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the_first_kms2

A Non Scientific look at Roots from my PSA Plants

the_first_kms2
10 years ago

After I had a chance to get my new plants home I decided to photograph the Up Potting process so that you can see the plants above the soil and below the soil.

I purchased plants from several PSA vendors and want to highlight 5 specific plants which I up potted yesterday and show the quality of the plants which you can buy from these vendors.

The purpose is not to judge or determine which vendor is better but to maybe give a different perspective/view of plants for everyone who can't just jump in a car and drive to the PSA plant sales.

The first plant is a one gallon 3 tip Polynesian Sunset purchased from "Tiki Tropical Treasures and The Plumeria Plantation." A nice rooted cutting. this plant appeared to be rooted within the last 3 months. The roots are new and reached the bottom of a 1 gallon pot. I thought the soil level in the container was a bit low but not alarming. here is a picture of the roots. I am not familiar with this cultivar yet but appears nicely developing but maybe a bit too wet. (side bar: it rained several times during last week).
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A 1 gallon two tip India purchased from George. A nice cutting and a very good price. I believe this was also rooted in the last 6-9 months. Here are the roots. IMO also nicely developed.
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A very nice 1 gallon four tip Hawaiian Sunset rooted cutting also purchased at a great price from George. You should see its twin sister Jandy bought. This cutting looks to me like it was been rooted longer. Perhaps late season last year. This was a great buy, lots of roots and a nice thick canopy cutting.
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The roots
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A 6 tip Dwarf Deciduous white purchased from Barbara R. She told me its nearly a year old. A very nice plant and I am glad to have bought from her.
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The roots
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here is a three tip grafted J105 from Florida Colors. I expected this would have the most developed roots due to the grafting onto rooted stock. This is my first purchase from Florida Colors. The graft on this plant is very good and clean.
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Roots
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A Mango Brush purchased from German C. I have three other plants bought from German in previous years. Some minor bark damage on the cutting and maybe rooted this spring. Initially I was surprised by the leaves in the bottom of the pot but peeling them off I was happy to find good roots through them. Again a bit wet but much was due to the previous days weather.
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I hope this gives some insight if you were curious about the plants which are sold at PSA sales. I would buy from all of them again.

Comments (9)

  • moonie_57 (8 NC)
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Looks like you had a lot of fun with some great plants!

    Thanks for taking the time to document those root systems for us. Was that price tag correct for your Mango Brush? If so, perhaps I should buy a plane ticket to the next sale. :)

  • chuy415
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Moonie, I had to zoom in on that price tag myself!!!

    Chuy

  • mksmth zone 7a Tulsa Oklahoma
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Moonie, chuy

    Looks like German recycles Houston Garden centers pots. that is their logo.

    $5.99 is a heck of a deal. In fact my first ever plumeria was a NOID(now know its white) that was a rooted single tip for $6 at home depot. for some reason they havent had them ever again

    K, looks like you got some great plants. Any reason for the leaves or you think it was just a dirty pot when he filled it.

    Mike

  • honeybunny2 Fox
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    K somehow I just knew that Barbara's plant would have roots like looked like that. She told me she uses miracle grow garden soil,. Emerson buys by the truck load, potting mix from his local nursery. The Corpus PSA members use MG, cow manure and perlite. I your special mix, but I do add compose with cow manure, and turface to your original recipe. This is what works in South Texas. I like the gritty mix for rooting cuttings, but when I tried it on my larger plants, it was like sending them down the green mile. Barbra

  • PRO
    the_first_kms2
    Original Author
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Mike,
    I got the impression leaves were purposely used as an inexpensive way to screen the drain holes. The picture posted was after I peeled a few large Red Oak leaves off the bottom of the root ball. Here is the picture before I pulled some leaves off.
    {{gwi:1179179}}

    Moonie, it was $6 if you divided the price by 6. I don't remember exactly how much the Mango Brush was.

    Barbara R. is a very nice lady. She was busy so I just had a few minutes to speak with her. Next time I am driving through Houston I'll see if I can visit with her.

    Again, I am not trying to point out the best or worst or anything in between. I just wanted to show how plants look when you buy them at sanctioned sales. Everyone can draw their own conclusions if this is better or worse than ebay or online sellers.

  • powderpuff
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    honeybunny2-- Can you explain what you meant about your bigger plants in the Gritty Mix please. SO far it seems to be working well but have noticed on some of my larger ones, the new leaves are distorted and wrinkly so getting a little worried. Also, my Kapalua has stopped putting out new leaves since I potted it in gritty and i am seriously considering taking it out and putting it back in the mix it was in when I got it. It seemed very happy in that mix. It does have a slowly developing inflo on one of the 8 tips, but there are no new leaves which concerns me.

  • beachplant
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have quite a few of those recycled pots myself! They have 50% off right now and soon it will be 70% off. I always put leaves in the bottom of pots to keep the soil from falling out. Sometimes I put a layer of sand from the back yard to keep the pots from tipping over.

    Miracle grow, commercial nursery mix or "good potting soil" are what everyone I know uses for their plumeria. Jimmy, at Jimbos, even uses it for his bromeliads.
    Tally HO!

  • honeybunny2 Fox
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Powderpuff, I just started buying plumeria plants in the last summer of 2011. I was looking trying to find the perfect soil to grow my plumeria I called the president of the Plumeria Society in Corpus Christi Tx, who was also the president of the Botantical Gardens in Corpus, and asked him what they use. They have the most beautiful display of Plumeira plants there you could ever imagine. He said they use Miracle Grow garden soil, commercial perlite, and alittle cow manure, to make their soil. Then I saw K's soil he makes. I went with K's mix, he had simple instructions, that were easy to follow, but I added a bag of compose cow manure to his mix. My plants grew like weeds. Then in the spring, I found the information on how to make gritty mix. I could never find the chicken grit, I used turface in its place. I have to say, all the cuttings I put in it in the spring rooted, I was impressed. I potted up my newly rooted cuttings in this gritty mix and put them in the yard in 5 gallon plastic pots next to the back fence, that get almost all day full sun. I was not worried because I have a sprinkler system that comes on every other day. I came back the next week and they were all shriveled up. They all died, just like everyone did on the green mile. I lost all those new plants. If you are able to water you plants every other day, and in the summer water every day, the gritty mix is great for growing plumeria and desert roses. In Texas we have weeks of temps over 100 degrees. Some of on this forum, get together and meet to discuss plumeria, they had similar experiences trying to grow plumeria in the gritty mix. I love the gritty mix for rooting, but not for growing my plants. I am sticking with what works for me in Texas. I have renamed K's soil and now refer to it as " Special K" soil . and Barbra

  • No-Clue
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow that's way cool! Thank you for sharing that. All your plants look fantastic!!