My most promising seedling

Bullwinkle

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17/11/10
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Very slow but the red color is almost electric
 

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It looks like it will be a winner but it is a 3 year old plant.It gets water everyday and is always the first plant in my garden to fertilized.It is just incredibly slow and is only around 10" high.I might resort to giving it liquid fertilizer to try to get it to get moving but I really do not want to do something that might kill it.


Wooooowwwweeeeee!!!JawDropJawDropJawDropWootWoot

Mike, that is a winner!!! How old is that beauty? Incredible color.
 
Mike, I've had several I thought would be real winners but ended up being incredibly slow. It's like they could make nice table decorations. Still I hang on to them hoping they'll get a burst of growth. I've toyed with the idea of air layering them to see if they might grow faster with a new set of roots. Just a thought.
 
Mike, I am wondering about your statement that you don't want to use liquid fertilizer and risk killing the plant. I didn't know that there was a danger there, but have actually lost two crotons ( a seedling and interuptum) soon after fertilizing with liquid fertilizer. Please tell me what you know about it. Thanks, Marnie
 
I am concerned about getting a plant this small too much fertilization.It already gets a good amount of fertilization from the slow release fertilizer at the base,the plant so small so I am nervous about over fertilization.If the plant was a little bigger I would not be so concerned.Many ,many great plants have been killed by over fertilization.Paradoxically it is more likely that a great plant will be killed rather than an average plant as people want to really get their best stuff growing so they tend to over fertilize the better plants.

Mike, I am wondering about your statement that you don't want to use liquid fertilizer and risk killing the plant. I didn't know that there was a danger there, but have actually lost two crotons ( a seedling and interuptum) soon after fertilizing with liquid fertilizer. Please tell me what you know about it. Thanks, Marnie
 
That's a beauty Mike. I'd wait until you have some woody stem before any further fert. I find liquid fert (even diluted) has too much nitrogen for small plants.
 
I have quite a few small plants from cuttings that have never grown much more than a foot in a couple of years. I've tried light but frequent applications of fertilizer, Epsom Salts, more water, less water. Nothing will get them to grow. I've removed 'Zanzibar' and couple of other thread leaf types as they won't grow here but do fine on the other side of the island where it's warmer. (I'm on east side of Hawaii island)
 
Mike, a nice looking plant. Don't be in a hurry, and take a chance of possible damage due to over fertilizing. It's a slow plant for a good reason, because of it's genetic makeup, and all the hokey pokey (Lol) in the world probably won't speed it up. Just be happy that's something that was created in YOUR garden, Your plant. Give it a catchy name, and let it do it's thing. Not all kids grow up being the same......
 
Thanks for the information Mike. I'll be more cautious using the liquid fertilizer in the future. The seedling that I lost was looking very promising, Oh well, lesson learned. It was a young plant and since I use the canister attached to the hose to apply the liquid, I'm thinking it dispensed it heavily on that particular plant. Thanks again, Marnie
 
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