Korina, the fastest way I know to "green up" chorotic leaves is to use some fish fertilizer diluted 1/4 teaspoon to a gallon of water. Fish fertilizer doesn't get odiferous for me when I give just the amount that will be taken up by each plant within an hour (dump the remaining fluid in saucers). Excess which is mixed but not used should be discarded, otherwise it will give off an odour.

Marilyn

Eww. I was afraid it was something like that. I'm vegetarian, *and* I only have 25 or so 2" pots; I assume it only comes in large quantities. C'est la vie.

Thanks for you help, Marilyn.

Korina

'I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.' -Wash

Someone once told me that iron suppliments will green up foliage on gesneriads. But, I've never tried this. I don't even know what kind to buy. But, look in the garden section and you might find this, and it might work. Or you might be wasting your money. I've never found a way to green up foliage. Give the plants a good feeding though, and grow them in good light. If they look vigorous the color of the leaves will be less noticable.

Jon

Thanks, Jon, I'll give it a try. The sale's a week away now; next Friday and Saturday. Oy.

Korina (wake me up when it's over...)

If you say ewww to fish emulsion you should prepare yourself for this 'cause it's really double-ewww! (but maybe vegetarian?) A good gardening friend of mine used to live in Trinidad. The ladies there fertilized their plants with their own diluted urine. We all went ewww! when she told us at our meeting, but I had some plants I couldn't green up (that's a brand name for an iron supplement, by the way--green-up) and I decided to try it on them. Worked beautifully. FWIW

I feed some of my other plants a bit of "Liquid Iron" about once a month. It contains chelated iron, copper, manganese, and zinc. This is a Ferti-lome product, about $3 for a 16fl.oz. bottle at the hardware store.

Never tried it as a foliar spray, or on my gesneriads. I shall experiment on a couple of my C. tamianas and see what happens.

~Brambles

Well, it didn't really matter that they weren't the best looking little things. On Friday we sold all 10 that clients had made pots for, and on Saturday (when I wasn't there) they sold the rest. Go figure...

Korina (relieved, but oddly a little sad too)

In 1999 at the AGGS convention in Nashville, the first tamiana plants or leaves sold for a lot of money in the benefit auction--I think it was at least $100. The next year at the 2000 convention in Tampa, the plant was no longer rare and exclusive. Little spindly starter plants were given as table favors at various meals. I ended up with five of them, which I brought back to California. Some I gave away and the ones I grew came into flower in only 3 months. I think they couldn't have been older than 2-3 months when I got them. So, Korina your little plants will soon all be flowering for those that got them--doing what I like to call "putting up their clam shells".
Jon