Does anybody save 'spikes' over winter? How?
fillagirl
13 years ago
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beegood_gw
13 years agooilpainter
13 years agoRelated Discussions
Anybody propagating now to winter over?
Comments (6)I'm doing lots of coleus too. I have 6-7 varieties myself. You can skip the water roots though. They root fine in soil. Use a drain less container or a pot and bowl and bring the water level with the soil(or as high as you can) at first and let it almost dry out before watering again. By this time it will have roots. I also just took cuttings of my blue vitex and plan to take cuttings of impatiens, mexican flame vine and purple passion vine. This is my first year for cuttings. I never tried before my tomato plants this spring. Tomato and coleus are both very easy. I hope the others will root for me. It can't hurt to try....See MoreInitiating spikes on winter-blooming phals
Comments (14)I tried to find the actual paper, but Dr. Wang was or is at Texas A & M and has done extensive research on this topic. Last go round I tried this and it works ! You must have enough light and enough was 750 on my light meter. Commaercial growers have two tricks to preventing phals from spiking 1) heat 2) light If you are hot then you need to cool the plants to initiate. This is a reprint Diana in Houston nicely shared her notes under a thread called "Phal Insider Growers info." Arthur and others added information and had questions. The following is primarily Diana's editing of that original post. Thanks Diana! I just came from my orchid club meeting where we had a local wholesale commercial phalaenopsis grower as the speaker. It was interesting but nothing special until he and Dr. Wang, our mentor and reknown orchid researcher, started talking about what was required to make phals bloom, and have more flowers, (a specialty of Dr. Wang's). Here's the scoop: 1. A phal NOT blooming can be determined by temperature AND light. A commercial grower can KEEP PHALS FROM BLOOMING until a particular time by keeping the temperature above 82 degrees. However, a cheaper way is to shade the greenhouse with 50% shade cloth. 2. To initiate spiking, the temperature must remain consistantly below 82 degrees. A temperature of 90 degrees, even for a short time, will prevent spiking. 3. To have more flowers on a spike, from the time the spike is 2 inches, until it is 8 inches, the temperature must remain consistantly between 65 degrees and 77 degrees. Day and night difference is not involved. This commercial grower gets the phals as 4 to 6 inch bare root plants from Taiwan. He pots them in 4 inch pots and grows them on for about 6 months, at which time they go into 6 inch pots. He then keeps the benches of phals he wants to spike under plastic with an air conditioner (on 24 hours a day) at each end until the spikes are 8 inches tall (approximately 6 weeks). He then moves them out until they have 4 or 5 flowers open, then delivers them to jobbers. Believe me this works !! I spiked about 300 phals I was growing under lights one year - all seedlings -- all novelty -- I gave 290 of them away and to fund raisers for charity. Prior to that I grew only in a greenhouse but I lost not one bud in my air conditioned light room. He also did a study on why that happens -- I wish I could find the study but this little article sums it up very well...See MoreHow to save fig wood over the winter???
Comments (10)Ottawan, I would do such a thing IF it wouldn't create a vole paradise. Unfortunately, about 15 years ago, an old orchard and field across from me was bulldozed for a subdivision, and I was overun with THOUSANDS of voles in the course of a few days -- reminded me of the footage a few years back on the news of the mice exploding in population in Australia. Since then, vole populations have declined, but they've been a persistent problem, and I have yet to figure out how to get rid of them. All I can do with my best efforts at trapping and poisoning them is to keep them at a dull roar. I've given up deep mulching and covering anything for the winter, since it just ends up being chewed to bits by voles. Figs, I've found, are one of their favorite foods, anyway. I buried two large 'Peter's Honey' trees a few years back, and literally had NOTHING but a handfull of fig sawdust in the spring, the voles had even excavated and eaten all of the root system. Chills, my figs got really tall this year, despite the cool temps, must have been all of the rain. Some of the shoots are about 8 feet tall. After many years fo dying back to stubs and resprouting, they are quite prolific with branches, each one having probably 20 to 25 stems coming from the ground. I tried overwintering cuttings in the fridge before, that did work, but right now, ALL available extra fridge space is spoken for storing pears and apples for winter use. Well, I'm pretty sure they'll be dormant enough to cut and bury this weekend, since I drove home from work through a whole lot of snow and sleet through Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills tonight, looked JUST like winter, oh, yeah! Good news is, in 4 months, it'll be time to start peppers and artichokes, and in about 4 1/2 to 5 months, time to tap the maple tree for syrup again. Spring's just around the corner, really! Dennis SE Michigan (W. Bloomfield)...See MoreYes, it's me..Michelia, how do you over winter yours please??
Comments (19)I think Zone 8? We have little microclimates within our area, but a few times we may get down to -10C. I am intrigued and tempted when I hear people grow m. figo outside and are pushing the limits. My uncle had quite a mature figo right by the house until finally one cold winter killed it. So I don't want to risk the heartache. I confess the main reason I use a ceramic pot is because they look nicer, haha. I don't worry that much about the pot being cold. My main concern is how dry the air is in the winter. I don't like a hot house, so my heat is not turned up very high (that heat register right by pot is closed off). But I still find I have to water my plants more carefully than in the summer. Of course, the plant is not as happy, might lose a few leaves but it always rebounds in the spring. The pot is 18" diameter across the top and 15" tall. The nursery pot was probably about 10" ? I transplanted into big pot thinking I would keep it in there long term so as to disturb as little as possible, especially when the plant is a bit hard to handle (big leaves, etc) Oh my gosh, mites! They are the bane of my existence. So annoying. My m. figo has finally stopped dropping leaves. Hope she is truly settling in and not just playing with me. Thanks for that link, bboy. Very excited to see Cistus might be able to ship up to me in Canada. I see the figo var. skinneriana is 'Zone 7' - hmmmmm... Maggie...See Morenorthspruce
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