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Botany The Acacia Grow Thread

Growing logs with advice and results.
Migrated topic.
Sure here are some pics. I've taken some close ups of various stages of rigor as well as a snap of the lot.

Yep, they are close to 13-15 years old, and who knows how long the seed seller had them. They were really good germ rates when I first got them. Happy to just grow a few of these, mostly wanting to focus on NSW coastal species myself, especially the one pictured and floribunda.
 

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I would maybe start by putting them in a more shaded area. If you think about the environment of a seedling in nature, they are essentially shaded by grasses, trees and other ground cover. Rarely would they be so exposed. As they mature and gain height, they become more exposed to the sun. I think attempting to emulate this kind of lighting would greatly strengthen your plants. As soon as I took my seedlings out of the sun they started to get much healthier new growth.. and much more of it too.

Remember that when a plant is surrounded by other plants, a microclimate is created. It would make sense that the microclimate is fairly humid - as moisture would be constantly evaporating/precipitating within the little clusters of plants. Even the way you water your plants can sort of emulate this.. seedlings wouldn’t be getting dumped on directly by rain.. it would usually be trickling off of other plants onto them and running down their stems. This is why I like to water sensitive young seedlings gently with a mister.. .. it is more time consuming watering like this but when they are young I suspect the heavy jets of water from a can are a little traumatic to them! often very young seedlings will look pretty knocked around after watering this way. even the older plants seem to love a good mist each day too

Currently I use 70% shade cloth which is working well.. seedlings are vibrant and churning out foliage every day. Once they are around a foot or so high I would start introducing it to a little more sun light. Starting with morning sun for an hour or two is a gentle introduction to the elements.

That in combination with rethinking your growing medium should hopefully put them back on a healthier trajectory. I also think the main stem would breathe better if they were centered in the pots.

Some food for thought :)
 
That's quite a lot of excellent points you raise. When I first grew acacias I babied them way to much and they died and so I adjusted but reading your post I can see that I've swung too far in the opposite direction. I have been gentle with watering them, unfortunately when I got to our new place I put them in a place that got a lot of heavy watering due to a malfunctioning gutter and so that knocked a lot of cotyledons off. I'll have a think of where is a good place, probably where I have my caapi cuttings going.
 
An example of planting an already germinated seed.. this one already has quite a tail.. so tells you how it should be oriented..
 
Below an example of how I place germinated seeds into the soil..its especially relevant if sowing it direct into its own pot (in this case I'm sowing in a germination tray and will tranceplant in a couple weeks) This sprout already has a bit of a tail so basically tells you how to orient it. I make a small hole in the soil with scissors or a chop stick.. and let the tap root go into the hole. Press the soil inwards around the sprout a little.. cover seed with about half a cm soil and a touch of gravel to anchor it. I find doing this way helps keep it pretty central.. Covering with too much soil can cause the seed to rot or be displaced as the moves it.. never making its way to the surface.

Notice in the second pic the way the seeds sit when the sprouts are anchored downwards. It is essentially the same as how a seedling will poke up through the soil.
 

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Awesome stuff guys. There's some really solid info in this thread. Here's a few photos of my recently acquired Acacia obtusifolia. I can't take credit for growing them from seed but I'm extremely happy to have these young acacia in my possession. The sun has really kicked in over the last few days so I've had to reposition them (and my acuminata) to a more shaded spot. I've noticed after an hour or so of intense sunlight the tips of the phyllodes will start to soften and droop/curl (is this ok?). They seem to bounce back fine, thankfully. Maybe a bit of adaptive stress is good for the little guys...
 

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And here's a few acuminata broad and narrow leaf, roughly 2-3 months old.
 

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CheeseCat said:
Awesome stuff guys. There's some really solid info in this thread. Here's a few photos of my recently acquired Acacia obtusifolia. I can't take credit for growing them from seed but I'm extremely happy to have these young acacia in my possession. The sun has really kicked in over the last few days so I've had to reposition them (and my acuminata) to a more shaded spot. I've noticed after an hour or so of intense sunlight the tips of the phyllodes will start to soften and droop/curl (is this ok?). They seem to bounce back fine, thankfully. Maybe a bit of adaptive stress is good for the little guys...
Click to expand...
Yeah my obtuse (and maidenii) do the same.. I'll be honest I haven't let them stick around in the hot sun for long enough to find out how they recover.. so can't say whether they'd spruce up after a while. But I think if you have grown them in a shady position its best to incrementally introduce direct sun. I'd start with the more gentle early morning sun for a little while each day and slowly increase the time.. maybe a little late afternoon light too. Too much of that mid day sun seems to quickly stress them at that age. They just look too unhappy to leave them like that. I'd play it safe and introduce a hardening regime. How old is your obtuse?

They are looking good! Nice to see more obtuse in cultivation. Never get bored of those glowing veins. I've noticed people tend to shy away from growing obtuse as it has a reputation of being slow growing.. I'm finding it actually pretty good. It was about an inch tall in september and decimated from continuous frost.. it has since bounced back and its around 60cm in height now and powering on. The phleb now a similar height in 6 months since sprouting.

Look forward to seeing you growing out some seed from those floribunda you have worked with :)
 
I'm not too sure how old they are, maybe one year? I don't know a lot about obtusifolia, I've only had them one month but I can see they've definitely gotten bigger, perhaps not as fast growing as acuminata.

Your obtuse look beautiful, a bit more tidier looking than mine and the phyllodes look narrower. Maybe the phyllodes of mine will become more uniform as they mature...

Look forward to seeing you growing out some seed from those floribunda you have worked with
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Me too! A few days ago I soaked 6 seeds and put them in tubes - surprisingly they didn't swell-up after soaking (24hrs) so they might be dormant for a while. Also, I inoculated the seeds while they were soaking in water - the problem with this, is they are almost impossible to retrieve amongst the inoculation soil. I'm thinking I might experiment with the paper towel method next.
 

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CheeseCat said:
Me too! A few days ago I soaked 6 seeds and put them in tubes - surprisingly they didn't swell-up after soaking (24hrs) so they might be dormant for a while. Also, I inoculated the seeds while they were soaking in water - the problem with this, is they are almost impossible to retrieve amongst the inoculation soil. I'm thinking I might experiment with the paper towel method next.
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How did you treat the seeds? Did you nik the seed coat or soak in boiling water? If you have the patience nik and cold water soak followed by placing on damp paper towel in dark space is pretty reliable. I get better germ rates that way but if I am sowing a lot of seeds I'll just boil them and sow direct into mix. And if its really hot they can rot easily on the damp towell method.. I am now picking days where its rainy or mild

And yeah.. I find that an issue with innoculating in the water too.. I think putting some of your innoculation soil into your potting mix should still work well.. that way the bacteria will still make contact with the roots

below some Acacia pendula that germed very quickly .. and below that is what they will hopefully one day grow it
 

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Hehe.. there’s plenty of failed attempts in there ;) .. you guys are seeing the successful ones

And yeah pendula is gorgeous! Really love some of those north west slopes species.. different world of plants to the coast/hinterland.
 
Epic, it's growing incredibly well! Very satisfying I'd imagine. I think Plebo wins the the prize for "most enchanting leaf with anastomisation".

It's interesting they sprouted in winter. Do you sow seeds all year round or mostly in spring and early summer? I wasn't sure if I should try to germinate more seeds now or not...
 
I sow in spring and summer.. the reason I continue sowing in summer is because we get frost for a lot of our spring.. so late spring early summer is guaranteed no frost. I sowed the phlebs in feb and they came up in July.. they’re known to germinate erratically. Being an alpine species, phleb doesn't mind the harsh winter.. even as a seedling
 
I'd say in areas that don't get frost through spring that then is the ideal time.. that way come next winter they are more mature and equipped to handle the cold.

Northern tablelands is a bit of a tricky climate. If you sow early spring and don't have the right setup your seedlings will probably die when the frost hits. Earlier this year I lost about 70% of my seedlings in the span of about a week.. it was pretty heart breaking. My new green house should do better

So surely more nexians are growing Acacias than the three of us.. I'd love to see what people are growing abroad!
 
acacian said:
I'd say in areas that don't get frost through spring that then is the ideal time.. that way come next winter they are more mature and equipped to handle the cold.

Northern tablelands is a bit of a tricky climate. If you sow early spring and don't have the right setup your seedlings will probably die when the frost hits. Earlier this year I lost about 70% of my seedlings in the span of about a week.. it was pretty heart breaking. My new green house should do better

So surely more nexians are growing Acacias than the three of us.. I'd love to see what people are growing abroad!
Click to expand...

Yessss! I'll start my attempt in a few weeks by growing acacia's from seeds:grin: . I just have to wait a bit more for warmer temperatures as one my daily concerns now is the survival of a dozen of my Psychotria viridis plants (apparantly they seem to survive 15 °C until now). I'll keep you posted!
 
A few of the viable acuminata seeds have started to throw out their root. I'll give it a few more days before potting then up.
 

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