Share The Seeds
Gardening Area => Growing questions and answers => Topic started by: Cane Blossom on August 09, 2013, 10:27:28 AM
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hey, so i got a muricata on its way, and i was wondering if anyone has experience, or can offer any insight or tips for keeping it healthy.
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Nice, I'm jealous=)
I'm not sure how muricata varies from the cielo or red variety that I'm used to, but they really don't seem too picky as long as they're given plenty of water.
I've had them in a variety of light conditions:
- Starting out in a window sill in my bathroom that was bright but got no direct sunlight, they seemed happy.
- Then as the weather got warmer I moved them outside to my greenhouse where I'd say they were in partial shade underneath the potting table.
- I tried moving them out into more sun slowly until they were almost in full sun. They still didn't seem unhappy, though I do think growth slowed a bit.
Then I started experimenting with how much water I gave them. I had been giving them water almost daily, but I cut back to maybe every few days and the soil would begin to dry out. That's when I noticed some leaf tips turning brown. I moved them back into partial shade and resumed daily watering and they began growing quickly again. Though the spacing between leaves has increased so maybe it could actually use a little more sun than what it's getting. Or maybe it's that I've given it something to climb on now and it's just putting more energy into climbing and putting leaves out less frequently.
I do think giving it something to climb on has made it a happier plant.. it was falling all over itself before and once I put a bamboo stake in the pot for it, it immediately started wrapping around and going up. The branch that's latched on is the one that's showing the most growth.
I haven't done much in the way of fertilizing it other than some compost tea, adding left over coffee and coffee grounds to the soil to lower the PH, and recently I've started using hydrolyzed fish fertilizer.. haven't quite figured out how often I'm going to add that yet though.
All that's based on about 6 months of my experience with them so take that all with a grain of salt. I may not actually know what I'm doing, but I haven't killed any yet:)
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haven't quite figured out how often I'm going to add that yet though.
Dilute it in water and then water the plant as usual.
Be careful adding to much coffee grounds, it can be bad if you give it too much.
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so humidity isn't really to big an issue?
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Yes, it is.
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I live in north florida and mine does great outside just left alone. It definitely gets plenty of humidity here. Through the summer it rains almost every afternoon at least for a couple minutes. I water it whenever the soil starts to dry out, it gets droopy pretty fast if left in dry soil. I leave it in partial shade. It can easily grow out to full sun from where it is if it wants to, but seems to be doing good where I have it now.
Also, I haven't had this problem with b muricata or any of the ayahuacsa vine I currently have at my house, but I have moved one banisteriopsis caapi vine to my dads and it has been attacked by squirrels three times now. Twice last summer and now once this summer. His house is more so out in the woods and there are a lot more squirrels around there. There are also several stray cats that run around the neighborhood I live in now so that might be a factor. Anyways watch out for them they seem to know whats up, they passed over all of the other plants and went straight for the ayahuasca vine.
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It's certainly a consideration, though they don't seem *too* fussy about it. I haven't had to do anything special for them since i put them outside in the greenhouse sometime in April. Being in the greenhouse, the humidity is probably a tad higher than the air outside, but I leave the door and vents open and a fan comes on when the temperature reaches a certain point, so with all the air flowing through there, I don't think it makes a drastic difference. That's a bit of an assumption on my part because I haven't actually been measuring the humidity inside the greenhouse
Since April, the humidity has averaged around 70% here. Sometimes above 90% and at other times below 50%
In the greenhouse they get a nightly misting when the sprinklers kick on. though I've only had that working for the past 3 weeks.. Before that I would give them a misting from the hose every 2-3 days. Less often than when I'd water them because I wasn't always around in the evening to mist and I didn't want water on the leaves during the day.
So it doesn't seem like daily misting is crucial as long as the soil is nice and moist... or maybe it would be if you live in a place with lower humidity..
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Im in zone 8. My Cielo Caapi is grown in pots, the largest and oldest being a pot w/ a 2' diameter. The soil is a mix of white sand I dug from the ground, pete moss, a bag of black cow, and black velvet mushroom compost. I put some red worms in the pot and covered w/ stones (broken artifacts, stones kept the squirrels out). I only water when I see the ends of the new vine shoots starting to wilt. I grow in full sun (6+ hrs) w/ the sun being 3 in the morning and 3 late in the evening. This plant has grown from a cutting to the size of the base being thicker than a broomstick in 3 years. Cover w/ bed sheets when it freezes. I leave it alone in the winter, only take cuttings in the warmer months when it's growing.
Also, I haven't had this problem with b muricata or any of the ayahuacsa vine I currently have at my house, but I have moved one banisteriopsis caapi vine to my dads and it has been attacked by squirrels three times now. Twice last summer and now once this summer. His house is more so out in the woods and there are a lot more squirrels around there.
I live in N Florida Zone 8 as well and have had huge problems w/ squirrels. The squirrels were chewing thru the base of almost all of my plants (not pepper). I think it has something to do w/ the moisture from watering the plants. I've tried a few squirrel ridding techniques. Covering around the base of plants w/ stones or fence, and putting a bowl of water out for the squirrels seemed to work best. Sprinkling hot pepper flakes around will keep them at bay temporarily.
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HELP!
the yellowing i assumed was sunburn, as it happened after i tried to acclimate to to full sun, but has not gone away since i moved it to shade.
the brown spots (and dry, crinkly texture at the tip of the leaf) is fairly new (like, i didn't see it when i misted it all day yesterday), and i have no idea what it could be.
looking at the pictures, it almost appears there might be tiny bugs, but upon direct inspection, these white things look more like small trichomes or hairs (they are completely static)
up until now i wasn't worried about any damage on the leafs, as it had only appeared on old growth.
but the first two pictures are new leaves (as in, only grown since the plant has been in my possession)
these seems like a drastic amount of damage compared to an unnoticeable amount from a mere 24 hours ago.
as such i am quite concerned..
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I think its from low humidity.
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I think its from low humidity.
i sincerely doubt that, it only has happened since i started misting it regularly.
before that it seemed to be fine with less humidity.
but i have been told that is what dry crinkly edges are indicative of
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I thought it was pretty humid where you are.
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I thought it was pretty humid where you are.
its fairly humid, but the humidity is variable (its lows tend to be at mid-60s).
http://www.usa.com/kihei-hi-weather.htm#HistoricalHumidity (http://www.usa.com/kihei-hi-weather.htm#HistoricalHumidity) - blue line in that chart
the only thing i can think of is spraying the leaves with diluted vinegar to ward off ants, yesterday.
but this doesn't account for why the damage is so localized, only affecting a couple leaves.
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Try misting w/ diluted hydrogen peroxide. Only use a few drops per 16 oz of water. I hope your plant didn't catch a disease!
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Try misting w/ diluted hydrogen peroxide. Only use a few drops per 16 oz of water. I hope your plant didn't catch a disease!
That sounds like it could be helpful.
Another angle to prevent disease would be to grow an extremely healthy plant. So maybe water it a bit with some compost and/or comfrey tea?? Couldnt hurt
Wish i could help more
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I'm guessing it's not humidity going by the historical weather data.. though when do you mist? Is there any chance there are water droplets lingering on the leaves when the plant would get any direct sunlight?
I had some similar problems a couple weeks ago. Mine got what I assumed was sunburn as well. it was getting a lot of direct sun and looked very similar to the 3rd photo with the yellow splotchiness that eventually turned brown. More so on the sunnier side of the plant. Since then I moved it out of my greenhouse and onto my covered porch where it gets maybe 2-3 hours of morning sun and then shade for the rest of the day. the sun-burn stopped advancing but never went away. I just don't think it can repair that damage. The following week was fairly low humidity here.. between 40-60% and it looked droopy and even dropped a couple of the worse off leaves. I've been misting in the evening daily and it seems to be on the mend. Though growth has really stretched out.. It's probably getting too much shade now but I'd rather it search for more sun than have all it's leaves turn brown and crispy.
Oh, is it getting enough water? I had some trouble with crispy edges when I cut back on watering.
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Normally when I notice mine looking sad its because it needs more water. Those things suck down some water once they get going. I probably need to repot mine. If I don't water it about every other day it starts getting droopy and sad looking.
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Have you checked for aphids and mealy bugs? Ants almost never attack a plant but they do ¨farm¨ aphids for the sugars in their waste. 99% of the time ants are a sign of another pest.
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yea, since i saw the ants, i had been vigilantly looking for bugs, but i have seen none.
the soil has been damp, so my guess is overwatering is more a concern than underwatering.
i am going to try the h202 dilution, and cut back on the water for a bit..
i still feel like i haven't quite gotten to the root of the issue, but at least i feel i might be able to keep it alive long enough to figure it out.
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so i found 3 different kinds of bugs (YIKES!) eating up my ayahuasca.
guess i wasn't vigilant enough before, but this explains the damage.
so hopefully they will be making a come back in the near future...
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Got any pics of the bugs?
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Got any pics of the bugs?
nanashi
many, none of which were in focus.
here is the best of them.
there were different kinds of bugs too, but i had already scraped em off with a knife before i thought to take pictures.
vinegar dilute doesn't seem to being doing the trick as well as i'd hoped..any ideas?
also, i have a good way of killing ants (sugar-water + borax = delicious poison they bring back to the colony), would that be a good precaution to take?
prevent the ants from farming bugs?
they are eating the shit out of my ayahuasca, quite frankly, and i am quite flustered.
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I can´t tell from the pic, are the bugs on the underside of the leaf? What color?
If they are on the underside and yellow or white without fuzzy bodies then they are aphids. Aphids are a terrible pest that will kill the plant by sucking out all the sugars produced by chlorophyll. They are easy to get rid of provided you have some patience and vigilance.
Get some neem oil, this does not kill the aphid but it does kill the eggs. Mix it according to the directions and add a few drops of soap, dish soap or insecticidal soap both work well. The addition of soap will increase the surface tension of the water, this suffocates the living aphids. Then spray the affected areas paying the most attention to the underside of leaves and the new growth. Repeat 3 times a week until they are all gone.
This has worked with mine BUT spot test this BEFORE spraying the entire plant, don´t want to harm the plant just the bugs.
The sugar water \ borax mixture is a good treatment for ants, DO NOT spray it on your plants though, it will kill them. Put it in a dish next to the base of the plant making sure not to spill it.
If the bugs have a fuzzy white coating on them then its mealy bugs and that is a completely different problem.
hope this helps
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I can´t tell from the pic, are the bugs on the underside of the leaf? What color?
on that pic it is a reddish-brown bumpy looking thing on the stem.
there are some yellowy-orange spots (didn't quite look like bugs so much as a discolored spot - like a mini yellow barnacle) on the undersides of leaves, near the base, where the stem meets the leaf. which i pried off with a knife.
there were also some more bug-looking things which could have been eggs, or really small exo-skeletal bugs.
i am going to leave paper-towel soaked in sugar borax around the ground near my pots, get some neem oil, and keep up with the vinegar dilute regimen.
hopefully this plant will pull around.
also i took a cutting, so hopefully that pans out too.
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not too sure what the thing on the stem is, pic is a little blurry. the barnacle like things are aphids, they range from small to very very very small. The best thing to do is put the brown thing on the stem in a jar and take it to a local nursery for id. Make sure to put it in a jar as i am sure they will freak out if you walk in with it just in your hand, lol.
hope the plant is okay in a couple weeks