Raising A.Phlebophylla

[spunwhirllin]

Finally! After waiting a decade,the phleb has decided to offer a few flowers,however just emerging.

Now, how long must one wait for the flower maturation?

I've been watering it alot this spring and the growth has been decent for only being in the ground for two seasons.It's about 2.5 M tall and building up energy for summer growth.

I'll try to get a photo up soon.

[CβL]

Has anyone tried hybrizing Phleb with something hardier? Is it even possible?

[Sola]

I'd love to see some pics when you get the time.

The hybridising sounds like a good idea too, or just pure strain.

I'm sure the seeds would be readils snapped up here in no time

[CβL]

Just seems like the obvious thing to do.

I guess if I was an Aussie... I'd naturally be more inclined to keep the genetics pure.

[Mycot]

Just seems like the obvious thing to do.

I guess if I was an Aussie... I'd naturally be more inclined to keep the genetics pure.

 

An investigation of different grafting approaches may be quite rewarding and would retain the genetics.

[spunwhirllin]

A few pictures of the phleb.

The flowers are still hanging on,hopefully through maturity,though I'm not really expecting seeds due to this being the first flush of flowers.

We'll see.

[gerbil]

Love your updates spun, keep em comin' they are really appreciated. That plant is really vibrant, it must be a pleasure being in that greenhouse.

How are the flowers? they should be blooming by now eh?

don't discount seed set, i've had an obtusifolia sapling flower for the first time last year lightly, which podded up a handful, most seemed to abort but one is continuing to mature currently while it's about to hit it's first major bloom this season (2nd flowering).

I'd be really interested to see the update of the fella in ireland who was growing these, might have been on the other boards.

anyway fitting with the trend, 2 seedlings in tubes emerged after rain just shy of 6months from treatment.

[obtuse]

have planted out three of my phelbs in the last few weeks. two healthy ones and an obviosly weak one.

the interesting thing to note, was that when removing from the pots the nodules on the two healthy ones were quite large. since being put in the ground they are going crazy. I only did the weak one today, having seen how amazingly happy the other two are, i thought it should go in the ground too. the interesting thing with the weak plant was there were no noticible root nodules, its weakness is likely to be the result of the lack of rhizobium. and i suspect some seedling deaths were probably from the same lack.

All this years seedlings have had their soil pre-innoculated with soil from around other acacias, so i am curious to see what my survival rate will be.

I've been able to get good germination rates, lost a few to critters, but survival of the first season has been an issue.

hopefully this season will be more successfull.

But the two in the ground are obviously loving it, and later in the season i'll try and remember to get some photos online.

Cheers, Obtuse.

[mud]

I have been gifted some phleb seeds... I feel totally honored to have the chance to raise them. I have raised acacia seeds in the past and haven't had much problem getting them to grow. This time round however I am not having much luck at all. So far I have tried 1). Doing nothing to the seed and popping it around 1.5mm in some seed raising mix. 2). Boiling some water in a kettle, pouring this over some seed in a tea cup and leaving till it cools, then planting 1.5mm in some seed raising mix. Both times I have kept the pot in sunlight and spray misted the surface of the soil, keeping it moist.

I have not had a single one come up. It's been months. Are phleb seeds wildly different to other acacias in their requirements for germination?

I am thinking that my next attempt will be to file off a small nick on the seed coating and see if that makes any difference...

Any other suggestions? I have searched the site here, there is some suggestion of ways to raise seeds but I couldn't find any actual descriptions - the closest I have come to any direction is on wikipedia and I would rather get advice from someone here who has real experience.

Thanks in advance.

 

full 'equator scoring'..

and/or take the whole seed coat off after a week or 2.

make certain none of those bastard lil black bugs can get it..

and sow them in soil form a healthy phleb :S

[spunwhirllin]

The first flower started opening about a month ago.One partial rod has opened while a full flower rod is just begining. We're still in our grey dreary days,but a week of abundant sunshine really started the flowering process.

I'll be expecting a more uniform flush of flowers this spring.

Interesting note: The extra floral necteries are in full production. It appears that this draws in the ants which apparently pollinate the open flowers.Probably common knowledge,but it's pretty neat to see it in action.

Edited February 13, 2012 by spunwhirllin

[tonic]

This is pretty fascinating. Keep us updated spunwhirllin.

Did a search but couldn't find what I was looking for, so I will ask here in the hopes of a response.

I have a few seeds in at the moment. Hopefully have some luck with those. What I was wondering is if anyone has tried and/or succeeded in grafting the amazing plant? What are the closest relatives of the species that would be a suitable stock for phleb scions?

[indigo264nm]

^^^ I think I posted in another thread that for Australian Acacia's - from what I've read it's been suggested that budding seems to be a better option than grafting but there was some issue of rapid oxidisation of the tissue after removal of the bud and as a result suggest that the incision on the root stock, the removal of the bud from the scion and the insertion of the bud should be carried out in 30 seconds for best results so that's some pretty quick and precise handy work.

I don't know if this information directly applies to this situation but it's something worthwhile keeping in mind when experimenting.

Also I remember reading that A. phlebophylla and A. alpina are closely related and are known to hybridise. Maybe this is a good plant to keep in mind with grafting experiments.

[tonic]

Thanks -=IndigoSunrise=-

That was the sort of response I was after. It's a wonder I couldn't find your post in my search. Very useful info indeed. Will try and get my hands on some A. alpina seedsand grow them asstocks. Meanwhile I will make some attempts with easier and less rare Acacias and also get in some budding and grafting practice on other vascular plants to get my hand up to speed. 30 seconds is certainly a very narrow window for a delicate task, but with practice one can graft very quickly.

Will keep people updated if people are interested. I feel this could be a more viable way to cultivate A. phlebophylla, or in the very least increase seed stock of cultivated plants to prevent wild harvesting and the disappointment in failed cultivation. If the seed was freely available, a technique could be easily established for successful cultivation, as trial and error wouldn't be so much of an issue.

Thanks again.

[indigo264nm]

If a budding technique becomes successful I like the idea of using buds from multiple A. phleb specimens on the one root stock. That way when it flowers down the track there will be pollination of multiple specimens on the one plant and thus a perfect way of creating seeds with differing genetic profiles out of it's natural habitat.

[tonic]

I really like that idea. Good thinking mate.

[gwalchgwyn]

good to know that this One is responding well to our appreciation

[Amazonian]

is that you Zen PeddlerBlueGreenie ^ ?

[Amazonian]

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Same avatar confused me.

Edited February 27, 2012 by Amazonian

[obtuse]

Hey all,

two of my plants. here is one:

Here is another:

These were grown in normal aussie soil potting mix, germinated with seed coat cut with scalpel and hot water, once germinated seed coat removed. in the past i lost seed due to seed not being able to break the seed coat fast enough and then fungal attack and/or soil nematodes.

plants were in a small tube for a year and a half, then planted out.

Roots had awesome huge nodules, the third seedling planted in this same spot had no nodules and has since died.

Cheers, Obtuse.

[folias]

Great to see your phleb is flowering spunwhirlin!

I heard that someone had a phleb growing in Ireland that was the same age! I gave some seeds to an Irish man at confest in 2001 who promised to take them to a gun gardener there, so I can only presume that is how it got there! :-)

[obtuse]

Obtuse, dont you worry about rabbits nibbling your plants?

 

No, not worried about rabbits. or other critters.

when plants are nibbled on it usually results in a stress response within the plant. This may be an increase in alkaloids which animals or insects find unpleasant or toxic.

I'm a big believer in the survival of the fittest way of treating plants. we need to make sure plants of a strong genotype are the ones propagated, rather than spending heaps of time babying those with weak genes.

Ob.

[mutant]

awesome thread, nice to see updates.

[mindperformer]

phlebo-leaf in selfmade soapstone-vase:

[psyspasm]

really interested in getting some of these going, i live in the NSW alpine region, snowy mountains.. at the base of perisher and thredbo. think they could go really well up here, much like home. winter includes temps of -10 and snow and summers can hit low to mid 30's.

Would be great if anyone could help with sourcing some seed, would love the chance to return some to the community in the future.

cheers,

Ash

[mindperformer]

the seeds are very very rare and expensive because the tree has a limited distribution, but NSW is the perfect region to grow it, so maybe you can spread it in your region ;-)

I can't help with seeds but maybe some australians can ;-)