Centipede's Iboga Growlog

[solomon]

I thought I might document the life of my Tabernanthe seedlings.

These are just over a week old, I didn't write down the date that I sowed them but it was around 3 months ago.. I had given up hope but kept the soil moist anyway.

At the moment they are on a heat pad in a humidity chamber with 48w of cool white CFL

any comments/suggestions are appreciated

Seed sourced from SAB, cheers

[CβL]

:D

Awesome man. Keep up the good work, you're the only hope for NZ Lol.

[poisonshroom]

Wow - iboga in NZ they look pretty good. I find it amazing that people can grow things so far out of their natural climate range, especially things like iboga which are known to be fairly sensitive to temperature.

As for tips I dont really have any - never grown them from seed myself.

good luck and dont let them get cold. make sure you keep us updated

Edited May 26, 2011 by poisonshroom

[planthelper]

cute, they look very fleshy and happy , so i think you must have done a good job, and congratulations for your patience.

growing by seed youreselfe, is just soo much more rewarding, than just getting an established plant.

i would give them one pump, out of a hand mister filled with 1/4 strengh of foliar feeding fertilizer. maybe another pump (just 1 or 2 ml) a week (or more) later,

i love feeding seedlings, and i think iboga is a sucker for nutes, but generaly newbies ought to better not use (artifical) ferts on seedlings.

if i make a fuzz about a seedling, i would liquid feed already the potting mix a bit.

so the seed is born into a nutrient rich enviroment.

constant watering over a 3 month germinating time might have leached some or even most of the nutes already out of your potting mix.

Edited May 27, 2011 by planthelper

[poisonshroom]

Seasol and power feed (if you can get them in NZ) are always good - I usually use full strength for both on seedlings and even ungerminated seeds and never have a problem. I think there are germination enhancing enzymes and stuff in seasol that could help.

And i agree that raising plants from seeds is always best (not only for the value of it being raised completely by you, but it also means they are acclimatised to your area)

[solomon]

Thanks very much for the tips PH and PS, your guys climate makes me so jealous.

I had read that Iboga loves a good feed, I will look into what nutes I could get for foliar feeding and regular feeding and post them up here. I'm pretty sure Seasol is available here, I think it will be mostly the same range of ferts, maybe just different brand names.

Good point about the nutrient levels of the 3month old soil PH, I had just been giving the top soil a good spray but still.

Definitely prefer raising plants from seed.

Cheers guys

edit: would it be a bad idea to hook up an aquarium air pump to go into a glass of water in the chamber, to keep it moist in there. or is this unnecessary?

Edited May 27, 2011 by centipede

[tripsis]

Iboga in winter in NZ. Who would have thought? Will be interesting to see how they overwinter when they're more mature.

[poisonshroom]

The bubbler is a good idea (I think), but Id probably keep them as they are, so they get used to the dry. Mature plants lose their leaves then grow them back when they get shocked by either unusually dry or humid conditions (both of mine lost all their leaves when they got here because of this).

You could say Im jealous of your climate too - there are so many cold climate plants I would love to grow, but because its hot during the day all year round and the humidity varies so much it makes it really difficult. The humidity thing makes it hard to grow a lot of tropicals here too (townsville is not a great place for growing anything really except things that naturally grow here)

[planthelper]

if you want to increase humidety than jsy use the hand mister more often.

i'm no friend of humidety addicted plants, and sure this one seems to love it, but as ps say's, if you get her used to high humidety now, you might regret this at a later time (when you want to move the plant).

so you used the same set up, as they are growing in now, aswell to germinate them?

or was it different / heat pad??

[solomon]

thanks again, I will just have to be vigilant with the hand mister.

The set up I germinated them in was almost the same, except they were in a bigger tub & without CFLs, just natural light. Same heat pad.

They are still sitting in a position where they get diffuse natural light as well as the CFL light.

edit: the reason I put them in a smaller tub was so that I could get the CFL bulbs close enough.

Edited May 28, 2011 by centipede

[solomon]

Well they survived 10 days unattended, phew.

Here is the biggest plant as of today

What could be the cause of the curling leaves? This plant's sibling dropped it's "baby leaves".. Im assuming this is because it's too cold? or is the light from the CFLs too much?

I'm thinking they are hungry for some ferts. I bought a small bottle of this stuff as it's the only fertilizer i've used before. Bat shit!

[poisonshroom]

Looking good Id say the leaf curl might be from dryness maybe? Fertilizer will definitely help though - iboga loves lots of food.

[migraineur]

What is the lowest temp it can handle? I live in Perth and want to try growing it just because I can. I think I should wait until later in the year until I try getting seeds or cuttings though

[planthelper]

What is the lowest temp it can handle?

it's said, that they can die of cold easely, they can die if temps fall down to +5degC, and they are generaly not happy if temps are as low as + 15 deg C.

some people in brisbane can over winter them even outside (very sheltered aspect with good micro climat), but some of those rare cold mornings could even kill those plants.

i carry my bigger plant indoors over night, and have the small ones in a small fluro garden indoors (this growing box gets heated only by the two standard fluros, but on very cold nights i place a hotwater bottle into the chamber).

i think they love warm feet in form of a heatmat.

[migraineur]

What kind of grow box and lamps do you have etc? Do you have any photos?

[planthelper]

What kind of grow box and lamps do you have etc? Do you have any photos?

 

the box is the size of a kitchen cabinet and has doors, the fluros are grow lights.

never took any photos of this set up, as it mostly looks messy and crap, as often it's used for plants struggling over winter. not good for me to post a pic with plants struggling from the cold...

[solomon]

Any advice on how much to dilute the fertilizer? Keeping in mind these are ~10cm seedlings.

I was going to try 1/4 as much as the label says..

edit: Just read Planthelpers first post in this thread, sadly I don't think I can use the ferts I have as a foliar feed. I will start spraying with rainwater instead of tap water tho

Edited July 12, 2011 by centipede

[solomon]

I wonder if she knows it's snowing outside?

Edited August 19, 2011 by centipede

[planthelper]

if the fert you use is a liquid fertilizer, than you should be able to use them as foliar spray.

1/4 of the recommanded strengh, as you said could be ok if you mist only with one or two pumps, and than wait 5 days, and repeat. but aswell flush once in a while, so to avoid residue build up.

[solomon]

Great I just gave them and some others their first foliar feed.

I will be sure to flush every second day with some rain water.

Thanks PH!

[solomon]

Update

Does Iboga respond well to "tipping" or training?

[Illustro]

Peow peow bro!

Don't chop it! It looks so happy, it would be almost...criminal.

[solomon]

Peow peow bro!

Don't chop it! It looks so happy, it would be almost...criminal.

 

That's what I thought.

It's just she's gonna be too big for her tub soon, I'm looking for a taller one atm.

I plan on acclimatizing later on, don't want to risk it at the moment tho as this is my only Tabernanthe.

If I can't find a taller tub in time I will train her a bit..

Good call on NZ's true Last Samurai.

[Illustro]

Hmm, what about putting the tub on its end, and then putting it somewhere where the odd bit of leaked water won't be a problem?

Lol, Last Samurai! Classic.

[solomon]

iBog at 5 months beside P. virdis.