Gardening: (2016– )

[heidih]

30 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Thanks.  Can you be a bit more specific?  Do you think it's a good idea to go in there with knife and/or scissors and cut out a bunch of roots?  And what do you mean by "pull apart"?  It's a single tree, not a grass or bunch of plants where the roots have grown together.

You will probably feel like "oh gawd I've killed it now". But of you don't do something it may perish. The method I was taught and used at our Botanic Garden is pretty simple:

1. With your hands strip all the roots that are very yellow and lifeless looking.

2. Pull off the ones that faced the bottom of the pot or cut off a few inches if the roots were sitting at bottom of pot. They need space.

3. With a serrated knife cut maybe 4    around perimeter about 1-1/2 to 2' deep.

4. Stick your thumbs in there and pull apart enough to give the rootball breathing space

5. Re-pot in  nice medium and feed

 

Best of luck!

[KennethT]

12 minutes ago, heidih said:

You will probably feel like "oh gawd I've killed it now". But of you don't do something it may perish. The method I was taught and used at our Botanic Garden is pretty simple:

1. With your hands strip all the roots that are very yellow and lifeless looking.

2. Pull off the ones that faced the bottom of the pot or cut off a few inches if the roots were sitting at bottom of pot. They need space.

3. With a serrated knife cut maybe 4    around perimeter about 1-1/2 to 2' deep.

4. Stick your thumbs in there and pull apart enough to give the rootball breathing space

5. Re-pot in  nice medium and feed

 

Best of luck!

Thanks - this makes sense.  What's interesting is that since I always let the root zone dry out a bit between waterings (I have a moisture sensor in there) and I also use an enyzmatic product with every watering that essential eats rot, none of the roots look yellow or lifeless - they all look great.  And since it was in a fabric pot, all of the roots were air pruned so it doesn't have the classic potted plant root bound look.

 

I guess I"m just trying to decide whether I should trim the roots and put back in teh same size fabric pot, or put it in a larger one.

[heidih]

1 minute ago, KennethT said:

Thanks - this makes sense.  What's interesting is that since I always let the root zone dry out a bit between waterings (I have a moisture sensor in there) and I also use an enyzmatic product with every watering that essential eats rot, none of the roots look yellow or lifeless - they all look great.  And since it was in a fabric pot, all of the roots were air pruned so it doesn't have the classic potted plant root bound look.

 

I guess I"m just trying to decide whether I should trim the roots and put back in teh same size fabric pot, or put it in a larger one.

 

Ah I see now. Personally I'd go a little bigger on the pot. Again good luck. 

[TicTac]

2 hours ago, heidih said:

 

Ah I see now. Personally I'd go a little bigger on the pot. Again good luck. 

I agree - looks to me that it was starved for space.

 

Such a different growth pattern than mine.  I will get a pic in a second up here, but your leaf branches are so spread apart.  Mine has grown far more compact and dense.  It's year two I have had it, this will be it's second winter inside by a south facing window. 

[TicTac]

[KennethT]

7 minutes ago, TicTac said:

Mine had the same growth pattern (but it was like 3x as tall) - but I kept pruning branches that were sickly, so this is what's left.  I let it go way too long before checking it out.  Before it started not looking so good it was really bushy and grew ridiculously fast.  I woudl top it and by the next week, it had put out like 3 new branches that would already by 6 inches long each.  You could practically sit down and watch it grow.

[KennethT]

I wound up trimming the roots  - I trimmed about an inch off the bottom and then made about 6 wedges (top to bottom) in the root ball to make space so I could gently pull apart what's left.  I'm going to put it i the same size pot for now - one issue with coco coir is planting something in too big of a container - ideally with coco coir, you want to the media to dry out fast enough to have to fertigate frequently rather than having to water occasionally.  Using too big of a pot is a recipe for root rot issues.  So now that I've pruned a bunch of the roots, I'll put it back in the same fabric pot and keep an eye on it to transfer the whole new rootball into a larger one in the somewhat near future.

[KennethT]

Also, lately, it's been shaded a lot by the lemongrass which has really exploded lately.  It's practically shading the whole garden!

[haresfur]

My curry tree has been looking kind of sad for a few years, since the apprentice servicing the evaporative cooler on the roof dropped his ladder on it. I'm letting a couple of suckers grow up in case I decide to chop it off and start over. But the Eastern Rosellas love it as is.

 

I've pretty much maxed out the possible pot size.

[heidih]

36 minutes ago, haresfur said:

My curry tree has been looking kind of sad for a few years, since the apprentice servicing the evaporative cooler on the roof dropped his ladder on it. I'm letting a couple of suckers grow up in case I decide to chop it off and start over. But the Eastern Rosellas love it as is.

 

I've pretty much maxed out the possible pot size.

Aw give the darling rosies their treat - They eat the fruits?- or just like to hang out?

[haresfur]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

Aw give the darling rosies their treat - They eat the fruits?- or just like to hang out?

 

I think they don't eat the fruit. They nest in a hole in my brickwork and tend to disappear when the young ones fledge before the fruit forms. I'm not sure the fruit is good for anything. I pinch off most of the flowers to try to encourage leaf growth.

[TicTac]

@KennethT - You may just want to prune her back down really low and get her starting anew...

 

 

[KennethT]

34 minutes ago, TicTac said:

@KennethT - You may just want to prune her back down really low and get her starting anew...

 

 

you might be surprised to hear this, but that's what I did!  It was at least 33% taller before i took that photo!  I've seen a lot of YouTube videos who grow curry leaf trees outside - this time of year they'll drop most or all of their leaves, but in the spring they'll come back bigger than before, so I'm hopeful that it will do well once it gets over the root trimming shock.  I've also moved it away from the main garden area because it was being crowded by the lemongrass, so now it's got a lot more space and its own light.  I'm not giving it too much light for the first few days so it can reestablish some roots.

[KennethT]

@liuzhouhow's your mushroom log doing?

[TicTac]

4 hours ago, KennethT said:

you might be surprised to hear this, but that's what I did!  It was at least 33% taller before i took that photo!  I've seen a lot of YouTube videos who grow curry leaf trees outside - this time of year they'll drop most or all of their leaves, but in the spring they'll come back bigger than before, so I'm hopeful that it will do well once it gets over the root trimming shock.  I've also moved it away from the main garden area because it was being crowded by the lemongrass, so now it's got a lot more space and its own light.  I'm not giving it too much light for the first few days so it can reestablish some roots.

You should have seen mine when it arrived.  I actually ordered it the first summer of the pandemic, my first time ever buying herbs/plants online...and splurged for the curry leaf plant amongst a few others.  It was about $15 from what I remember; but it being the pandemic and horded up at home, with a need to enjoy more mentally rewarding 'little things' I paid that ridiculous sum for a cutting of a plant (I do not even pay that much for 30%+thc strain clones!) I knew little about.  When it arrived, I was extremely disturbed to see a 4"....twig (sans leaf(s)), protruding from a tiny 2x2" cell.  Well that little runt of a pricey twig turned out to have some guts to her, and with a little TLC; turned out into the cute little bush (as seen above) that she is today.

 

 

[heidih]

12 minutes ago, TicTac said:

You should have seen mine when it arrived.  I actually ordered it the first summer of the pandemic, my first time ever buying herbs/plants online...

I was also shocked when I first went to Kartuz. But every one of those tiny things turned into lusty grownups. They know what they are doing   https://www.kartuz.com/

[KennethT]

40 minutes ago, TicTac said:

You should have seen mine when it arrived.  I actually ordered it the first summer of the pandemic, my first time ever buying herbs/plants online...and splurged for the curry leaf plant amongst a few others.  It was about $15 from what I remember; but it being the pandemic and horded up at home, with a need to enjoy more mentally rewarding 'little things' I paid that ridiculous sum for a cutting of a plant (I do not even pay that much for 30%+thc strain clones!) I knew little about.  When it arrived, I was extremely disturbed to see a 4"....twig (sans leaf(s)), protruding from a tiny 2x2" cell.  Well that little runt of a pricey twig turned out to have some guts to her, and with a little TLC; turned out into the cute little bush (as seen above) that she is today.

 

 

Do you know what variety of curry plant you have?  There are 3 varieties - 1 in particular grows really slowly.  The one I have grows like a weed.

[liuzhou]

9 hours ago, KennethT said:

@liuzhouhow's your mushroom log doing?

 

It's doing OK, but seems to have entered a dormant phase. The existing fungi are fine, but no new growth. I know ganoderma is a slower type, so I'm not too concerned, yet.

[TicTac]

3 hours ago, KennethT said:

Do you know what variety of curry plant you have?  There are 3 varieties - 1 in particular grows really slowly.  The one I have grows like a weed.

Not entirely sure.  I did not know there was more than one varietal - but different pheno's surely make sense!  Got mine from Richter's herbs.

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, TicTac said:

Not entirely sure.  I did not know there was more than one varietal - but different pheno's surely make sense!  Got mine from Richter's herbs.

http://heritagegarden.uic.edu/curry-leaf-tree-murraya-koenigii

 

ETA: I don't know how strong the gamthi type is, but i can't imagine any type that is stronger than the standard type which is what I have.  I got the start from Logees Greenhouse.  With this plant, you pretty much have to get a start from somewhere since it grows incredibly slowly from seed, and it won't propagate from a branch you get from the grocery store.

Edited December 20, 2021 by KennethT (log)

[KennethT]

An update on my curry leaf tree.  It seems like it is much happier after my root trimming and agressive pruning.  Lots of new growth buds happening!

 

[KennethT]

So I was able to move around some of the plants - I put the two trees by the window - not that it matters that it's near the window - it's a northern facing window in winter - but there's probably 100umol/s of light that comes in from it.  I don't know if you can see from the photo, but the lime tree really suffered being suffocated by the lemongrass.  I wound up pruning off all the interior branches since they were all just sticks.  I also pinched off all the flowers, so I'm hoping it puts out a flush of new growth in the next few days.  Once it gets over that flush, I'll prune it again to bring in the long arms.  The curry tree is doing much better now - the new growth is maturing and it's putting out more leaf buds.

 

 

This is the lemongrass plant - I don't know if you can tell how big it is in the photo, but it's about 5 feet across!!!

 

[heidih]

OOC lemongrass - as grasses do. Are you using a lot of it? I did not grow up with much citrus pruning but you are gardening in indoor artificial circumstances.  It took everything in me to prune an old tangerine in a huge pot on the open level of a parking garage - it did pop out nicely - plus I divested it of its predatory white-fly - again nothing you need worry about indoors in NYC   Keep us posted. California Dept of Food and Agriculture just  put new traps up on my citrus so maybe Medfly issues again. They monitor captures to gauge population. 

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

OOC lemongrass - as grasses do. Are you using a lot of it? I did not grow up with much citrus pruning but you are gardening in indoor artificial circumstances.  It took everything in me to prune an old tangerine in a huge pot on the open level of a parking garage - it did pop out nicely - plus I divested it of its predatory white-fly - again nothing you need worry about indoors in NYC   Keep us posted. California Dept of Food and Agriculture just  put new traps up on my citrus so maybe Medfly issues again. They monitor captures to gauge population. 

 

It could be the insect that carries Citrus Greening Disease (HLB) instead of Medflies. The friends who bought my parents' ranch have been worrying about that for several years, watching it progress closer to Tulare County in the San Joaquin Valley. "Please," they begged us, "don't bring citrus up from Southern California or from Florida when you come visit!" We wouldn't, of course.  

 

How did you get rid of the white-fly? I've given up trying to keep plants alive in our house, since we started traveling during the winter, but they wrecked my young Meyer lemon and a dwarf tangerine / orange / something (I've forgotten). I'd love to have known how pruning could help.

[heidih]

They set the traps up so high I can't read the tags. Just glad they are monitoring whatever pest is prevalent. Consumers need to understand the truly in the trenches battles farmers go through. Medfly is short for Mediterranean Fruit Fly - a non native import that has been devastating.  White fly sucks - literally. For localized infestations I lie down and water blast the underside of the leaves where the youngsters grow, cut off the plant parts that already are all black fungoide (bag and dispose NEVER compost)  Then spray with insecticidal soap - repeat water blast and soap as needed. Of course an orchard can not do that so that mental barrier break of pesticide necessity...

As you travel across the country I am sure you encounter the agricultural checkpoints to try to halt import of crud. Arizona/California border especially - stop every car.

Edited January 24, 2022 by heidih (log)