Author Topic: Now this is realy embarassing - Eugenia mattosii (Read 7696 times)

luc · « **on:** June 03, 2017, 06:25:06 PM »

In 1996 I brought back from Brazil ONE single seed , now ( I measured it , 3 meters wide and 1.70 meters tall ) Since last year I decided to plant some seeds for back up ( one never knows , I had trees doing wonderful and then suddenly die ) All seedlings did great up to 5 cm tall and then gave up ... I did send seeds to quite a few of you and would like to hear what you did to keep these going , type of soil , water etc...

This year I am gonna prepare several types of soil mixtures from extremely poor to very fertile , some with coffee grounds ( would Starbucks be a good brand ...LOL...) , or am I getting too old and loosing my green thumb ...

EvilFruit · « **Reply #1 on:** June 03, 2017, 07:09:22 PM »

I have several Eugenia species and Eugenia mattosii is probably the hardest since I killed all of my seedlings.

Vernmented · « **Reply #2 on:** June 03, 2017, 10:34:46 PM »

Hi Luc! I grew these from your seeds. I think I lost 5 out of 10. They were in a kept in a small 4" rootmaker rootpruning cube the same as the last picture for around 10 months. The soil was a mix I made up of pine fines, peat moss, I think a a bit of biochar, perlite and various organic amendments. They were kept inside a pool cage with only morning sun. They were getting mostly watered with 7.6 pH well water with high amounts of calcium carbonate. I have recently started acidifying the water with sulfuric acid the past couple months and finally switched over to osmocote 9 month with micros about a month ago. I put an outrageous price on one to see if it would sell at a plant sale to a collector with deep pockets but it was mostly just a conversation piece to put on the front table.

I moved them up to a 1 gal in February or March and get slightly more sun. These were planted 4/18/2016. Good luck!

Mike T · « **Reply #3 on:** June 03, 2017, 10:43:18 PM »

I have one that is 70cm high and 1m wide and is a nice looking bush that flowers quite well. It never has set a fruit yet.

HIfarm · « **Reply #4 on:** June 03, 2017, 11:04:23 PM »

Well this is really embarrassing, I took no special steps with them, threw them in regular dirt in 2 1/2" nursery cells and put them under the bench in my greenhouse, watered with rainwater. I think nearly all germinated & have been growing ok. They are still in these shady conditions & still in the nursery cells (as them seem to be growing very slowly). I planned on potting them up to some nursery bags soon to get some more size on them prior to planting out. I expect I will probably see massive losses as soon as I touch them now...

John

abimael777 · « **Reply #5 on:** June 04, 2017, 12:00:04 AM »

Hi Luc
I bought you 10 seeds and they were all born but they survived 6, use compound bound with soil and the largest is 7 inches. I did not give him special treatment because I did not know they were so difficult to grow. Those who died I think it was because of the great sun, the other 6 put them in shade with little sun and survived.

palologrower · « **Reply #6 on:** June 04, 2017, 04:16:19 PM »

I bought a handful. Over half germinated. Maybe 2-3 left but not doing to well. Maybe need more sunlight. In a well shaded area. Then again luc, I killed lots of Mexican mangosteen. My green thumb is browning.

luc · « **Reply #7 on:** June 04, 2017, 06:03:16 PM »

Now I remember , the plant where I collected the fruit from was growing in shade , not even filtered light ..

luc · « **Reply #8 on:** June 04, 2017, 06:20:35 PM »

Quote from: palologrower on June 04, 2017, 04:16:19 PM

I bought a handful. Over half germinated. Maybe 2-3 left but not doing to well. Maybe need more sunlight. In a well shaded area. Then again luc, I killed lots of Mexican mangosteen. My green thumb is browning.

Not 100 % sure about needing more sunlight at the seedling stage , I think that's how I killed mine . But to kill Mex. mangosteen you must really try hard , here they are popping up a little everywhere just laying on the ground , I think I pulled about 10 today , they do have an extremely long taproot ....

Rtreid · « **Reply #9 on:** June 04, 2017, 07:01:16 PM »

Hi Luc

I am quite an expert at killing off seedlings of this plant. I have one 30cm x 30 cm plant from a batch of seeds I got from you a few years back. All the others grew to about 3 cm and died. For the next couple of years I would get the same thing, all of seeds would sprout, grow to about 3 cm and die off. I tried to verythind, sun, shade rainwater, tap water, lots of water, little water, all sorts of soil mixes... nothing seemed to work. With my last batch I sprouted them in pure coco coir and kept them almost bone dry. Finally I have had success. I was able to get them past that delicate stage and repot them into a regular soil mix. I still keep them on the dry side, and only water them from the bottom as I find them succeptable to root rot. From my first success it seems that once they get 5-10 cm tall they are pretty hardy.

Any idea on how long it takes for them to fruit?

Hope this helps,
Richard

Vernmented · « **Reply #10 on:** June 04, 2017, 09:27:55 PM »

I would say that mine actually made it from drying out between waterings and them never seeing full strength sun. I think that is key.

Mike T · « **Reply #11 on:** June 05, 2017, 03:51:19 AM »

My one is in full sun and I have to hack it back to control it,It was planted in full sun when 8 inches high.

Vernmented · « **Reply #12 on:** June 05, 2017, 11:54:32 AM »

Quote from: Mike T on June 05, 2017, 03:51:19 AM

My one is in full sun and I have to hack it back to control it,It was planted in full sun when 8 inches high.

8 inches. That is a large specimen!

I am only halfway kidding. Good to know. I'm going to start transitioning some of mine to more sun.

Mike T · « **Reply #13 on:** June 06, 2017, 03:39:36 AM »

They thrive on neglect but mine remains fruitless.

Heinrich · « **Reply #14 on:** July 02, 2017, 04:04:20 AM »

Hi Luc, of 30 seeds, 27 germinated. I grow them in fine sand. The sand consists mainly of pumice with some zeolite and is neutral. The topping is similar, but coarse. 10 % peat is added to achieve a more acidic soil. In summer, the plants are outside in full sun and I water almost daily, preferably with rain water.

We had a very cold period, this winter. One morning, in the glass house was frost (-1°C/ 30°F) and frozen pots. Five Eugenia mattosii seedlings defoliated. Three came back in spring, but two were lost. All the other Eugenia mattosii didn´t show any signs of stress.

Two of the spring greening plants are shown in the photo. (Plant number one and two, third row). Like many wild plants, E. mattosii shows a large variation in growth rate and possibly other characters.

Plant number six, second row.

OCchris1 · « **Reply #15 on:** July 03, 2017, 01:24:12 AM »

I love that overhead shot Heinrich! Very cool photo. Chris

Heinrich · « **Reply #16 on:** November 28, 2017, 04:05:59 AM »

Thank you, Chris. Your comments inspired me, to update the growth at the end of the growing season. The plants have been outside from mid-May to mid-November. May was cold and September very cool. Both month, below average. Our summer was nice and warm. Therefore, most of the growth occurred from June to August. All plants face in the same direction. Towards the equator.

FlyingFoxFruits · « **Reply #17 on:** November 28, 2017, 01:44:01 PM »

cuttings are pretty easy to root, i got some going, and sold them, i think i have a handful left, they grow slow as hell, and hate being in the shade, with alkaline pH, or too wet.

Vernmented · « **Reply #18 on:** November 28, 2017, 06:25:39 PM »

Pulled these from some Brazilian Instagrams. Not my photos. Nice to see some large specimens. There was a really great one on Facebook a while back that was kept as a tidy hedge. I think I will put one of my tiny ones in ground and see how it does.

Vernmented · « **Reply #19 on:** November 28, 2017, 06:27:25 PM »

Quote from: Heinrich on July 02, 2017, 04:04:20 AM

Plant number six, second row.

So pretty.

ScottR · « **Reply #20 on:** November 28, 2017, 07:04:35 PM »

Nice Pic's------------------

Heinrich · « **Reply #21 on:** December 02, 2017, 03:34:04 AM »

Plant number six, second row.

Vernmented · « **Reply #22 on:** December 02, 2017, 08:48:03 AM »

After reading this thread it put some fire under my ass to get out and plant my remaining 4 in ground a couple of days ago. I also planted my last barely living Eugenia stipitata ssp. Sororia. I made a large mound with my auger and tiller by adding all sorts of biohar, organic fert, sulfur, perlite, peat moss and a bunch of other amendments and heavily mulched it about 6 weeks ago and let it settle. There is some sunshine mimosa left over in a few spots that I am going to let take over again. I protected the Sororia and one of the E. mattosii with my little makeshift shadehouses. I put a flowering cacao plant in the back of the mound later in the day but didn't snap any pictures of it.

Tiny little Eugenia stipitata spp. Sororia. I can tell it wants to grow with that tiny little new growth.

Big mound, tiny plants.

Nitrogen fixing ground cover.

Video link.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143724131@N04/23919848537/in/dateposted-public/

Vernmented · « **Reply #23 on:** December 02, 2017, 08:49:47 AM »

Quote from: Heinrich on December 02, 2017, 03:34:04 AM

Plant number six, second row.

So healthy. I hope mine lose their chlorosis in their new acid mountain.

starch · « **Reply #24 on:** December 02, 2017, 10:36:25 AM »

Josh, that is an impressive mound

Hopefully that will do the trick!

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Author Topic: Now this is realy embarassing - Eugenia mattosii (Read 7696 times)