الخميس، 17 أغسطس 2017

The Importance Of Fertilizing When Growing Cycads

By Ann Evans


Interesting plants such as cycads will certainly enrich any garden. They resemble palms, but are actually just very distant relatives. In fact, these nice looking plants were here on Earth long before people, back in Jurassic Age. Today, they are rare and endangered, and if you are interested in growing cycads, there is a whole new market for them.

Fertilizers are highly important for cycads, and without appropriate types of fertilizers you probably won't get expected results. Although they look like palms, they require entirely different fertilizers, with higher percentages of nitrogen, approximately 18-25 %. If you want to use palm fertilizers, try to combine them with products containing higher nitrogen levels.

The point is to release fertilizers into the soil gradually, to achieve constant growth. The problem is that there are some periods that require excessive watering, and this will release too much fertilizing compounds into the soil. Special pellets, which are plastic coated, will resist larger amounts of water and continue releasing fertilizing compounds at the same rate.

In colder areas, the leaves might get cold-burned during winter. If this happens, you should fertilize your plant first, wait for a few days, and then remove all the burned leaves using a sharp knife. The new ones should appear within two or three weeks, and then it will be a good time to change your fertilizer, depending on the species you are growing, as well as your growing goals.

If the weather is still not warm enough, these new leaves should be protected from morning cold. Wrap them during nights, to make sure they won't get cold burns again. Although they are sensitive to cold, you can still successfully grow them in colder climate zones, if you take a really good care of them.

Some people grow cycads for plants alone, and some are more interested in seed production. If you are interested in producing seeds, you will have to have slightly different approach. The plants used for this purpose have to be strong enough to carry numerous heavy cones. That's why you need to fertilize them additionally maybe two months before the first cones will appear. In case you don't know when exactly this would happen, make sure the plant is old enough before using it for seed production..

On the other hand, the plant doesn't have to be especially strong to carry leaves only. If you are interested only in growing great looking leafy plants, you can start building up their growth much earlier. They will be luxuriously green and attractive, for sale or for decorating your own garden. So, faster growth early for luxuriously green plants, and slower growth in the first year for those you plan to use for the production of seeds.

It would probably take some time and a certain level of experimenting before finding the perfect fertilizers mixture for each species. This will depend on several factors, including the soil type in your area, climate, different types of fertilizers, the amount of watering and, of course, of the particular species that you have chosen to grow.




About the Author:



ليست هناك تعليقات:

إرسال تعليق