7 replies to this topic

[Acacia King]

Hi,

Just recieved a small voacanga africana. Has anyone grown it before or has any good advice on how best to go about it. Planing on using sharp sand and a little perlit. Obviously I have to keep it moist but also watch out for root rot.

There is just so little info out the on the net about it.

Also can anyone tell me at what age the plant will start to reach substantial Alkaloid levels in the root bark.

[poisonshroom]

I have a Voacanga africana thats about as tall as me. They start off growing fairly slowly, but when it gets hot they take off, so you might not see much growth till spring.

I would use more than sharp sand and perlite. Mines in premium potting mix, a bit of compost, a bit of sand and some garden soil, and it seems to like it. I think when they are small they like a bit more shade, but once they start growing they can be moved slowly into pretty much full sun, which is where mine is. They also like a fair bit of root space.

As for alkaloids, dont really know - Im more growing it just to look at and as an interesting shade tree

[Acacia King]

Thanks for the advice bro. Yeah they are a wicked looking tree. Has yours flowered or seeded? How old is it to be as tall as you are?

[poisonshroom]

No flowers or seeds yet - Its only about a year and a half old at the most. I had it in a 20cm pot for a while (maybe 6months), then it started to get taller pretty quickly, so I put it in a big pot (id say ~40-50cm) and its growing pretty fast, putting out new leaves every week or so and its starting to show dichotomous branching (ie, the main stem split in two, then those two split in two etc etc), which seems characteristic for these and similar plants (iboga, tabernaemontana spp, fangipani etc).

I cant wait till it flowers though - there is a big one in our botanic gardens (queens gardens in Townsville) thats probably 10m + tall that regularly has flowers and seeds, but I think they pick up any fallen seed pods, because Iv never seen any on the ground around it, but it looks amazing and is a really nice shade tree

[amanito]

Note that the above poster is a midget

[poisonshroom]

Im 5'11''. Without the pot it would be about shoulder height or taller

[Acacia King]

Cheers.

[Acacia King]

Cheers.