Heimia, How long?

[Auxin]

I planted some heimia s. about 2.5 months ago and the little things are still only about 1 mm tall! I've been dosing 'em pretty steadily with fungicide sol'n due to my previous failure at growing them. How long before they actually start to grow BIGGER?

For a plant that grows 10 feet tall it shure is taking them a while to get going.

Anybody have experience growing these from seed?

What are the optimum growing conditions for this stage? (I'm keeping them between 60 and 90 F under low light most of the day with about 3hrs of brighter light, relative humidity around 60-75 %)

[G Dawg]

Mine took ages to start getting bigger from seed. I had them in a pot for quite a while and then planted them in the ground. I have had them for around 2 years now and while they have lots of healthy growth they are still under 30 cms tall. I have them in partial shade.

[Torsten]

you guys must be doing something wrong. Sure, they kinda stop for a few weeks after germinating, but 30cm in 2 years is just ridiculous. My bushes are usually about 1.5m after 2 years.

They are heavy feeders and do like regular fertilising. They will grow to 30cm in a 4.5" pot, so obviously don't need much rootspace.

I have some babies that volunteered in a crappy, nutrient-drained, 80% perlite pot that have been 1" for about a year. As soon as I give them some food they will shoot up. But this is really extreme, so I don't understand what you are doing to yours to cause this. Check the roots when you are potting up to see if they are healthy.

[G Dawg]

Mine starting to put on some nice young shoots now so will see how it goes. Seems to have taken a long time to settle in once I planted it out. I fertilize fairly frequently but it got neglected a bit while I was away during summer.

[blog]

Mine germinated in February, they're still less than 10cm's tall, haha. Maybe spring will liven them up a little.

[Guest reville]

Originally posted by Auxin:

I've been dosing 'em pretty steadily with fungicide sol'n

Some fungicides actually inhibit growth. I dont see why you need it now that they have germinated and they must have thickened up by now.

For a plant that grows 10 feet tall

really! I didnt know that the biggest ones ive seen were in brisbane and they were 1.5m

BAnybody have experience growing these from seed?

Ive had good success sprinkling seed onto a self watering pot with nice potting mix and leaving it in a warm sheltered place. They come up on mass then die off leaving a few healthy ones to grow. After that cuttings and root suckers are too easy

Garret if you have any trouble with yours i can dig you up one of mine

[G Dawg]

Originally posted by reville:

Garret if you have any trouble with yours i can dig you up one of mine

Mines going pretty good just lacks size at the moment. Have struck a few suckers from it so I'll try growing in a few spots and see where it grows best here.

Thank for the offer though.

[Adrian]

I've had mixed results.

I have a 10 month old in an 8 1/2" pot that is 28" tall and has several shoots from the base over halfway.

Only had 4 flowers this year

Another of same age, about 16" tall in the ground, lost a few leaves shortly after transplanting (hail does not help), coming back nicely now.

Sold several at 2" to 6" tall (would be nice to know how they're doing now).

Just transplanted 2 5mm tall fellas, that from a tray of more than 50 (8 months old) were the only ones over 2mm tall that didn’t recently 'give it in'.

In conclusion, the two largest I have were transplanted at 4-6 weeks (~5mm tall) from a light sandy mix into 1.5" pots with a slightly heavier soil and fed with liquid fertilizer 2-3 times a week.

Transplanted again at 6-8 weeks (4-6" tall).

Maybe try delicately transplanting a couple into a richer mix.

[This message has been edited by Adrian (edited 08 September 2002).]

[Guest reville]

I find its alot like Hypericum. Slow at first then fast.Goes through 3 distinct phases each year

Veg- big leaves and fast growth with lots branches forming

Flowering

Hardening off. Small leaves and the branches go woody and wiry.

IU wonder when its best to harvest?

[Torsten]

Originally posted by reville:

IU wonder when its best to harvest?

I presume during flowering

[WarpedAstro]

I brought a heimia plant about 2.5 months ago it was about 20cm high by 20cm wide, and been growing in pot, I had no idea of its age, and it hardly grew at all, barely 1-2cms!! for the last 2.5 months, and about two weeks ago, when the weather started to warm up, and was working in my garden (in exchange for cheap rent for couple of weeks), and I planted in the garden, and suddenly out of the blue, it just bloomed, and it's now almost a foot high now, grew nearly 10cms in 2 weeks.... must be the seaweed/fish/blood&bone fertizler, or better soil conditions or the weather, I think they seem to grow slow then fast growing like rev mentioned....I'm no botanist....

[This message has been edited by WarpedAstro (edited 09 September 2002).]

[Andrew]

I,ve had a heimia in a pot for a couple of years,its about 60mm x 60mm,and I am constantly pulling the damn things out of every other pot within about 5 metres,they,re everywhere.My plants seem to have seed on them constantly.Anyone noticed two diferent sorts of leaf growth on these,the majority are small 5-10mm but some of the new growth has leaves up to approx.35 mm.?

[Auxin]

I'm still using fungicide because last time I tried growing 'em they were at this stage when half were killed off by fungus, and the other half were killed off by the supposedly 'harmless' dirt fly larvae.

I have not been fertilizing them, maby that has something to do with the slow growth?

(I'm always hesitant to fertilize 1 mm tall seedlings.)

And I'm growing them in peat pellets, hence the need for fungicide (using 0.0124% sol'n of myclobutanil alpha-butyl-alpha-(4-chlorophenyl)-1H-1,2,4-triazole-1-propanenitrile)

Anybody know what the best soil mix is for the seedling stage?

Or how about when fertilizers should start being used? 1 mm? 1 cm? 5 cm?

We should start gathering info for a FAQ on growing heimia from seed, that would be sweet Torsten, you could put it on your heimia info page and then it would help people by the hundreds!

Thanks to everyone for your help

[Ed Dunkel]

Heimia roots very wel from cuttings, maybe we should help out the seed growers

E D

[planthelper]

auxin, ther is a trick to ferting young seedlings...

you have to plant them allread in ferted soil.

somehow i discovered that the seedling is quite willing to exept rich conditions if "allready born into it".

than you can fert even a lil bit more, because the plant is allready programed to rich conditions.

i hope you understand what i try to say, plants are very flexible and adjust to most conditions,

if they are used to rich conditions since the where layed down ou will have no problems, it's onl SUDDEN CHANGES" which can't be tolerated b plants.

damm there goes one of my last secrets, which (ego wank) i discovered all by myselfe.

never the less i know what you mean b saing you are often reluctant to fertilize babys, and i agree it can be dangerous if you overdo it..

[ 07. May 2005, 22:58: Message edited by: planthelper ]

[Auxin]

when playing with heimias I had the passing thought of pre-doseing the seedling medium with a 0.01% solution of ammonium humate with 1/4 strength 15-30-15 fertilizer so the seeds would have fuel from the start but I never followed up on it, its great to hear that you found it beneficial- definatly something to bear in mind, ty

[Torsten]

we get hemia popping up everywhere. including on top of straight manure, dynamic lifter and even blobs of blood&bone. They certainly don't mind the extra food even as 'delicate' seedlings.

[t st tantra]

i found the leaf harvested at the end of a hot dry summer was the strongest but it has seed pods which are a complication.

now i usually harvest half to a third of the leaf from half the plant about every 6 to 8 weeks,alternately.

t s t .

[Auxin]

t st tantra:

i found the leaf harvested at the end of a hot dry summer was the strongest but it has seed pods which are a complication.

Ahhh, ya reminded me of a question I asked some od months ago that I never got feedback on, has anyone tried harvesting heimia, takeing half, removing the seed pods, leaving the seed pods on the other half, processing both fractions simultanoisly by the same method, and compareing effects? Its on my list of things to try someday but it'd be good to know if others have tried.

[amanito]

my seedlings also don't grow ..

[smogs]

patience... i had a little seedling at about 10cm... and he struggled along for ages (6 months maybe)

then during the span of a few weeks is now 30cm tall and about 30cm wide!