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michelia alba - fertilizer?
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Posted by charlottelily 8a (My Page) on Fri, Feb 2, 07 at 19:14
| I got my beautiful m. alba for Christmas, and now it is doing quite well. I love the plant - even the leaves are so lovely - so big and green.
One problem was the air in the room was quite dry and it got infested with little aphids/mites (?) I put it into the shower (wrapped up pot) and washed off the leaves. It doesn't seem to have much damage and the branches continue to put out nice green shoots. I bought a humidifier and hope this will help.
However, when the plant came home from the nursery, there were several blooms (which I was very pleased to find lasted much longer than m. figo). Now I don't see any new buds.
What can I do to encourage flowering? Of course, there was not a lot of light over the winter. So maybe it is the season? Also, what kind of fertilizing schedule should I follow? I understand they like acidic soil?
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RE: michelia alba - fertilizer?
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Now it is not the season for M. ALBA 's flowering in your zone.
And it is not the fertilizing season either. We fertilize our M.ALBA in the end of Feb.or early March when it start to put out new leaves in Southern CA (outside the house).
M. ALBA likes warm and humity environment. It likes weak acidc soil (say PH 6.2)and acidic water. It needs heavy fertilizer when it in growing and blooming season.
I would suggest you to start fertilizing it when you can move it out of the house and it start to grow new leaves.
Any balanced fertilizer will be fine for M. ALBA. I give them Fish Emulsion, 2 table spoon per galon and once a wk.In summer, twice a wk.MiraGrow is good too and it can decrease the ph of our hard water here.
Now your M. ALBA stays in your house w/ less light. Just let it sleep which lots of the plants need it in the winter. During this time giving it less water (say once two wks thrououtly). Keep the humity high in the house is a good idea.
Hope it heplful! |
RE: michelia alba - fertilizer?
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| Thanks for the info - much appreciated. Do you find m. alba particularly susceptible to aphids/mites? There was quite a heavy infestation suddenly, although it was quite easy to gently wipe off the bugs, but I wonder if I move it outside in warm weather, whether it will become infested again. Although the light level is relatively low right now, it is putting out a lot of new healthy growth. I really wonder how big it will get and whether it will be feasible to keep moving it in and out! |
RE: michelia alba - fertilizer?
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We almost have no aphids/mites infestation of M. ALBA here. And it is also easily get rid of it by washing or pest-killer spray. M. ALBA usually is resistant to the pest infestations.
You don't have to worry about it. M. ALBA will be a big tree if it is planted in the ground. Some people keep it in the container in order to be moved into the house during the winter. To do so, the roots need to be trimed in order to control the size of the tree. I have no experience of how and when to do that.
I read a paper here several years ago, that the M. ALBA can reach 12' in the container. However, he keeps it in the container in a fixed place. M. ALBA don't like to be moved so often. You may search it in this forum or ask other people by raising another topic when you are facing this issue. Good luck! |
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