Begonia bogneri: Propagation and Giveaway

[RandyS]

I've actually posted many times here on this plant in the past, however that was about 8 years ago.

A couple things have changed:

I lost the plant, but just got it back today from a friend.

I have found out that the plant has become, once again, hard to find and expensive. The numbers I've seen, if it can be found, are about $50-$140. So it's roughly as much as plants like Nepenthes lowii or hamata. Ouch.

This is in spite of the fact that (in my opinion) it's ridiculously easy and quick to propagate, and easy to grow. It's a terrarium plant, or at least that's how I've grown it. It doesn't look like a Begonia at all--with lots of grasslike leaves, and small white or light pink flowers. Here's a medium sized plant I grew (I grew this with a makeshift lid to up the humidity)



I've grown hundreds of these. This is one I gave my mom, in a cramped "terrarium". It received zero care for years, and bloomed like crazy in a Southwest facing window, no supplementary light.



Here's a fantastic article on the plant from the guy who described it and named the species:

B. bogneri | The American Begonia Society

Ann Salisbury in this issue writes about strolling through The Begonian pages of the past...

www.begonias.org

Anyway, propagation, as I said, is simple. Just chop up leaves into fragments 1+ cm in length, lay on top of soil, incubate in a humid environment under lights. Plants appear in a couple months or so....

Here's a description I posted:

Begonia bogneri leaf propagation (and free things for postage)

Generally when I propagate Begonias from leaves I get too many plantlets. Begonia bogneri is no exception. Back in December I decided to follow up on some observations that broken off leaves of Begonia bogneri were constantly rooting in my pots. I had previously been propagating the plant in...

www.houzz.com

And here's the plant I got today, from my friend Jose:



I removed 5 leaves and chopped them up. I counted 50 cuttings.



I put these in a tupperware container on top of microwaved soil. Soil is very roughly, 2:2:1 Peat: perlite:Miracle Grow potting soil.



I put this in a gallon ziploc bag, and then under lights (on 24/7).

The contest:

Guess how many plants I get from these 50 cuttings, after 5 months. Post your guess on this thread.

I'll send the person who is closest a plant for free (probably in small container, first class). If they want to pay for Priority Mail they can. US only. No restrictions/requirements.

If I get more than 25 plants, I'll send plants to the two people who get closest.

Even if you don't want to grow it long term, you could always grow it up to a size that can be sold (usually about 6 months plus), sell it, and buy an expensive CP...

 

[Tigerscott79]

47 plants from the 50 sections cut. (wishing you best luck with them )

 

[Camden M]

33 of 50. ^Dido

 

[Blackfeather666]

43

 

[adnedarn]

I was going to go high, but your mention of "if I get more than 25" makes me want to go lower. haha 29

 

[0floral0]

Imma hop in and guess maybe 39

 

[RandyS]

Update at 9 days. A minor accident: I was pulling the container out to check the progress, and I tipped it a little too much. Soil and cuttings went to one side.

I did my best to quickly sort through things, but i think I lost a few. At this point I count 42. They still look good. I moved them mostly to one side of the container, because the buried ones seem to be mostly on the other side. No signs of roots yet. In a post on a different forum 5 years ago, I commented that many had roots after 3 weeks. So I'll cautiously check them again.



i actually started a second set of cuttings on March 3rd. From 3 leaves, 32 cuttings. So I should have plenty.



Finally I ordered, but haven't received, a closely related species, also from Madagascar, that I've always wanted to grow and propagate: Begonia pteridoides. Superficially, it seems almost identical, except the leaves, which are grasslike in Begonia bogneri are branched in Begonia pteridoides.

[Botany • 2017] <i>Begonia nosymangabensis </i>&<i> B. pteridoides</i> • Two New Species of <i>Begonia<small></i> sect. <i>Erminea</i> (Begoniaceae) </small>from Nosy Mangabe in Madagascar

Begonia pteridoides & Begonia nosymangabensis DOI: 10.15553/c2017v722a3 Abstract Begonia nosymangabensis Scher...

novataxa.blogspot.com

 

[Pittsy]

Neat plant. I’ll say 21

 

[RandyS]

Progress at 3 weeks:

On Friday (20 days) I was reasonably certain I saw a root on one of the cuttings (on left). I wasn't sure about the one on the right, I was concerned it might be fungus:



Today I checked again (2 days later). It's clear both are roots (with root hairs on the right).



Hopefully they'll get a lot more interesting in the next few weeks.

I'm expecting Begonia pteridoides in the mail in the next few days, so I'm excited about that.

 

[Tigerscott79]

looking great congratulations

 

[RandyS]

I received my Begoni pteridoides in the mail yesterday. Again, this is the plant essentially identical to B. bogneri, but with branched leaves. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it made it. Presumably it froze at some point? Strangely, the seller (without asking) went to a lot of trouble to protect plants from the cold--styrofoam packing and a heat pack. I saw a post of someone I know in Pennsylvania, who got his in perfect condition. Same for someone in Minnesota (my mom's hometown in Southern Minnesota) who added his picture to the post.

I emailed the nursery owner, and by morning I got a message that he would send a replacement at the end of April (they import periodically from Canada), at no charge. So I'm happy.

There is a remote chance that something will emerge from the tuber of the frozen plant I received. This is from a fully tropical area, so the tuber has nothing to do with cold survival. Or possibly some cuttings I took could survive. I'll be surprised, but I'll keep an eye on them.



"Cuttings"



I suspect these will very quickly lose any green color. We'll see.

 

[RandyS]

Most of the Begonia pteridoides cuttings I took a couple days ago have deteriorated and will clearly not survive. However, I see clear candidates for survivors (arrows). Some of these look better than others, for example the 2-3 in the lower right. I'll be watching the cuttings over the next few days.



The leaves which I left attached to the tuber were completely mushy, so I removed them. The tuber seems firm, and I have hopes that the reddish feature could be alive. I transferred the tuber from soil to sphagnum. I should be able to easily observe it, and see whether it shows root and/or shoot growth. I'm cautiously optimistic.

 

[RandyS]

Update: So far mostly bad news. The original cuttings do not look so good. For whatever reason the photo looks much, much better than reality. It looks like there might be a fungal problem.

I had expected most of the cuttings to give plants. Now my expectations are much lower, possibly even zero.



So I suspect the person with the lowest guess will get a plant, (Pittsy?) but we'll see.

That plant may have to come from the second set of cuttings, started March 3rd (exactly 6 weeks ago), which are doing much better, rooting better and starting to produce plantlets.

I started with about 32 cuttings. I'm counting about 30 left, with 3 plantlets started (red circles) and several more with roots (blue circles). Notice that the first plantlets are coming from the greenest cuttings, although others clearly have roots:



Zooming in so the plantlets are a little clearer:



The Begonia pteridoides cuttings all died. I'm expecting a replacement plant later this month.

 

[DragonsEye]

Don't know how I missed this contest.

A couple suggestions for you -- things you might try (and if they work, perhaps I will have "earned" a free plant or two ... heh heh):

1) Instead of potting soil, try using milled sphagnum moss. (Put some good quality sphag -- not the Mosser brand .... that stuff is utter garbage -- in a blender and pulse until it's in small pieces.) Add moisture until the sphag is damp but not sopping wet/saturated. Sphag has anti-bacterial/fungal properties which may help the cuttings survive long enough to root.

2) When moistening your media of choice, do so using a strong chamomile or sphagnum "tea". Like sphag, chamomile has anti-bacterial/fungal properties.

Both are very neat plants. The B. pteridoides is particularly nifty! (Btw, you might want to try the aforementioned with regards to the pteridoides tuber as well.) If you do give either a go, let me know if it seemed to help.

 

[adnedarn]

Good luck, I've considered picking up some RootShield, but it is so pricey and comes in much larger container than I need. All that's not too bad but it also expires. I wonder if there would be enough interest in smaller packages of it to make it worth me buying... Joseph Clemens used to use cinnamon extract a few drops to a tiny spray bottle (like 1oz) of water and would use that as a fungicide.

 

[RandyS]

Don't know how I missed this contest.

A couple suggestions for you -- things you might try (and if they work, perhaps I will have "earned" a free plant or two ... heh heh):

1) Instead of potting soil, try using milled sphagnum moss. (Put some good quality sphag -- not the Mosser brand .... that stuff is utter garbage -- in a blender and pulse until it's in small pieces.) Add moisture until the sphag is damp but not sopping wet/saturated. Sphag has anti-bacterial/fungal properties which may help the cuttings survive long enough to root.

2) When moistening your media of choice, do so using a strong chamomile or sphagnum "tea". Like sphag, chamomile has anti-bacterial/fungal properties.

Both are very neat plants. The B. pteridoides is particularly nifty! (Btw, you might want to try the aforementioned with regards to the pteridoides tuber as well.) If you do give either a go, let me know if it seemed to help.

I used to use sphagnum to propagate these. I found that using peat: perlite was much easier, and gave higher yields. Potting soil is a minority component here, and I assume just gives it a small boost early on due to the added fertilizer. I've only run into a serious fungal problem once, from many different propagations. That was at my old location, and it could be that there's a different mix of fungal spores here. The ones that are a problem have been through a lot, and may have gotten bruised or something from being toppled around. I have heard that sphagnum has anti-fungal properties, and have had success using it over peat: perlite where that was a problem. So maybe I'll have to use a "tea" to moisten things with as you suggest. I am pushing these a bit in term of size. I get higher percentage yields for bigger pieces, but of course fewer pieces when they are larger. It' a trade off.

 

[RandyS]

I did only use intact sphagnum when I initially propagated it, and it's possible milled would have been easier. With that sort of sphagnum, I used larger pieces of B. bogneri, and had to worry about inserting the pieces in the proper orientation. With a large number of pieces, this became a hassle. The young plants also had their roots entangled in the sphagnum, and separating them was difficult and I assume damaged them. Probably milled sphagnum would have an advantage. People grow these plants long term in either peat/perlite based mixes or sphagnum. I've always used the former for long term growth. Most people report having problems keeping the plant alive, so I'll stick with that. It's a very easy plant for me, in that mix.

 

[DragonsEye]

Yep, stick with what works!

 

[RandyS]

Wow! My B. pteridoides, which I assumed was completely dead, is coming back from the tuber(s):



And not just in two spots. I found a third--so far:



I would emphasize that the purpose of the tuber has nothing to do with frost tolerance. It's from near sea level in Madagascar, on a tiny island offshore from this city:

Maroantsetra Climate, Weather By Month, Average Temperature (Madagascar) - Weather Spark

In Maroantsetra, the summers are long, hot, oppressive, and overcast; the winters are comfortable and mostly clear; and it is wet year round. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 63°F to 88°F and is rarely below 61°F or above 91°F.

weatherspark.com

Again, this is the Begonia which is almost identical to Begonia Bogneri, but with branched leaves.

[Botany • 2017] <i>Begonia nosymangabensis </i>&<i> B. pteridoides</i> • Two New Species of <i>Begonia<small></i> sect. <i>Erminea</i> (Begoniaceae) </small>from Nosy Mangabe in Madagascar

Begonia pteridoides & Begonia nosymangabensis DOI: 10.15553/c2017v722a3 Abstract Begonia nosymangabensis Scher...

novataxa.blogspot.com

 

[DragonsEye]

That's awesome! Congrats!

Also kicking, myself for not entering a guess earlier. Meant to but forgot. If its not too late, I'd guess 15 (which is what I was going to go with earlier).