I was wondering if anyone knows much about making a good soil to grow tropical rainforest plants.
A friend of mine who resides in the Caribbean as well as myself ( although I dont live in the Tropics) believe that rainforest plants grown outdoors in climates similar to rainforests require a very well drained soil, but i guess if you can control watering indoors it might not need to be as well drained?
Well anyways i am growing a tropical rainforest plant from West Africa and this is the soil i prepared:
1/3 coarse sand, 1/3 spaghnum moss, and 1/3 potting mix. The potting mix obviously has perlite and spaghnum already in it but the addition of more spaghnum makes it retain moisture better and more sand means better drainage.
It seems like a good rainforest soil to me, anyone have any comments to add?
Maybe add a bit of organics, compost or manures... tropical soils often have very fast nutrient turnover, so make sure you use ferts regularly as well.
Do NOT use sand.
Sand aerates poorly and drains poorly.
Coconut coir and pumice make a good mix for both cacti and orchids.
I concur with Winder about sand! Pumice is a great way to go for drainage, as well as some trace elements. I've never tried coir, but I'd imagine it would work great too.
Also might want to consider what Jupe said. Making some type of guano/compost/algae/emulsion/whatever tea might aid the quick turnover!
I add pine bark mulch to acidify the mix; considering that there is so many decaying leaves and such on the rain forest floor, I would assume that the soil is pretty acidic.
I have a friend that uses only pine bark mulch as a grow medium and is quite successful with this method! He has green houses full of P. viridis and they are very healthy!
I use perlite to aerate my soil. It works well and is cheap if you buy it in the giant bags at home depot. It's a lot lighter than sand. I used to use sand but quit because of the density. A good ph for your soil is about 6.0 some plants want it more acidic like p. viridis which likes it around 4.5 but it grows fine with rain water or tap water and a neutral soil.
Stoney any luck yet with the seeds I sent you?
Right now I have one of mine germinated but I don't know what to do about getting the seed coat off.
I wonder if soaking the seeds in water before you plant them, or doing a little scarification would help?
Its not like they really need it to germinate like some other tropical plants like Morning glories, Hawaiian Woodrose..etc.
I just wonder if it would help to get the seed coat off any better? I think this species though has a tendency to keep the coats on at first.
Ive noticed some other Tropical rainforest Genera can do this to some extent. Brugmansia sanguinea does it but its not that hard to get off. If i remember right I could use my fingers.
E. novogranatense seems to do it similar to the B. sanguinea.
These other seeds on the otherhand are almost wrapped around the seed very tightly.
Do you think I can just wait for it to shed it by itself?
I really don't know if Torsten is right since I mean these plants have had to exist by themselves in the Rainforest as wild plants without people using scalpel devices back then.
Im going to keep them enclosed this time to keep the humidity high.
For my rainforest soil it is composed of:
1/3 coarse sand
1/3 potting mix
1/3 spaghnum moss
I think I would amend it to contain more sand especially if these were outside potted plants in Florida where it can rain alot in the summer and Id need good drainage.
Stoney maybe you know what soil would be better since you told me you are from Florida?
I myself would use the above mix with more sand added. I guess rainforest soils are very well drained since it rains so much there.
Just plain miracle grow potting mix in containers outside in Florida I think would cause rot since it rains so much in the summer there?
Any suggestions?
Nothing has sprouted yet, Dog. You have to use perlite or something to improve drainage.