growing Banisteriopsis caapi

[Luca]

Hi people,

I've just received 25 B.caapi seeds directly from Brazil and I wonder to know if anyone here has experience in growing them. They look not so hard to germinate (I mean: no hard-coating, no pulp, quite small). They seem large khat seeds ;-)

Luca

[Murple]

Wow, seeds? Thats a pretty unusual find! Most caapi seems to be grown from cloning. Anyway, I don't know whats involved with germinating, but once they're growing, these are among the easiest plants to care for. They thrive in hot humid conditions with rainforest lighting conditions... when in optimal conditions these things can grow several feet in a week. Even in bad conditions, they grow amazingly fast. I live in the northern hemisphere, in an area with cold and very dry winters. I prune then bring the caapi plants indoors when it starts to get under 45 degrees Farenheit (about 7 C) at night, and put them in a windowless room with just an overhead florescent. I have the heater running so the air is very dry. And yet, I still have to cut the plant back weekly because its growing too fast!

[Guest tsttantra]

i sprouted seeds of anunidentified but im sure related triple samsara bearing vine in spagnum moss,always my first choice.

t s t .

[coin]

all the old Caapi threads disappeared with the previous crash..

these are my notes and i'd love someone to correct them

there is no link to Caapi data on the species page, tho one does exist here

Caapi

Original leaves may drop off, new hardier leaves will grow

Always keep soil moist

Small – moderate amount of water every 2-3 days

Mist lightly when there is dry atmosphere / winds

Moderate light or filtered light, but protected area

Half strength liquid seaweed fertiliser

Minimum temperature for growth: 20 C

Optimum temperature: 17 – 30 C

Min – Max: 4 – 40 C

Protect from frost

Taking cuttings: (info from Torsten)

only in summer.

take a 2 node cutting (cuttings with at least two nodes will be woody enough..shorter is too young and green, and will only end up rotting)

rub the bottom node off with the thumb.

cut the leaves off the top node, but do not injure the axil bud. if the axil bud has already produced leaves, trim these back to virtually no surface area. (reducing transpiration)

root well in coarse sharp sand for 3-8 weeks, then transplant - no hormone needed, but process will be accelerated by using IBA Clonex gel soft wood strength

[This message has been edited by coin (edited 28 February 2002).]

[Torsten]

the seeds are about half the size of a pea and have a large wing attached. I think you may have been duped. As for germination, I wish I could help. I got about 20 seeds and none have germinated as yet.

[planthelper]

hi, all

torsten!

use TIBA(2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid) 4

unwanted callus on kratom...

wolfgang (:

[t st tantra]

torsten,if you very carefully peel the whole wing/covering off,do youget a flatish triangular seed with a central brown dot on one side? i will send you some wings soon,you angel you!

t s t .

[Torsten]

I was too scared to pull the wings off https://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://www.shaman-australis.com/ubb/wink.gif&key=4919fe9fb0297038d452b640b095bc279f8cc68a37fc8152fee24836b0d8f0df

[t st tantra]

yes luca your right khat and caapi both have wings.are your seeds the same colour,redish brown as khat?

if you have afine touch,see if you can get a few seeds out of the winged capsules[samsara].then try them first in spagnum moss.you may find a significant % of seeds are malformed/unviable even if the capsules are mature.but i have germinated similar samsara seeds both in sand and spagnum.

bye t s t .

[Torsten]

OK, I sacrificed one caapi seed today and the inside looks nothing like a catha seed. catha has a tiny seed with a fine sliver of wing surrounding it, while caapi has a fairly large seed with a wing attached like those spinny seeds from street trees we used to play with as kids. In fact, the caapi comes in pairs of seeds (and pairs of wings).

And I KNOW that I have caapi, cos today 5 of them poked their heads out. Woohoo. I believe we had 2 genetic individuals of caapi in australia so far - now we have 7.

[t st tantra]

just saying i saw lucas point .

great news about your caapi seedlings,good luck till their established.

i have studied similar plants to learn what i can in preparation for having my own caapi.what did the inner seed look like?

what was the sucessful germination method?

thought caapi was triple samsara[like the wings i have,though sometimes one is only double .really abit irrelivant here].

t s t .

[Torsten]

Originally posted by t st tantra:

what did the inner seed look like?

round. not easily distinguishable from the outer coat really.

what was the sucessful germination method?

coarse sharp sand. high humidity. high heat.

thought caapi was triple samsara[like the wings i have,though sometimes one is only double .really abit irrelivant here].

could be. I got them single and the other Malpighiaceae I have are doubles.

[Murple]

Hmm... caapi seeds really do need to be put on the market. There's only a small handful of clones on the international market, it'd be great to increase this gene pool.

I wonder if there's been any attempts to naturalize caapi in places outside the Amazon. I know it grows well in places like Hawaii, Florida, and tropical places in Australia and Asia. I don't know if anyone's tried letting it go wild though.

[∂an]

On 01/03/2002 at 4:06 AM, coin said:

Min – Max: 4 – 40 C

Protect from frost

Taking cuttings: (info from Torsten)

only in summer.

take a 2 node cutting (cuttings with at least two nodes will be woody enough..shorter is too young and green, and will only end up rotting)

rub the bottom node off with the thumb.

cut the leaves off the top node, but do not injure the axil bud. if the axil bud has already produced leaves, trim these back to virtually no surface area. (reducing transpiration)

root well in coarse sharp sand for 3-8 weeks, then transplant - no hormone needed, but process will be accelerated by using IBA Clonex gel soft wood strength

[This message has been edited by coin (edited 28 February 2002).]

 

Does anyone know if caapi will tolerate a few weeks of ~2 degree minimum nights in winter?  

[tarenna]

4 hours ago, ∂an said:

 

Does anyone know if caapi will tolerate a few weeks of ~2 degree minimum nights in winter?  

 

Possibly - but only just... The bigger the vine the more likely to withstand these conditions. I have a 2-3m high caapi ,maximum stem width of approx 2cm, at the edge of a back valley floodplain planted below a native rainforest tree that gets periodic frosting down to a minimum of -2C each winter. All the foliage gets burnt off, but the basal stems survive and re-shoot each winter, re-growing to a bit higher each spring and summer.. This year, the 4th in the ground, the vine has reached about 4m in height and the basal stems are thickening proportionally. I am gunna try more shelter (shade cloth and padding with straw - something not tried previously) in the coming winter to minimise the amount of frost scorch and try to get it a bigger headstart come next spring...

[∂an]

12 hours ago, tarenna said:

 

Possibly - but only just... The bigger the vine the more likely to withstand these conditions. I have a 2-3m high caapi ,maximum stem width of approx 2cm, at the edge of a back valley floodplain planted below a native rainforest tree that gets periodic frosting down to a minimum of -2C each winter. All the foliage gets burnt off, but the basal stems survive and re-shoot each winter, re-growing to a bit higher each spring and summer.. This year, the 4th in the ground, the vine has reached about 4m in height and the basal stems are thickening proportionally. I am gunna try more shelter (shade cloth and padding with straw - something not tried previously) in the coming winter to minimise the amount of frost scorch and try to get it a bigger headstart come next spring...

 

okay, thanks.  this plant is in its first season at its new location, after being purchased as a bare rooted yearling in August.  it probably will need to be nursed through its first winter here, lest it not recover after loosing leaves.  a mini green house with hessian might do the trick for the caapi and other tropicals.

 

good luck with your vine!

[Inyan]

Just like to add that not rubbing off that bottom node and burying that node will create a stronger plant if you can get so lucky as to have that buried node grow to produce a vine. I've done this many times as I'm sure many others have when they bury a section of vine as many do when they live in an area where their vine may experience short freezing weather. Those buried nodes whether from a cut section or from a buried section will come back much faster and stronger than those nodes above the surface. 

 

Pipe heating tape and insulation might be an idea for those that are really adamant about growing larger vines in areas where it freezes. I don't know if anyone has experimented with that to any great degree, but where there is a will I'm sure there is a way.

[zelly]

it freezes occasionally where i live & my cielo caapi LOVES it here & she's in full bloom right now, at the tail end of winter.....

 

 

[∂an]

1 hour ago, zelly said:

it freezes occasionally where i live & my cielo caapi LOVES it here & she's in full bloom right now, at the tail end of winter.....

 

 

 

how did your plant go in its first winter?  did you provide a micro climate for it? thanks