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Ephedra sp. cultivation notes and discussion


sagiXsagi

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Grew sinica at 1100m in snowy mountains. Easy germination in seed raising mix, and planted into red basalt. The trick to these very healthy plants was mulching with river sand only and lots of it! The sand reflects heat and light from below upwards.

BTW, the British Herbal Pharmacopoeia 1983, defines Ephedra (herb) as "the dried YOUNG stems of E. sinica, E.equisetina and E.gerardiana."

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  • 3 weeks later...

it is general thought that putting pebbles around any ephedra plant is a must, so it might be similar with sand - sand could even be better. . At first I thought sinica was a stubborn and more difficult species, but in time I am seeing its not that hard. I hope one of them will be femal so I can get seed. I already got two males. 

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Also it seems my "gerardiana sikemensis"  are not at all gerardianas. The same goes - I think - for Thunderhorsey 's  gerardiana sikemensis.  I believe they are all distachya.  I have concluded that a lot of distachya have been sold as gerardiana sikemensis from both german and english nurseries.  So if you are in europe and own a gerardiana sikemensis, you'd better think again, because you propably have a distachya. 

 

So despite I havent yet got a true gerardiana, my understanding is that it should look like equisetina, or sinica if you dont have an access to equisetina. equisetina seems to be bluer and I think gerardiana is also supposed to be glaucus in most cases. 

 

It took me some time but I figured it out: this plant (distachya) when is big enough , is really faster in growth, makes suckers like crazy and creates wider stems. It also can handle much richer soil in nutricients - it also seems to stress first when in extreme heat and direct sun, compared to most other species I have experience with. 

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  • 7 months later...

long time no see. came to leave some pictures

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nebrodensis base, this plant loves my climate and is an erect one. 

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I have pruned this plant back to make it bushy, today I tied it up a bit.. playing with its shape 

 

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sinica moment.. my seed growns have not yet made suckers, but the one I bought from ebay is doing them from the begining. Hoping for sinica seed this year. 

 

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and last pic... down left = sinica,  up left = altissima (sp from morocco) , up right = equisetina, down right = minima. 

 

Hope everyone's fine.. 

 

 

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EPHEDRA SINICA 

Did some more work as all species are now awoke are waking up. 

Like I have said in earlier posts, sinica is more straight forward than I initially think. 

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The bigger one is budding (it flowered last year too) but I havent got a sinica male yet.  The big one also through some impressive growth last year, I expect it to explode even more this year, and I think it already shows. 

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Its also interesting that the one I bought from ebay as a rooted cutting is willing to grow new suckers, thus me being able to produce clones of it, but the seed growns still havent thrown a sucker. 

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EPHEDRA DISTACHYA

 

Propably the easiest to grow. throws suckers constantly. never started one from seed. I have both males and females distachya so perhaps this year I might see some seed from my plants! 

 

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EPHEDRA MINIMA 

 

I only wanted to pull the weeds of this one, so I took it off the pot, but then I saw this 

 

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so I took 2 very good tufts to make 2 new plants.. 

 

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this species is slower, but once established in a larger pot and throwas suckers its more easy going , it seems. Its small size and crawling/creeping habit gives it a distinctive look. weeding can be a bit of a problem. not the most handsome species. 

 

Its worth mentioning that this plant went hermaphrodite last year with 3 male cones in an otherwise female plant, and it produced fruits and seeds. 

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Edited by sagiXsagi
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EPHEDRA CHILOENSIS

 

A very beautiful species, tends to be erect with some help, if grown without something  to lean on , it can grow untidy.  The base eventually woodifies. In the pictures, the biggest one, which I tried to tidy up by tieing it up, lol!

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Last pic is the chilensis next to the nebrodensis/major/fragilis. 

 

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I have grown north american plants  - nevadensis and viridis , but I eventually lost them, its seems they need something more in terms of perhaps .. soil?? I dont know.. yet... I have some good nevadensis seeds waiting to be sown...  

 

 Then there's equisetina, a super stressed plant I received as gift/trade, and honestly hasnt done much since.. and I intend to transplant it a bigger pot to see what will happen this year, as it seems it too is waking up.. ..   

ANd there's the strange thinny but fast growing altissima, which is so different from , say  foeminea . 

Lots of stuff to figure out.. 

 

As always if you have access to some rare ephedra species seed, PM me 

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9 hours ago, ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ said:

Equisetina from me? .... mines hardly grown at all in all this time either

 Yep, its from you.. its a very characteristic piece in my collection, and I think it grows in the vain of sinica but slower ... I was thinking of up-potting it since every species reacts very good to large pots.. I think that this year it will surrender to my efforts, its waking up, I am seeing new growth ' buds' 

 

 

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my outside project is going well as well, I think I have prevented past mistakes from repeating with my visit today  (weeding, marking the spots and contacting the local man that cleans the weeds of the property once or twice a year) . 

 

All plants are awoke and starting to grow or waking up. One distachya is budding. Big- more establuished plants definately seem to be doing better, especially distachya .. whatever the case, this plot is full of a veriety of weeds (many edible ones too)  and I consider it essential to de-weed regularly arround the plants for the first couple years. 

 

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2 x distachya , side to side

 

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major/nebrodensis/fragilis

 

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stressed but pretty active,  chiloensis.  

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

currently having both female and male distachya with their strobili and cones open. So I should propably get seed.

I also hope that my other, smaller seedgrown sinica which was throwing new growth will be female (transplanted that today, they love big pots),  hopefully flowering this year  (my other 2 flowering ones are male)  

I am also seeing both my minima mother and one of the very recent tufts I took for propagation are flowering. The minima is a female plant, but last year it went hermie (~3 male flowers) and produced seed. 

Still looking for gerardiana seed or seed source, PM me if you know any 

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  • 1 month later...

distachya fruits..  The female plans were much bigger than the male plant that provided the pollen..  remains to be seen is if it was enough to pollinate the whole thing or I would need a bigger plant next year (fruits/cones  are currently maturing) 

The fruit is juicy , very slightly sweet, and dare I say tasty??   much better and with more flesh than foeminea, thats for sure. 

 

re/sinicas, still have no male, still waiting for one of my big ones to flower for the first time (and hope its male) 

re/chiloensis, unfortunately, the 2 biggy ones I have  both turnt up male - got another two in the ground in the mountain house which are still small.. 

re/minima,  the splitting of the tuft to propagate seems to have effected the flowering, only a few cones produced this year

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Edited by sagiXsagi
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