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MOT

syrian rue germination

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High all

Has anyone got some good advice on getting syrian rue up and going? Also is iboga winter dormant plant as mine has gotten pretty slack when cold weather hit.

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Sorry to say I've had little luck with this plant... managed to get 1 or 2 germinated but they were the seeds that had scattered to the side of the pot, where it would be warmest. None of the seeds scattered in the middle had germinated. I would highly reccomend a heat mat, they don't like humidity either.

Peace.

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Hot dry arid conditions...extremely difficult to germinate...I have never ever got one seed to pop....really hard to recreate those conditions...mind you I'm not even sure the seed I have used is even viable but I have tried all the different types I've had over the last year and same result...zip..notta ...nothing.

good luck

H.

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remember salem had some success with it, just sat the seeds in moist paper towels or cotton buds when they germinated transfered them to pots

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if the seed is viable than sprouting them is not difficult at all, so if you have problems with sprouting get better seeds.

my impression over the years was that they are easy to germ, but hard to keep alive.

most of us, including myselfe managed to get a few seedlings up but after a few weeks they start dying off...

they definately don't like too much water and will die fast if there is constant humidety.

they go dormant in the wild and good rain will suddenly get them emerging again and they will grow with good speed for a while.

anyway even when people kept the rue very dry, they had very little success cultivating this plant in most climats (it grows well in parts of SA) but than somebody found out that this plant likes very alkaline soil conditions (those parts of sout australia wher it grows abundantly got very alkaline soil) and this knowledge seemed to have helped regarding cultivating it.

however even since we know that it needs alkaline soil, i can't remeber any reports of sucessfull cultivation.

i think it likes poor (and maybe disturbed) soil, unless you live in or close to a desert i would not bother growing peganum harmala.

late edit:

if your seeds don't sprout try to let them dry out completly and than re wet them, as maybe they need several dry wet cycles to germ, as many desert plants have this save guard to germ only if the rains have arrived for sure, and it was not just a single shower. the dry and than re wetting cycle ought to break the dormancy of those seeds, but fresher seeds will germ a few seedlings without this procedure.

Edited by planthelper

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Welcome MOT...

Hunab, no germination = bad/old seed. Peganum germinates very easily, but it takes a xerophytic approach [or so I have named it] to get the plant to survive beyond some size though...

thread about xerophytic plants cultivation and 'xerophytic approach'

I say, scatter some seeds in random pots, cacti are good idea. also sow direct to soil, don't burry the seed too much, or not at all. When they germinate, pretend they are not there, avoid watering, water maybe each second ot third time you have the urge to water them!

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I used the takeaway container loph growing tek, after a 24 hr soak, to get them to germinate, pretty much every seed sprouted out of nearly 100.

About 5 made it to seedling stage, two got their second lot of leaves, one grew about a foot tall then turned black and died.

All the rue seed I've come across has been viable, just a bastard of a plant to grow.

I hear it's a weed in SA.

Link

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I just had about 5 seeds germ in pots of mostly sand with a bit of compost. I'll let them dry up and see how far they get with no water :)

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Fill a styrofoam box with sandy soil and sprinkle surface with lots of seed.

The many seedlings will fight it out amongst themselves so that only a few will survive and dominate to reach a large size. This high mortality rate also likely occurs in nature.

This method is the only one where I've seen and had a good measure of success.

Once the roots get chunky they'll come back year after year while the tops die off in winter.

Propagating from large chunky root cuttings is also feasible.

Edited by Mycot

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THis plant as always had a special place in my heart as it was the one that introduced me to this site. I can;t remember how or why i was looking for it but it lead me here and thats all that matters.

When i got the seed pack i would've followed the instructions to a tee, being 15 and poor i didn;t want to waste my limited resources on fucking it up. I only watered the seeds with a mister when the pot absolutely needed it. Out of 5 seeds i got one big plant and another samller one. I ended up trading my big rue on here and the other one got left in the ground at a previous addy.

So i guess i;m saying if you follow the instructions on the webstore you should be able to get yourself some healthy plants. I think the secret with this plant is to not baby it. Its an arid plant and as such needs to be dry.

The big plant took awhile to establish but it shot up after about 2-3 months.

Also i was living in bundaberg at the time so the temps are pretty constant all year round so that would've helped a bit too.

I got some packets of rue if anyone wants to trade. each packet has a teaspoon of seeds in it.

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Trying to start some of these myself. I constantly hear about the damping-off issue.

*Thinking out loud* - What about starting them indoors, under constant 24hr light schedule until they become more established?

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You've either had extraordinary good luck working with so few seed Smiling Cloud or these are way easier than I thought. I know of people that have germinated hundreds of these seeds only to have none survive.

So far I've relied on the method I outlined above.

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Maybe i did get lucky but I was pretty careful with my prop back then. I didn't have many distractions other than school (we lived out of town) so i had alot of time to nurture my plants. I would check everything every morning and every afternoon, during weekends i would check 3-4 times a day.

After reading of dales post above i think i may have used an antifungal agent. I'm not 100% but i know i had it for the tobacco and morning glory i was growing so maybe i used a bit on the harmala as well. It would've been a cheap one that you get from woolies if i did, the one in the cardboard tube (llike a pringles packet). Maybe the antti fungal also changed the pH of the soil as well so that it was alkaline?

After reading the instructions on the webstore i reckon i would have used an anti fungal agent if i had one so maybe give that a go.

I;m going to put a few seed down tomorrow to see if i can get them to come up again but it might be a little cold here atm! I got tons of seeds so it can;t hurt.

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I'm pretty sure I saw that allrareherbs.com.au has rue plants for sale. I want to get one because I've got no bloody hope in germinating them if you experts above have less than impressive luck with it.

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That allrareherbs does look good, i wish theyd ship to wa though! If you do get any rue to germinate fight any urge to water it!

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I'm pretty sure I saw that allrareherbs.com.au has rue plants for sale. I want to get one because I've got no bloody hope in germinating them if you experts above have less than impressive luck with it.

Ah, give em a go FP. The tek I outlined does consistantly give good results and the seeds do easily germinate.

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post-3181-1249360062_thumb.jpg

I haven't really been following any of the conventional wisdom with these P. harmala seedlings, but they're going apeshit. Less than 2 months old.

I did a similar thing to what Mycot said for germination, but just in a regular 6" nursery pot filled a coir/compost/turface/hydroton blend (my typical potting soil.) It had some organic meals in it, too (crab, bone, blood etc.)

Seeds were pressed lightly into the surface of the soil and kept moist with a mister in a south facing window, then went into a morning light, dappled afternoon shade situation and have stayed there. Mulched the soil with turface as a 'mineral mulch' to keep the stems dry and free of organic matter. They really seem to like this.

After growing a bit, they've received water (from overhead) every other day to every day now with fertilizer about every 3rd or 4th watering (hydro nutes and seaweed ext.) The turface mulch dries out on top, but the soil is moist beneath fairly constantly.

They seem to really like food and even water if their mix is well drained and the stems dry out well (mineral mulch.)

:wub:

post-3181-1249360062_thumb.jpg

post-3181-1249360062_thumb.jpg

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Those are looking really nice FM. :)

You'll want to transfer without disturbing the roots that whole container to a larger pot so the roots can develop.

Chunky roots means a plant that will spring back to life after winter diebacks.

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WOW!!! Less than two months?? Boy, then it sure has benefited from the big container!

Congratulations :)

Edited by mutant

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Those are looking really nice FM. :)

You'll want to transfer without disturbing the roots that whole container to a larger pot so the roots can develop.

Chunky roots means a plant that will spring back to life after winter diebacks.

Thanks Mycot :)

Funny you say that.... I actually had planned on tranpslanting the evening after posting that pic and wanted a pic to document it's growth in case the transplant killed it like it has for so many others.

But it's doing fine! Yay :lol:

I only increased the container size about 50% as we'll be headed into the cool wet season here in a little over a month and I don't want it to be waterlogged. I'm going to try to keep it dry and see how it does....

I'll keep ya'll posted on how they do :)

EDIT: I keep saying "it." There are actually several plants in there growing together. They seem to be fine with this method as well.

Edited by FM.

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