Keeping a P. viridis outside in non-tropical climates

[sagiXsagi]

More or less, my specimen is in my hands for a year. Big ups to thunderhorse for this. I received it as a plantlet created from a leaf, but its now a proper plant! Lately it seems to be pretty fucking happy. Well I have noticed that most plant I grow including cacti always welcome automn and the psychotria is no exception.. And it has been a rainy automn.. But it was doing alright anyways, especially after its transplanting into a sizable pot its been doing fine, but yesterday I noted it is branching . Well before I was loving enough to give it a spraying or shower from time to time.. It almost nodde to me it liked it (I helps that the location is very close to the water hose) and actually it receives little direct sun. 

 

Sorry I dont have a pic, I will take one soon. 

 

Hey are those small hard leaves bract leaves that they do inbetweem the internodes? 

 

So, it's kept is a place where I mostly put plants temporarily, with a strange and not so good light, it receives a couple hours per day in noon and early afternoon, still there are spots which take minimal direct sun... I have found that haworthias like it there (wel they like it even shadier) 

 

It has liked it so much there  that I am thinking, why not leave there, its a pretty protected spot from any small time "frost" we might have .. 

I know it might have other enemies ouside f.e. I just killed two huge snails. They had eaten away some of the leaves in some chilli seedlings. Also caapis near by.. 

 

So what would the signs of it stop liking it or too much cold or what? I suppose I should take it off the rain if it gets too cold? would it drop leaves? 

 

also do you stake them? help them like that, cause mine is starting to get tallish and heavier, would like it to collapse on me. or it helps to harden? 

 

plus, since its thriving now, would now be the right time to take one or two leaf cuttings? or maybe I should search this in another thread.. 

 

My question is arround what kind of climate does it tolerate if left outside..  I know that theoretically it should be transfered inside , but I have seem people grow tropicals outside year-round, and I am in a pretty warm place with mild winters. plus the plants pretty acclimatised where it is...  

 

What do you think? 

Edited December 20, 2016 by sagiXsagi

[2XB]

Hi SAGIx

I live in the sub tropics, south east queensland, australia- temps are at lowest aound 3-5 deg, more like 7-10 average low this year and up to 35- 38 at the hottest, average ~30deg. It is not overly humid. Probably and prob USDA zone10b

I have plants do very well outdoors, as long as you keep up the water, even water all through winter as the plants keep growing, and flowering/fruiting. No leaves drop at this climate. Less frequent water in winter which is a relief as I have to do it everyday in summer sometimes morning and evening if it is really hot.

My largest plant is in direct sunlight and can handle this no sweat all day long as long as it is watered heaps! I think as long as the soil is draining you cannot water enough :-)

Also they like to be fed a hell of a lot.... 

Mealies and scale are super fond of this plant too...........................

 

I have a few varieties at the moment, standard aussie viridis, shipibo, luna, so far common viridis is fastest and shipibo slowest, and bugs seem to love shipibo more than the others :-) anecdotal observations..........

 

I know my climate probably doesnt help you, I hope you can take something from this though.........

 

[sagiXsagi]

^^ this is very helping , plus I dont think our winters are so different.. I just have an extremely dry summer here, nothing tropical about it except the temps. 

 

I have kept my plant in the same spot up to now.. It still grows. Maybe there is some etiolation. But I need a more expert eye on that. The leaves are somewhat strange shaped, In some I have damaged the leaves trying to unreleased them before their time came, lol.. But maybe it is indeed not getting enough sun.. Dunno some leaves are leaving downwards... what do you think 

 

there are more branches forming now.. Hey are these bract leaves, in each new pair of leaves of new branch? 

 

I got some leaves from 2 known varieties of psych plus some alba leaves today, still havent read up on how I root them

 

 

Edited December 8, 2016 by sagiXsagi

[zelly]

I received 2 pv plants ina trade 7-8 maybe 9 yrs ago, they were maybe 16" or so.  Wintered over in my gh the first yr, they got ate up with bugs.  screw that, i put em outside in morning sun where they recovered.  then i put one in the ground near a conc. block wall, the other i left in its pot, maybe 5 gallons by this time.  Both plants within a few feet of each other, both getting morning sun.  Winter came, the one in the ground froze to death, & the one in the pot shed all its leaves and froze the tips......it recovered come springtime and eventually grew a little bit bigger than when it froze back.  That winter it froze again, shed all its leaves & recovered in the summer/late fall.

 

Two yrs ago I saw my first flowers, gawd damn they sure are tiny.  The plant flowered in very late fall, then froze again over the winter, this time freezing very hard  Last year after recovering it produced more flowers, but they occurred too late in the season to develop into fruits.  Then winter hit and it froze again.....are you beginning to see the bigger  picture here??

 

This year the recovery was much quicker and I saw flowers, lots of them, a whole lot earlier than before....weeks, then months passed & by golly hot damn theres berries forming!!  Well now we're heading into winter and more than likely another hard freeze.  I'm hoping i can harvest a bulk of the berries before it freezes or maybe figure out some kind of temporary cover. 

 

Early this spring I moved the plant to a near fully shaded area, it now gets just a few hrs of morning sun & its been in a much larger pot now for 4-5 yrs.  I try to water it every 3-4 days but obviously it could stand a lot more humidity than it gets in  my garden.

 

Right beside it are smaller shipibo plants and a couple of E. novo plants.  Usually the novo's freeze back and sometimes recover, sometimes not.

 

Winters here usually means a few nights below freezing; where you see frost on the roofs or a thin lawer of ice on a small shallow body of water.  I've seen ice on a pool of water on a roof 2 miles from the ocean.

 

heres some eye candy to suck on....   notice the happy caapi vine?

 

[sagiXsagi]

wow, a wild story behind this beast, and what a trunk its got! 

 

 

[sagiXsagi]

Last night my freshly pottted rooted cutting c.edulis spent the night outside, beside the P.viridis , I have been moving the former in and out, to get it acclimatised to some sun and usually bring it inside at night, I know its a slow grower, I haven't seen growth at the tip yet. maybe its better to keep it inside for now or use some light, I dont know. 

 

 I got a temperature probed into the soil of the c.edulis and it measured a 7,5 C min last night, a new min for this year, and seeing how the viridis has stopped growing , and it being constantly wet, I decided to both bring them in to a spot of minimal light. 

 

the caapi in the ground is still active, or is about to stop growing as well.