My Portulacaria Update Thread

[Isilwen]

It's been two months since I last posted a picture of the portulacaria specimen that I had chosen for a project. I purchased a small flower pot of them from Lowes and chose one specimen from the grouping. I still have the others and they are still grouped together. My fiance wanted those as she likes the mini-jade plants.

Here is a photo of it when I first repotted it:



This is it now being two months under a grow light:



Looks like it is doing well to me. Doesn't look too leggy and is putting out new leaves consistently.

What do you all think?

 

[Srt8madness]

I think calling this a "specimen" is a bit of a stretch, that's about the size of a cutting .

Looks like it's doing well. If you put it outside it will double in size in no time flat. Doesn't really need a pot that big but i wouldn't repot unless the soil stays too wet. You're correct that the growth isn't leggy, which is great and the most common problem with growing these inside.

Best thing I did was buy that big 3 gal P Afra that Walmart has for ~$25, and separating it out into a dozen plus individual plants. Some already had 3/4" trunks.

 

[Isilwen]

I think calling this a "specimen" is a bit of a stretch, that's about the size of a cutting .

Looks like it's doing well. If you put it outside it will double in size in no time flat. Doesn't really need a pot that big but i wouldn't repot unless the soil stays too wet. You're correct that the growth isn't leggy, which is great and the most common problem with growing these inside.

Best thing I did was buy that big 3 gal P Afra that Walmart has for ~$25, and separating it out into a dozen plus individual plants. Some already had 3/4" trunks.

Sorry, I was using the word interchangeably with cutting. Was it more of a transplant? Maybe. I repotted it root and all.

Outside is not an option for me as I live in an apartment, hence the grow lights. So I am making do with what I have available to me living in said apartment.

Sounds like I should have checked at Walmart for a larger one. a 3/4 unch trunk would have been a good start!

 

[Perplexody]

I had a cutting about that big around November and by now I could make about 8 cuttings that size out of it, if not more. Outside is the way to go as long as it's warm enough. I love portulacaria for it's speed and predicability.

 

[Isilwen]

I had a cutting about that big around November and by now I could make about 8 cuttings that size out of it, if not more. Outside is the way to go as long as it's warm enough. I love portulacaria for it's speed and predicability.

Unfortunately, I live in an apartment and it cannot go outside.

 

[Srt8madness]

If you have a window that you could put it next to, plus the grow light, would probably help. Otherwise it looks great and patience is all you can have.

 

[19Mateo83]

Looks like it’s cruising right along. Since the grow light is all you have the closer to the plant you can get it the better…. As long as the light doesn’t cooking it.

 

[Isilwen]

Looks like it’s cruising right along. Since the grow light is all you have the closer to the plant you can get it the better…. As long as the light doesn’t cooking it.

It's less than 5 inches or so from the light. That is about as close as I can get it.

 

[Isilwen]

Two month update.

It is still growing well under the grow lights. It's not looking leggy and seems to be doing very well. I am just not sure where to go from here with it. I know that I would like for it to get a thicker trunk, but not sure how to go about doing that with this. Maybe getting it to look something like this:



This is what it currently looks like as of today:







Please remember right now bringing it outside is not an option, nor is sticking it in a window. Our apartment isn't set up well for that sort of thing as we're not facing in an optimal direction. So a grow light is what I have to work with. What would you all suggest with those restrictions in place?

 

[Srt8madness]

I'm not really sure what you're looking for on top of the previous info. At the rate it's growing you're probably a year away from needed to prune it at all. Maybe two. Trunk size is put on by growth. More foliage = more growth = bigger trunk.


I don't mean to be so blunt, but if you want the plant pictured, you'll need to buy the plant pictured. Even in full sun it still takes years for a cutting to put on that sort of diameter,

 

[Isilwen]

I'm not really sure what you're looking for on top of the previous info.

I'm hoping that as it develops, the advice may change. I am new to this and am trying to learn.

I don't mean to be so blunt, but if you want the plant pictured, you'll need to buy the plant pictured. Even in full sun it still takes years for a cutting to put on that sort of diameter

I realize that, but I also have to have something to work towards and in mind for how I want what I have to develop, no?

 

[Srt8madness]

Yeah, sort of.

The advice will be the same until the trunk is the desired thickness (or close to it). Just needs to keep growing until then.

 

[luvinthemountains]

@Isilwen the port I have that is similar in size to your inspiration image came from a garden center in a 5gal pot. It may have been grown out by the nursery that produced it for several years, probably somewhere in southern California where they grow extremely well. If I were to try and grow something to that size in Utah, it would take me a very long time. In Houston, though, I think you will have good results. Just grow it out, water and fertilize well, and progressively pot it into larger and larger containers once per year. For a broom style, you don't even need to chop it intermittently for movement. Literally just let it grow straight up like a telephone pole.

When the plant is ready, you will want some very close internodes low down to chop back to, where the future branches will be. In fact, until you reach the height where you think you will chop to down the road, it might even be advisable to give it less fertilizer and lots of light, just to make sure the nodes don't extend too much. Portulacaria backbud very, very well, but only at nodes and in a pattern that alternates by 90 degrees just like the leaves. If the nodes at the appropriate height are 1-2 inches apart, it will be hard for you to produce an image like you want. You need them to stay nice and close together, like 1/4 inch or less. Holding back on fertilizer will help. But once those nodes are done growing, you don't have to worry about keeping the nodes above short (they will get cut off regardless) so feed it and water it like crazy then.

 

[Isilwen]

My update from September!

What is a good way for it to develop a stronger trunk? The part that I started with in the first pictures of this update thread is the part that is now off to the left and hanging over the pot in the first photo below.

This has been done under a grow lamp.