shonman

"it's the little things that Kill" bush

Also, if anyone has lots of time on their hands i am willing to fill the role of guru or messiah of some new religion. If you feel inclined, the first step is to raise lots of funds. then, if you like, you and other sincere devotees, can carry me around on a fancy chair. i will go around to various cool places and cause impressive stone temples and various monuments to be created. Thanks in advance !

In the interest of providing generally usefull info for others now and in the future for this difficult to find plant that few are familiar with in its live form here is a response to a question re: grow advice for Cabrerana 'Straight' from the horses.....well, let's just say, mouth , as the saying goes around here..... the Estimated Prophet, doth speaketh thusly: " My opinion of the plant is it seems to be a generalist. It reacts favorably to the same condition as tomatoes, pepper an other plants with average cultural conditions. The only special thing is slow development on cuttings and it need tropical weather. High rain fall, fast drainage and temps between 65 and 90. The one in the woods is just growing in deep volcanic ash soil and feeding on leaf litter. In the nursery I use Pro-Mix HP as medium and Nutricote 180 as fertilizer.

Ok, the plants are dropping a few leaves still. some have good new growth, and others I am concerned about. I still can't help but wonder, due to all those small water droplets on the leaf if it was infected with some very small pests when it arrived. i did use Azamax as systemic on them a bit, hopefully it will help. several do still have good new growth... i would really like to hurry up and get a disinfected culture into micropropagation tech ASAP. but, of course, it must be free of pests, and vigorous... also, I dislike cutting the new growth, when the plant needs more leaves!

The two spotted thrip is not often considered , but is an excellent beneficial insect. the other year, I took plants outdoors in summer. the bugs that wanted to effectively eat pests on my plantd showed up on their own, did a great job, and were brought indoors later. it might be possible to attract local beneficial insects by leaving a pest infested plant outdoors then see what shows up to eat pests, and let those insects get established. if pests are mostly under control, take plant back to other plants , and let insects that eat pests get set up. or, just take all the plants outside, if pests are going away as opposed to showing up more .

Excellent, thanks! one of my favorite methods of pest control is to establish a population of insects that eat the pests. if done right, it can be self regulating. the more pests there are, the more insect eaters there are too. this was all going supremely well until I had to clean everything and move.....which removed beneficial insects too

I grew a bunch of brachystachys from seeds, for collectible purposes, and those made more seeds too! then , there was some moisture left in the grass heads, and they started to get fungi. so I washed in bleach and planted them. they sprouted! yay!

Azamax does actually work to get rid of scale, as a systemic where nothing else ever has. i have not tried imadicloprid though. i had hoped to use ozone and ozonated water to kill pests in another project but it requires a bit more study and if not careful ozone can kill plants and animals. ozone does seem great for cleaning hydroponic system though. i will start a thread about ozone seperately, and alt pest control. i agree it would be best to use something that simply goes away, and leaves no trace or residue.

Azamax , made from neem seems ok..... i looked into the other one a bit.. bees don't visit my trees , but Wikipedia said "Recent research suggests that widespread agricultural use of imidacloprid and other pesticides may be contributing to honey bee colony collapse disorder, the decline of honey bee colonies in Europe and North America observed since 2006.[8][9][10] As a result, several countries have restricted use of imidacloprid and other neonicotinoids.[8] In January 2013, the European Food Safety Authority stated that neonicotinoids pose an unacceptably high risk to bees, and that the industry-sponsored science upon which regulatory agencies' claims of safety have relied, may be flawed, or even deceptive."

I have not used the systemic to get rid of the mealy bugs yet... it is xtracted from neem oil, so I figure it might be ok. i only resorted to using it on some other plants in the past after spending many hours over several years fighting scale insects.... will check into using imadicloprid as well.. i am going to trim the plants and wash with alcohol. maybe spraying with 10% bleach , washing a bit then rinsing could work too. might not use Azamax on the Cabrerana ....

They do look very much like scale, except a bit fuzzy and they move... mealy bugs it is!! any suggestions? i am trimming and washing plants, removing bugs with alcohol while trimming. then considering a soil drench of Azamax , ...so it is applied as a 'systemic' this has actually worked on scale before...

Ok..... many of my various plants dropped leaves and dried up a bit since I brought them indoors for winter. i ass-u-me ‘d that it was due to temp and humidity as well as the water tube slipping out of the water container for the big ebb and flow type table arrangement . hovever, things did not improve and more leaves were lost from the speciosa trees here . upon closer examination I discovered what are from my point of view evil little Vermin infesting everything ! now I have to bleach, trim and clean everything . pic of vermin follows , any suggestions are appreciated ! Thanks

Bees love passionflower. i am fairly sure they get sedated by the flower too. have seen several bumblebees groggy, sitting on the flower. more than once, they even fell off the flower when attempting to move.... landing right on the ground, too sedated to fly....

Arg! it has started to get cold here, so I moved plants indoors. the Cabrerana ( and other plants) dropped a lot of leaves. not sure why....maybe some bugs? Less humidity? also, new growth is dying back on the Cabrerana....I am very concerned. i think it may be due to overwatering, and possibly water itself. perhaps the PH, or chlorine that was in the water since when I moved the plants i switched to using tap water. I think they need to be in a humid spot, sheltered from too much wind. they seem to want to be as if protected in a woods, as an 'understory' plant at first... yet, when I put them in the aquarium, new growth died back.. any suggestions....why leaves dropped, new growth dying back? i did move them, need to re organize that space more.... Each year around this time, bugs do often appear and need dealt with. I am getting tired of being where there is winter, with tropical plants.

Is that pic the real thing?

Wohoo! I finally got some Diplo cool plant, after searching for maybe 20 years!

Nice! after growing...what about putting them under lights with timers and continously harvesting ?

Although that is more suited for on cement than in planters....

I heard if you grind up moss and mix with buttermlk you can just paint it on and it will grow where you paint it

Someone apparently found a plant that flowered. how primitive of them to just press leaves and stem into a book to dry out. thank (the unspeakable ) for digital cameras! really though....those scientists / botanists couldn't take a regular photo of the plant before drying?

Does anyone have grow advice for this plant?

I wonder if i put some live DC leaves into the aeroponic cloner if they would root like some have done with caapi leaves? or maybe leaves sections into TC medium?

Hello all! i have mailed rooted cuttings of small trees many times recently... they do great and have new leaves while I am growing them... but often after being mailed, seem to turn brown, and die,..or just drop leaves. maybe oerson getting them , did not put them in humidity chamber right away. also, I had wrapped them in paper towel, which I now suspect may have contained bleach / chems from its maker. so, my question is...... ....how can I effectively mail rooted cuttings, that are used to a high humidity environment and have them arrive in good condition and continue to thrive? thanks!

Maybe the plants that don't flower, are under forest canopy and don't get the right light intensity/ time to flower? the botanical pictures do show seed pods etc, it seems....

Thanks, I tried that with five kratom trees and they all died! that is how I usually send cuttings too. i suspect the recipients did not follow instructions re: place immdiately in Humidity chamber. now I am going to a tech using a porous sealed plant bag that allows air in but retains water ...