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begonia2005

Red Summit....how long until plant will fill out?

Begonia2005
11 years ago

One of the 3 starter plants I bought from LLG almost 2 months ago was Red Summit. It came with a very tiny bud and some pretty long, lanky leaves. I decided to leave the bud on because I wanted to see how the bloom will look like; but later, I had one grow light that the plant was sitting under fall right off and land on one of the leaves of Red Summit, obviously breaking it.

So now, the poor plant is limp/has un ugly gap, and has a long way to go until it will actually have nice all around foliage.

However, the long awaited bloom is finally here and it is big and beautiful; so now I really have an incentives to get this plant where it needs to be.

Any idea how long it will take for this plant to fill out? There is another tiny bud coming but this time I will cut it off so the plant can focus on producing more leaves.

The center is also growing slightly pale, yellowish.

Unfortunately, I have been known for forgetting the growth lights on until very late at night; is this a sign that the plant is getting too much light and that I need to put the lights on a timer? That is probably long due as my other plants tend to show slightly yellowish, pale centers too.


Comments (13)

  • Begonia2005
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Love the bloom a lot...and now I am itching to get the apparently even more popular Pink Summit; but I will wait until Spring. :-)

  • Empress012
    11 years ago

    I am an absolute newbie and am very brutal with my plants but I will make a suggestion. You don't have to do it but it is what I would do. And I would cut off all the outer leaves and leave the tight center.
    Propagate the adult leaves but in actually those huge gaps will never fill in. AV grow in a sort of spiral and will continually grow outward but not into those spaces.
    Hope this helps some. Good luck!

  • aegis1000
    11 years ago

    I'm not big on removing productive leaves. I know that some do, but my feeling is that the more leaves, the more growth mechanism (i.e. chlorophyll), and faster growth. IMO, leaves can always be removed when the plant has more growth.

    BTW, eventually, new layers of leaves will provide new complete rosettes of leaves, thus filling in the gap.

    Pink Summit is a great grower. Hopefully, Red Summit is, as well.

  • plantomaniac08
    11 years ago

    Wow, that flower is just gorgeous.

    Planto

  • aviolet6
    11 years ago

    It looks ok, but you should definitely use timers. You won't have to monitor as much and it will be easier to adjust more or less light when needed. Red Summit is one of my difficult plants. It usually gets not enough or too much light. Maybe with your natural and artificial light combo you will get it right.

  • Begonia2005
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I am hesitant about removing all the larger leaves because this is what I have done to another plant - I took off several large leaves at once - and it went down hill from there. I think I will just probably wait for new growth to come in and for the plant to follow its natural course. When the time of these older leaves is up, they will go by themselves.
    I ordered the least expensive timer from indoorgardening though I am still not sure exactly how it works. I guess I will see when it arrives.

  • Begonia2005
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    This plant grows very spindly for me. Not one of my favorites when it comes to leaves. It does have nice blooms though.

  • irina_co
    10 years ago

    Long petioles and as a result - not fully covered pot - is a feature of a lot of Lyndon Lyon hybrids - but the blossoms are superb. Try to keep it closer to the lights - put some kind of raiser under it. People grow LLG hybrids to show under 4 lights to stimulate shorter petioles. Tell us if it helps.

    I.

  • irina_co
    10 years ago

    Long petioles and as a result - not fully covered pot - is a feature of a lot of Lyndon Lyon hybrids - but the blossoms are superb. Try to keep it closer to the lights - put some kind of raiser under it. People grow LLG hybrids to show under 4 lights to stimulate shorter petioles. Tell us if it helps.

    I.

  • philpet
    10 years ago

    I bought one but it was not in bloom and it look like the top was remove so it would send out suckers its a really beautiful one you have. But I seem to can't keep any of my AV, alive for long. Could some please tell me how to post pics here so I could send a picture, I really need help to keep mine from dying.

  • bragu_DSM 5
    10 years ago

    To post a pic:
    identify your pic with a name you can remember

    drag it to your desktop

    go to the post a follow-up section

    go to the "choose file" tag above your user name and find the file on your desktop

    a dialog box should open on your computer, go to your desktop and hit "choose" on the file you wanna upload

    hit preview message

    hit submit message

    dkB

    dave

  • PRO
    Whitelacey
    10 years ago

    I agree with Aegis. I can see no good reason to remove productive leaves. Plants have a root-to-leaf ratio. If one is reduced drastically, the other will suffer as a result.

    To post pictures, i choose the Browse button, then select my pictures. After I find the photo I want I hit save. Easy-peasy.

    Linda

  • philpet
    10 years ago

    Thanks dave and linda, but I am using a blackberry bold 9900, don't have a desktop compter so how do I send it from a mobile phone?

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