Help, help, help. I have my first blooming seedling, and it formed the inflo at age 15 mo. It is becoming a truly magnificent plant, multi-tipped and full of buds/blooms. Someone sent me a handful of seeds in the fall of 2013, knowing I had never had a plumeria grow seed-pods in my 25+ years of growing plumeria. I grew my first two seedlings from those seeds. I need to know who sent them so that I might be able to know the seed-pod parent.

Ha! I thought your plant had fallen

Hmmm did Hetty send you some of those seeds?

Also am curious did you really fall down?

Naw, I just wanted a "catchy-phrase". You know, to get attention.

I don't have a clue who sent me those first seeds. @Hetty has not commented, so I guess it was not her.

Not that I recall...

There are not really that many of us, at least those that post. How could someone not remember sending me those first seeds? I was pretty sure that Hetty gave me instructions on germinating those seeds, but that was because I asked for information. I had seeds but did not know what to do with them.

Maybe that person wants to remain anonymous? I do remember that thread discussion about seeds.

There is always T-Mail, Gigi. I don't think that is it though. Perhaps whoever sent me those seeds just doesn't monitor ATP any longer.

I'm new here and have a couple questions. what is Tmail?

the bigger question is what soil mix is good for baby plumerias? I have five cutting
S that I purchased on Molokai this summer. I lost one to rot. One day it had three leaves. The next day it was laying down staining my marble table. I think one of the five may be starting down that road but not sure. the other four are fine but it is time to move them out of their solo cups into pots and I've read so many different opinions about soil mixes that my head is spinning? what do y'all use in your pots. the cuttings are all at least 8 inches long and all had baby branches on them when he cut them. don't know if that makes any difference or not but he said it would be helpful in the rooting process.

Thanks
donna in south texas

Welcome, Donna. I think everyone sort of has their favorite potting medium and even rooting medium. Since I grow many hundred tropical plants, I custom-mix all my own potting media. What I do would be difficult and probably unnecessary for the vast number of growers out there.

One thing you need to be aware of is that even in S. Texas (you need to post your USDA zone in your profile so everyone knows where you are), dormancy is about on your doorstep. I stop taking cuttings (to root) mid-September, and know that some/many of those cuttings still won't have enough time to root before dormancy sets in. Also, be sure that your rooting media stays completely dry. I use 100% coarse perlite. There are no roots so your plumeria can't utilize moisture. Thus rot will be the end result.

Back to potting a rooted plant. I would purchase something like general purpose potting mix, and at this time of year I would get one without any fertilizer. Use 1/2 potting mix, 1/4 coarse perlite, and 1/4 cypress mulch (or orchid media if you wanted to really get fancy ). When I pot up my newly rooted, or even up-potting my plumeria, I want a somewhat moisture retentive media but one that drains easily and quickly.

Most tips/branches will have those tiny, terminal leaves, what I call "claws", if that plant is actively growing.

All the above is simply what I have learned by growing plumeria for 25+ years. There are others with more experience and I am sure they will chime in with their own remarks.

Wow, thanks for the incredibly fast response.
My cuttings have rooted and all have leaves beyond the claw stage but there they're in tiny clear plastic solo cups. I bought some clay pots yesterday to move them too.

I have orchid potting mix, a little bit of cactus mix left and a huge bag of Miracle Grow.

I also have the perlite but jeeze, most of it blows away it's so fine. I lose Bout half the bag when I sift out the dust.

I also have bag of cow manure, partial bag of turface, some vermiculite and I don't know what else. I have plants, hubs has his plants and we have a big ole mess of stuff in the garage. I make my own mix for my violets so I don't Ming making one for the plumerias as well.

so, I'm guessing I could use the Miracle Gro, the Orchid mix and sifted perlite and approximate your mix? and then just watch the watering. Mine have been indoors since we got back in mid July and will probably stay indoors permanently. I have several very sunny windows and not enough fenced space to protect anything else from the deer so until we can fence in more yard all new plants become house plants.

Don't know zone. Will look it up. Didn't know I had a profile either. Lol. Guess I better look that up and work on that

Thanks so much for your help
donna

3 Rules

1. We like pictures.
2. We like more pictures.
3. And don't forget the pictures.

Oops! I forgot to post a picture!


Newly repotted cuttings.

Dnutts!

If you wet the perlite it won't blow away. I would not use vermiculite. The Miracle Grow potting mix - make sure it is not the kind that has the water retention crystals in it. The plumeria will soon go dormant and wet and cold is not good for them. You will want to keep them pretty dry over the winter, even if you keep them indoors.
Oh, and clay pots are not preferred for Plumeria, plastic is better (and yes, I know, not as pretty...)
Keep us posted!

Oh I'm glad you told me. I bough five clay pots for them thinking they would be good cuz they breathe and maybe less chance of rot but my preference is plastic. Not heavy and doesn't break and I'm clumsy enough the not breaking aspect is a great positive.

I just checked my stuff. Wetting the perlite. Light bulb moment

The vermiculite bag was so fine I threw it away anyway. I ised to use it half and half to root violet leaves but the stuff I have now is worthless.

so back to the store for pretty plastics and then pot them up.

Thanks again

Dnutts said:I also have the perlite but jeeze, most of it blows away it's so fine. I lose Bout half the bag when I sift out the dust.

to ATP! Donna, pray tell, why do you sift out the fines/dust particles from perlite?
Kadie

I have posted this numerous times over the years, but here is my basic potting mix. I then alter it depending on the plants:

2 cf. milled sphagnum
2 cf. Black Kow
2-3 gal. coarse perlite - It is very difficult to find true coarse perlite. I buy it in 3 cf. bags. Most you see in big-box stores is medium-grade, though the label says "coarse".
two handfuls of Osmocote

Since I grow hundreds of orchids (many hundreds ) I always have lots of orchid media made up. When I re-pot or up-pot, I save that "spent" media in a 5 gal. bucket and I add that to my basic mix for plumeria and terrestrial orchids. To that 4.5 cf. of basic mix, I will add 3-5 gal. of that orchid media.

As I said, just about everyone has their "favorite" media mix and rooting mix. Nothing I do is based on science.

Baby k,

not a great reason I know but I sift because I was told to by my boss when I worked in a florist shop in high school. he said I needed chunks of perlite, not the fine stuff. he grew gorgeous violets so I did what I was told and my violets thrived. ten years ago I spent a vacation in the ICU with a major staph infection. I came through but my violets didn't. No one watered them or groomed while I was in the hospital. Hubs tossed them all before I got home so I wouldn't overdo. I haven't had a violet do well since. I think they're all still mad at me for neglecting them. I retired from a high stress job a year ago and moved to Tx and now I'm a city mouse in a country house trying to learn gardening and rebuild house plant collections. but the deer, the armadillos and the scorpions are rather new to me having lived in SC in the city for 30 years and I don't have fencing up yet to keep the critters out. they tear up everything they come near. now I understand I'm lucky I haven't met the wild pigs. that's a lot of nonsense for a simple question. I just did this for years cuz I was told to. I do make sure I wear a mask. don't want that dust in my lungs.
donna

Thanks for sharing...we got to know a lot about you in such a short time! Wow! A great new adventure for you in a new place. Retired myself a couple of years ago and loving it!

There are wild pigs here too, and they are gluttons for certain roots and vegi's! The deer never bothered my vegi's, there's plenty for them to eat in the jungle.

I had a kind of staph infection too in my foot a couple of months ago (so painful)...but no ICU treatment, only antibiotics.

Please, post pictures of your new adventures!

Ah, no need to sift perlite for planting medium...guess it needs to be done for cut flowers.

Kadie