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[arborescent]

I've been trying to get my floribundas to a healthy size, but many of them are simply drying up and dying.
This is in conditions on the wetter and dryer side. When I had a tray of seedlings that were watered every day they seemed to dislike that amount of moisture and almost looked like they were getting a root rot or something. I've been letting them sit out in the sun to fend for themselves the past two weeks and quite a few dried up. I had one under shade cloth which looks pretty fine but is on the lankier side.

But of the ones that survived the full sun/ mostly rain water treatment, they have grown and are looking fairly healthy. I'll try to keep the soil watered occasionally but I'm not always around where I've left them to grow.

Has anyone else noticed this with floribunda?
They seems less hardy than my acuminatas, which once they got past the tender seedling stage are growing quite vigorously in the open full sun without much watering help, just looking very hardy.

If anyone can describe an ideal situation for floribunda I'd be happy... do they need special soil or something?

[Toxicodendron]

The presence of Rhizobium is necessary for healthy acacia growth, IME. A bit of pea inoculant, or even a handful of dirt from around a thriving legume mixed in with the dirt goes a long way to aiding growth of acacia.

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[arborescent]

Yo, Toxico, I was down at the local plant nursery/garden store today looking for some Rhizobium but they didn't have any!

I think you're right though, I had some confusas back in the day that were unstoppable with a little rhizobium.

[arborescent]

So does anybody else have any experience inoculating Acacias with commercially available rhizobium-type bacteria?
I feel like Acacias should need a more specific type of bacteria, but maybe that's just to achieve their peak N-fixing productivity.

I got some pea/bean inoculant from a friend and added that to their pots today, we'll see what happens.

[danzick]

I just harvest some small root pieces from one of the local, established acacias.  Then I mix some root pieces in with my potting mix.  No controlled studies, but it seems to work.

[Toxicodendron]

Yeah, even some professional ethnobotanical growers in Aus have used regular pea innoc on acacias with success. They're not really picky, but need some form of rhizobium. Also important not to add too much in the way of fertilizer, or so I've been advised.

[arborescent]

Hey thanks again for the advice, the normal pea inoculant seemed to help my acuminatas even more...

the floribundas aren't quite as healthy as I thought they might be, one of them looks amazing but a lot dropped off for some reason