Epic Fail - my ugly croton from seed

putu enjula

Well-Known Member
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28/09/07
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I thought you all might get a laugh...
Croton seeds are easy to sprout, but to have enough patience to keep them alive is another story... especially if they don't look like they will be interesting.
This one is so, so ugly. :(
 

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Is the name "Ugly Stick" taken?? I would like to name my croton that. It deserves it.
 

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Angela,

Don't stress over this too much. We have all grown some crotons from seed and most always they turn out to be "dogs". It happens. If you want to improve your odds for coming up with a winner, start trying to do some hand pollination. It can be fun, but does require a little time.

At the end of the day, eventually you will come up with some decent looking new varieties. Even if you just let nature take it's course and you pull seedlings out of the ground and see what you end up with.
 
That's the thing, we have a climate where they don't always bloom. So we don't get seedlings on the ground. Should I give them a fertilizer that encourages blooms? Does that work on crotons?
 
Angela...I can't imagine your climate not being conducive to lots of blooms. This year I've had very little success because of lack of blooms. I only have about 50 seedlings from one cross I made. Whereas I know another grower from the Tampa area that has about 400 seedlings growing. Cold stress may be a factor but I have plants that almost never bloom and other plants that will never hold a seed and this year almost no pollen even when there were male flowers. I may try bloom booster fertilizer next spring to see if it gets me more blooms but in the meantime I'm just trying to make bigger leaves with applications of liquid fertilizer to the leaves. "Juicing it" as moose would say. Good luck..and keep trying. Chris
 
Juicing = Judy Juice Technique :eek:

Angela...I can't imagine your climate not being conducive to lots of blooms. This year I've had very little success because of lack of blooms. I only have about 50 seedlings from one cross I made. Whereas I know another grower from the Tampa area that has about 400 seedlings growing. Cold stress may be a factor but I have plants that almost never bloom and other plants that will never hold a seed and this year almost no pollen even when there were male flowers. I may try bloom booster fertilizer next spring to see if it gets me more blooms but in the meantime I'm just trying to make bigger leaves with applications of liquid fertilizer to the leaves. "Juicing it" as moose would say. Good luck..and keep trying. Chris
 
Angela - Did you hand pollinate?

Chris has a real cool croton that threw a female flower stalk. With no interesting males blooming in his garden, he had to settle for a Capt. Gilbert Cutler husband from the moose land. I have many many crotons that have never bloomed. Interestingly, I have noticed with recent air layers they started blooming within a couple of weeks of getting potted up. While many of the parent plants have never bloomed for me. Example: Black Beauty has never bloomed, give an air layered plant to Searle and boom, it starts to flower. :mad: Go figure. :eek:

Angela...I can't imagine your climate not being conducive to lots of blooms. This year I've had very little success because of lack of blooms. I only have about 50 seedlings from one cross I made. Whereas I know another grower from the Tampa area that has about 400 seedlings growing. Cold stress may be a factor but I have plants that almost never bloom and other plants that will never hold a seed and this year almost no pollen even when there were male flowers. I may try bloom booster fertilizer next spring to see if it gets me more blooms but in the meantime I'm just trying to make bigger leaves with applications of liquid fertilizer to the leaves. "Juicing it" as moose would say. Good luck..and keep trying. Chris
 
No Ron, I just collected seed from a parking lot that had a bunch of different ones growing together.... and when I say growing together, they were growing on top of and into each other forming a big 10 ft hedge. I was hoping for some cross pollination action. I grabbed a few clippings while I was there and I noticed that a lot of those cuttings bloomed after I planted them. Is there a time of year when they bloom more?
 
Ron.. it looks like I might get 3 seeds from Gilbert as there apparently wasn't much pollen there. Better than nothing. And Angela, I think blooming is usually best in the spring but continues through much of the summer usually tapering off by fall. Chris
 
We don't really have an obvious spring here. It is warm, warmer, warmest, less warm and warm again. You can tell by the bird's songs but they sing in the spring and taper off in the summer and in the fall they sing again as if it were spring...lol.
 
I lived in Hawaii for a year and a half. Stationed at pearl but I got to visit all the islands ( except Niahu?), from top to bottom. Almost went skiing on Mauna Kea. Wonderful place to live. Chris
 
We live around 2,100 ft. so it is colder here but doesn't ever get colder than 50˚F at night in the winter and it rarely gets over 80˚F during the day in summer. I don't normally juice the crotons so maybe I'll try that.
 
Angela,

Ugly Stick isn't that bad looking, just not very unique looking. You will have to grow it for a few years to get a good idea of its true coloration and sun vs shade look.
 
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