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A few Ibicella questions


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Having just acquired my first Ibicella I have just a few questions:

What sort of water does it require? Rain water, or is tap sufficient?

Does it self pollenate? Is it self-fertile? or do I need another plant?

Thanks

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Hi Loakesy.

I put my seeds direct in ground, with water (not from rain), under a glass bell (?), with direct sun.

It needs less than one week to grow.

Plants doesn't grow much during about one month, then grow... too much :

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It's better with two plants pollenate, but one can be sufficient.

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sweet ibecella!!! wow!!! now i just need some seeds!!! VERY nice!

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Guest Sheila

Loaksey they are the easiest plants in the world to grow. Plant them either directly into the ground as oliv suggests or put them into very large pots in normal potting compost. I put mine in a 12 inch clay pot last year in john innes no.2. they grow very fast. If you only have one plant you willl probably find insects are attracted to the bright yellow flowers anyway, but I gave the flowers a rub around with a brush to ensure pollination.

keep it nice and damp and as the flowers die off you will see the pods start to grow. From all the flowers of which there are many, you will only likely manage to get around 3 or 4 decent sized pods per plant, with mine no matter how many I pollinated, once three were growing, they would not make any more pods. The pods grow huge and are very sticky. Leave them to grow until the first frosts of the autumn kill the plant, then harvest the pods and if the husk hasn't already started to come off remove it. Leave the seed pod inside to dry out and over the next few days the pointed end will seperate into two and the two points will open out.

You should be able to get some seed out of the gap that appears at the base of the two hooked points, but most of the seed is locked away inside and can only be removed by breaking the pod open. I grew my plant this way last year and the seed from it has germinated and is now growing.

They don't call this plant the devils claw for nothing. The seed pods are extremely spiky and the hooked points are very sharp.

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