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Myrmecodia lamii - cultivated plant


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Andreas:

 

Thank you very much for posting this image. Its is envy-provoking to the extreme. This clarifies what a well-cultivated young Myrmecodia lamii looks like. As you probably know, there are some slow-growing plants with similar leaves circulating around Europe and the US that are tentatively ID'd as this species, yet lack many of its key characteristics, especially the very distinctive "shingled" and winged clypeoli.

 

I have found that there are huge variances between the growth rates of ant rubiacs grown under windowsill/home conservatory conditions and those inhabiting commercial cool greenhouses with fairly long nights year-round. Do you provide supplemental light to your plants during the winter?

 

Do you also have M. brassii growing in your collection?

 

Cheers,

 

J

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Andreas:

 

Thank you very much for posting this image. Its is envy-provoking to the extreme. This clarifies what a well-cultivated young Myrmecodia lamii looks like. As you probably know, there are some slow-growing plants with similar leaves circulating around Europe and the US that are tentatively ID'd as this species, yet lack many of its key characteristics, especially the very distinctive "shingled" and winged clypeoli.

 

I have found that there are huge variances between the growth rates of ant rubiacs grown under windowsill/home conservatory conditions and those inhabiting commercial cool greenhouses with fairly long nights year-round. Do you provide supplemental light to your plants during the winter?

 

Do you also have M. brassii growing in your collection?

 

Cheers,

 

J

 

 

I use additional artificial lights during wintertime and grow it together with Heliamphora in a greenhouse with fairly tight temperature control that is cooled during summer time.

Yes, I fertilize from time to time with Wuxal Super (8-8-6) and also used Osmocote in the past.

All the best

Andreas

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Bonjour

I use a NPK: 23-5-5 in dilution with water , watering in aerosol and some time directly on the substrat , 2 day by month in alternation with just rain water .

the plant seem growing more quickly , I have also more root .

jeff

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Bonjour

I use a NPK: 23-5-5 in dilution with water , watering in aerosol and some time directly on the substrat , 2 day by month in alternation with just rain water .

the plant seem growing more quickly , I have also more root .

jeff

 

 

Hi Jeff,

which brand of fertilizer do you use?

What do you mean by "2 day by month"? Every 2nd day?

All the best

Andreas 

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I use a FLORENDI "engrais plantes vertes" but it seem to me that it is not available now.

 

see  may be here

 

http://www.yara.de/fertilizer/products/np_npk_fertilizer/yara_npk_23_5_5_3.aspx

 

on a month

the first week I fertilized in dilution , the second  just watering with rain water , the third  with fertilizer , the 4th with rain water.

 

for me,  just compensate for the lack of ant by a nitrogen fertilizer strong enough, doses of potassium and phosphorus  remaining  low.  it is  just  my opinion

 

jeff

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for me,  just compensate for the lack of ant by a nitrogen fertilizer strong enough, doses of potassium and phosphorus  remaining  low.  it is  just  my opinion

 

 

 

Dear Jeff,

that's a good point!

I could not find Yara and Florendi here but in a few days I should get a sample of this and will also give a high-N feritlizer a try.

Thank you :)

All the best

Andreas

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  • 9 months later...

Great photograph.

 

It's tempting to consider the repetitive pattern of clypleoli as annual/seasonal growth rings.

 

Edit: after only a few years of growing these genera and looking at pictures from the internet I can't help but conclude that nitrogen (and P & K) isn't the only thing that determines the size of the plant. Maybe the plants are stimulated by activity inside the structure or chemical cues.

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  • 10 months later...

I have been growing my plants, as well as all other myrmecophytes in my care, in a "kanuma" mix, sometimes with the addition of laterite or other aggregate. These plants seem to do very well in this medium, as I have seen time and again their roots penetrating them. As the medium is lacking in nutrients, fertilizer is always beneficial. 

 

Here is a small seedling of M. lamii growing in said media. 

 

 

23794143381_9d4612d433_c.jpgMyrmecodia lamii by Aspidistra Flier, on Flickr

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Thanks, Todd. I'm still using the media you provided with the seedlings you brought to the last plant meeting. It also works very well, albeit a bit more on the aggregate side. I'll need to bring you a bag of this "kanuma" stuff so you can see the difference. It's pretty interesting stuff.

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Mat:

 

It is very interesting to see this type of media being used to grow hydnophytines. As long as it provides very sharp drainage I would guess you will have no problems with it.

 

I am curious as to why you would add laterite to the mix? I work with a wide variety of Upper Amazonian-origin plants and trees that originate from lateritic soils and find that dilute chelated iron drenches applied every several weeks appear to be highly beneficial to maintaining leaf color and general vigor. I assume that you are looking for the same element.

 

Some of these alternative mineral or hard clay-type based Japanese growing media appear to be of real value to growers of exoterica. Earlier this year I began blending high volumes of coarse Japanese pumice (hyuga) with NZ sphagnum, top-dressed with finely screened red lava as a medium for tropical rheophytes that require daily watering and am extremely pleased with the results so far. I doubt that I would use this mix for hydnophytines, but it is great to see other growers experiment with alternative, very durable mixes. As you point out in your post, attention to good nutrition is key when working with these types of NPK deficient growing media.

 

Just a heads-up; be careful with moss creeping up the stems of valuable, slow growing seedlings. It looks great but I think you should always be able to keep a close eye on the condition of the entire base of the plant until they're well-established and large enough to handle an "event".

 

J

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Mat:

 

It is very interesting to see this type of media being used to grow hydnophytines. As long as it provides very sharp drainage I would guess you will have no problems with it.

 

I am curious as to why you would add laterite to the mix? I work with a wide variety of Upper Amazonian-origin plants and trees that originate from lateritic soils and find that dilute chelated iron drenches applied every several weeks appear to be highly beneficial to maintaining leaf color and general vigor. I assume that you are looking for the same element.

 

Some of these alternative mineral or hard clay-type based Japanese growing media appear to be of real value to growers of exoterica. Earlier this year I began blending high volumes of coarse Japanese pumice (hyuga) with NZ sphagnum, top-dressed with finely screened red lava as a medium for tropical rheophytes that require daily watering and am extremely pleased with the results so far. I doubt that I would use this mix for hydnophytines, but it is great to see other growers experiment with alternative, very durable mixes. As you point out in your post, attention to good nutrition is key when working with these types of NPK deficient growing media.

 

Just a heads-up; be careful with moss creeping up the stems of valuable, slow growing seedlings. It looks great but I think you should always be able to keep a close eye on the condition of the entire base of the plant until they're well-established and large enough to handle an "event".

 

J

 

 

I recently repotted my Myrmecodia lamii seedlings into a mix in which pine bark was replaced by cork.

My impression was that pine bark holds too much water and the roots did not like the touch. Often root tips died, once they got in touch with a piece of pine bark.

Concerning the moss, I do not consider M. lamii being one of the species that rot easily. So I do not think there is real danger.

 

All the best

Andreas

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Bonjour

 

"kanuma"  is a bonzai clay , if it is possible may be we can use also "akadama" ?
I use a lot of this clay for others genus.

 

 

ANDREAS

pine bark is  more acid than cork , no

 

'in situ'   what is the M.lamii substrat  when they are terrestrial ?

 

 

jeff

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Bonjour

"kanuma" is a bonzai clay , if it is possible may be we can use also "akadama" ?

I use a lot of this clay for others genera.

jeff

Hi Jeff,

Kanuma is an altogether different material than akadama. It is much softer, porous, and holds a surprising amount of water. If you lightly squeeze one pebble between your fingers, it will crumble into a fine dust not dissimilar from diatomaceous earth. I would consider akadama more of an aggregate used in conjunction with kanuma.

Jay, I was wondering at what dilution you use chelated iron as a drench for your plants? I use laterite quite often as an aggregate for species that are found in

and around ultramafic bedrock, specifically those with a lateritic top layer. I began this with certain species of Nepenthes and it seems to benefit the plants, not only through additional nutrients, but as a bulwark to unwanted weeds or pathogens that might have an aversion to the heavy metals present in this type of soil. In fact, once I went as far as collecting a small sample of lateritic soil from a somewhat hidden Darlingtonia habitat in the Siskiyou Mountains, and after some careful sterilisation, planted a few tropical species in it as an experiment. For the most part, the results were impressive.

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I am curious as to why you would add laterite to the mix? I work with a wide variety of Upper Amazonian-origin plants and trees that originate from lateritic soils and find that dilute chelated iron drenches applied every several weeks appear to be highly beneficial to maintaining leaf color and general vigor. I assume that you are looking for the same element.

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Jay,

you use Fe-EDTA?

If yes, at which dilution?

I am a bit reluctant with giving them tons of iron, since more than half of the plants I've seen grow as epiphytes. Where would they get huge doses of iron from?

All the best

Andreas

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Andreas and Mat:

To clarify, I am using chelated iron (@ 5% concentration water soluble Fe/15 cc x 3.80 lt water every three or four weeks) on terrestrial or lithophytic plants originating from wet tropical laterite soils or from spray zone habitats where, as rheophytes, many of these plants are exposed to a wide variety of dissolved minerals flooding over their roots. While I do apply a dilute iron drench as a standalone to my epiphytes from time to time, it is very much as a trace element rather than a part of my standard fertilization regimen. Again, I emphasize that my plants receive almost daily drenchings of quite high-quality water with TDS of ~40 ppm.

I have noticed in Amazonian flood forests that certain flowering epiphytic orchid species (esp. Aganisia cyanea) show a direct and reliable flower color correlation between their host trees position standing in white sand in tannin-suffused streams or up on high ground to compounds that their individual host trees are obviously exposed under differing root-soil interfaces. I am completely convinced that at least certain tree species can make surprising levels of trace elements available to epiphytes through their bark. Presumably iron would also be available - again at low concentrations as a trace - to any litter trappers, CPs or myrmecophytes.

Andreas; your observation early last year about my lack of calcium in my nutritional program (and irrigation water) provided a solution to a number of issues I had been facing here since I began growing California. People who work with RO, distilled or relatively pure rainwater should pay attention to signs of Ca deficiencies in their plants and correct accordingly. Many commercial fertilizers we commonly use in the US (osmocote, nutricote, soluble NPK heavy orchid fertilizers) lack Ca since they are formulated for commercial growers or ornamental tropical in Florida and southern California.

Cheers,

J

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