Thanks! Grow light starting now? How many hours a day?

Silly question - but can I root an inflo? I think I read somewhere someone said to put it in water. Is that just to encourage some final blooms or might it grow into something?

An inflo will not grow into a plant.

Someone with more experience growing plumeria in a cooler climate will have to chime in on the grow light specifics. I live in southwest Florida and don't have to supply any additional heat or light...

@Dutchlady1 - do your plants still go through dormancy, or do they grow year round? I'm in southern San Diego county, it doesn't get really cold during the days but can drop into 40s at night.

I thought I should keep my new cuttings indoors until the nights are warmer, and maybe use grow lights to encourage them. Happy for any advice you may have.

Hello! When I grow cuttings indoors under grow-light, I normally start them out around 6 hours and slowly ramp it up to 12 hour shifts to suppliment a full day's worth of light. However, if your cuttings are already used to being oudoors and in bright direct or partially indirect light, then you can just start out at around 10 to 12 hours and stay steady with that. Just be sure to follow proper instructions for your specific grow lamp when it comes to distance above plant, etc.

Yes, my plants go dormant from around December to February. Some cultivars or species longer than others.

Good luck on your rooting attempt Monica. I have learned not to attempt rooting here after September, the days are just getting short and temps cool down fast. I don't do indoor lighting either, the cutting is just ready to rest whatever I do once Fall is here, it just gets too frustrating. But you may have a bit longer warm time than we do here, but do take note of your temperatures around the plant since you do have cooler coastal temps. I have better rooting when I do it in late Spring and all around temps and ambiance is very warm and daytime is getting longer.

I have been gone for 10 days and am hopelessly behind in my "reads". I will never catch up, also having over 500 emails to wade through. When I left, the highs were mid-90's and lows in the upper 70's (and stayed the same for 4 days). A strong cold front moved through the southeast and dropped the temperatures down into the low 50's with highs in the 70's. Wow! When I returned, all the smaller (rooted) plumeria had either dropped all their flowers or their stalks. Only the large, mature plumeria are in bloom. The plumeria that had over 20 seed-pods is now down to 14 pods, and all of them are now pretty large pods, so they should stay. The other two plumeria with seed-pods kept all their pods.

I started providing supplemental fluorescent light about four weeks ago, having the fixtures turn on around 3 PM and then off around 8 PM. I am using T5H fixtures, six tubes per fixture and have 4, 6500 K and 2, 4500 K tubes per fixture. These fixtures are in my greenhouses and I am only using two fixtures in one greenhouse that gets shade from the house around 3:00 PM. The only thing in that greenhouse is Nepenthes and plumeria cuttings.

Vera Cruz Ross has been my most vigorous cutting. It now has 4 tips and blooming.






All 5 of my cuttings have done well 3 have bloomed and all have multiple tips now.

Well, I've soaked it for 24 hours, cut off all the inflos and leaves, trimmed the end and re-potted it with Clonex. It's on a heat mat and under a grow light. It still looks wrinkled but white sap flowed freely when I cut the inflos. I have hope. Wish me luck!

Welcome back Ken! Glad your seedpods stayed. I only have a couple seedpods this year...but I think it is more than enough :).

I won't have to deal with all those seeds until next spring, Gigi. I have no idea what I'll do with them all. I now have over 100 rooted/potted Plumeria and over four dozen are rooted cuttings and seedlings. I just have not had any time to post those "shippable-size" plants. I simply have to do that this week.

so my cutting survived the winter without going completely dormant. It had three leaves left. Now I am seeing a new growth and new leaves are coming out. How do I know when to re-pot it and when to start to water/fertilize? Also, WHAT fertilizer I should use? Our summers get super hot, especially on the south and west facing sides of the house, so I am thinking about the larger pot (maybe the black one from the pic?), so I could move it around.

You need to go to your profile, @dropofrain, and list your location so that we know where you are.

I am sorry, just did that. I am in Reno, Nevada.

@dropofrain

The problem that you will have is that you often have low humidity along with high heat. I would think that your plumeria plant(s) would benefit from having shade during the hottest time of the day, perhaps between noon and 3:00 PM. During the summer months, I am as likely as not to water all my plumeria (as well as 400 or so orchids) every single day.

What size pot is that plumeria growing in right now? If the pot is filled with roots (we might call it root-bound) you can up-pot it. Plumeria grow quickly when spring arrives and those roots grow just as quickly. I assume your plant(s) are outside as mine are here in Mississippi, and you should be watering and fertilizing now. I use half strength, 20-20-20, every couple of weeks this time of year.

Hello dropofrain, when my Plumies are awake, I either add some compost or slow release fertilizer into the soil. We also go very, very dry and gets too hot here. Our growing conditions will be so different from areas with sustained heat, humidity and summer rains that Plumerias really enjoy.

So once I really know the Plumeria is awake, I start giving it good watering. Typically I can still get away with watering every three days if temps are just hovering in the 75F to 85F range. But once it starts hitting 90F and higher, and very dry with our dismal humidity, I do watering every other day. If forecast is 100F, it will be daily watering here. Just cannot catch up with the extreme dryness. I am thankful I do have city trees that provide some heat relief during the hottest time of the day, but once the triple digit days are here, it is just blanket heat all over, so got to help the plants find some relief from excessive dry heat stress.

@drdawg
My cutting is still in a plastic water bottle. I started it really late last summer and did not see any roots before winter. I keep in on the window facing south east. We are in a high desert and nights are still very chilly, sometimes in the low 30s. Also, any suggestions on where to purchase 20-20-20 fertilizers? I may need to check with our local nurseries this weekend because last night at Lowe's all I saw was 5-1-1, 9-14-9, and 0-10-10 (?)

@tarev
thanks for your reply! Seems like our weather conditions are somewhat similar. Cute kitty BTW!

Thanks dropofrain! So your area still in the low 30's overnight? We are now finally in more stable 50F overnight, and tomorrow the 80F daytime high will come..yey! Been one long cold Spring indeed this year. Been very windy here too so it is so dry. Hope your temps improve by May!