with his young daughter. The three of us went to the shopping mall with my Korean girlfriend. The girl really likes my girlfriend and they were holding hands while walking around. Something caught the girl's eye so she ran ahead to inspect it. It didn't hold her attention for long and she ran over and grabbed some random Asian lady's hand. The youngish Asian lady, who was walking with her boyfriend?, was really surprised that some little white girl was holding her hand. LOL! She stopped walking and said something to the girl. The girl looked up...and it took a few moments for her to realize her mistake. She quickly looked around and spotted the three of us laughing 10 feet behind. I'm pretty sure that I accused my bff of raising his daughter to be rayshist (a bit racist).

If I kissed some random Asian lady...I don't think my girlfriend would believe me if I told her that I thought the lady was her. haha

Do you think you can tell whether a random Asian is Korean, Japanese or Chinese? I'm better than most at telling them apart. But I can tell them apart 100% of the time when they speak.

When I went to the Huntington Gardens this last Monday...in the desert garden I heard Chinese parents saying "Xiaoxin" to their kids. It means "be careful".