Mucuna care

[apothecary]

Hiyo!

Under the assumption that mucuna was a vigorous and easy to care for plant, I did not put much thought into it.

I germinated the seed, put the plant outside in full sun ~6-8 hours a day. It was doing quite well for a while, I could almost see it growing.

An attack by some sort of catepillar destroyed the cotyledon tip but by that point the plant was already well into growing its third node. However at this point the plant slowed down, and new growth has been a lot slower, and a paler (verging on yellow) shade of green.

I moved it into a shadier location, and haven't watered it since (it got a fair bit of spring rain).

What has happened to it? Should I put it back out in its previous location? Growth has slowed to almost a standstill since I moved it, but then again it wasn't going so fast when I did!

What should I do?

It had spidermites for a short while when it was younger, but a light pyrethrum spray stopped that in its tracks.

Please help! Although it is young the little guy is already one of my favourites.

[Torsten]

This is a gross feeder and it looks like it has run out of food. Your potting mix is pretty crappy poorly composted eucalypt mulch, which eats more nutrients than your plant will, so you have to feed triple. Working some manure into the top soil layer will help.

In a 12" pot do not expect this vine to grow bigger than about 2m high and about 0.5m wide. It will yield at least 30 pods though. If you put it somewhere where the roots can tap into the ground then it will take off much bigger. Spidermites are a problem in sheltered positions, but no problem in exposed areas.

[Tomer Corymbosa]

here is my story:

i've got 5 seeds of mucuna utilis.

i let them soak 2 hours in water than i planted them in garden soil+perlite.

i had a big luck that 2 days after i moved the soil and i saw black spots destroyed 4 of my seeds!!!!

only 1 seed survived - i took the seed and put it clean perlite.

after i saw the seed developed a nice root i planted it again in clean soil with a lot of perlite.

conclusion: from now on i'll germinate beans ONLY in perlite!!!

now my mucuna has started develop his first leaves.

it gets full hours of sun and i think mucuna loves it.

i noticed its a very slow growin plant...really slow...

when can i fertilize my mucuna?

[apothecary]

This potting mix is strange (Pot n Peat), when you put it in the pot it looks very nice, not barky at all. But as you water it over time the finer stuff washes further down into the pot leaving a layer of bark on the surface. Rest assured that underneath this (1cm?) layer of chunky stuff it's all sweet.

I have all my plants in it, except for my few natives, and all of them seem to be enjoying themselves. Out of curiosity, is there a brand of potting soil you can recommend? I only get the PotnPeat because it seems to do the job for most of my babies.

I don't have any moopoo but I'll put a few tsp of blood and bone on the surface and water it in if that's equivalent?

I would love to stick plants like this and my brug in the ground, but the soil quality here down 15-20cm is atrocious, all clay and other crap. From my understanding each pod yields about 2-5 seeds, 30 pods is plenty!

Thanks for the help T!

Tomer, while my plant was healthier it was growing immensely fast, once it gets the first set of leaves it should start powering! :D

[apothecary]

OK I just found 2 big bags of commercial moo poo in the shed I didn't know we had.

So I'm gonna try and dig up some of the surface soil and replace with poo.

Let's hope it works!

[Torsten]

blood & bone is good if you can keep the pets away from digging in it.

clay is fine - that's all we got.

germinating can be troublesome. I would NOT soak the seeds. Ambient soil humidity is enough for germination.

[Rev]

T is right

the no soak recomm4endation is standard for beans incl garden variety

you plant into warm just damp soil and dont water till after germination has begun

the plant you show looks sick - chlorotic

try foliar feeding with N source and/or Fe chelates

itll help until the soil microbes/roots/chemistry catches up

i have found this plant to be anything but slow growing

its a monster

it really likes dry tropical weather

lots of sun and ambient heat, lower humidity, free draining fertile soil

and no frost

all in all it seems a typical bean of the sort you get in the dry tropics - like glycine and lab lab

mucuna does require inoculation with rhizobium bacteria

i dont know which type but id guess the cowpea type bradyrhizobium group

Edited November 16, 2005 by Rev

[Ymir]

how do you harvest the pods without getting covered in the hairs? is there a method?

[Torsten]

how do you harvest the pods without getting covered in the hairs? is there a method?

you buy the variety 'utilis', which has no hairs. alternatively you can get some plastic overalls, hood, face mask, goggles etc and burn most of them once you're done

[Rev]

i havnet done so but id have thought that cutting the plant off at the base

allowing to dry then burning with a flamethrower and raking seeds out of the ashes whould be a good idea

[AndyAmine.]

LOL, I was playing with a ex CFA flame thrower using a petrol/diesel mix on the weekend at a mates bush party, sooo much fun!

All that wet wood didnt stand a chance!

[Tomer Corymbosa]

anything you want to know about mucuna (also dmt content).

http://cidicco.hn/newcidiccoenglish/Mucuna...nd%20Tebbet.pdf

[apothecary]

I dug up about 5cm deep of the soil, and replaced with moo poo. No avail. The plant was almost dead and I was angry at it so it kind of got neglected. At one point it was burnt and completely yellow.

Then I managed to get some free time to set aside a day for gardening. I trimmed it almost back to the ground and gave it two heaped tablespoons of blood and bone.

Look at it now! It's booming along happily and as per T's recommendation I am gonna pot it up into a giant pot this saturday.

[Torsten]

moo poo only has nitrogen. blood & bone has a LOT of calcium and phosphorus - as well as nitrogen.

[planthelper]

apoth, only buy the exxie pottingmix. searls is a very good brand.

if a plant heas been starved as bad as in the photo, thats what one does:

water the pot well, place saucer underneath or even emerge whole pot, (but don't do this if the mix is soggy anyway) it just paramount that you get the tissue full of water before you fert a hungry plant (a starved plant is not used to the higher salt concentrations which will occure once fertilized).

than foliar feed (seedling strengh solution or even weaker), after that fert with seedlings strengh, but use only a little of liquid fert at the beginning and next day or two even more. than apply osmocote, blood and bone, dynamic lifter or what ever.

using blood and bone or the others which just got mentioned, is ok but not when an emergency is at hand.

blood and bone and poo pellets are slower acting than liquid fert meaning the plant will have to wait longer till it get's it's feed. aswell one can easely make the mistake of applying too many pellets or too much blood and bone, which happens very easy if a plant was starved...

once those ferts have been washed into the pottingmix you cant reverse your action.

so it's better to use hydroponic fert or aquasol or all that crap!

but be sure to use, long lasting ferts as mentioned after you used the quick fix liquids, because otherwise you fixed the problem only for a week or two, lol.

one can avoid all this trouble by, buying the good pottingmix, the one that reads searls.

hope that helped,

sincerely,

sean searls

[apothecary]

This whole problem started because I bought the expensive potting mix

Now I just get big piles of nice sandy soil from my friend who works at the state forests nursery, and mix in blood and bone and poo for nutrients, then water with seasol and let sit before planting anything in it.

This works much better for me and all my plants seem to love their new soil.

[planthelper]

lol!