How much fetiliser/nutrients to use on Psychotria viridis??

[sc001]

Hey, so i have purchased this organic power feed fertiliser,which contains fish and macro nutrients and etc, and in the back of it its got the information pannel to say how much of it to mix with water etc, but im not sure what category this plant falls under is it Ferns, Foliar appl'n & indoors, transplanting & Planting, or herbs & annuals??

my plant is about 20cm tall from the soil and here in South Australia its autom time and were starting to get some warm weather slowly

i have a 50ml water spray

thanks

[IndianDreaming]

I'm not sure about what ferts to use, if your P. Viridis is alive you're doing better than me - but I can give you a hand naming the season, it's spring!

[sc001]

oops lol

[quarterflesh]

I hit my psychotira's with powerfeed and worm juice 1-2 times a week. they love it. its has stopped there leaves from turning brown on the tips.

[space cadet swami]

Stay semi-shaded/shaded & misted, in a well draining mix & every 2-3 weeks add a bit of candy...nothing too harsh, they like rainforest type conditions. Did I say, "keep them misted"..?

You could do a grow log...for us to have a look...a bit of eye candy.

[DarkSpark]

I hit my psychotira's with powerfeed and worm juice 1-2 times a week. they love it. its has stopped there leaves from turning brown on the tips.

 

I keep my psychotrias in my hot house, which is now getting to much sun and getting shit hot. but plenty of humidity. Powerfeed is the miracle gro stuff isnt it? i use that(around 3/4 strength) and gogojuice myself. Maybe fortnightly they get a good soaking until water is gushing out the bottoms with this feed.

I foliar spray inside the hothouse 2-3 times daily the morning and midday ones are plain water maybe some seasol(1l sprayer does the whole hot house nicely) and later in the day some season with trace amounts of powerfeed(half a little scoop) They just keep going beserk so i assume they like it, You will know if they get too much feed the leaves will start going all mutated and curled up. Back it off a bit at this point. What your psychotria would want is down to how vigorously its growing, how frequently you are watering, current weather and what sort of soil it is in. Its the same with growing cannabis, start low and let the plants tell you what they need.

My nexus that have been put into a quality potting mix are growing incedibly fast. I think that if you continue to pot them out as they fill their pots they pretty much dont need nutes, but if you are hoping to keep them in the smaller pots you would probably want to water weekly with nutes and foliar spray with seasol and nutes every afternoon. As they won't be able to get much from a pot of that size, especially enough to sustain them through the growth season. The folar spray is the best thing for helping them grow!

what are the ratios that it reccomends for those different plant types? Maybe start halfway between thr foliar mixture and the herbs one for your watering and use the foliar mix to do your foliar sprays. This is only a guess based on roughly the ratios i use of other nutes on mine.

edit: one more quick tip, most people who think their psychotrias are dead can actually save them quite easily. If there is any green left in the stems whatsoever cut it right back down to the green and put it inside a very humid area and it will throw new leaves from the nodes and suckers. If you look closely at the nodes of old broken/dead branches you will see the tiny new leaves waiting for their chance to burst forth. I mean it grows from leaf cuttings! And with minimal care at that i have been progressively more lazy with my leaf cuttings and now just chuck them into a clip lock bag witha cm of water in the bottom no paper towel or anything and they still root very well. Or rammed in soil inside the hothouse. they shrivel and keel over for a week or two, look like they are going to die and then just as im about to throw them out i see signs of life :D

Edited September 5, 2012 by DarkSpark

[sc001]

Stay semi-shaded/shaded & misted, in a well draining mix & every 2-3 weeks add a bit of candy...nothing too harsh, they like rainforest type conditions. Did I say, "keep them misted"..?

You could do a grow log...for us to have a look...a bit of eye candy.

 

thanks for the replies but the aim of this thread was to find out how much of it to feed the plant not so much how often i need to know how much of it to mix with water in a 50ml water spray??

[sc001]

I keep my psychotrias in my hot house, which is now getting to much sun and getting shit hot. but plenty of humidity. Powerfeed is the miracle gro stuff isnt it? i use that(around 3/4 strength) and gogojuice myself. Maybe fortnightly they get a good soaking until water is gushing out the bottoms with this feed.

I foliar spray inside the hothouse 2-3 times daily the morning and midday ones are plain water maybe some seasol(1l sprayer does the whole hot house nicely) and later in the day some season with trace amounts of powerfeed(half a little scoop) They just keep going beserk so i assume they like it, You will know if they get too much feed the leaves will start going all mutated and curled up. Back it off a bit at this point. What your psychotria would want is down to how vigorously its growing, how frequently you are watering, current weather and what sort of soil it is in. Its the same with growing cannabis, start low and let the plants tell you what they need.

My nexus that have been put into a quality potting mix are growing incedibly fast. I think that if you continue to pot them out as they fill their pots they pretty much dont need nutes, but if you are hoping to keep them in the smaller pots you would probably want to water weekly with nutes and foliar spray with seasol and nutes every afternoon. As they won't be able to get much from a pot of that size, especially enough to sustain them through the growth season. The folar spray is the best thing for helping them grow!

what are the ratios that it reccomends for those different plant types? Maybe start halfway between thr foliar mixture and the herbs one for your watering and use the foliar mix to do your foliar sprays. This is only a guess based on roughly the ratios i use of other nutes on mine.

edit: one more quick tip, most people who think their psychotrias are dead can actually save them quite easily. If there is any green left in the stems whatsoever cut it right back down to the green and put it inside a very humid area and it will throw new leaves from the nodes and suckers. If you look closely at the nodes of old broken/dead branches you will see the tiny new leaves waiting for their chance to burst forth. I mean it grows from leaf cuttings! And with minimal care at that i have been progressively more lazy with my leaf cuttings and now just chuck them into a clip lock bag witha cm of water in the bottom no paper towel or anything and they still root very well. Or rammed in soil inside the hothouse. they shrivel and keel over for a week or two, look like they are going to die and then just as im about to throw them out i see signs of life :D

 

so how much fertiliser do i add to the water? say for 50ml water spray

[quarterflesh]

a dash here, a dash there. read the bottle i suppose mate. all mine are in the ground so there going berserk and i dont have to worry about repotting

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

50ml is fuck all mate, get a ltr or 2 pump action one and add 1/4 capful for starting foliar. If it doesn't burn give it a splash over the roots every now and then. You'll no doubt fuck up somewhere but you'll learn which is better than posting questions we can't answer for multiple reasons....

D00d

[DarkSpark]

thanks for the replies but the aim of this thread was to find out how much of it to feed the plant not so much how often i need to know how much of it to mix with water in a 50ml water spray??

 

How can i tell you how much to put in when you havent told me what the specifications of the fertiliser are? I suggested to aim around halfway between the misting and medium level watering dose initially for watering and maybe 3/4 foliar strength. That is as accurate as i can give on that point without seeing the product specifications, even then i wouldn't really know hence i am offering advice on the strengths of other nutrients i personally used. This is meant to be as a comparison. I am saying i use x amount of miracle grow compared to y which is the amount it says on the label. This should at least help to give you an idea of what it can tolerate.

My plants are likely able to redily absorb more nutrients too as they are in more ideal conditions most of the time. For a 50ml bottle i would use 1/20th of a small measuring cup (the ones they provide you with)of miracle grow. A 1L sprayer would be much easier to measure an accurate amount into as well. When making 50ml at a time its very easy to go dramatically over or under as it only requires a few specks on fertiliser.

edit: edited capsule out and put measuring cup(provided) in which makes much more sense.

Edited September 5, 2012 by DarkSpark

[sc001]

50ml is fuck all mate, get a ltr or 2 pump action one and add 1/4 capful for starting foliar. If it doesn't burn give it a splash over the roots every now and then. You'll no doubt fuck up somewhere but you'll learn which is better than posting questions we can't answer for multiple reasons....

D00d

 

lol

well its only "a" 20cm plant, surely it doesnt require a 1 littre pump action. If you know how much you mix in 1 L of water you obv dont have to be Einstein to figure out how much to mix in a 50ml bottle, you tell me how much you mix with 1L of water and ill figure it out, so im assuming 1/4 cup is for 1L??, and i clearly explained in my post about looking at the back of the bottle

[sc001]

How can i tell you how much to put in when you havent told me what the specifications of the fertiliser are?

i did i said organic powerfeed, with macro nutrients, fish

 

edit: edited capsule out and put measuring cup(provided) in which makes much more sense.

 

it didnt come with a cup, maybe the lid might be a small cup not sure, but i do have cups wth measurement on them. so you reckon 1ML for 50ML of water or is that the safe amount to start and monitor hor its going?

[DarkSpark]

lol

well its only "a" 20cm plant, surely it doesnt require a 1 littre pump action. If you know how much you mix in 1 L of water you obv dont have to be Einstein to figure out how much to mix in a 50ml bottle, you tell me how much you mix with 1L of water and ill figure it out, so im assuming 1/4 cup is for 1L??, and i clearly explained in my post about looking at the back of the bottle

 

Yeah but what i have said is in the 50ml bottle you will have a VERY high chance of over or under fertilising because you will have such a small amount going in. And finally i will answer your question for the THIRD TIME in his thread. Use halfway between misting and highest watering dosage.

i did i said organic powerfeed, with macro nutrients, fish

it didnt come with a cup, maybe the lid might be a small cup not sure, but i do have cups wth measurement on them. so you reckon 1ML for 50ML of water or is that the safe amount to start and monitor hor its going?

 

I imagine it wouldn't hurt. Why aer you so adamantly avoiding telling me what levels it says to put on all the other stuff. If you tell me the reccomended levels for trees ferns etc ill give you my best reccomendation. I would imagine even 1 teaspoon to be quite a bit. When making up my foliar sprays of miracle grow the scoop is like 1/4 of a teaspoon i think. Hence my point abou the 50ml sprayer being too small. Try and measure accurately 1/20th of 1/4 teaspoon?

Hi Glenda ' date=' i use powerfeed all the time since i discovered it was twice a concentrated {basically}as Seasol in the white bottle .Even the website is a bit lax when i comes to the info , its like a jigsaw puzzle to navigate .The recommended dose is 25ml per 9 litres for foliar , indoor and transplanting ,thats what i follow to a tee. Its like anything , exceed the dose and your looking for disaster .

The NPK is written in fine print on the green bottle but nothing on the white bottle .Ipowerfeed every 2 weeks in the growing season and every 4 weeks with a half dose in the off season .Yes i feed in winter, others may not .Again you have to try it for your conditions .

Feed half full doses others half doses , then feed half in winter and the others not . Sooner or later mother nature will let youknow which method works in her favour . Cheers Alpine[/quote']

If in doubt gos traight for one of the middle measurements. If the plant looks sick flush it the next day wit hclean water and try a weaker dose.

edit: if you are wondering i often go off on atangent i nmy first post it helps other people searching google with the same problems find answers as SAB ranks Very high each time. Also the background information was aimed at helping decide any variances to my methods you would need to use.

Edited September 5, 2012 by DarkSpark

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

sc001, clearly you already know what to do with this plant as everyone has provided a great answer to your question and you've just made excuses and requested more silver platter feeding. If you can't see how anything above is relevant then just leave your plants to fend for themselves. And if you want to dose with a 50ml bottle, then go for it but expect to fuck up the nutrient ammounts, if you can't work out why then I give up...

[sc001]

sc001, clearly you already know what to do with this plant as everyone has provided a great answer to your question and you've just made excuses and requested more silver platter feeding. If you can't see how anything above is relevant then just leave your plants to fend for themselves. And if you want to dose with a 50ml bottle, then go for it but expect to fuck up the nutrient ammounts, if you can't work out why then I give up...

 

Yeah but what i have said is in the 50ml bottle you will have a VERY high chance of over or under fertilising because you will have such a small amount going in. And finally i will answer your question for the THIRD TIME in his thread. Use halfway between misting and highest watering dosage.

I imagine it wouldn't hurt. Why aer you so adamantly avoiding telling me what levels it says to put on all the other stuff. If you tell me the reccomended levels for trees ferns etc ill give you my best reccomendation. I would imagine even 1 teaspoon to be quite a bit. When making up my foliar sprays of miracle grow the scoop is like 1/4 of a teaspoon i think. Hence my point abou the 50ml sprayer being too small. Try and measure accurately 1/20th of 1/4 teaspoon?

If in doubt gos traight for one of the middle measurements. If the plant looks sick flush it the next day wit hclean water and try a weaker dose.

edit: if you are wondering i often go off on atangent i nmy first post it helps other people searching google with the same problems find answers as SAB ranks Very high each time. Also the background information was aimed at helping decide any variances to my methods you would need to use.

 

sorry for late reply, yes i clearly undrestand what you mean now.

back of the bottle it says:

Ferns 10ml/9L of water every 2-4 weeks

Trees 90ml/9L of water monthly

[sc001]

as a starting point i added 4 tiny drops of it and mixed it with 1L of water using a water dripper

[DarkSpark]

Yeah sounds ok. so for a 1l bottle the measurements would be

Ferns 1ml/L

Trees 10ml/L

I would stick right down the fern end of the scale as you have. And never go over say 3-5ml/L.

My psychotrias get no nutes and go berko so just keep it low as you are and they should bless you for it with abundant growth.

[mindperformer]

I use organic fertilizer in water with only an IC of 0,6

it is a real rainforest- plant and rainforest soil is poor in nutrient concentration (because the rain washed all out), but if we think on the great terra preta- areas, a nutritious soil for chacruná is also not bad.

The PH is slightly acid (6) and for this I use organic turf, kanuma (hard quality), decomposed pine bark, earthworm-soil (not too much because it is alkaline), diatomite (fine grinded), so the mix has a great mineralic part with the kanuma and diatomite and therefore has very good drainage.

Fertilizers: Bat-Guano- water (set with 70°C water), Bio-Vega from BioCanna (good organic fertilizer), Diamond Nectar (Fulvic acid for ion exchange and buffer), Schindele's Mineralien (mineral powder)

Helpful additives:

Trichoderma (Canna)- against fungal contaminants in greenhouse),

Bacterial (No Mercy)- nitrifying bacteria

ComCat (rock lychnis- extract)

Waldleben (fermented additive with enzymes and amino acids)

Edited September 27, 2012 by mindperformer

[Ethos]

I give my viridis and caapi the odd fert with fish emulsion, they are both in a medium of 50% coco coir and 50% sifted sandy soil from my yard

my viridis doesn't seem to care whether it is regularly fertilised or not, but the caapi seems to love the stuff.

In my experience the key to growing psychotria is to (I think planthelper said something like this) keep the roots moist but not soggy and they love a humid environment.

I turn the hose nossle until it is spraying a fine mist and spray the entire inside of my greenhouse each morning.

The zipper on my door also broke so I rigged it with some cable ties and wire, it doesn't close nice and tight but it allows fresh air to circulate as appossed to having the air go stale and this way I only need to fully open the door on the hottest of summer days.

[planthelper]

viridis loves a bit of fertilizer, but the best methode is, a little, but very often.

i have overfertilized once one of my own plants and i followed a thread here at sab, where i believe the same happend.

this person though, never thought it was too much horse manure which caused his viridis to get shriveled leaves which stayed on the plant, and all growth stopped. anyway, his and my plant recovered over time.

a plant which never had been fertilized can be very sensitive to it's 1st fertilizer application, whilst plants which are well fed, can take far more fert.

start of with minute doses and than increase the strengh slightly.

say, you have a viridis which hasn't been fertilized ever, or for a long time.

1, water well for a cople of day's.

2, make a fert solution halve the foliar strengh, and use just a bit of this on your plant.

3, wait 5 day's or so, and fert again.

4, after3 weeks, you can fert her more, but keep the strengh still halve of foliar strengh.

never use liquid fert or any fert on a dry rootball!!!!

[DarkSpark]

never use liquid fert or any fert on a dry rootball!!!!

 

Good to know, i had never thought of this before.

[planthelper]

hmm, i might extend here...

some people like to use liquid feeds on a dry medium, because they say, if the pottingmix is moist, it will not "soak in".

if you plant was always fertilized a bit, and generaly well watered, than one could get away with, watering a dry rootball, to some degree, but i would not recommand it.

if plants show wilting, than water first, than wait for 6h (or shorter if the leaves are plump again), and than fert a bit.

fertilising has aswell a lot to do with osmosis, meaning if the salt content in the medium is higher, than in the plant than, the plant will struggle taking up water.

if you have overfertilised, quickly flush the pot with plenty of hand warm water, it will reduce the salt content of the soil, and eventualy the plant will recover (if you done this in time).

[mindperformer]

I absolutely agree with planthelper, never fertilize a dry rootball

And: never fertilize (or use only a hint of fertilizer) a plant which got weaken by pests or wrong climate

I've seen more over-fertilized problem-plants than under-fertilized

For the soil I recommend organic fertilizer with fulvic acid added for slow release of nutrients, so there is no salt-shock like from synthetic fertilizers. (and many of them contain heavy metals too)

Edited September 28, 2012 by mindperformer

[Darklight]

This prolly isn't too relevant to this thread, but I've noticed an old potted Psychotria viridis doing very poorly these last few months.

I had it shaded under a seed grown mandarin tree, and it seems it absolutely hates the thing. It's prolly the water from the dripline, or the smell ( allelopathy- I've been told by reliable sources it doesn't just work underground but above it too )

50% of the branches were under the dripline, and they died right back- the rest of the plant is leaning away from it as hard and fast

Once the plant was moved, most of the branches recovered. Then the mandarin grew again and the viridis got sick. lather, rinse, repeat

I've had a few other species shaded under that tree and none have suffered, tho I can't be sure if they were right under the branches or just on the dripline, as they've been moved about a fair bit