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Adiantum peruvianum problems


Karsty

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Hi Folks,

I've got a problem with a fern, and I'm amazed that there is not a busy bustling online forum for fern lovers. There is only the forum for the British Pteridological Society, and it is very quiet.

What is going on???

Are any of you here enthusiastic about ferns, even just one type? My favourites are Platycerium and many Adiantums, and there are others I am intrigued by.

Anyway, I'm posting this here on the off chance that anyone might have experience of this - here are the photos - https://goo.gl/photos/4sWdhNFxN199Pdtq6

It seems they can get a nematode called Aphelenchoides, but so far I haven't been able to confirm that this is the problem in this case.

Karsty.

Edited by Karsty
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I grow some adiantums, peruvianum, macrophylla and a tiny himalayan one (plus the usual garden centre types).  I agree the pteridological society is as dead as a slug in a bucket of salt.  I tried to get access to the forum and was blocked by some idiot that wanted to know what i wanted to post about, of course i replied ferns and it went down hill from there.

Not sure what is happening to your fern but i would be tempted to cut that leaf off and burn it just in case.

There used to be a fern forum but its now defunct, facebook has some good fern groups.

 

 

Edited by manders
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Hi manders,

I live in a recently converted studio flat, second floor, facing south west. As you might imagine, it gets very hot here. On a normal sunny summer's day, it easily gets to 30°C or more!

I've got Welwitschia, Ariocarpus, Geohintonia, Astrophytum, Tillandsia, Orchids, Ravanela,, as well as Dionaea, Nepenthes, Platycerium, and Adiantum, and others. One of my favourite features is a 7 foot Dicksonia antarctica, yes, growing inside my flat! I got it this spring, and so far it's doing amazingly well.

The temperature extremes in my flat are approx 20°C and 33°C (winter min, summer max). The general humidity is usually around 60-70%. I have methods to keep up the humidity in the winter. In the summer humidity has been naturally on the high side. I'll post more info about it anon.

I use cool white high power LED lighting to balance up the light in the flat, and it seems to work just fine. I started using these lights more than a year ago.

I grow a lovely small-leaved Adiantum from the bottom to the top of the tree fern, and the A. peruvianum and a couple of others dotted around. I'll post some more up-to-date and detailed photos, but here's a start - https://goo.gl/photos/bUca1w7H9PtcAg2S9

And their rate of growth seems fine to me... nicely moderate.

Update on the blemished leaves - according to procedure I ripped them into small pieces and let them soak in water for 24 hours, then examined them for nematodes (x20 eyepiece). Not a single sign of them. And I had a really good slow patient look.

Karsty (~8

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Karsty
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Interested in seeing a picture of your Welwitschia (unless I missed it on the pictures you've already posted). I tried growing some last year, but only got one seed to sprout, and then managed to kill the seedling by locking it in a much too humid jar in full sun. I still have some seeds left, so I think I'll give it another try soonish. Do you have any germination and general growing tips?

Nicely decorated studio, btw, it's as if you're right in the middle of a forest.

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Hi Carambola,

Thanks!

I have a doormat outside my door which says "Welcome to the Jungle" (~8

Welwitschia - a seed of extremes. I found if the seed was viable it would germinate at room temperature within a week. But a large proportion germinated and almost immediately rotted, and another large proportion did not germinate at all. I reckon I lost 80% of the seeds. I now have 8 plants.

Briefly, I used a completely mineral mix, including pumice and home made gypsum (i.e. set and crushed plaster)

I grow them in full blinding sun, and never ever let them dry out. If you let them dry out they die. They are apparently able to take temps close to freezing, and the upper limit is pretty high. They are so weird.

I can put up more details and photos, but I guess I should start a new thread for it......

Edited by Karsty
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Your flat looks amazing. I had to look up where Watford is, came up with two places. I have two species of Adiantum, philippense and hispidulum. A few others I tried didn't last long. Got them labelled simply as "Fern". Although they were Adiantums don't know which species they were, probably hybrids.

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Hi Tropicbreeze,

Thanks! Thumbs up

There are actually at least 3 Watfords, 2 in England, one in the USA!

I think the biggest issue with Adiantums is humidity. Do you have humidity issues in Noonamah??

 

Edited by Karsty
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As far as I'm aware there's only one Noonamah, no guessing :biggrin:

Yes, this time of year humidity (or rather lack thereof) is a problem. Good thing A. philippense is deciduous, or goes dormant, and can completely dry out. On the other hand A. hispidulum doesn't go dormant but it can't completely dry out. But with the heat and low humidity we get during winter a lot of the 'shop bought'  Adiantums just keel over. Come the wet season with hot humid weather they all do well. Fortunately there are some ferns that cope with that, but not enough of them for my liking. I also have a small treefern, Cyathea cooperi. After the demise of a few earlier on I'm now virtually flooding it during the dry season and hoping that when the wet season comes it won't drown. I do a lot of experimenting with plants, not always successfully.

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Do you like Platycerium? Many of them are extremely drought tolerant, in fact they hate being wet for long. Room for a bit of experimentation there?

Here in the UK we usually have humid summers, and in the winter I keep the humidity high by having troughs filled with water on my radiators. But yeps, if it's always hot outside, it would not be easy to control your indoor humidity!

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I used to grow Platycerium years back when I lived down south. Had a huge P. superbum growing in a tree. Also had a lot of P. bifurcatum. Gave my father a small bifurcatum that he put in a tree. It grew to over 2 metres across. Eventually the tree died and collapsed under the weight. For up where I am now I got a number of small plants off it but they all eventually declined and died. One I have now is tiny and barely staying alive. Would like to try a P. veitchii, they're very drought tolerant and okay in heat.

There's no indoor plants in my place, it's not really practical. Outdoors they're covered by the automatic irrigation system which comes on in the early hours of the morning and is off before the sun comes up. It keeps things going through the rest of the day. Daytime temperatures through the winter, our dry season, average 33C to 34C, although now, in late winter, we usually get 35C to 37C. When the rainy season comes it doesn't matter so much as the humidity is up as well. But that won't be until about October or November.

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Wow Tropicbreeze, 35°C in the middle of winter, and dry, what a combination! I think it must be a very special niche of plants that thrive in those kind of conditions. I imagine even most cacti and succulents would suffer, as they need cool nights for their CAM metabolism to work.

Phew!   

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There are a lot of plants that cope really well here but as a gardener there's a lot more I'd like to grow. Every climate has its challenges so it's a matter of research and experimentation.  Cacti don't do well here. The dry season's okay with clear skies and high temperatures, but come the wet season with heavy rain and constant high humidity they just rot. Although, I've got a couple of those tropical ones like Selenicereus chrysocardium which grows well but won't flower because nights just don't get cold enough. I've never had any luck with Dragon Fruit, Hylocereus undatus, but some people do grow it here, even commercially.

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Don't know whether I've got any Phlebodium species, There's a lot of Polypodiaceae in my garden but I've never got around to getting them identified except for a couple of obvious ones. Many Polypodiaceae seem to cope well with a bit of heat and drying out.

Drynaria quercifolia does very well but it's a native here and dormant in the dry season.

Another native, which I suspect is Microsorum grossum, does well although doesn't go dormant.

Microsorum musifolium (Crocodile Fern) struggles in the dry season but is good in the wet season.

There's another two which might be Phlebodium but I just don't know. One short one carpets a large area and goes dormant. It looks good in the wet season.

The other grows to about a metre, climbs a bit, doesn't go dormant but gets badly burned in direct afternoon sun during the dry season. It still looks good in the shade during the dry season, provided of course it's well watered.

Those are Polypodiaceae. I've also got a couple of Nephrolepis species (or hybrids?), Marsilea drummondii (native), Acrostichum speciosum (native), Ceratopteris thalictroides (native),  Pteris, Blechnum, plus a couple of others. The natives do have an advantage but their normal habitat is often permanently wet.

 

 

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Thanks Tropicbreeze, that's really interesting (~8 I think you have quite a lot there!

I'm thinking in particular of Phlebodium aureum 'Blue Star', which is very easy to recognise. It has a waxy leaf which looks drought tolerant, and my one so far doesn't mind getting dry at all.

How about your Adiantum peruvianum, does it smell like lilies? If you get right up close to it?

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That was Manders who had the A. peruvianum, not me. I wouldn't have expected any ferns to have flower-like fragrance.

When I list them like that it does seem like quite a lot of ferns, but then my garden is outdoors and very large. Takes a lot of plants to fill it.

I'll have to keep an eye out for that 'Blue Star'. Problem here though  is that the only labels you get on ferns is "Fern", or "Foliage Plant". It's extremely rare to see an actual fern name.

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On 9/16/2017 at 5:54 AM, tropicbreeze said:

I'll have to keep an eye out for that 'Blue Star'.

Hey Tropicbreeze, you can buy it online! Or as my mum's friend says, on the line.

Ah!... I'll try to contact Manders...

On 8/28/2017 at 8:57 PM, manders said:

Heres our peruvianum

Hey Manders, Try this, poke your nose right into the middle of your A. peruvianum... any scent?

Karsty.

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  • 4 weeks later...

It only got worse, so I sent a photo to the RHS as I am a member I can ask them about plant issues. They said it was almost certainly a cultural problem. The only thing I could make out of it was the compost must be wrong, which was half coir and half leafmould. So I took it out of its pot, and it had lost roots. I repotted it into half moss peat, half perlite, into a taller pot.

tTXiogQnFUM8_pu4M8gA8Nj5oYNSr7MqXJVDtq8t

https://photos.app.goo.gl/p1mktiJ1R1l7eu9f2

 

We shall see....

Edited by Karsty
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