Mimosa growing advice

[Brendo]

Hey guys,

I've had these two Mimosa H plants for around a year now, I grew them from seed and they seem to be very happy. They were transplanted into their current pot size about 5 months ago and since then they've exploded with growth. They grow much faster than I expected them to, however this also seems to be a disadvantage as it seems they're growing faster than they need to be able to support themselves.

What I mean by this is that they are chronic leaners and I keep having to rotate their pot, putting it on different angles to keep them straight. The wind knocks them about quite a bit too and it seems they're unable to right themselves again like most plants.

I'm not sure if that's normal for this kind of plant, and I was wondering if there's a solution to this, or is this just the way they are? Do they stretch over and touch the ground, if so what happens?

Should I stake the plants? If so what happens when they outgrow the height of the stakes (which won't take long at all)?

Should I put up with this until it's time to repot again, and simply plant them much deeper?

Or, should I cut the top few inches off, the same way you'd top a chilli or bud plant to encourage wider, more stable growth (This is really a last resort)?

I've posted a few pics from different angle so you can see what I mean. They really are beautiful plants, it's a shame they're just not stronger lol.

Anyway, looking forward to your responses, thanks!

[Justin Credible]

I have no experience with that plant but would put both in their own pot. This should allow for a larger root system=healthier plant. Also prevent them competing with each other for light, this might encourage them to branch out as opposed to grow straight up. I would avoid staking them unless really needed and that would only be temporary. Trimming some of the lower branches off when repotting may encourage plants energy to go to roots.

[Brendo]

I'll definitely be giving them their own pots when I transplant them next, probably at the end of Summer. Or should I wait till the beginning of Spring? (Experts?) That said they're currently very healthy, very green and growing very fast.

I was actually going to ask about light, they're currently under shade and receive about 2-3h direct sunlight and 2-3h filtered sunlight a day, so the bending could be them stretching towards more light. Does anyone know if they are generally light-hungry plants? I'll start acclimatizing them to full sun over the next 4 weeks and see how they go.

Edited January 29, 2016 by Brendo

[Sallubrious]

Mimosas love sun Brendo, I've even started them in December in full sun & they thrived.

It seems like it's leaning a bit but they normally grow big long branches that grow horizontally or even hang down when they get longer, so even though they look like they are leaning they just want to sprawl out.

Mimosas I've seen grow wider than their height for the first two or three years, it takes a long time for them to develop a large vertical trunk.

I.d be scoping a good place to get them into the ground so they can grow a good root system.

Edited January 30, 2016 by Sallubrious

[Brendo]

Thanks mate, yeah I've seen photos of mature trees and they were horizontal for the most part. Mine didn't seem to be growing branches in the opposite direction to help it balance horizontally. It just looked like it was stretching and would eventually just flop over, hence why I had to keep rotating the pot. I'll start acclimatizing it to full sun to avoid burning.

I was actually planning to throw them into their own drum sized pots, I hadn't thought of putting them into the ground. After 3-4 years in the ground, how does one get to the roots to avoid killing the plant? Also can they be propogated by cuttings?

[Sallubrious]

I've never tried to selectively harvest roots from a living tree, but I have read that somewhere in south America they were harvesting specifically the roots that pointed to the direction of the morning sun and made a cold water extract from it. So they must be able to take some root pruning and survive.

I've found that the roots spread out almost as far as the branches on some trees, they do get a few deep roots but most of them stay fairly close to the surface. They might go OK in a large drum though, I've neglected one in 40cm pot for a few years and it's still going OK for the treatment it's had.

If you put them in the ground try to find a spot with no other trees too close, it's a bitch trying to dig Mimosa roots out from under and around the roots of another tree.

& as far as I know they are very difficult to propagate from cuttings (which is fairly standard for trees with bi-pinnate foliage), root cuttings are generally much more successful. You do them a bit like a psychotria leaf in a plastic with a moistened paper towel and wait for new shoots.

Air layering has been known to work, but I've only seen that succeed on older larger branches, the smaller branches (less than about 4 cm diameter) tend to rot before they root.I tried air layering some branches about 2cm diameter and they didn't root, but I did it at the end of the growing season, so maybe the smaller branches would work OK if you did the air layer after the first flush of new growth.

[☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ]

i know somebody that got like a 20% strike rate or less

they said they waited till the stems had semi matured and just started to turn dark slightly but gave up from low strike rate

[Freewheelin]

Not sure this is going to help but i found mimosa h to be a strange plant. I bought 2 and eventually potted them up into 8" pots. They grew quick and strong, but one was always healthier than the other, with one being prone to closing its leaves more often than the other, and having quite a bit of yellow, even though both were in identical conditions as far as I could tell. What i did to one, i did to the other.

Both plants have thorns that get bigger the higher they are. There's almost no thorns at the base, but on higher branches the thorns get bigger. On the sick plant, the upper thorns were massive compared to the healthy one.

One day I figured screw it and hacked the sick plant back to almost nothing, leaving no leaves whatsoever, thinking it would either kill it or make it awesome, well, it made it awesome. Within days it was shooting new growth and now it is healthy and bushy, and the issue with the thorns seems to have stopped.

I'm not sure if i've capped the maxiumum height of the plant due to the harsh cropping tho, but it certainly seemed to enjoy it.

On the issue of leaning over, I had this problem as well, but I attributed it to the constant winds it was getting it its old location, as well as the clitoria and morning glory vine i had growing next to it pulling it down.

As far as cuttings go, I had 3 that struck from some random cuttings that I stuck in perlite. Not sure what i did right.

I'm pretty much just rambling now. I'll stop

[☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ]

lucky , mine hated that and both died .. had got them to 6 foot just prior..

defo not doing it to the next ones when i get there but it's nice to see that it's possible

-maybe there's a right time and a wrong time to do it

Edited March 23, 2016 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ

[Freewheelin]

Maybe timing is the key yeah. I trimmed it about 2 weeks ago, so early autumn