PR-Giants

Have you learned the difference micropropagation and macropropagation?

Because it's in situ macropropagation the photo shows the set up.

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PR-Giants

Can you post a link to the "lessons learned".

And this also goes for anyone else that is interested in playing with a small variegated Florida, posting a link speeds things up.

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Kingt82

Hi, yes I know the difference between the two. What confused me was the amount of small buds that resembled the multiplication stage of tissue culture but was in a non agar/similar medium. That's why I asked if that was micropropagation or not.

Kingt82

I had bought a Manini that I placed in a 60% potting mix 40% perilite. I had it under artificial lighting in a heated shed for the first month due to cold weather outside. Watered it lightly once a week but leaves were drooping due to low humidity (20%). It did put out one new leaf. I did check it once and saw new roots growing. My mistake was when I moved it from the low humidity shed to the high humidity greenhouse. I watered it the same (still light) but now it was in a 60-80% humid environment. Hence, the soil stayed moist for much longer. I did have air circulation but it wasn't strong enough imo. The stalk and leaves didn't show any issues but when I grabbed the pot it was in, the stalked swayed. I pulled back the soil some and saw that the corm had rotted and was now hollowed out. Stalk was barely hanging to corm. The growing point was gone. Needless to say I was very disappointed.

For next time, I'm doing a couple of things different.

1. Using a clear pot initially to watch root growth and moisture in pot.
2. Using a 60% mix vermiculite and 40% sandy top soil. Better drainage.
3. Temps in greenhouse had dropped to 55F some nights during winter. Will insulate non sunny sides to keep temp about 65F. Heater won't have to work as hard at night. Cold and wet are never a good combo.
4. Not watering pot at all if its humid in greenhouse.
5. Got a stronger fan this time around.
6. I think I will get one of those soil moisture probes this time around.

I build an enclosure for the cold months every year. Usually in October and comes down completely in May time frame. Temps vary from 65-95F inside. Its usually 20-25 degrees warmer than outside. Will put plant in ground during warm months.

PR-Giants

Fabric pots are one of the simplest ways of controlling moisture. A pot could be completely saturated during the heat of the day for maximum growth and most of the moisture can be quickly removed when it cools by placing the pot on an absorbent material. Moisture wicking can be a great advantage.

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beam2050

i have no wish to buy a florida at this time, my window of opportunity is gone.

this is a raja puri, the corm was about the size of a quarter when i planted it. cant find the first pic. why would i use a plant that is hard to get when i have hundreds of pups coming up.

the tallest one in the back center is my lady finger purchased from pukpukz. with rain it grows as tall as my namwa with the p-stem the third of the size. great looking plant i have not had the pleasure of fruiting...............yet. i dang sure am not done yet!

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

nexmp76

One of the biggest lessons I've learned are watering during our winter months here. My first year I lost quite a few of my plants to over watering during the winter months. I kept them in a lighted plant room but the temperatures were cooler at night in winter months. Since then, I keep most of mine in the garage over winter and let them go dormant. I've barely had to water those at all until the weather's warms up in the spring. I have a large temperature controlled basement with a grow tent that I keep my more sensitive plants and smaller pups over winter which worked well last year.

The other big thing is medium. I started using a mix of 60/30/10 mix of potting soil, peat moss, and perlite. That was fine during the heat of summer but did pretty poorly during cooler months. I think I lost about a third of my plants the first winter. I then moved mostly to about a 20/30/50 potting soil, coconut coir, and perlite and that works very well for most. I recently tried using horticultural sand for more sensitive types after reading about it from this thread and it really seems to do extremely well. The drainage is amazing. I had a Gros Michel type that was struggling and it has since recovered well. The biggest problem has been trying to find a source to get larger amounts for the money so I plan to mostly use that for the most sensitive types.

Overall, I would say the key for me has been finding the best medium to allow the most drainage during the few colder months we have here to avoid rot. I had a very high success rate last year but keep fine tuning each year.

nexmp76

The idea of using clear pots is very interesting for watching root growth. I haven't really come across those. I'm curious to see what is available with those. I have mostly used some fabric pots and greenhouse pots for my larger plants other than the ones in the ground.The soil moisture probes also seem like a great idea especially during cooler months. Hoping to get started on a greenhouse myself next year.

PR-Giants

Try contacting a Sand & Gravel Yard, if you have a truck it'll be cheap but delivery will cost more than the sand. If you're near a river that gets dredged the sand is usually free.

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PR-Giants

Can you explain hollowed out in more detail.

It's normal with Manini for the central cylinder to rot and become hollow leaving the cortex as an outer cover kind of like a helmet.

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nexmp76

Thanks for the tip. I'll definitely give that a try. I think the Sand & Gravel yard would be the best bet for my area.

PR-Giants

This was the standard Manini rhizome I was selling to members on this forum for $15. The box it's in is 11" x 9" and I would grade that as perfect or flawless.

This rhizome would produce leaves regardless what substrate it was planted in but if the aeration was not high enough some of the roots would not continue to grow and if the roots don't grow they'll rot and the tunnels left behind when the root initials rot leads directly to the central cylinder.

The main advantage of starting with a small rhizome is that there are no large roots and the potential of any large tunnels is completely avoided.

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esmithj333

Hey PR-Giants I’ll buy the Florida on previous page if it’s still available. Are you selling any of your monstera albo? I’d be interested in one of them also.

Kingt82

I didn't take any pictures but here is what it was like. All the roots were brown and sponge like. The outer surface of the corm was like that as well. The hole in red was like that and went into the corm about an inch. Corm was about 3 inches in diameter. The corm on the inside was like a brown hairy custard texture. The goo came out by hand. Outer walls were about 1/4" thick. It was like a ball halfway filled with custard. The stem came right off and the end that was at the corm was just rolled up leaves. The red dotted line was where the soil line was in the pot.

xavierdlc61887

i know this an old post but do you still have any seeds? how did this experiment span out or is spaning? id be interested in getting some seeds if you still have any or will have in the future!

PR-Giants

Did it arrive ok?

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mchris752

Nice, arrived quicker than i thought. Tracking had it coming tomorrow. Ill be at work till this afternoon. Looks like was put on patio which is shaded so should be good till i can get home.

mchris752

I said f it and decided to sneak away. I might have banana obsession problem. Plant looks great. Your packaging is fantastic btw.

PR-Giants

This is going to be interesting to see how quickly you get it growing.

I don't ship those tiny things one at a time and wasn't sure what would be the best and cheapest way to ship it. A small flat rate box wasn't going to be strong enough and there was no extra space to reinforce it.

I'm glad it arrived in good condition because I know how disappointing it is to receive a crushed box from the post office and if the shipper puts a little effort into it most of that can be avoided.

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PR-Giants

I'm not presently hand pollinating any Blue Java but will resume once the knowledge level on the forum increases to an acceptable level. And most people seem to want the variegated banana seeds more than the seeds from the Blue Java.

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