Merry Christmas!

Here's a few snapshots of one of my clove sprouts.

Banana (Musa genus)

This is my second banana tree. I had my first when I was in college. There is a reason this was the first plant to be domesticated. Except for frost, they are nearly impossible to kill. Years ago, a Knoxville herb nursery had a large banana tree growing in the ground inside the greenhouse. As I recall, he gave me one of the shoots growing from the base of the tree.

The shoot was about six inches long but had no roots at all. The nursery owner said to plant it and keep it moist. I did and put it in my apartment window. After a month, the shoot looked like it was quite dead, possibly rotten. After two months, it leafed out. I was astounded. By the time I graduated, it was over four feet tall. Unfortunately, I could not fit it into my car when I moved home, so I left it at my fraternity house. They left it out in the yard where it froze.

Now I have a Jamaican red dwarf banana. When I received this shoot, it was already rooted in a tiny pot. It had a couple of leaves smaller than my hand. Now it has nine leaves. The largest is about eight inches wide and nearly two feet long. (As the lower leaves wither, I remove them down to the base.)

Banana leaves sprout from the center of the plant tightly rolled. Once the leaf has emerged, it unrolls. Alternate leaves grow almost opposite each other, offset from the leaves below. As you view the plant from the top, each pair of leaves is rotated about 45 degrees counterclockwise from the pair below.

My banana leaves "sweat" along the edges. When my plants were still outside, I thought this was merely dew. Although it is now inside the sunroom for the winter, it still drips water from the edges. Obviously, this is not dew. I don't believe it is a response to dry air because both summer and sunroom have plenty of humidity.

I planted a pair of everbearing strawberries in the 20 inch diameter pot as companion plants for the banana. I don't think they will form a symbiotic relationship, but I decided the two fruits somehow belonged together.

Late last spring, I bought Miracle-Gro organic topsoil to fill my large pots, mistaking it for potting mix. This stuff is intended to be an amendment for natural soil. Before I could replace it with something more suitable for container gardening, the banana sank a taproot into this stuff. I decided that if it liked that soil so well, I'd leave it there when I transplanted. Since then I've added some organic blood meal, but that's about it. It seems perfectly happy.

I hope to see both strawberries and bananas next year.

Boswellia sacra (Frankincense)

I'd been watching Frankincense plants on eBay for some time. Usually they cost $100 or more. Then one particular seller offered six at once for $25 each plus shipping. For the first time I thought the price was reasonable.

I was having real difficulty resisting the urge to buy one when my little brother called wanting a hint for a Christmas present....

He got a big hint. I got a new plant. It arrived yesterday. I am delighted.

According to the item description, I'm to expect the leaves to fall off over the next few days. The plant does this when it is disturbed in order to conserve energy to its trunk and roots. I'd say being yanked out of your pot, having your roots wrapped in a paper towel, getting stuffed into a box for a couple of days, counts as disturbance. Given moisture and warmth, it is supposed to bud out again.

I got to it almost as soon as the mail carrier dropped it off. Better yet, the outdoor temperature that afternoon was in the low 60's deg. F.--just about perfect. I opened the box immediately, loosened the stuffing, and showed the neighbors my new plant. Once I got it inside, I misted it and the paper-towel-wrapped roots with water. Later that evening I potted it into the gallon container pictured. It spent last night indoors on the same heating mat as my clove seedlings. Once my sunroom warmed into the 70's deg. F. this morning, I took it out there. It was an overcast day, so I put it in full whatever-sun-there-was. Tonight I brought it back indoors for the heat mat.

I used Perfect Gardener Potting Mix from Wal-Mart since it was the loosest, fastest draining soil I had on hand. This is the type of medium the eBay seller recommended. I watered it well, then added a couple of pinches of Espoma Bio-tone Starter Plus. The label says this fertilizer is all natural, but more importantly, it contains mycorrhizae and beneficial bacteria. These fungi seek plant roots and live with them in a symbiotic relationship.

One clove plant has formed its first pair of true leaves. They are greenish orange and tiny. Number two is developing leaf buds, and number three still has bright red nubs. No sign of progress in number four, but, as I said, I'm not holding my breath. I need a closeup lens so I can get some in-focus shots of these guys.

Clove (Syzygium aromaticum) cultivation

This is the first time I've ever tried to grow cloves, so take any advice here with a small Siberian salt mine. In fact, this post may point out some things not to do. If you are interested in growing clove trees, read on. If not, skip to the next blog.

I bought my clove seeds over the Internet directly from Seeds Hawaii Inc., but the company now sells on eBay (as of the date of this post). The minimum order is 50 seeds. I needed all of them.

I was told the first seeds matured in early November. (The season is short. Check the website for availability.) My seeds were shipped USPS Priority November 10 and arrived on November 13, within the three days you expect from Priority Mail. My mail is delivered to a metal box at the street usually just before 2:00 pm. I picked up the mail that day about 4:00 pm. The high temperature Nov. 13 was in the mid 40's (deg. F.). By the time I got the package open, I found more than half of the seeds had deteriorated.

Clove seeds don't have an outer seed coat. They consist of a pair of cotyledons and a radicle. This radicle, or embryonic root, appears to be the most tender part. Disturb it and the seed is a goner. More than half of the seeds were entirely chocolate brown upon arrival. More than half of the seeds with green cotyledons had a brown radicle. I believe all of these seeds were DOAs.

I bought a professional grade 22 inch by 22 inch heat mat and thermostat. I bought a Jiffy brand Seed Starter Greenhouse measuring about 11 by 21 inches. I filled the 50 peat pots with Miracle-Gro Seed Starting Potting Mix level with the top of each pot. I used my kitchen sink sprayer to moisten the potting mix with warm water. Our water is from a well and is quite hard, lots of lime. The soil surface was wet enough to clump together. I used a butter knife to make a depression in the surface and dropped each seed in, radicle down. I buried each seed with between a half and a quarter of the seed top showing. I sprayed the bed with more warm water to firm the seeds in place. I put the heat mat on the floor and the mini greenhouse squarely on one half of the mat. I mounted the thermostat probe level with the surface of the potting mix and set it on 82 deg. F. (I haven't checked this thermostat for accuracy with a thermometer yet.) I'd finished planting all 50 clove seeds, brown or green, before I went to bed on November 13.

I left the mini greenhouse mostly undisturbed for the next three weeks when I found three seeds had sprouted. Unfortunately, all or almost all of the brown seeds had grown a fuzzy white mold. At this point, I threw out all of the brown seeds. I kept eight bright green seeds (including the three sprouts) and three more that were mottled green. I could not see any mold growing on any of these seeds. I mounted a 25 Watt spiral fluorescent light directly above the three sprouts, touching the top of the greenhouse roof. I boosted the thermostat to 85 deg. F.

The three sprouts were entirely bright green. At first, all I could see was a pair of cotyledons on a root stalk. They had pushed a quarter inch or so above the soil surface and had spread apart like butterfly wings. A couple of times each day, I opened the greenhouse. (Like I could help myself!) The heat of the mat causes condensation to form on the clear roof of the greenhouse. If you flip it carefully, you can collect this condensation. I used the condensation water to moisten the soil around the sprouts and seeds as needed.

By December 13, no further seeds had sprouted. As far as I could tell, none of the eight seeds that had not sprouted were showing any signs of progress. I decided to examine them; I pulled them up. All but one had an entirely brown radicle, and the tip of that remaining radicle was brown. None of the brown seeds or the seeds with an entirely brown radicle ever developed any roots. The one seed with a brown tipped radicle had formed a second tiny root. There is a very slim chance I did not disturb this second root when I replanted it, so I guess it's possible I'll get one more sprout. I'm not holding my breath.

Then I examined the three seeds that had sprouted (visually--without uprooting them, of course!). One grew its stalk from the normal bud between the cotyledons. This stalk started off bright red. As it grew, the tip faded to orange and the stem turned green. On the other two, the central bud had been damaged and had turned brown. (I mean it--these things are tender!) On either side of this bud, in the crotch between the bud and cotyledon, tiny red nubs formed. These nubs developed into stalks over the next few days. One looks like it will have two stalks, the other just one. Developmentally, these two are far behind the one growing from the central bud.

What have I learned?

1. Pay extra for overnight shipping. Do not let the package linger in the cold for a second--sign for it if you must.

2. I won't bother planting seeds with solid brown radicles or cotyledons. They'll just get moldy.

3. I'll try not to use as much water to start with next time. Instead, I'll open the greenhouse for a daily misting until the soil seems moist enough. I'll use boiled and cooled rain water instead of well water.

4. I won't bury the seeds as deeply. I'll slice plenty of room for the radicle into the surface of the soil and gently, very gently, press the radicle end down, leaving most of the seed on top of the potting mix.
5. Leave the seeds alone for longer than a month. One more seed might need to regenerate its root and could sprout later. You never know.

Sunroom Tropics

I've been interested in fragrant herb and spice plants since I was in college. Lately I've also collected some other tropicals such as palm, coffee, and banana trees. I want this blog to be a place to discuss growing tropical plants in a temperate environment. I have a sunroom built onto my house. With all the glass, I can't maintain tropical temperatures, but plant hardiness zone 10 has not been a problem.

These are the plants I have right now:

• Sweet Acacia (Acacia farnesiana) Easy to find on eBay and other online tropical nurseries.
• Allspice (Pimenta dioica) Uncommon on eBay and other online tropical nurseries.
• Banana (Musa "dwarf red Jamaican") Easy to find on eBay and other online tropical nurseries.
• Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis) Easy to find.
  
• Betel palm (Areca catechu) Uncommon.
• Betel pepper (Piper betel) Fairly easy to find. Often mislabeled as Piper nigrum.
• Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) I've had this for years and don't remember where I got it.
  
• Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanticum) Plants are hard to find, but available sporadically.
• Clove (Syzygium aromaticum) No plants available; I found seeds. I planted them in seed starting mix on the heat mat the evening they arrived. My germination rate is 6% so far. Cloves grow very slowly. The one that is farthest along is just now beginning to develop its first true leaves.
  
• Cocoa (Theobroma cacao) Available on eBay and online nurseries.
  
• Coconut (Cocos nucifera) Not readily available online. I found mine in the garden center at the Sevierville Wal-Mart!
• Coffee (Coffea ?) Available online and retail. The seeds are common, but despite several tries, I've never had any luck getting a single one to sprout. I don't know how to tell C. arabica from C. robusta. When I bought my plants (at Universal Studios in Florida) they were only labeled as "coffee". I also have seen coffee plants at Lowes.
  
• Kava-kava (Piper methysticum) Uncommon.
  
• Black Pepper (Piper nigrum) Hard to find. Piper betel is often mislabeled as this.
• Pineapple (Ananas comosus) Easy to find in any grocery store. Buy a fresh pineapple, eat the fruit, plant the green top....
  
• Pygmy Date Palm (Phoenix robelenii) Commonly available at retail; I bought mine at Lowes.

Wants:

• Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) After MUCH searching, I bought six expensive nutmeg seeds from Horizon Herbs in Williams, Oregon. I planted them in a Jiffy brand micro greenhouse on top of my thermostatically controlled heat mat set at 85 deg. F. None has yet sprouted. All got moldy--I sure hope this neem oil works....
  
• Tea (Camellia sinensis) Available on eBay and online nurseries. I haven't picked out which variety I want, else I'd have one of these.
• Cola nut (Cola acuminata/Cola nitida) Unavailable online within the USA. I've found one place in Hawaii that sells plants, but they no longer ship plants--"no exceptions". According to the price list, they do not offer the seeds for sale, worse, Cola seeds can take months to germinate. I don't know what kind of hassle it is to ship live plants from Hawaii, but I'm sure inspections and permits are involved.
  
• Citrus (Citrus species) These are not hard to find. I've grown both lemon and orange trees before and the blooms smell wonderful. Unfortunately, scale insects loved them, too.
  

None of these plants are for sale, but I would be happy to discuss where I found them.