Advice on my new chacruna

[Sitra Ahra]

I am pleased to announce that I am now the proud owner of my very own chacruna plant! The order shipped 3 days ago and it arrived this afternoon. I was very happy to obverse that the plant had sustained absolutely now visible damage during it's journey whatsoever! The main stem is approx. 2 1/2" tall with four large leaves and 2 tiny ones beginning to sprout. Additionally, there seem to be about 4 other stems growing around the main stem, each bearing leaves. I have done my research on growing this plant indoors and currently have it in about 2/3s commercial soil and 1/3 perlite. I have a homemade humidifier setup using a half full 2 lt bottle and my space heater, I also have a regular lamp for additional lighting and I have placed the plant in the windowsill for the time being. I was instructed not to over water the plant (5x a week was suggested) and to fertilize using fish emulsions every 7-14 days.

Now I would just like to ask a few general questions of community and hopefully some of the more experienced gardners will have some good advice.
-for lighting I was told that the plant thrives in partial shade. Will my windowsill seput that I mentioned above be sufficient, or should additional measures be taken?
-research points to p. viridis enjoying high humidity. I plan on upgrading my current humidifier setup and was looking for some inexpensive pointers. Or is a humidifier even necessary? Could I simply mist it like twice a day?
-and lastly Ive heard reports of people killing their chacrunas by overfeeding them. Does my method seem sound with the fish emulsions? Ive also heard of using coconut oil or something along those lines works also. Any ideas?

 

[Frusciante]

Sounds like some pretty solid advice. I use fish emulsion on my plants, Mimosa, Iboga, Acacia and it works well. I suggest to use maybe a quarter of what the directions say for shrubs on the bottle and see how that works, you can always decide if it needs more in the future. I find with my Iboga about a quarter what the directions say use on the bottle for shrubs does nicely. If it looks like it could use more try working up to half. Just like with Chacruna they say Iboga needs partial shade, however I have a 13w full spectrum bulb in a small tent lined with reflective material, like people use for Cannabis. I started out giving them lots of light, but since I have lowered them down to 8 hours of light a day and they are thriving. You can buy those small metal light fixtures at petsmart like people use for reptile tanks, and some low wattage full spectrum bulbs( I get mine at this Hippie CO-Operative ) and it would be pretty cheap, and your plant should love it. I would make sure your soil drains well, don't let it dry out but don't keep it sopping wet, you will get a good feel for it. Sometimes the leaves on my plants will get a little droopy and I know It's time to water them, It is neat to see them perk back up almost immediately.

 

[Frusciante]

A fellow Nexian in chat said fertilizer might be a little much for a cutting that young, he has lots of experience with Psychotria

 

[Sitra Ahra]

A fellow Nexian in chat said fertilizer might be a little much for a cutting that young, he has lots of experience with Psychotria

Thanks a lot for that. I hadnt bought any yet for that reason. Is there a hight/time period when it would be safe to start fertilizing?

and also you referred to it as a cutting, but Im pretty sure this guy was growing for a little while as it's roots were firmly anchored (4inchs down) in the pot of soil it was shipped in. Unless we're talking about the same thing in which case nvm. I just thought the term "cutting" referred to a piece of the plant and I know I paid for a whole plant.

oh yea, thanks for the advice!

 

[Crazyhorse]

A cutting is a little piece of a plant, that is made to grow roots and become a new plant of it's own. AKA a clone. But as long as it's still a baby, it's still appropriate to call it a cutting (as opposed to a seedling, which is what it would be at that stage if it were started from seed.)

Usually when something's that small you should only feed it about 1/4 strength nutrients, every other watering. So mix your fert to 1/4 the strength it suggests for adult plants, and alternate using that and plain water (preferably ph neutral). Otherwise the extra fertilizers that the plant can't use can basically end up poisoning it. It's good to let the soil go through wet and dry cycles, when it's dry the roots go looking for water and get stronger. Just don't let it dry out to the point where it wilts. Keep a close eye on your new baby and you'll get the hang of it!

 

[Sitra Ahra]

thanks a lot for the advice everyone! Hopefully if this turns out to be a success I'll be able start up my own little garden. I looked at some of the pictures in the gardening section and I must say I wouldnt mind a couple cacti or some phalaris. One day! Id try growing some caapi but from the looks of it they seem to get pretty big and since I live in NY Id have to grow it indoors...

and Im going to go for the artificial lighting Frusciante suggested Im just wondering how close to the plant it should be, any ideas?

 

[Crazyhorse]

Depends how strong the light is, but in general the nicest way to introduce your plant to brighter light is to start with the light far above, say about 3 or 4 feet, then very slowly lower it an inch or two every few days until it's about 12"-18" above. This is called "hardening off" and it helps tender young plants gradually get used to having more light. As it grows, raise the light a little at a time to keep it a foot or two above. Some small chains and s-hooks to hang your light on are helpful for this.

Also make sure you pay attention to the PH of the water you give them. Purified water is best, rather than tap, which has chlorine (poison). If you have to use tap, leave it sitting out in a bucket for 24 hours before watering, to let the chlorine gas escape from the water. For PH you can use an inexpensive liquid test for aquariums, or get a digital meter for a little more, but it's well worth spending a little time and money on. Measure AFTER adding your nutes, and adjust using PH up and down solutions made for plants. A plant can only absorb nutrients when they fall within a specific PH range, and when the water (or the soil) goes outside that range, they can't make use of the food that's there. So it builds up in the soil and ends up causing more problems.. which people often then try to fix by giving them even more fertilizer, potentially killing the plant.

 

[Sitra Ahra]

Also make sure you pay attention to the PH of the water you give them.

what should the ideal level be?

Measure AFTER adding your nutes, and adjust using PH up and down solutions made for plants. A plant can only absorb nutrients when they fall within a specific PH range

So add nutrients to the soil and then measure the pH of the soil? And if the pH is off I just add the appropriate solution to the soil? Are there any specific chemical brands to look for? I understand the pH scale a little from the basic chemistry section and I know you dont have to know the specific intricacies of it just to add chemicals and then take measurements, but it still might be time for a brush up.

 

[Crazyhorse]

what should the ideal level be?

Different plants like different levels, and I haven't grown these before so I'm not sure what they prefer. BUT, I have one of my own coming in the mail, so I'll find out soon! :thumb_up: There might be more info on this here already, I haven't actually looked yet. For now making it around neutral (6-7) is the best bet. This should help even out any imbalance the soil might already have.

So add nutrients to the soil and then measure the pH of the soil? And if the pH is off I just add the appropriate solution to the soil? Are there any specific chemical brands to look for? I understand the pH scale a little from the basic chemistry section and I know you dont have to know the specific intricacies of it just to add chemicals and then take measurements, but it still might be time for a brush up.

No not quite, testing soil PH is a pain, and adjusting it is even worse. But over time it will tend to even out near the ph of the water you give it. So mix your nutrients into the water, then measure and adjust the ph of the WATER before you feed them with it. The little liquid testing kits for aquariums work really well. You take a sample of your water, add a chemical and it changes color to tell you the PH. General hydroponics makes some very good buffered PH up and down solutions, and they're cheap. They come either in liquid or dry form, and dry is a much better deal. But they're very concentrated so you have to be careful with them, add just a tiny bit at a time, give it a few minutes then re-measure. Or you can pre-mix some into small bottles of water, and use that water to do your adjusting on the fertilizer mix (this is what you'd get buying the liquid form anyway, but you get a lot more for your money mixing it yourself).

Light and water are probably the most important variables to control, and can make all the difference in how well your plant does. The other two major variables are soil and air, and they tend to take care of themselves for the most part. As long as the water is the right PH, your soil should be too, you just have to make sure it doesn't stay too wet or get too dry. From what I understand, viridis does a pretty good job of adjusting to different temperatures and humidity, so the air hopefully shouldn't be much of a problem. But get a humidity gauge anyway and if it gets especially dry due to running AC or heaters (say below 50%), mist them with some water or add a humidifier on a timer.

 

[Crazyhorse]

Found some plant-specific info HERE.

 

[Sitra Ahra]

If anyone could help Ive been having a few problems. I didnt feed the plant anything except water the first week I got it. The top two leaves sorta started curling at the sides and a small curled section of the leaf began to turn brown. At the same time I was beginning to notice other (very small) brown spots appear on places where the leaves had turned a brighter green. I bought a full spectrum low watt bulb from the pet store along with some fish emulsions from walmart. I placed the p. viridis under a black mesh bag that I felt had a good shade-to-light ratio and fed it 1/4 the amount recommended on the bottle of fish emulsions. This seemed to stop the curling but now a few days have gone by and it appears to be getting spots again. I was instructed to feed it 7-14 days apart and only 1/4 the recommended amount since the plant is still young. Is it possible that I didnt feed it enough last time? Its just nerve racking because theres only so much you can do without over watering or overfeeding it.

and also on a side not Ive notice two small sprouts have appeared in the pot next to, but clearly separate from the main clump of cuttings, does this make sense?

 

[Crazyhorse]

I'm still learning about these plants, but it doesn't sound like underfeeding to me. When they are still small like this it would be very unlikely, they should hardly need anything. But it could be a humidity issue, leaf curling can be a sign the plant is trying to conserve water. Do you know what the humidity is? I'd cover it loosely with clear plastic and see if it perks up, maybe like a plastic cup with some holes punched in it. I've needed to do this with my baby caapi, but so far my psychotria (which turned out to be alba not viridis) seems ok. A picture might help.

 

[Ringworm]

Nice Psychotria alba.
it's a leaf cutting, which is nice.

thoughts?
pot is ten times too large, don't worry much about fertilizing, get more light.... you are looking for very intense filtered light. Imagine yourself in the tropics with the strong sun but dabbled shade under a tree, aim there.

best of luck

 

[Crazyhorse]

Hey Ringworm glad you stopped in, you obviously know a lot about these plants! I have a question for you that should help Sitra as well.

In the post I linked to above you gave me the hint that they seem to prefer acidic soil, which is good to know so I've been leaning mine in that direction. But you weren't specific about the PH of your water after adding the nutes, just that it was way acidic before adding them. Can you give us any more details on the final PH range we should be shooting for?

 

[Sitra Ahra]

thanks alot for the info you guys are really helping me out of this. I think ill macgyver a humidity tent out f a plastic bag with some holes. and I think if Im not mistaken Ive read in one of ringworm's threads that the ph should be 5.5

 

[Crazyhorse]

thanks alot for the info you guys are really helping me out of this. I think ill macgyver a humidity tent out f a plastic bag with some holes. and I think if Im not mistaken Ive read in one of ringworm's threads that the ph should be 5.5

That's probably the thread I linked to above, and that's not QUITE what he said. It says the SOIL started off at 5.5ph, but he was using "very acidic" well water (probably quite a bit lower than 5.5, which isn't that acidic, but he doesn't specify), then adding a fertilizer mix which could have either raised or lowered it from there. That's why I'm asking for a better idea of the final PH range after all that is taken into account.

 

[Ringworm]

I never stated that the soil and water *needed* to be ph 5.5
I only said that that was the range my water and soil was.
I *could* have limed the soil and used a different water but my Psychotria grew very well, so I never bothered.

Either way it is safe to say that they are alright with an acidic soil.