aizoaceous
Established member
After many tribulations, my P. viridis might finally be healthy. I obtained it as a rooted leaf with no shoots yet visible, in a pot of pure coir. I kept the pot covered in plastic wrap (for RH ~ 100%, with condensation on the plastic), indoors under white LEDs around 8 klux, 16 hour photoperiod.
Nothing happened except that the upper portion of the leaf slowly discolored and deformed. I repotted into 50/50 coir/perlite. I tried both pure water and hydroponic nutrient solution (EC ~ 1500 uS/cm, pH ~ 5.8) with no change. After about 9 months, I'd mostly lost hope; but I put it in a shady spot outdoors and a shoot appeared a few weeks later. That could just be time, but I'd guess it was the change in conditions, either lighting or day/night temperature.
I brought the plant back inside, since it can't survive winters here. It continued to grow, but the leaves began to turn brown and crispy. The natural indoor humidity gets as low as RH ~ 20% here, so I put it in a cloche to maintain ~90%. The leaves kept getting worse, though. I tried lower EC, also with no results. I moved it to lower light (around 3 klux) and apparently healthy growth has resumed. So my plant may finally be happy, about 15 months from acquisition.
Everything above seems consistent with typical reports on P. viridis--high humidity, low light, slow growth. I thought it might be helpful to provide some numbers, though. I haven't yet tested for alkaloids, but once it's bigger I'll take a sample and post the results in the same HPLC system that I've used for my Phalaris grass.
It would be interesting to see timelines and conditions from other (tentatively) successful growers too. P. viridis seems picky enough to benefit from quantifying, in particular with surprisingly low light tolerance--very few plants would get burned at 8 klux and 90% RH, but this one seems to.
Nothing happened except that the upper portion of the leaf slowly discolored and deformed. I repotted into 50/50 coir/perlite. I tried both pure water and hydroponic nutrient solution (EC ~ 1500 uS/cm, pH ~ 5.8) with no change. After about 9 months, I'd mostly lost hope; but I put it in a shady spot outdoors and a shoot appeared a few weeks later. That could just be time, but I'd guess it was the change in conditions, either lighting or day/night temperature.
I brought the plant back inside, since it can't survive winters here. It continued to grow, but the leaves began to turn brown and crispy. The natural indoor humidity gets as low as RH ~ 20% here, so I put it in a cloche to maintain ~90%. The leaves kept getting worse, though. I tried lower EC, also with no results. I moved it to lower light (around 3 klux) and apparently healthy growth has resumed. So my plant may finally be happy, about 15 months from acquisition.
Everything above seems consistent with typical reports on P. viridis--high humidity, low light, slow growth. I thought it might be helpful to provide some numbers, though. I haven't yet tested for alkaloids, but once it's bigger I'll take a sample and post the results in the same HPLC system that I've used for my Phalaris grass.
It would be interesting to see timelines and conditions from other (tentatively) successful growers too. P. viridis seems picky enough to benefit from quantifying, in particular with surprisingly low light tolerance--very few plants would get burned at 8 klux and 90% RH, but this one seems to.