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Peat tea

Hello every one. For some reasons i havent got to replant in fresh soil few of my lowland Neps (wich have been growing for at least two years in the same pot) this summer and i think it is best for me to wait for a few month for spring.
I have heard before of the method of watering your plants with peat tea for refreshing it and making it more acid after a while that the plant has been growing in the same soil.
Would it help if i do this and water my Neps? If it has no effect i rather not waist the peat.
What do you think?

Thanks vey much
Yoav
 
Well, I wouldn't bother, but I have a tendency to wait until my plants start to decline before I repot anyway. Why not try an experiment for us? Try the peat tea on half the plants. I think ampullaria and bical would probably enjoy it more then most.
 
It's unlikely that watering once or twice with peat tea would appreciably increase acidity of the medium. Moreover, any gains would probably be quickly lost once you resumed watering with distilled water as the organic acids would be leached from the soil. If your plants aren't suffering, I'd just wait until spring to repot--if they're indoors under lights, for all practical purposes, you can repot whenever you want.
 
One of our forum members did an experiment with using pine needles as a part of the medium, also addind acidity. Compared without it, the plants were less prone to mold and grew better. So now I top off my Nep baskets with pine needles. I really can't compare it to anything to say so, but this is what I have read and now do. Are there pine trees in Israel?
 
That's a good point.  Topdressing with needles or LFS may provide a continuous source of organic acids every time you water and would probably do more good than watering a few times with peat tea.  I topdress many of my pots with LFS (and for some of the CPs, that's all I use), mainly to prevent fungal problems associated with media composed largely of peat. I haven't done any controlled experiments, but under my growing conditions, most CPs seem to grow much better in looser mixes consisting of LFS (or with very little peat....2:1 perlite:peat)....but I digress.
 
Hi. Well actually i am talking about ampullarias. I do know about the pine needle thing and i am tring it myslef at the momnet(Yes we do have some growing here) and the pot with the pine needles as a cover didnt develope a surface fungus that another newly planted Amp did, so it might be a diffirence but i guss you have to wait more in order to see.
Have you ever heard about adding a few drops of strong acid to the water?

Thanks
Yoav
 
The question about adding acid was proposed recently and was summarily quashed, since sphagnum was sufficent in lowering and maintaining the pH. For Neps, in general, I mix sand & peat. That's my bottom layer. On top of that is LFS and then the pine needles. I also have an ampullaria (cutting)
 
I would simply repot the plant with fresh soil instead of experimenting with things that may or may not work (there's a good reason why cobra lillies are Jimscott's nemesis!).  

I'm begining to believe that low nutrient soils are more important then acidity, but I could be mistaken.  We all know that some CPs can adapt to both acidic and alkaline conditions...the one common factor is that in both cases the soil types are depleted of nutrients. I've also heard of cultivated Neps growing well in soils completely absent of peat or LFS.

Brian
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Brian_W @ Oct. 19 2005,2:11)](there's a good reason why cobra lillies are Jimscott's nemesis!).  
That's only if I put them in that stream, followed by a 3" rain storm. I don't do that anymore. I just grow the one I have as Tony suggested. It's doing very well, cultivated like a Nep in a hanging basket.
smile.gif
 
  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I've also heard of cultivated Neps growing well in soils completely absent of peat or LFS.

Absolutely. A few of my neps are growing in 100% chopped cyprus bark. Others use either pure cocofiber or cocofiber:eek:rchid bark. These mixes provide great aeration and drainage, but on the downside require more watering.
 
  • #11
Why not keep the soil and add some fertilizer? Works great.
 
  • #12
[b said:
Quote[/b] (chloroplast @ Oct. 19 2005,8:01)]Absolutely.  A few of my neps are growing in 100% chopped cyprus bark.  Others use either pure cocofiber or cocofiber:eek:rchid bark.  These mixes provide great aeration and drainage, but on the downside require more watering.
And others are big on using perlite.
 
  • #13
I'm a big fan of perlite but never tried a pure perlite medium. Hmmmm.....one day I might just give it a try on one of my extras.
 
  • #14
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I'm a big fan of perlite but never tried a pure perlite medium. Hmmmm.....one day I might just give it a try on one of my extras.

Just me stinking out loud, but if I wanted to use a media of that consistancy, I'd probably turn to pumice. Just my guess, but I'd think that a pure pumice mix would work better (or at least be easier for you to deal with) than a pure perlite. What does everyone else think?
 
  • #15
I like pumice, but it's not available here.  My next best choice is finely crushed lava.  I've replaced perlite with lava, and the results are just as good.  I still add some bark and LFS, or else the pot would be too heavy.

Here's a link to an inorganic soil mix:  
I've never tried it.
inorganic
 
  • #16
Well thanks very much every one. I think ill try it one at leas one of my ampullarias and see it effects in the mean while i am geting some Sphagnum to put as top dressing and some more pine needles to add too.
Mybe the acid is woth a try ill see, i guss if it works its the most convinent solution for addind acidity to the soil.


Yoav
 
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