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[Roze]

Hi amigos

 I've trying to grow Xhosa for several times without success.. I find it very easy to germinate (1-2 weeks) but after a couple of days the seedling start to became weak and eventually they die..

Does any of you had some experience or advice on how to grow this species?

Thank you!

[Saros]

What kind of soil are you using?

I had decent luck last year.. though if I remember correctly some did damp off in the first several weeks indoors. Once I moved them outside into bigger pots or in the ground they took off... I believe I added some sand or perlite to the potting soil I started them to improve drainage.

Once established, they're pretty tough plants. I managed to divide one successfully just by cleaving the plant and roots in half and separating..They survived this really harsh winter here in zone 6B. All except for the one plant I had in the ground. I think the soil was too damp throughout the cold season and it just rotted away. But the two I had in pots stayed fairly dry all winter and survived.

1 Like Roze likes this.

[Roze]

I use a regular soil mixed with perlite but  maybe the problem is how I grow them...  Inside a small  pre-heated greenhouse with constant temperature and very high humidity..

When I have more seeds I'll try to sow directly outside, maybe my luck changes!

Thanks for sharing your experience!

[Saros]

I just sowed some seeds yesterday because I had some empty cells in a tray that I was starting veggies in. This time it's just potting soil. I'll report back with my findings:)

[onion]

I just grow them in my standard potting mix (Fafard 3b). However, like a lot if small seedlings, they seem sensitive to overhead irrigation. I bottom water (sub irrigate) them until they are larger.

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[Mandrake]

^ good advice there.

Silene capensis/undulata seedlings seem to be quite vulnerable to damping off. In that sense, similar to syrian rue in the first stage. Water from below without excess, and if they seem to weaken, avoid saturated humidity in the ambient and support them packing gently a little soil in the base of the germinal stem to keep them straight.

Watering from below and not too generously also stimulates root growth which will toughen up the seedling.

Mandrake

PS. An observation... "xhosa" is the name of a whole ethnic group in southern Africa. Sometimes S.Capensis is called "Xhosa dream herb", because it is the most known species in the (large) list of the ubulawu shamanic tradition followed by the Xhosa, but in a way calling S. Capensis "Xhosa" would be a little like calling Banisteriopsis Caapi, for instance, "Shipibo".

[Roze]

PS. An observation... "xhosa" is the name of a whole ethnic group in southern Africa. Sometimes S.Capensis is called "Xhosa dream herb", because it is the most known species in the (large) list of the ubulawu shamanic tradition followed by the Xhosa, but in a way calling S. Capensis "Xhosa" would be a little like calling Banisteriopsis Caapi, for instance, "Shipibo".

Thank you for your wise worlds!

I'm going to try the "peganum h." method for this one, hope it works