Cryptomeria Radican Quality Question (Picture attached)
kov79
6 years ago
Hello, thank you for all of the helpful advice here. I was not able to find a radican at any local nurseries, only the yoshino. I purchased a cryptomeria radican off of a popular tree website and received it in suspect condition. The website is offering me a 50% discount to keep it. Do you feel that this has a chance at surviving if planted and taken care of? I am in zone 6b-7a
The shape seems pretty odd, it seems like it's missing growth in certain areas aside from the dead branches on the bottom, but then again I don't exactly know the growth pattern of this plant. This is in a 7G container.
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davidrt28 (zone 7)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoRelated Discussions
Pictures and a potting question
Comments (31)Very nice grouping, Kristi! I didn't know "Alfresco" had any scent... so few do. I think if I had the wherewithal, I would absolutely place every bulb in a raised bed for the summer, giving them good spacing, which would allow them the room to spread out and really grow healthy root systems and nice leaves with which to 'feed' the bulbs and help them accumulate better girth... but it's also a lot of work to keep potting and un-potting depending on the changing seasons, and I'd be a little worried about insect and snail or slug damage. Of course, one could use a systemic in the bed to keep insects at bay. I hesitate to mix different types of plants in one pot, unless we're talking about seasonal arrangements of decorative annuals, mainly because I want all the nutrition to go toward the bulb, and not to be 'stolen' by a ground cover that is planted purely for aesthetic purposes. I think Oxalis stands well on its own, and I wouldn't want to take away from its lovely blooms, interesting leaves, or its kind of odd schedule for growing and blooming, from my experience. Ivy might be a different story, but again, I would hesitate because most ivies grown indoors as houseplants seem to be spider mite magnets, and prefer an environment that has higher humidity. Of course, these are just my opinions and experiences, which should not interfere with what anyone else wants to try or do. Your own experiences may vary. I try to study the needs and characteristics of each bulb before potting, so I know how tall it will grow, when it's most likely to bloom, etc... so I have a good idea of which bulbs match each other and which are too different to share medium in one pot. I could always plant them according to which bloom colors and sizes match, or by any other criteria, really. Until this year, I had them all potted individually, but it takes up so much space to have all those pots... and space isn't something I will have the luxury of once we finally make the move north. Therefore, it makes more sense to group them, in my case....See MoreTransplanted Cryptomeria Yoshino Not Doing Well
Comments (30)"Agree with Embo, way too early for winter bronzing, which won't occur till temps get consistently below freezing." Although the funny thing is, I've seen pictures of some Crypto cultivars in very mild places like extreme southern Japan and the Bay Area, and they turn red in the winter even without deep freezing. In fact I think my 'Elegans' starts turning red (NOT happening to the OP's plant) before any freezing. OTOH, some cultivars like 'Yoshino' do not turn red, around here at least. At all. Even in the polar winters. Something is definitely wrong with these plants. Cryptos are pretty tough and I don't remember having this kind of thing happen with the 10 or so I've *planted* in spring or fall. (all assorted cultivars) I did have one DIE after being too carelessly transplanted in fall...more on that in a moment. My 'Elegans', for example, languished for a few years, due to various issues like root competition from a huge hemlock, but never had this kind of sudden dieback. Still do I think it could just be an extra bad case of transplant shock and they might grow out of it? Yes. Here's a question: were they driven to the job site in something like a pickup truck? Just taking a total guess here but this genus is somewhat sensitive as conifers go to drying out. Maybe their roots were too dry leaving the nursery - the plants in a general state of dehydration - they were driven 30 minutes down a highway which is like being in a 70mph windstorm. The one I moved in fall was fine appearing until a snow storm and very windy, cold spell. The reflected heat off the snow and winds totally desiccated the tops, enough to kill the plant. (it was about 5' high) One week it was green and a week later it was brown. Total "incineration" of a very hardy (by my zone 7 standards) plants because the root system wasn't ready for winter. It had been green for about 3 months at that point, so the transplantation was otherwise taking....See MoreCryptomeria Yoshino question
Comments (33)"Frank Kingdon-Ward walked for days through dead rhododendrons on one Chinese trip because for once the monsoon didn't come to that particular area and this was so unusual that they all just up and died, due to them having no ingrained tolerance for it." You've mentioned that before, do you know where that is documented? Not that I don't believe you, I would just find it interesting to know the specific area. Obviously over the broad core of the Himalayas (their front ranges, anyhow) and SW Chinese mountains it's well nigh impossible for monsoon to just not arrive at all...can't happen given the way the atmosphere and upper level winds work. But it can be late, and from looking at Indian weather maps over the years (which of course do not cover China) the overall shape of the "blob" can vary especially over lower elevation areas. The farther from that core area, and the farther you go from ocean water, period, the more variability. Which for example might explain why the more inland but still mountaineous Larix mastersiana grows happily here even during dry spells, while the related Larix griffithiana probably wouldn't. As you point out, when it doesn't arrive, the plants just die. Unlike our eastern native rhododendrons, they have no inbuilt tolerance to a degree of drought....See MoreWhat size container for dwarf radicans gardenia?
Comments (22)A few commercial nursery ops 'might' use a small fraction of mineral soils (5%?) in some of their media to help boost CEC and for the added weight to help limit toppling, but no commercial operation would ever consider what you're suggesting, Doug. Grab any edition of Greenhouse Grower magazine, which caters to pro greenhouse/ nursery ops and you'll quickly see that very few nursery ops and virtually no greenhouse ops have used significant fractions of mineral soils in their media since the 1950s. Plants of any given species prefer pretty much the same conditions - no matter where they are grown. It's not that the plants' wants change because they are grown in the north, south, east, or west; what changes is our ability to provide what they want. It's not that the plant wants a water-retentive medium in the south; no, it's the fact that the container gardener won't commit to watering twice per day, so they accept the limitations associated with an overly water-retentive medium for the sake of their own convenience. More often than not, the view from grower's perspective and that from the plant's perspective are mutually exclusive, and that can hardly be any clearer than in this discussion. I've been studying soil science and experimenting with container media since the 1980s. This is the most productive grow medium I have ever used: The reason for its productivity is simple. It holds water on the surface of soil particles, in the pores of the porous ingredients, and at the interface where particles contact each other. It holds no (or precious little) soil in the pore space between particles; whereas, the garden soil in the bag holds a tremendous volume of water (to the exclusion of air) in the pores between soil particles. No one objects to the fact you prefer your way to any other. The point being made is, people with decades of experience growing woody plants in containers know the probability of failure when using garden/mineral soils in a container is extremely high, and, they are familiar with far more productive methods not fraught with the pitfalls inherent in using garden soil as a container medium. A "good" medium is one that can be watered to beyond the point of soil saturation without the plant having to pay an over-watering tax because the soil remains saturated for intervals measured in weeks. I know for certain that the garden soil doesn't qualify as 'good' because 3/4 of the media labeled for use as potting soil don't even qualify, and they hold far less water than what MGGS holds. You can prove this to yourself. cut the top off a clear half gallon plastic bottle. Fill it with soil. Saturate the soil completely. Melt a hole in the bottom (hot nail/screw) and let it drain. Look through the side of the bottle. Where you start to see air pockets in the soil is the max ht of the perched water table. You'll likely find it is 10-12" tall. Since this is a constant, no matter the shape or size of the container, you can expect that ht of the soil column to be saturated with water and devoid of free oxygen in any container after a thorough watering when using that product as a container medium. We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality. ~ Ayn Rand Al...See Moredavidrt28 (zone 7)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoI found a picture of a cutting grown 'Radicans': http://www.wisenurseries.com/gallery/index.php/Trees/Cryptomeria-Radicans
Is that ever going to end up looking like kov's tree? Hhhhmmmmm...
kov79
6 years agoEmbothrium
6 years agodavidrt28 (zone 7)
6 years agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
6 years ago
Sara Malone Zone 9b
6 years agokov79
6 years agoHi all. We worked out a fair deal and I was just about to plant it. Now I see this white mold when I took it out of the planter. Any ideas?
Sara Malone Zone 9b
6 years agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
6 years agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
6 years ago
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