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#1
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Sick proteas
I have quite a few proteas which are in poor shape. They are grown from seed sourced locally (in the illawarra) from clay/loam soil and sandstone soil. Not all plants are affected, but many are. The symptoms are yellow and stunted growth. They are in a medium of clay/loam soil mixed with 20% coir and 10% sand and perlite mix. A picture is at: http://www.speedlink.com.au/users/kd21/sick-plants.jpg Any suggestions as to what's wrong, or remidies greatly appreciated. -- Replace abuse with kd21 in email address to assure valid reply address. |
#2
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Sick proteas
Oh Holy One,
in the absence of any more enlightened reply, I've a few pointers. Btw, are these "proteas" exotic, eg nursery trade "natives" from S. Africa, or real native proteaceous plants, eg. Banksias, Hakeas, etc? The following tips are general for proteaceous plants anyway: 1. Firstly, knock a few plants out and inspect the root ball. Is it overcrowded or badly kinked or round and round the ball; the mix dried out or full of ants or worms or curl grubs; can you see fine fanned whitish structures on the roots (the proteoid roots from whence the family name derives); is it just a big gluggy pasty lump? All of these point to a poor potting mix or infrequent watering or poor potting practice. Suggest removing any pests and repotting in a more open mix (cheap commercial potting mix is fine - I usually use stuff that is about $2 for 25L). Most proteaceous plants refer well drained soil, despite the fact yours appear to be derived from a clayey area. 2. Proteaceous plants commonly suffer iron deficiency chlorosis (lack of green in the leaves). You can get iron chelate from any nursery/hardware and apply according to directions. If the leaves green up in a week, that was the problem. 3. A lot of people underfeed their proteaceous plants for fear of dreaded phosphorous toxicity - your pix don't appear to show P toxicity. To check yours for underfeeding, apply a high N (maybe 15-25%N), low P (less than 3%P) soluble fertiliser (often sold as 'suitable for natives') according to directions. If the leaves green up in a week, that was the problem. As mark Twain once said,"I'd love to tell you more, but I've already told you more than I know." Good luck, Jim "Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish" wrote in message ... I have quite a few proteas which are in poor shape. They are grown from seed sourced locally (in the illawarra) from clay/loam soil and sandstone soil. Not all plants are affected, but many are. The symptoms are yellow and stunted growth. They are in a medium of clay/loam soil mixed with 20% coir and 10% sand and perlite mix. A picture is at: http://www.speedlink.com.au/users/kd21/sick-plants.jpg Any suggestions as to what's wrong, or remidies greatly appreciated. -- Replace abuse with kd21 in email address to assure valid reply address. |
#3
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Sick proteas
"Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish" wrote in message
... I have quite a few proteas which are in poor shape. They are grown from seed sourced locally (in the illawarra) from clay/loam soil and sandstone soil. Not all plants are affected, but many are. The symptoms are yellow and stunted growth. They are in a medium of clay/loam soil mixed with 20% coir and 10% sand and perlite mix. A picture is at: http://www.speedlink.com.au/users/kd21/sick-plants.jpg Any suggestions as to what's wrong, or remidies greatly appreciated. In article , J & A Haig wrote: Oh Holy One, in the absence of any more enlightened reply, I've a few pointers. Btw, are these "proteas" exotic, eg nursery trade "natives" from S. Africa, or real native proteaceous plants, eg. Banksias, Hakeas, etc? The following tips are general for proteaceous plants anyway: These are real native proteas sourced from local seed. 1. Firstly, knock a few plants out and inspect the root ball. Is it overcrowded or badly kinked or round and round the ball; the mix dried out or full of ants or worms or curl grubs; can you see fine fanned whitish structures on the roots (the proteoid roots from whence the family name derives); is it just a big gluggy pasty lump? All of these point to a poor potting mix or infrequent watering or poor potting practice. Suggest removing any pests and repotting in a more open mix (cheap commercial potting mix is fine - I usually use stuff that is about $2 for 25L). Most proteaceous plants refer well drained soil, despite the fact yours appear to be derived from a clayey area. The Banksia integrifolia doesn't produce proteoid roots. I think I see evidence of such in the grevillias. We prepare our potting mix very carefully (we have 2 acres to plant on a small budget so we have a lot of plants) with plenty of additives to open the structure out 2. Proteaceous plants commonly suffer iron deficiency chlorosis (lack of green in the leaves). You can get iron chelate from any nursery/hardware and apply according to directions. If the leaves green up in a week, that was the problem. I'll try this out. I don't understand quite why it doesn't affect all individuals from a batch. Maybe it's genetics. As mark Twain once said,"I'd love to tell you more, but I've already told you more than I know." Good luck, Jim Cheers Thanks for the help. -- Replace abuse with kd21 in email address to assure valid reply address. |
#4
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Sick proteas
In article ,
Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish wrote: in the absence of any more enlightened reply, I've a few pointers. Btw, are these "proteas" exotic, eg nursery trade "natives" from S. Africa, or real native proteaceous plants, eg. Banksias, Hakeas, etc? The following tips are general for proteaceous plants anyway: These are real native proteas sourced from local seed. There are no native proteas. -- Chookie -- Sydney, Australia (Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply) Once long ago, against her breast, a mother hush'd a babe to rest Who was the Prince of heav'n above, the Lord of gentleness and love... John Wheeler, 'The Silver Stars are in the Sky' |
#5
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Sick proteas
In article ehrebeniuk-6E5920.21061401012003@news, Chookie wrote:
In article , Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish wrote: These are real native proteas sourced from local seed. There are no native proteas. You'll have to tell that to Volume 5(?) of the flora of Australia then. There are no native Proteaceae in the genus Protea in Australia, but Australia has the most diverse collection of plants in the family Proteaceae of all the contintents. One of the proteaceae even makes it into the emblem of one of the states. -- Replace abuse with kd21 in email address to assure valid reply address. |
#6
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Sick proteas
There are no native Proteaceae in the genus Protea in
Australia Do you mean there are native proteas in another family in Australia??? I'll think youll find that there are no native proteas in the pure sense, the closest youll find is the telopea sp. But really, isnt classifaction a un-natural clumping of species into genus into family? David |
#7
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Sick proteas
In article ,
Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish wrote: There are no native proteas. You'll have to tell that to Volume 5(?) of the flora of Australia then. There are no native Proteaceae in the genus Protea in Australia, but Australia has the most diverse collection of plants in the family Proteaceae of all the contintents. One of the proteaceae even makes it into the emblem of one of the states. Just because Proteas are Proteaceae does not mean that all Proteaceae are Proteas! And it's my state, of course. -- Chookie -- Sydney, Australia (Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply) Once long ago, against her breast, a mother hush'd a babe to rest Who was the Prince of heav'n above, the Lord of gentleness and love... John Wheeler, 'The Silver Stars are in the Sky' |
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